Eddy Zheng

Eddy Zheng is the President & Founder of New Breath Foundation and works to mobilize resources to support Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) harmed by the unjust immigration and criminal justice systems to heal, keep families together, and build movements that shift narratives and policies. New Breath Foundation is the recipient of the 2021 Association of Fundraising Professionals Golden Gate Chapter’s Vineyards Award.

A 2019-21 Rosenberg Foundation Leading Edge Fellow and 2015-17 Open Society Foundation Soros Justice Fellow, Zheng served as Co-Director of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee, Project Director of the Community Youth Center of San Francisco, and co-founded ROOTS, the first-ever ethnic studies program in San Quentin State Prison.

Fluent in three languages and skilled in motivational speaking, workshop facilitation, emcee, non-violent communication, fundraising, and networking, Zheng is the co-editor of "Other: An Asian and Pacific Islander Prisoners’ Anthology" and the subject of the award-winning documentary “Breathin’: The Eddy Zheng Story.” He is a TEDx speaker on Removing the Model Minority Myth with CHI. He is a contributor to the book Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation, and he was featured in the December 2021 New Yorker article, An Education While Incarcerated.

Zheng serves as Co-Chair on the Board of Directors of Chinese for Affirmative Action, Board of Directors of UnCommon Law, Co-Chair of Community Advisory Council with All Home, Community Advisory Board member of Critical Resistance, and on the Advisory Board of AYPAL: Building Asian Pacific Islander Power. He had served as a Commissioner at the Alameda County Department of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commission, member of the San Francisco Reentry Council appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, Commissioner on the Southeast Community Facility Commission appointed by Mayor Edwin Lee, Chair of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors appointee on the Department of Children Youth and their Families’ Oversight and Advisory Committee and Board of Director of Chinatown Community Development Center.

Zheng’s commitment to social justice activism has been frequently recognized. He is the recipient of the 2007 Chinese World Journal Newspaper Community Hero Award, 2008 Bay Area Asian Pacific American Law Students Association’s Outstanding Leadership Award, 2011 Chinatown Community Development Center Community Service Award and Project I.M.P.A.C.T. Community Service Award, 2012 San Francisco District 10 Board of Supervisor’s Asian American Heritage Month Honoree, 2016 AFL-CIO Justice, Peace and Freedom Award, Super Bowl 50 Fund Playmaker, and Uncommon Law’s Uncommon Hero Award, 2017 Bridging the Gap award from the University of Pennsylvania, 2018 California 18th Assembly District Social Justice Champion Award, 2019 Frederick Douglass 200 award and National Education Association’s Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial award.

Zheng remains grateful for all the community support he has received and is steadfast in confronting anti-blackness, advocating for cross-cultural healing and global racial solidarity by investing in trustful relationships.