Karina de Sousa

Karina de Sousa is the Manager of Special Projects at the National Urban League, the nation’s premier civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in historically under-served urban communities. In this capacity, Karina represented NUL as an Emerging Millennial Leader in a meeting with presidential candidate Secretary Hillary Clinton. She was instrumental in planning a service trip to Flint, MI, amidst the city’s ongoing water crisis. She also helped organize the Our Vote Matters bus tour through northeast Ohio to encourage residents to vote.

Karina previously served as an Associate in the President's Office and as an Intern in the Education and Youth Development Division. Karina has also interned in the US with the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group, in Brazil at the Secretariat of the State for Social Defense and in Mozambique at the Foundation for Community Development.

Karina is committed to positively impacting the lives of vulnerable women and girls through her professional and volunteer endeavors. Karina served on the inaugural Participatory Review Committee of the NYC Fund for Girls and Young Women of Color which is focused on investing in non-profit organizations and efforts that promote the well-being and leadership of young women of color as change agents and work to advance cultural and systemic changes through the lenses of race, gender and economic justice. Karina has also served as a Team Leader on the New York Women’s Foundation Grants Advisory Committee, identifying innovative and effective organizations working to achieve economic security for women and girls in NYC. She was the Co-Chair of the Welcoming Committee of the New York Women’s Foundation Committee for the Future. Karina has mentored a local youth through Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC since 2013.

Karina is a 2014 alumna of the Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Service, a highly competitive and prestigious professional development and career accelerator program for early-career public service professionals, sponsored by the Research Center for Leadership in Action at the NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She currently serves as an Alumni Guide to current fellows.

Karina graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in International Studies from Illinois Wesleyan University where she received the Student Leadership Distinguished Service Award.