Monifa Bandele has more than a decade of experience in policy analysis, communications, civic engagement organizing, and project management working with groups like the Brennan Center for Justice, Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund, and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.
At MomsRising.org she managed the health kids and maternal justice campaigns, helping to successfully increase children's access to healthy food, stem junk food marketing, and end the school-to-prison pipeline. Through maternal justice, she is working to end the rising tide of maternal mortality in the United States. During her tenure at the Brennan Center as national field director for the Right to Vote Campaign, the coalition successfully change laws in five state expanding the franchise to more that 250,000 formerly incarcerated people.
Finally, Monifa sits on the steering committee for Communities United for Police Reform and is an activist with the Black Lives Matter Movement. She helped launch two successful legal cases against police misconduct (Daniels v NYC and Floyd v NYC); conducted Know Your Right workshops for thousands of community members; and worked to pass landmark police reform legislation in New York City (Community Safety Act 2013).
When did you realize moms have superpowers?
“Right after the moment I gave birth, I realized that I could do any and everything.”