MAYA WILEY is president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalition. A former legal analyst on MSNBC, this lifelong civil rights advocate and a civil rights attorney mounted a historic performance in New York City’s 2021 Democratic mayoral primary, contesting to be the first woman mayor on a reform platform. Before that race, Wiley served as senior vice president for social justice at New School University and as a member of the graduate faculty at its Milano School. The first Black woman to serve as counsel to a New York City mayor, her expertise and compassionate approach were (and remain) almost unprecedented in the world of advocacy, activism, and politics. Wiley also serves as the Joseph L. Rash Jr. Chair of Civil and Human Rights at the University of the District of Columbia School of Law.