Lenora Branch Fulani (born April 25, 1950) is an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and political activist. She is best known for her presidential campaigns and development of youth programs serving minority communities in the New York City metropolitan area. In the 1988 United States presidential election heading the New Alliance Party ticket, she became the first woman and the first African American to achieve ballot access in all fifty states. Fulani's political concerns include racial equality, gay rights, and political reform, specifically to encourage third parties.

Fulani has worked closely since 1980 with Fred Newman, a New York–based psychotherapist and political activist who has often served as her campaign manager. Newman developed the theory and practice of Social Therapy in the 1970s, founding the New York Institute for Social Therapy in 1977. Along with psychologist Lois Holzman, Fulani has worked to incorporate the social therapeutic approach into youth-oriented programs, most notably the New York City–based All Stars Project, which she co-founded in 1981.

Fulani joined activists who supported Ross Perot for president in the 1992 United States presidential election in a national effort to create a new pro-reform party. In 1994 she led the formation of the Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP). For years Fulani was active with Newman's version of the International Workers Party (IWP). Since then, she has been active with the Independence Party of New York.

Fulani was born Lenora Branch in 1950 in Chester, Pennsylvania, the youngest daughter of Pearl, a registered nurse, and of Charles Branch, a railway baggage handler. Her father died of pneumonia when she was 12. As a teenager in Chester in the 1960s, Fulani was active in her local Baptist church, where she played piano for the choir. She graduated from Chester High School.

In 1967, Fulani was awarded a scholarship to study at Hofstra University in New York. She graduated in 1971, and went on to earn a master's degree from Columbia University's Teachers College. In the late 1970s, she earned a PhD in developmental psychology from the City University of New York (CUNY). Fulani was a guest researcher at Rockefeller University from 1973 to 1977, with a focus on how learning and social environment interact for African-American youth.

In college, she became involved in black nationalist politics, along with her then-husband, Richard. Both had adopted the name of the West African people Fulani as a surname when they married in a traditional West African ceremony. During her studies at City University, Fulani became interested in the work of Fred Newman and Lois Holzman, who had recently formed the New York Institute for Social Therapy and Research. Fulani studied at the Institute in the early 1980s.

Fulani became active in the Newman-founded independent New Alliance Party (NAP) and emerged as a spokesperson who often provoked controversy. In 1982, Fulani ran for New York Lieutenant Governor on the NAP ticket. She has also been involved in the affiliated (or, some^[who?] say, secret) Independent Workers Party, the Rainbow Alliance, and other shifting groups that were led by Newman.

She helped to recruit the NAP's 1984 presidential candidate Dennis L. Serrette, an African-American trade union activist. Although he was quite involved with the party for years, Serrette left and published critical accounts of what he described as its cultic operation.^{[non-primary source needed]}