Jakada Imani became Ella Baker Center's Executive Director in 2007, after serving as a lead strategist and chief team member on some of Ella Baker Center's most high profile campaigns for eight years. Prior to becoming Executive Director, Jakada directed Books Not Bars, taking the ongoing campaign to replace California's abusive youth prisons with effective rehabilitation programs to ever-increasing heights. Jakada helped lead the successful Stop the Super Jail Campaign, a two-year effort to stop Alameda County from building a massive, expensive and remote juvenile hall that it didn't need. He was a leader in the Justice for Moreno and Pacheco Campaign, the successful fight to free two wrongly convicted Latino boys in Solano County. And he ran Ella Baker Center's youth organizing project, Third Eye Movement, during the No on 21 campaign to educate voters about the dangers of Proposition 21, a draconian ballot measure aimed at putting 14-year-olds in adult courts and 16-year-olds in adult prisons. Born and raised in Oakland, California, Jakada is the father of four powerful and creative young girls. You can read his articles on Ella's Voice as well follow his contributions to City Brights and the Huffington Post.
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