Jasmine Wali

Jasmine Wali is an Advisor for the Elevating Action for Family Justice Fund, where she works with broad coalitions of reproductive and family justice advocates, directly impacted community members, and grassroots organizers to challenge the assumption that protecting children requires excessive system surveillance that subjects families to unnecessary traumatic investigations. As a trained social worker, her legislative advocacy is grounded in evidence that families are safest when parents — including pregnant and postpartum people — are supported rather than criminalized. As one nominator put it, "Jasmine is an incredible strategic thinker who works at the local and national level to push forward key legislation."

This year, Wali helped lead one of Albany's most talked-about maternal health campaigns: the Maternal Health, Dignity and Consent Act, which would end secret drug testing of pregnant and postpartum people and their newborns in New York hospitals — a practice that has drawn national scrutiny for leading to family separations through the child welfare system and contributing to the maternal health crisis. The bill passed the New York State Senate this session, making it, according to one nominator, the first chamber in the country to pass this framework for strengthening maternal and infant health.

Colleagues describe Wali as "a visionary strategist who works seamlessly behind the scenes and on the ground at the Capitol to build powerful, transformative movements," crediting her with turning ambitious policy goals into major legislative victories through a combination of campaign strategy, coalition-building, and direct advocacy with lawmakers. At the core of that work, nominators say, is a fierce commitment to dismantling punitive structures within the traditional child welfare system and shifting toward policies that keep families together safely — work one nominator called deserving of recognition "for her exceptional leadership and tireless advocacy for maternal health, family preservation, and child welfare reform."