A legal professional, transformative justice strategist, Rukia Lumumba is founding director of the People’s Advocacy Institute, and co-director of the Electoral Justice Project of the Movement of Black Lives, She works at the intersections of criminal and electoral justice defending the human rights of those behind prison walls, engaging communities in community-led governance efforts, community-led public safety & an intentional grassroots process for cultivating ideas and developing solutions to violence, punitive legal systems and social injustice facing far too many Communities. Rukia’s work is centered on the belief that community agency is what architects robust systems change and is what is needed to build new institutional power that paves the way for a more just system rooted in restoration, resilience and self-determination. She is co-chair of the JXN People’s Assembly to create a community led-governance model that advances and increases people-centered policy, practice and power. Rukia holds a bachelor’s degree in political science with an emphasis in international relations from Tougaloo College in Mississippi. She holds a Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. and has studied law and politics.