BART Board Director Latifa Simon Announces Application for Congress

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A member of the BART board of directors announced Tuesday that she is running to fill the seat of Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, who is running for the US Senate.

Latifa Simon is a District 7 director on the BART board, where she has served since 2016. Her goal then was to make BART more accessible to people who have to use transit and working families.

Simon is legally blind and must use public transportation to get around. The murder of Oscar Grant prompted her to run for the BART board of directors.

“I decided very early on that the government was not working for people without voting rights,” Simon said in a statement. “I have spent my life fighting for these people and I will work to bring our shared stories and experiences to the halls of Congress.”

Simon has described herself as a 25-year veteran organizer and advocate for civil rights and social justice.

At 16, she was a coordinator for the Young Women’s Freedom Center, which advocates for young women and trans youth who grew up in poverty, were incarcerated, in foster care, lived and worked on the streets, or suffered violence.

She realized that government officials were ignoring her concerns as a young mother of 18, and a year later she became the center’s executive director.

When she was 26, Simon became the youngest woman to receive the MacArthur Genius Fellowship, which awards $800,000 to people who show originality and dedication to their creative pursuits and a clear ability for self-management.

Simon led the creation of Back on Track, an initiative to reduce recidivism among young people accused of minor offenses, which then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris chose to lead.

Simon has served as executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which advocates for racial, economic, and immigrant justice, and as program director for the Rosenberg Foundation, which funds leaders committed to a more just society.

About three years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Simon as senior adviser on police reform.

Simon received a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Mills College, now Northeastern University’s Mills College, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco.

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