
Mustafa Ali-Smith
Mustafa is a joint MPA/ JD student at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Raised in Chicago, IL, and later in Nashville, TN, Mustafa approaches his public service work as a social justice advocate and organizer. In all of his work, he centers the praxis of community building, accountability, and transformative justice. Prior to Princeton, Mustafa worked at the Vera Institute of Justice, a national nonprofit dedicated to transforming our justice system, where he worked to end mass incarceration by pushing elected prosecutors to adopt diversion policies that shift people away from the criminal legal system, address racial disparities, and make prosecutors’ offices more accountable to the communities they serve. Outside of Vera, Mustafa was appointed by the Knoxville, TN mayor’s administration as a program specialist to develop, implement, and evaluate violence interruption and prevention programs within the city. Broadly, Mustafa’s interests are centered around racial equity, criminal justice, and poverty.