Haftam Yitzhak Heathwood was born in Ethiopia in 1987 during a time of civil war and famine. Her family was able to escape Ethiopia when she was four and they made it to Israel. She grew up in the town of Beit She’an before she served two years in the Israeli Defense Forces. After her time in the service, she came to the United States as an au pair. She moved to NYC in 2011 where she met her husband, Kevin, in 2013. Haftam and her husband now live in Harlem where she is a student at BMCC majoring in Childhood Education.