Bio
Niloufar Khonsari (they/she) is a movement lawyer and author committed to collective leadership in struggles for justice. They co-founded Pangea Legal Services, a worker-led migrant justice organization, the Immigrant Liberation Movement, and Migra Watch. Nilou’s commitment to collective leadership is the focus of their forthcoming book, The Future is Collective, where they offer lessons from growing Pangea as a collectively-run organization. Their articles have been published in Nonprofit Quarterly, Common Dreams, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other outlets.
In ten years, Nilou represented over 230 asylees and other clients in complex, multi-year immigration cases with a +95% success rate. Through Migra Watch, they trained over 2,000 immigrant community members and allies to organize against ICE raids.
Nilou built coalitions for successful abolitionist policy campaigns, and she led the efforts to win over $50 million in local and statewide funds for legal representation for detained and non-detained immigrants fighting deportations.
Nilou’s community-centered leadership has been recognized through several recent awards, including the BIPOC Pioneers in Justice Award from Levi Strauss Foundation (2021), the Community Impact Award by the Iranian American Bar Association of Northern California (2022), the Community Impact Award by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (2022), the Bernstein Parker Activist Writer Fellowship by the Mesa Refuge (2023), and the Unsung Heroes Award from Resonance Philanthropies (2023).
Prior to founding Pangea, Nilou lived and participated in various movement struggles in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York, Argentina, and Sierra Leone. They graduated from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and Georgetown Law, and they have two decades of training by activists, undocumented organizers, and community leaders in dismantling oppressive systems.
Nilou loves to dance and is the proud single mother of a magnificent little freedom fighter.