New Haven Independent

Matos, 41, was a community activist brought inside city government during a City Hall shake-up after Mayor John DeStefano’s gubernatorial run. As the city’s Community Services Administrator, she worked on expanding social services to three groups whose needs were not being effectively addressed by City Hall: immigrants, youth, and the prison reentry population.

Thursday, the city announced she’d been tapped for a job with the New York City-based non-profit foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, starting June 1.

“It’s going to be hard to walk away,” said Matos. “While I’m sad to leave, I couldn’t pass up this tremendous new opportunity.”

In her new post, titled “Program Executive in the Human Rights and Reconciliation Division,” she’ll be addressing some of the same issues she has been working on here. Her work will focus on recommending giving in the areas of immigration, criminal justice and protection of civil liberties post-9/11.

While at City Hall, Matos was instrumental in rolling out the city’s pioneering, immigrant-friendly Elm City ID Card and the Street Outreach Worker Program. Most recently, she has been working on a prison reentry program. A key component of that initiative, a “ban the box” bill to level the playing field for job-seeking ex-cons, was approved in February.

“Kica has been an outstanding member of our team who has initiated and made real change and as a result has helped to make New Haven a more united and vibrant community,” said Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. in a press statement.

Before coming to City Hall, Matos served as director of Junta for Progressive Action. With the help of a dynamic board, she turned it into the city’s leading Latino social-services agency as well as a leading advocate for immigrants’ rights.

Matos plans to commute from her home in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood, where she lives with her husband, Henry Fernandez, and their four-year-old son.