Mayor Zohran Mamdani made two appointments Wednesday, continuing to build out his administration during his first full week in office.

Speaking at Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights, Queens, Mamdani named longtime human rights advocate Christine Clarke as chair and commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, highlighting the agency’s role in protecting civil rights over the past eight decades.

What You Need To Know

  • Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Christine Clarke to lead the NYC Commission on Human Rights

  • Clarke is a longtime civil rights advocate and former Legal Services NYC leader

  • Mamdani also named Simonia Brown as senior adviser for policy and strategy

  • Brown will work with state leaders on the mayor’s affordability agenda

“As I often do, I think of the words of our greatest mayor, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia,” he said. “When he founded the Mayor’s Committee on Unity in 1944, its purpose, he said, was to make New York City a place where people of all races and religions may work and live side by side in harmony and have mutual respect for each other, and where democracy is a living reality.”

“That committee became the Commission on Intergroup Relations, and in 1962, the Commission on Human Rights,” he added. “But for nearly 82 years, no matter its name, CCHR has done the vital work of protecting human rights in our city, of delivering justice. And that work has never been more important.”

Clarke previously served as Legal Services NYC’s chief of litigation and advocacy, and as director of its Civil Rights Justice Initiative, Mamdani said.

She will report to Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, he went on to say, adding that Clarke “has dedicated her life to fighting for working people, from factory workers to small business owners to immigrants planting their roots.”

Clarke said her professional career has focused on advocating for workers, people living in poverty and victims of discrimination in housing and employment.

“It’s with this life experience and this work experience that I come to this position, and with a deeply held belief that New York City is a place where we can finally all belong and all thrive,” Clarke said, adding that she planned to “enact this vision of a great city that we all share.”

Earlier Wednesday, Mamdani also announced the appointment of Simonia Brown as senior adviser for policy and strategy. Brown will work with state partners in Albany on the mayor’s affordability agenda, reporting to First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan.

Brown brings more than two decades of experience in city and state government, Mamdani’s office said in a news release.

She previously served as director of the city’s State Legislative Affairs Office under former Mayor Bill de Blasio and held senior roles at the city’s Office of Management and Budget and the New York State Assembly.

Brown currently serves as assistant deputy comptroller to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

“Mayor Mamdani gave a voice to New Yorkers facing a soaring cost-of-living crisis,” Brown said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to working alongside our partners in Albany to deliver the mayor’s affordability agenda and provide real relief for working families in New York.”