Monifa Akinwole Bandele, Executive Director
Monifa Akinwole Bandele
Monifa Akinwole Bandele
Monifa is a 2004 recipient of the Ford Foundation Leaders for a Changing World Award, the 2005 Essence Women Who Shape the World Award, and the 2006 Louis E Burnham Award. Most recently she served as the National Field Director for Right to Vote, which is a national collaborative of the eight major civil rights organizations. The campaign’s mission is to end felony disfranchisement. This RTV effectively helped to change the law in three states, expanding the right to vote to 250,000 formerly incarcerated people.

Monifa is the former Executive Director of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, a national human rights and racial justice organization, during her tenure was a 2000 recipient of the prestigious Union Square Award. Monifa is a co-founder of the Black August Hip Hop Project, an international activist/artist alliance, with ties in Cuba, South Africa, and Brazil. Black August has raised over $30,000 for political prisoners in the United States and brought out tens of thousands of young adults in three countries.

Monifa volunteers with MXGM’s Cop Watch project and has taught literacy at New York City’s infamous Rikers Island. She is president of the Board for the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project and has a Masters Degree in Human Services from Lincoln University. Monifa also has experience in tenant organizing and housing development as a former Director with the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board.