Amarilis is a Dominican-American Latina, born and raised in New York City by immigrant parents. As a Social Worker, she believes identity is a central way to navigate spaces and brings her authentic self while working with communities. Amarilis joined the Perrin Family Foundation as a Program Officer in 2016. As the Program Officer, Amarilis is responsible for ensuring our grant strategy and programs are aligned with our youth-led social change mission, managing PFF’s grantmaking portfolio, cultivating supportive relationships with our grantee partners and developing capacity building initiatives. Amarilis’s framework for social change focuses on youth developing their critical consciousness as a methodology to dismantle structural oppression and fight for liberation.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Amarilis worked at the Educational Alliance, a settlement house in the Lower East Side of New York City. During her ten-year tenure there, she navigated various roles in the Youth Development department, starting in direct practice work and over time transitioning to the Director of Adolescent Services where she managed a vibrant youth development department serving over 1,700 pre-teens, teens and young adults annually.

As a youth development practitioner, Amarilis designed, implemented and managed initiatives that bridged leadership development, college access, visual arts, social emotional wellness, undergirded by an anti-oppressive lens and analysis. Amarilis’s commitment to developing her team led to the creation of workshops, retreats and conferences dedicated to strengthening their analysis of race, culture and structural oppression in youth work.

Amarilis earned a Bachelors of Arts in English from Temple University and a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University. In her spare time, she is training her beloved Maltese, Lola, as a dog Olympian and wandering the magical corners of the earth.