This blog post is part of a series featuring each of the 2015 Net Impact Conference keynote speakers. This year's theme is Game On, and we couldn't be more excited to see these players take the field in November. Here's why... 

Lateefah Simon

Program Director, Rosenberg Foundation

Why we're excited:

As a civil rights advocate, Lateefah Simon is a champion for racial equity and social justice.

We’re not the only ones that think Lateefah is an all-star; she was recently nominated as Visionary of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, and is an esteemed recipient of the Levi Strauss Pioneer Activist Fellowship.

Interested in joining us in Seattle this fall? Get more information on NI15 and register here.

Get a sneak peak:

About Lateefah:

Lateefah is program director for the Rosenberg Foundation, which seeks to change the odds for Californians through statewide grantmaking to support policy change.

A longtime advocate for low-income young women and girls and for juvenile and criminal justice reform, at the age of 19, Ms. Simon was appointed executive director of the Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD) in San Francisco. CYWD is the nation’s first economic and gender justice organization solely run for and by low-income and formerly incarcerated young women.

After an 11-year tenure as executive director, Ms. Simon then led the creation of San Francisco’s first reentry services division under the leadership of District Attorney Kamala D. Harris. As division director, Ms. Simon led a strategic citywide public/private partnership effort aimed at providing concrete pathways to prevent young adults charged with low-level felony drug sales from returning to a life of crime. The flagship program, Back on Track, has reduced the recidivism rate for the population it serves to less than 10 percent. It has been replicated in several prosecutors' offices across the county and was selected as a national model program by Attorney General Eric Holder.

In 2009, Ms. Simon was appointed executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. LCCR works to champion the legal rights of people of color, poor people, immigrants and refugees, with a special commitment to African Americans, through litigation, policy advocacy and direct service programs. Under her leadership, the organization revamped and streamlined its 40-year-old infrastructure and implemented successful community based initiatives, including the Second Chance Legal Services Clinic. 

An avid speaker, Ms. Simon lectures across the county at top conferences and top universities. She has served on numerous boards of directors and has received awards for her efforts including the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, inclusion in O Magazine’s first ever “Power List”, Ford Foundation’s Leadership for A Changing World, the Remarkable Woman Award from Lifetime Television, the Levi Straus Pioneer Activist Fellowship, and the New Frontier Award from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Ms. Simon also was Winter 2014 Social Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (SEERS) Fellow at Stanford University.