Director
Lateefah Simon was first elected to serve District 7 on the BART Board of Directors on November 8, 2016 and was reelected in 2020. She served as President of the BART Board in 2020.
The Seventh District includes Albany (partial), Berkeley (partial), Emeryville, Oakland (partial), El Cerrito (partial), Hercules, Pinole, Richmond, San Pablo, Unincorporated Contra Costa County (partial) and San Francisco (partial).
A nationally recognized advocate for civil rights and racial justice, Lateefah brings over 20 years of executive experience advancing opportunities for communities of color and low-income communities in the Bay Area. She has been the President of the Akonadi Foundation since 2016. That same year—driven by the death of Oscar Grant—she ran and was elected to the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors. Lateefah is also a member of California State University's Board of Trustees and frequently turned to by state officials for strategic advice on policy matters related to racial justice. Lateefah received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award in 2003—making her the youngest woman ever to receive the award.
Previously, Lateefah served as Program Director at the Rosenberg Foundation—where she launched the Leading Edge Fund to seed, incubate and accelerate bold ideas from the next generation of progressive movement leaders in California. She also held the position of Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Lateefah also spearheaded San Francisco's first reentry, a highly effective anti-recidivism youth services division under the leadership of then-District Attorney Kamala Harris.
Born legally blind, Lateefah has never driven a car and depends on BART everyday to get to work and take her daughter to school.