NEW YORK CITY—Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced his pick to address what he described as structural racism in city government at an event at the Harlem Community Justice Center on Jan. 15. The job, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice, is intended to ensure that city agencies are accessible to communities that have been underserved or poorly served in the past.

Mamdani selected Afua Atta-Mensah, a senior political director on his election campaign, to lead the office. Mamdani tasked Atta-Mensah with producing a citywide racial equity plan by mid-April, within the first 100 days of his term.

Describing his approach as a break from past inaction, Mamdani said: “We will chart a new course from City Hall. One where racial equity is pursued with seriousness and intent, where agencies and offices will work collaboratively, and where deadlines will be met as opposed to ignored.”

He gave examples of where he believed inequities exist in New York City.

“We reckon with it in our schools, where black and brown children contend with larger class sizes, and of course, outcomes,” Mamdani said, “[and in] housing where discrimination runs rampant, and in pay that is anything but equitable.”

Atta-Mensah described her work as “reshaping systems” that “erected barriers, instead of building on ramps for opportunity.” She said her work “seeks citywide accountability on behalf of all New Yorkers.”

She previously worked as the chief of programs at Community Change, where she managed Community Change Action’s PAC and oversaw the strategy and execution of its electoral policy, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Atta-Mensah was also the executive director of Community Voices Heard, where she worked to improve living conditions for tenants in city housing. She was also active in statewide and federal election campaigns. According to LinkedIn, she co-created the Road to Justice NYC PAC and helped get 10 city council members elected.

The office dedicated to advancing racial equity is a result of a 2022 ballot measure voters passed to reduce or eliminate racial disparities. The ballot measure was the result of a Racial Justice Commission established by former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio established the commission in 2021 after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor brought renewed attention to perceived racial inequities in the United States.

The 2022 ballot measure established an Office of Racial Equity and a Commission on Racial Equity, and created the role of chief equity officer “to advance racial equity and coordinate the City’s racial equity planning process.”

The 2022 ballot measure obligated the city to publish a racial equity plan every two years.

No such plan was published under Mayor Eric Adams, and ultimately, in August 2025, the Commission on Racial Equity, half of whose members Adams appointed, filed suit against Adams to force him to release the racial equity plan. By the end of his term in 2025, it still had not been published.