Eddy Zheng

Eddy Zheng is the president and founder of New Breath Foundation (NBF). He founded NBF to mobilize resources to support Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) impacted by incarceration, detention, and deportation. Since its founding as a community-led national public foundation in 2017, NBF has practiced trust-based philanthropy and participatory grantmaking, distributing more than $8 million to support AANHPI grassroots organizations.

Before founding New Breath Foundation, Eddy served as co-director of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee and co-founded ROOTS, the first-ever ethnic studies program in San Quentin State Prison. His commitment to service has been frequently recognized, most recently with the San Francisco Foundation’s Inaugural Joe Brooks Community Leadership Award, API RISE’s David Kupihea Legacy Award, the Golden State Warriors Impact Warriors Award, the Frederick Douglass 200 Award, and the Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial Award.

He serves on the board of Chinese for Affirmative Action to fight for civil rights, the board of UnCommon Law to bring people with life terms home, and the community advisory board of Critical Resistance to advocate for the abolition of prisons.

Eddy is the subject of the award-winning documentary Breathin’: The Eddy Zheng Story and has contributed writing to The Chronicle of Philanthropy and the anthology Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation. Eddy was a TEDx Speaker and a SXSW featured speaker, and he has appeared and been profiled in numerous media outlets, including The New Yorker, NPR, and PBS.