New York Mayor names Afua Atta-Mensah as Chief Equity Officer

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed organiser and racial justice strategist Afua Atta-Mensah as the city’s Chief Equity Officer and Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice (MOERJ).

City Hall says she will lead the administration’s effort to embed racial equity across municipal agencies, with an early deliverable to draft and publish a Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan within the mayor’s first 100 days in office.

The move comes after a citywide Racial Equity Plan was backed by voters in 2022, but the previous administration did not release it within the timeline set out in the City Charter. The Mamdani administration says it will publish a preliminary version first, open it for public comment, and then issue a final plan later this year.

Ms Atta-Mensah has held senior roles in advocacy and legal organisations, including Chief of Programs at Community Change, Executive Director of Community Voices Heard, and Director of Litigation and Policy at the Urban Justice Center. City officials say her work has focused on building community power, defending racial justice initiatives and pushing for fair and equitable housing.

Announcing the appointment, Mr Mamdani said Ms Atta-Mensah has spent her career serving New Yorkers who are “often forgotten in the halls of power,” and said he trusted her to drive equity goals across City Hall.

Ms Atta-Mensah said she was ready to pursue “citywide justice and accountability,” adding that the administration intended to act boldly and would work with community leaders, MOERJ teams and the Commission on Racial Equity to develop and implement the plan.

Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su welcomed the appointment, saying racial justice and economic justice were inseparable and that she looked forward to turning the city’s equity commitments into practical outcomes for communities across New York.