Attorney, legislative drafter, mediator, author, and speaker Maaria Mozaffar crafts groundbreaking legislations spanning over 15 years on a variety of issues centered on equity and inclusiveness institutional change.  Her legislative work focuses on various areas including but not limited to equity in social services, healthcare, criminal justice reform, women empowerment, and inclusive schools and institutions for families. Mozaffar’s work continues to impact thousands of lives every year. She uses her skills to find solutions to issues many feel cannot be resolved and paves the way for community engagement, education, and mobilization. The concentration of her work focuses on countering otherization,  teaching personal leadership, mediation conflicts centering on the dignity of the person, and putting in place legislative vehicles that challenge systems and institutions that need policy change. Mozaffar also hosts A Way Forward, a digital series sparking fresh conversations that elevate, inspire, and unite a global community. A Way Forward follows The SkinLess Project, Maaria’s game-changing initiative that grew to more than 75,000 followers from around the world and was featured on news outlets such as WGN. The success of the project led Maaria to author the book, “More Than Pretty, How to Live a Life of Substance in An Artificial World,” where she teaches the pathway to embracing life’s inevitable successes and failures with vision in order to become a person of impact. 

In 2019 Mozaffar was appointed by the Governor of Illinois to the Council of Women and Girls. Mozaffar has been profiled as a Four Star Chicagoan by WGN, profiled in CRAIN’S CHICAGO, CHICAGO PARENT, and awarded the Inspiring Woman of the Year by the Muslim Women’s Association.

Mozaffar grew up as a Pakistani American in Kuwait and has spent most of her life building cohesive and equitable communities. She points to her deep faith in giving her direction to assist where she feels her skills are needed the most. She credits her international experience in childhood and interest in challenging the status quo in fueling her work.  She served as Student Body President three times, in high school, where she was awarded the Hugh Scott Democracy Award, as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she received the Ron Brown Memorial Award, and at the Illinois College of Law, where Maaria was President of the Student Bar Association and received the Outstanding Student Body President Award. 

She is determined to maximize the impact of her efforts to uplift others so as to cause a chain reaction every day in small and big ways. “Nobody knows what impact they can have on someone. Your interaction can be a defining moment for someone else. So let us try to always improve, be our best, and encourage others to do the same. The world is waiting on us.”