Lateefah Simon

Lateefah Aaliyah Simon (born January 29, 1977) is an American politician who is the U.S. representative for California's 12th congressional district since January 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first member of Congress known to be born legally blind in both eyes, and the first Muslim member from California and outside of the Midwestern United States.

She served on the Bay Area Rapid Transit board of directors and on the board of trustees of the California State University system. She served as a trustee of the San Francisco Foundation and president of MeadowFund, a community investment fund created by Patricia Quillin, the wife of Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and was president of Akonadi Foundation, an organization focused on racial justice in Oakland, California. In 2003, she became the youngest woman to receive a MacArthur Fellowship for her leadership of the Center for Young Women's Development (now the Young Women's Freedom Center) in San Francisco at the age of 26.

Simon was born and raised in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. She attended Washington High School, where she joined the debate team. Beginning at age 15, she did outreach work for the Young Women's Freedom Center.

Simon earned a Bachelor of Arts in public policy at Mills College, a Master of Public Administration from the University of San Francisco, and was a 2014 Social Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Fellow at Stanford University.

During the tenure of Kamala Harris as San Francisco District Attorney, Simon led the creation of the city's Back on Track program for young adults charged with low-level felony drug sales. Simon also previously worked as the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2016, Simon was appointed to the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees by Governor Jerry Brown.

Simon was elected to represent the seventh district on the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) board of directors in 2016. Her motivations for running included her reliance on BART, as someone who is legally blind and unable to drive. In 2020, she was elected president of the board of directors.

In 2022, BART officials announced that Simon had been removed from the board after it was determined that her residence lay outside District 7, making her ineligible to represent the district. Simon stated that she had moved due to threats against her family stemming from her advocacy on police reform, and that she had been assured by BART staff prior to moving that the new residence was within district boundaries. She described the outcome as "deeply disappointing."