NZA-ARI KHEPRA

Nza-Ari, Co-Founder of Wear Orange and Project Orange Tree, was born and raised in Chicago, Nza-Ari has demonstrated a commitment to her community from a very early age. During high school, one of Nza-Ari’s friends—was murdered in a senseless shooting minutes away from her school. In response to Chicago’s violent state, Nza-Ari and a group of youth founded a structural violence awareness organization called Project Orange Tree. Project Orange Tree members transformed the narrative of hunter orange by asking all campaign participants to wear orange and fast from sunup to sundown to commemorate the lives lost in Chicago. Their efforts were recognized globally, and Project Orange Tree’s symbolism for orange became the inspiration behind the annual Wear Orange campaign. Nza-Ari had the honor of co-creating this campaign that formed the Annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day, June 2nd, Hadiya’s birthday. The campaign unifies organizations with a diversity of missions under the common goal of ending gun violence.  Post-graduation, Nza-Ari has worked with McKinsey & Company as a full-time Senior Business Analyst and LinkedIn as a Strategy & Operations Manager.

ORIGINS

HOMETOWN

Chicago, IL is where it all started for Nza-Ari. From launching her first community initiative Project Orange Tree to becoming a Community Leadership Corps member for the Obama Foundation, Nza-Ari keeps Chicago and her community at the center of her heart in all of her work.

EDUCATION

Nza-Ari is a 2018 graduate of Columbia University in New York City. She graduated with a degree in Economics as well as a concentration in African-American Studies, and was apart of community initiatives and a social impact consulting organization focused on offering pro-bono support to communities and organizations