At age 18, she gave birth to her eldest daughter, Aminah, and quickly learned as a young single mother that government wasn’t working for people like her. A year later, she became Executive Director of YWFC and spent the next decade earning national acclaim for her advocacy on behalf of marginalized young women. In 2003, at age 26, Lateefah became the youngest woman to receive a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.
Back on Track was a highly effective, first-of-its-kind anti-recidivism initiative for young adults charged with low-level offenses.
Lateefah also served as Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she launched successful community-based initiatives such as the Second Chance Legal Services Clinic.
She would go on to become Program Director of the Rosenberg Foundation, where she launched a fund to incubate and accelerate bold ideas from the next generation of progressive leaders in California.
Born legally blind, Lateefah relies solely on public transportation to go about her day and sought to make BART more affordable for working families and transit-dependent people like herself.
Lateefah was also appointed by then-Governor Jerry Brown to serve on the Board of Trustees for the California State University, the nation’s largest public university system, where she offered strategic advice on policy matters related to racial justice in higher education.
Lateefah graduated from Mills College with a B.A. in Public Policy, and was selected as her class commencement speaker. She later earned her MPA from the University of San Francisco. In 2016, Lateefah became president of the Akonadi Foundation, an Oakland-based racial justice organization. In 2020, she was appointed a senior advisor on police reform for California Governor Gavin Newsom. Lateefah also serves on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Foundation, on the Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch U.S, as an Oxfam Ambassador, and the Board of Directors for Rosenberg Foundation and Tipping Point Foundation.
California State Assembly: Woman of the Year
Ford Foundation: Leadership for a Changing World
Lifetime Television: Remarkable Woman Award
Levi Strauss Pioneer Activist Fellowship
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library: New Frontier Award
Jefferson Award for Extraordinary Public Service
Inside Philanthropy’s Most Promising New Foundation President
Oprah Magazine’s “Power List”
Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 40 Under 40
Root 100
Lateefah is running to represent California’s 12th Congressional District, which is home to over 750,000 people across Alameda County, and includes Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, Piedmont, and San Leandro.