New York City’s chief equity officer on her ‘Herculean’ job: Achieving racial equity

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed in January social justice leader and former public defender Afua Atta-Mensah as the city’s chief equity officer and racial justice commissioner.

Atta-Mensah recently sat down with HR Brew to discuss her role, Mayor Mamdani’s commitment to DEI, and how New York City’s plans for workforce equity could serve as a catalyst for other municipalities.

Small team. Big agenda. New York City’s government has 72 agencies and over 360,000 employees, making its workforce larger than many city populations. (Orlando is home to almost 334,000 residents; Pittsburgh has about 307,000). Atta-Mensah has just five employees on her team, but is responsible for all equity efforts

While some employers may struggle to diversify their workforce, “the New York City workforce is diverse in gender and race and religion and sexual orientation,” Atta-Mensah said, because the city is so diverse. This has allowed her to focus on specific government programs—such as the Young Men’s Initiative, Commission on Gender Equity, the LGBTQIA Office of Policy and Practice—and “work in deep collaboration, with other people in government, with the private sector, to talk about, ‘what does it look like to be treating the workforce equitably and with fairness?’”

She is also developing the city’s first racial equity plan. (The project was started by her predecessor, Sideya Sherman, but was stalled by Mayor Eric Adams in 2024.)

“The role is Herculean in nature,” Atta-Mensah said, noting the dozens of agencies her team is working with to serve New Yorkers. “This is a mayor who said ‘we absolutely have to get big things done,’ and I see my role as a multi-step one.”

Draft racial equity plan released. In April, less than three months after taking office, Atta-Mensah’s team released the Preliminary Racial Equity Plan—a first for the city. Nearly 50 agencies contributed to the 375-page plan, which is under revision after a public comment period and will be released sometime in August.

Some community leaders criticized the mayor’s office for not including “DEI” language in the plan, but the policies make clear Mamdani’s commitment to the work.

The policies include a variety of workforce initiatives, including expanding recruitment efforts for frontline workers, workforce integration for at-risk individuals, and student debt relief for eligible city workers. New York also considers socioeconomic status in its equity and workforce programs, and will provide workforce development for economically disadvantaged residents.

“We take our leadership from the mayor,” Atta-Mensah said. “The mayor has made clear, both in the release of the Preliminary Racial Equity Plan, that issues of equity and affordability are different sides of the same coin.”

Demographic data collection will continue. The racial equity plan also includes demographic data collection, something that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced earlier this year it would end, concerning many equality advocates and employment lawyers, HR Brew reported previously.

“Part of what was mandated in the charter for the racial equity plan was data disaggregation,” Atta-Mensah said of the city’s plan to continue demographic reporting, regardless of what the federal government requires. “So agencies are disaggregating data as needed to better disseminate to better track how we do services.”

Hope in the face of worry. Diversity efforts have been under near-constant attack from anti-DEI activists and politicians for more than two years. As a result, DEI leaders, organizations, and public institutions have either rolled back or hesitated to openly discuss their initiatives, HR Brew reported previously.

“It is unfortunate that some have sought to use issues of equity, inclusion in a disinformation campaign to be divisive,” Atta-Mensah said. Despite this, she said she believes practitioners will build on the legacy of those who did the work before them. “So many practitioners of justice, of equity, of inclusion, are in a time of difficulty, and their work is needed more than ever.”

Looking ahead, Atta-Mensah said her success will be measured by how much of the racial equity plan is achieved by the end of her term in December 2029. She hopes that the plan can serve as a model for others as well.

“How are we taking stock of tensions and hurdles that will come? That when you’re doing something the first time and using that as a learning, yes, for the city, but other cities are looking to New York and trying to do the same thing,” she said. “I will look at this by the progress we’ve made, [and] how we are messaging to other cities and states who are looking to do similar.”