Rukia Lumumba leads the forward-looking Electoral Justice Project of the Movement for Black Lives, which provides a loving and strategic political home for Black people to seek transformational political change. She is founder of the award-winning and leading-edge organization the People’s Advocacy Institute which, rooted historically and physically in Mississippi, advances practical and groundbreaking solutions to violence that advance racial equity, meet the needs of those harmed, and do not rely on incarceration. 

Rukia leads local and national efforts for community-driven policy solutions and community-led public safety and health initiatives. She is responsible for the development of many firsts in Mississippi including Mississippi’s first credible messenger program providing alternatives to incarceration for youth ages 14-21, Mississippi’s first Cure Violence program providing hands-on gun violence mediation through the Operation Good program. Mississippi’s first hospital-based violence intervention program, Mississippi’s first combined alternative-to-incarceration and victim-service program, Mississippi’s first Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery, and Mississippi’s first and only bail fund. Rukia’s work is centered on the belief that community agency is what architects robust systems change and is needed to build new institutional power that paves the way for a more just system.

Rukia holds a juris doctorate degree from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C.; a bachelor's degree in political science with an emphasis in international relations from Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi; and has studied law and politics in South Africa at the University of Forte Hare and the University of the Western Cape.