Maya Rupert (born February 4, 1981) is an American political strategist, writer, and advocate. She is the campaign manager for Maya Wiley for New York City mayor. She was the campaign manager for Julian Castro in the 2020 presidential election.
She frequently writes about race, gender, culture, and politics, and has written for numerous publications including The New York Times , [1] The Atlantic , [2] Slate , [3] Salon , [4] [5] and The Washington Post . Rupert contributed a piece to the anthology How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation , released in 2018. The collection of essays features pieces celebrities and authors and all proceeds were donated to the ACLU.
In August 2018, Rupert was named Executive Director of Opportunity First, a PAC founded by former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro. [6] Before that, Rupert worked at the Center for Reproductive Rights as the Senior Director for Policy and Managing Director for the D.C. office. [7] Prior to that, she was a Senior Policy Advisor for Secretary Castro at HUD. [8] Before joining HUD, she was the Policy Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. [9] Rupert has credited the fact that her sister identifies as queer as one of the reasons she worked in the LGBT movement. [10] Previously, Rupert was an associate with Sidley Austin LLP in Los Angeles. In January 2019, when Julián Castro announced his candidacy for President of the United States in 2020, Rupert was named his Campaign Manager. In January 2021, Rupert was named Senior Advisor to Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign. [11] She was later named campaign manager for Maya Wiley's campaign for mayor of New York City. [12]
Rupert's HuffPost blog [13] was awarded a NABJ Salute to Excellence Award in 2012 [14] and 2013 [15] for her commentary. In 2017, her essay “This Cool Black Girl is Gone” was selected by Salon as one of the best essays of 2017.
In 2011, Rupert was named [16] to The Root 100, which is the annual list published by the magazine of the “100 most important black influencers between the ages of 25 and 45.” [17] She was also named [18] to Ebony magazine's annual list of 100 most influential African Americans in 2011.
She was also recognized by The Root in 2013 as one of the “young leaders” of the civil rights movement as a part of its commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. [19] In 2013, she was also honored by her alma mater U.C. Berkeley School of Law with the Thelton E. Henderson Social Justice Prize for her “commitment to…and creativity in developing legal strategies to advance social justice.” [20]
Rupert grew up in Joshua Tree, California and attended Yucca Valley High School where she was Miss Yucca Valley 1998. In 2009, Rupert was temporarily removed from the Miss Yucca Valley website after voicing concern to then-pageant runners that the decision to hold the pageant at a private Christian high school that heavily campaigned for Prop 8 "might discourage lesbians or transgender girls from participating in the scholarship event." Rupert's name was ultimately returned to the website. [21]
Rupert graduated from Berkeley Law School in 2006 [22] and U.C. Santa Barbara in 2003. [23]
Rupert currently lives and works in San Antonio, Texas. Her sister, Imani Rupert-Gordon, is the Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. [24] She is the former Executive Director of Affinity Community Services.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGBTQ individuals, including advocating for same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination and hate crimes legislation, and HIV/AIDS advocacy. The organization has a number of legislative initiatives as well as supporting resources for LGBTQ individuals.
Renée Montagne is an American radio journalist and was the co-host of National Public Radio's weekday morning news program, Morning Edition, from May 2004 to November 11, 2016. Montagne and Inskeep succeeded longtime host Bob Edwards, initially as interim replacements, and Greene joined the team in 2012. Montagne had served as a correspondent and occasional host since 1989. She usually broadcasts from NPR West in Culver City, California, a Los Angeles suburb.
Julián Castro is an American lawyer and politician from San Antonio, Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the youngest member of President Obama's cabinet, serving as the 16th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2014 to 2017. Castro served as the mayor of his native San Antonio, Texas from 2009 until he joined Barack Obama's cabinet in 2014.
Thelton Eugene Henderson is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He has played an important role in the field of civil rights as a lawyer, educator, and jurist.
Maya Lakshmi Harris is an American lawyer, public policy advocate, and writer. Harris was one of three senior policy advisors for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign's policy agenda and she also served as chair of the 2020 presidential campaign of her sister, Kamala Harris.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a non-profit, public interest law firm in the United States that advocates for equitable public policies affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, provides free legal assistance to LGBT clients and their legal advocates, and conducts community education on LGBT legal issues. It is headquartered in San Francisco with a policy team in Washington, DC. It is the only organization in the United States dedicated to lesbian legal issues, and the largest national lesbian organization in terms of members.
Abby Ginzberg is an independent documentary film director and producer and founder of Ginzberg Productions. For the past 30 years, Ginzberg has been creating films that tackle discrimination and the legal profession.
Eva Jefferson Paterson is the president and founder of the Equal Justice Society, a national legal organization focused on civil rights and anti-discrimination.
Kate Kendell is the former Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), a national legal organization that fights for the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. Through direct litigation and advocacy, NCLR works to change discriminatory laws and to create new laws and policies protecting the LGBT community.
The University of California, Berkeley School of Law is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley. The school was commonly referred to as "Boalt Hall" for many years, although it was never the official name. This came from its initial building, the Boalt Memorial Hall of Law, named for John Henry Boalt. This name was transferred to an entirely new law school building in 1951 but was removed in 2020.
Mandy Carter is an American black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activist.
The Berkeley Forum, referred to simply as the Forum, is a prominent, non-partisan student organization at the University of California, Berkeley. Founded in 2012, the Forum hosts debates, panels, and talks with distinguished speakers on various topics; it is modeled after similar organizations at other prestigious universities, like the Oxford Union, Cambridge Union, and Yale Political Union.
Maya D. Wiley is an American lawyer, professor, and civil rights activist. She has served as president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights since May 2022. Wiley served as counsel to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. She chaired the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) from 2016 to 2017. She was an MSNBC legal analyst from August 2018 to January 2021. Wiley ran in the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, placing third.
Karen Attiah is an American writer, journalist, and editor. She is Global Opinions editor and columnist for The Washington Post. Along with David Ignatius, Attiah won a 2019 George Polk Award for their writing about the murder of their colleague Jamal Khashoggi. She was also named 2019 Journalist of the Year Award by the National Association of Black Journalists for her coverage of Khashoggi's murder. Her writing focuses on race, gender, culture, human rights and international affairs.
Kenyon Farrow is an American writer, activist, director, and educator focused on progressive racial and economic justice issues related to the LGBTQ community. He served as the executive director of Queers for Economic Justice, policy institute fellow with National LGBTQ Task Force, U.S. & Global Health Policy Director of Treatment Action Group, public education and communications coordinator for the New York State Black Gay Network, senior editor with TheBody.com and TheBodyPro.com, and co-executive director of Partners for Dignity and Rights. In 2021, Farrow joined PrEP4All as managing director of advocacy & organizing.
For the Hong Kong actress and singer, see Miriam Yeung.
Imani Rupert-Gordon is the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco, California.
Mary Cynthia Dunlap was an American civil rights lawyer based in San Francisco, California. She directed San Francisco's Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC).
Kelli Evans is an American lawyer who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California. She previously served as a judge of the Alameda County Superior Court.