Maira Khwaja
Director of Public Strategy, Invisible Institute
As director of public strategy at Invisible Institute, Maira Khwaja builds a more robust, informed constituency in Chicago. The Invisible Institute is an independent journalism production nonprofit on the South Side of Chicago that works to enhance the capacity of citizens to address human rights and redress violations of constitutional rights.
In this work, Maira supports efforts to interrogate the Chicago Police Department through documentation, disclosure, transparency, and investigative reporting. Since joining Invisible Institute in 2016, she has built an area of the organization around civic education and sustained listening and has facilitated citywide public dialogues to better understand and change police misconduct. As managing editor of the recently released Chicago Police Torture Archive, Maira played a central role in shepherding a four-year project to document torture experienced by over 100 Black people and make their stories and legal papers accessible to students, families, organizers, researchers, and attorneys. In addition to her work at Invisible Institute, Maira is the founder and co-organizer of Market Box, coordinating the distribution of 8,000 fresh grocery deliveries to Black and low-income residents of the South Side. She is also the founder of South Side Weekly Radio, a podcast platform that has served as a training ground for aspiring multimedia journalists.
Maira works at the center of an intricate constellation of relationships, facilitating conversations between investigative journalists, organizers, civil rights attorneys, philanthropy, data scientists and researchers, and those most affected by police violence. Performing this role with a combination of rigor and grace, she makes an invaluable ongoing contribution. She is centering the voices of those affected by police violence, while enhancing the capacity of citizens to hold public institutions accountable.