July 2025 - Bridge Partners is pleased to announce the appointment of Uma Viswanathan as President at Samuel S. Fels Fund.

The Fels Fund’s mission is to improve conditions and opportunities for communities that are marginalized and/or historically excluded in Philadelphia, and move us towards a more socially, racially and economically just society. The Samuel S. Fels Fund is a social justice funder that aligns its operations, grantmaking, programming, and endowment with the mission and core values of trust, justice, accountability and responsiveness.

Uma joins Samuel S. Fels Fund from New Pluralists where she most recently served as Executive Director.  In her new role as President, she will lead the organization in its mission to advance social, racial, and economic justice, centering racial equity and supporting movements for justice and systems-change in Philadelphia. She will collaborate closely with the Board, staff and grantee partners to steward the new grantmaking and programmatic focus for Fels which is centered on movement building.

Ms. Viswanathan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters of Arts in History of Science from Harvard University.