Onleilove Alston was born and raised in East New York, Brooklyn and she is currently the Director of Faith in New York a federation of over 70 congregations representing 80,000 New Yorkers. Faith in New York is multifaith and multi-race and together they were able to influence how $950 million of Hurricane Sandy recovery funds were spent, and for the first time in U.S. history recovery funds were used to establish a jobs program. The Hurricane Sandy jobs program was a partnership of community and labor creating jobs for those in Sandy-impacted communities to rebuild their communities with good jobs with set aside for the formerly incarcerated, women low-income individuals. 

 

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Human Development and African-American studies from Penn State University, she completed a year of service with AmeriCorps Public Allies New York. In 2011, she received her Master of Divinity and Master of Social Work degrees from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University School of Social Work, respectively. She is also an Alumni of The Women’s Campaign School at Yale. For more than 10 years, Onleilove has worked for various nonprofit organizations such as Sojourners, NY Faith & Justice, FPWA and United Workers. She is a contributing writer for Sojourners magazine, The Black Commentator, Huffington Post, NPR’s Onbeing blog, as well in publications. For her writing and activism work, Onleilove has received the Bennett Fellowship for Social Justice from Auburn Seminary, the National Association of Social Workers-NYC Scholarship for Social Justice, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Minority Coalition Young Adult Award, and the 2011 Evangelical Press Association’s Student Writer of the Year First Place Award. She serves on the Board of Directors for Sojourners and on the Advisory Boards for the Micah Institute at New York Theological Seminary, the Women’s Organizing Network and NYACK College’s School of Social Work. In June 2015, Onleilove was also appointed to the Mayor’s Clergy Advisory Council under New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.