Niketa Brar

Niketa Brar has spent her career studying the failures of democracy—and redesigning the systems that produce them.

A policymaker turned government reformer, she founded and led Chicago United for Equity, building a civic redesign organization that engaged more than 165 civic leaders in developing and testing participatory governance models.

Under her leadership, CUE launched the Vote Equity Project, People’s Budget Chicago, and introduced Racial Equity Impact Assessments to Chicago—innovations designed to rebuild civic trust through participatory, reparative governance with communities most harmed by inequitable public policy.

At PolicyLink, Niketa led governance and policy strategy for a $200M national initiative, partnering with 25 cities to leverage historic federal climate investments to address climate disparities and close racial wealth gaps. She developed an economic framework rooted in self-determination and helped community-government teams co-design equitable economic policies.

Today, Niketa is a founding partner at For the Many Strategies, a national practice that helps local and national partners build more responsive, trustworthy governments. She also serves as an adviser on collaborative governance for the City of Chicago and Race Forward, and curates the Reparative Democracy Design Lab for the Othering & Belonging Institute’s Forum on Democracy and Belonging.

Niketa’s work has been recognized with the Trailblazer Award from Reform for Illinois, the Civil Rights Visionary Award from the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and an inaugural Leadership in Democracy Fellowship from the McCormick Foundation.