Meet Our Team

Meet the Crescent Hearts Foundation team.

Urooj Abbas, director

Urooj provides strategy and leadership at Crescent Hearts Foundation.  From an early age she has understood the value of service to others. Seeing first-hand the impact of poverty, she is dedicated to changing lives for the better. Over the years, she has played a key role at organizations such as ICOB - taking lead in their education programs and conducting smaller scale charitable projects.  Professionally she spent nearly a decade in the legal arena. Currently, she is a paralegal at Levinson Axelrod in Edison, NJ and the owner of a small business called Kahani.  She received her Bachelor's Degree in history, psychology and Middle Eastern studies from Rutgers University. 

Kriston fernandez, treAsurer

Kriston oversees Crescent Hearts Foundation's financial operations. She spent eleven years in roles as a BI Report Developer working for insurance companies like Black Knight Financial Services and is currently a Sr Data & Analytics Engineer at Allstate in Jacksonville, Florida. Aside from her work helping the community, she is a mother of two, and is pursing a degree in Informational Technology from the University of North Florida. Her passions also revolve around nutrition, fitness and promoting a healthy lifestyle and learning new software. She is also a National Physique Committee Bikini Competitor in Florida.

fariha jafri, secretary

Fariha administers the affairs at Crescent Hearts Foundation as well as leads in fundraising inititives and outreach.  In the private sector Fariha is a Analyst at TriNet in Edison, NJ. Prior to joining her team, she spent 5 years building her makeup artistry – and has been a behind-the-scenes artist for the runways of New York Fashion Week throughout 2017 and 2018. She graduated from Rutgers University where she studied history, creative writing, and marketing. 

What Inspired Us

"I have always been interested in helping my community, but years ago a few passing moments in particular had an immense impact on me. It was one of the coldest winter nights that year and I was running to catch a PATH train in New York as I flew through the station, I suddenly came to a stop when I came across a literal sea of people sleeping on the floor of the station. Many folks were resting their heads on bags that may have likely contained their only possessions. As I walked past in awe of the sight of the sheer physical vast numbers gathered that night in one place for warmth, it deeply moved me. I knew that night that I needed to do something more – garnering my drive and inspiration to streamline CHF."

- Urooj Abbas

"When I was in grade school, my classmate would come to school without socks because hers had become too dirty to wear. When she told me  about her struggles the only thing I could think to do at that age was to take off my own socks and give them to her. To this day, empathy is what drives me to give back and make a difference in people’s lives through our efforts at CHF."

- Kriston Fernandez

"As a commuter, I've witnessed countless people struggle to wash up in public restrooms without the proper essentials to do so. I've always wanted to do something to help, but never knew where to start, until CHF gave me the ideal opportunity to do so." 

-Fariha Jafri