Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at MomsRising, Monifa Bandele co-leads a national on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people working to achieve economic security and justice for moms, women, and families. There, she directs the organization’s work on reproductive justice, maternal and children’s health, and criminal justice reform--including ending the school-to-prison pipeline, successfully winning better practices and policies at the federal, state, and local levels. Prior to her tenure at MomsRising, she had already been a leader in the field of 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. During her tenure at the Brennan Center as national field director for the Right to Vote Campaign, the coalition successfully changed laws in five states expanding the franchise to more that 250,000 formerly incarcerated people. 

Finally, Monifa sits on the policy table leadership team for the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), as well as the steering committee for the New York-based Communities United for Police Reform. Just in the past decade, she led the launch of two historic and successful legal cases against police misconduct (Daniels v NYC and Floyd v NYC); worked to pass landmark police reform legislation in New York City (Community Safety Act 2013) and New York State (Repeal CRL 50-a bill, Special Prosecutor, and NY STAT Act); and was a contributing writer to M4BL’s Vision for Black Lives.

When did you realize moms have superpowers? 

“Right after the moment I gave birth, I realized that I could do any and everything.”