Liberty Hill Foundation Announces Almas Sayeed as Vice President of Public Partnerships
For Immediate Release
Contact: Courtney Kassel, Chief Communications Officer, ckassel@libertyhill.org, (323) 428-4648
Date: Wednesday, February 2, 2022
(Los Angeles)—Liberty Hill Foundation, the leading social justice foundation in Los Angeles, is proud to announce the appointment of legal advocate Almas Sayeed to the newly created role of Vice President, Public Partnerships.
Founded in 1976, Liberty Hill is a public foundation whose mission is to leverage the power of community organizers, donor activists and other allies to advance social justice through strategic investment in grants, leadership training, and campaigns.
In this new role, Almas will work to expand partnerships with government and public entities to ensure they best serve communities and advance Liberty Hill’s vision of racial equity and progressive change. While she will work across the Foundation, she will also guide its expanding s economic justice and housing portfolios. Almas brings more than 15 years of experience to the Foundation, working at the intersection of organizing, legislative policy change, and litigation in the areas of housing equity, workers’ rights, and immigrant justice.
“My community’s journey to find a place in the United States shaped my commitment to social justice. I am the daughter of South Indian Muslims who made the American Midwest their home. I was shaped by my parents’ journey of economic migration, the US’s “War on Terror” here and abroad and a powerful call to ensure the natural lottery does not determine one’s destiny,” said Almas. “I am privileged to build a world that centers equity, inclusion and structural change with the Liberty Hill team—a space dedicated to powerful, progressive organizing and policy change.”
Over the course of her career, Almas has served in a variety of public roles. She began her legal career as a housing lawyer, defending tenants losing their housing due to eviction, and pursuing affirmative claims against unscrupulous landlords. She also served as General Counsel and Policy Advisor to the National Domestic Workers Alliance where she led campaigns for domestic workers’ rights and helped shape the organization’s rapid growth. More recently, she served as Deputy Director of Programs at the California Immigrant Policy Center, steering critical campaigns to ensure healthcare access and worker protections, and to mitigate the impact of immigration enforcement for California’s undocumented communities.
Before her time as a lawyer, Almas served on the Senate Banking Committee, Senate Joint Economic Committee, and in two New York gubernatorial administrations.
Almas is a graduate of UCLA School of Law, where she was a Public Interest Law and Policy Fellow. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics, an MA from Hebrew University—where she was a Fulbright Fellow—and a Certificate of Advanced Studies from Birzeit University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas.
About Liberty Hill Foundation
Liberty Hill Foundation is a laboratory for social change philanthropy. We leverage the power of community organizers, donor activists, and allies to advance social justice through strategic investment in grants, leadership training, and campaigns. We envision a society in which all people have a powerful voice, including those currently shut out of our democracy, people cut off from opportunities because of their skin color, gender or sexual orientation, where they live, or where they were born. We will not rest until society provides justice and equality for all.
