Juanita Ayala Vargas

Vice President, Community Investment

Juanita Ayala Vargas is Vice President of Community Investment at United Way of New York City. She is a seasoned and results-oriented leader with extensive experience in nonprofit management; program development; strategy, vision and mission planning; leadership development; and relationship management. She utilizes a team approach to drive organizational improvement and implement high quality programs.

Juanita joined UWNYC in 2000 as a Program Associate in Education and has since served as Director and Associate Vice President before being promoted to Vice President in 2008. She played a leading role in UWNYC's strategic planning process to identify the social issues and underlying root causes upon which the organization would focus its efforts.  She is responsible for $35 million a year in programming and is dedicated to ensuring the development and implementation of community impact strategies that lead to positive, meaningful change for New York City's most vulnerable residents.

Prior to joining United Way, Juanita was the Director of Youth Programs at The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, where she re-engineered the organization's youth programming to include family involvement as a core strategy.  Juanita was the first English-speaking member of her family and the first college graduate; she holds a BA from Lehman College.  Juanita credits a nonprofit with helping her through school and, therefore, has dedicated her career to the nonprofit sector and to ensuring that people from all cultures obtain economic stability and that every child has the opportunity to pursue his or her dream.

Juanita sits on the Advisory Committee for The New School's Schools Watch Initiative and is the New York City Chair of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program Board.