Karen Bass

Karen Bass's career is marked by a series of historic firsts and substantive policy achievements. She became the first African-American woman to serve as speaker of a state legislative body in U.S. history, a milestone that broke barriers in California and beyond. Her Profile in Courage Award recognized the political risk she took in forging a bipartisan budget compromise during a fiscal crisis. As mayor, she has taken on one of the nation's most intractable problems, homelessness, and achieved measurable progress, with street homelessness declining by over 17 percent in her first two years. Her work on foster care reform in the California Assembly led to significant policy changes that improved outcomes for thousands of children. Bass's legacy is one of steady, principled leadership that combines grassroots activism with high-level governance.