Leah Hunt-Hendrix is an activist, political theorist, and movement builder, who writes and speaks about the new economy, solidarity, and funding progressive social movements. Hunt-Hendrix has a PhD in Religion, Ethics, and Politics from Princeton University. She was involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement and she has co-founded three organizations: Solidaire Network, the Emergent Fund and Way to Win.
Solidaire
In 2012, Hunt-Hendrix co-founded Solidaire, a community of donors and foundations committed to funding progressive social movements. Solidaire's mission is to organize philanthropists to address the deep, systemic causes of injustice and inequality by consolidating their efforts and collaborating in their giving. Solidaire has a rapid response protocol enabling members to meet the immediate needs of activists on the ground, such as bailing front-line activists out of jail when they are arrested during protests. Hunt-Hendrix served as the group’s first executive director.
Other Activism
Immediately after the 2016 election, Hunt-Hendrix co-founded the Emergent Fund, a partnership between Solidaire Network, Women Donors Network, Threshold Foundation, and the Democracy Alliance. The Fund is governed by an Advisory Council made up of leaders who represent communities who the Fund is designed to serve. As a member of the Advisory Council, Hunt-Hendrix assists others in moving quick resources with no strings attached to underserved communities—including immigrants, women, Muslim and Arab-American communities, Black people, LGBTQ communities, and all people of color. In 2018, Hunt-Hendrix co-founded Way to Win. Way to Win is a resource and strategy hub that seeks a new approach to progressive political spending and elections, advances transformative policy, and builds lasting power. The network supports organizations and candidates that envision a more just future and that are accountable to low income communities and people of color.
Board Appointments and Memberships
Hunt-Hendrix is a member of Democracy Alliance and Women Moving Millions. She is an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. She is on the Board of Directors of the Solutions Project.
Past Appointments, Previous Roles & Activism
Hunt-Hendrix’s past appointments include: Board of Directors of the New Economy Coalition, The Worker’s Lab, Free Speech for People and EDGE Funders Alliance, and the Advisory Board of The Wildfire Project. She was the director of the New Economies Initiative at ThoughtWorks, and a home-care assistant at an intentional community called L’Arche.
Education
Leah completed her doctorate at Princeton University in Religion, Ethics and Politics in 2013, where she wrote on the concept of solidarity. Jeffrey Stout, Eric Gregory, and Cornel West were her Ph.D. advisors. She was a participant in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and a theorist of the nature of the movement. Hunt-Hendrix received a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Governance from Duke University in 2005.
Awards
Hunt-Hendrix has received the following awards for her political activism:
Hunt-Hendrix was born and raised in New York City. She is the daughter of Helen LaKelly Hunt, founder of The Sister Fund and Women Moving Millions, and Harville Hendrix, author and creator of Imago Relationship Therapy. Her sibling, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, is the founder of American metal band Liturgy. She is also the granddaughter of Texas oil tycoon H.L. Hunt. She has lived in New York, Egypt, Syria, the West Bank, and San Francisco, and now resides in Washington, D.C.
“Enfleshment and the Time of Ethics: Taylor and Illich on the Parable of the Good Samaritan” with Eric Gregory, in Aspiring to Fullness in a Secular Age, Ed. Carlos Colorado, University of Notre Dame Press, January 2014.
“Youth Service and Pathways to Democracy in Egypt” with Barbara Ibrahim, Working Paper, June 2011, Presented at the Takaful Conference, Amman, Jordan, April 2011.
