SF Mayor Names Kimberly Ellis As New Director For Status of Women Dept.
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Longtime progressive activist Kimberly Ellis will serve as the new director for the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, Mayor London Breed announced Tuesday.
Ellis recently served as the executive director of Emerge California, the nation's largest training program for aspiring female political candidates. She left the post in 2017 to run for the chair of the California Democratic Party.
"Kimberly is a tireless advocate for those who are too often overlooked in our society, and I know that in this role she will continue that work by improving the lives of women and girls in San Francisco," Breed said in a statement.
"We know that the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately impacting women, exacerbating disparities that already existed beforehand. That's why the work of the Department on the Status of Women remains more important than ever and why I'm proud that Kimberly will be leading it for years to come," the mayor added.
After she lost the chairmanship to Democratic party insider Eric Bauman, Ellis started Unbought – Unbossed, or UnB2, which she describes as an "an incubator for the next generation of political disruptors."
"We know that when we raise up women, girls, trans, and gender non-conforming people, every aspect of our society improves," Ellis said. "A new era has begun in American and it's time we empower all marginalized people in the dismantling of systemic racism and the white male patriarchy that has held too many back for far too long."
The department, formed in 1994, aims to carry out the efforts of the Commission on the Status of Women, which encourages the advancement of girls and women in the city through policies, programs and legislation. The groundwork for the department was laid in 1975, when the city established the Commission on the Status of Women.
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