Anisha Steephen is a strategic leader in community investing with over a decade of experience in successful multi-sector partnerships that drive capital to build assets for low-wealth communities. She is the founder of Just Economy Lab, an organization that advances public policies and initiatives centered in racial and economic justice.

Anisha was previously the Interim Executive Director of Spaceworks NYC, a non-profit cultural workspace operator in New York City. She has also held roles as a Senior Investment Officer at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation’s largest Community Development Financial Institution, in the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs, and at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Anisha holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Columbia University and a M.A. in City & Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a co-author of Cities and the Politics of Difference: Multiculturalism and Diversity in Urban Planning (2015).

Anisha is also an engaged board member for several civic and cultural organizations, including Manhattan Community Board 3 and the Fund for Public Housing. She is a first generation American and lives in the Lower East Side.