Nisha Agarwal

A child of immigrants from India, Nisha Agarwal became a public interest lawyer out of Harvard Law School, leading the Health Justice Program at NYLPI. She was deputy director and co-founder of the Center for Popular Democracy and executive director of the Immigrant Justice Corps. Agarwal served as Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in De Blasio’s first term, building landmark initiatives like IDNYC and Cities for Action. In his second term, Agarwal was Senior Advisor to the Deputy Mayor to boost civic engagement and build DemocracyNYC’s efforts on immigration and disability rights. As a Deputy Executive Director at the International Refugee Assistance Project, oversaw the departments of Policy, Communications, Legal Strategy, and Climate. She now serves as the Executive Director for Policy and Communications for the Division of Mental HygieneNew York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. When not working, Nisha also enjoys gaming, travel and cats.