Maya Wiley

Maya Wiley is the Founder and President of the Center for Social Inclusion. A civil rights attorney and policy advocate, Wiley has litigated, lobbied the U.S. Congress, and developed programs to transform structural racial inequity in the U.S. and in South Africa. Prior to founding the Center for Social Inclusion, Wiley was a senior advisor on race and poverty to the Director of U.S. Programs of the Open Society Institute and helped develop and implement the Open Society Foundation – South Africa's Criminal Justice Initiative. She has worked for the American Civil Liberties Union National Legal Department, in the Poverty and Justice Program of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Wiley previously served on the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch, the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota School of Law, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the former chair of the Tides Network Board of Directors. In 2009, Wiley was named a NY Moves magazine Power Woman. Wiley was also named as one of '20 Leading Black Women Social Activists Advocating Change" in 2011 by The Root.com. Wiley holds a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Dartmouth College.