About Me
Only The Beginning
Ajwang was born into homelessness, to a single mother from Kenya, and spent the first night of his life in a homeless shelter in Los Angeles. His mother, Leah, named him Ajwang, which means resilience, because she knew he would need strength to overcome the odds stacked against him.
Leah worked multiple jobs, but it was never enough, and when Ajwang was in fifth grade, he and Leah were evicted and had to live out of their 2001 Dodge Neon. Experiencing homelessness — bathing in public restrooms, searching for a safe place to park their car at night — was extremely difficult, but nothing could stop Ajwang from attaining the education he craved and knew he deserved. On many days, Ajwang used the public library’s computers to search for answers to questions like, “how to make it to college” and “where to find affordable medicine.” With the combination of those Google searches, his mom’s fortitude and love, and a community of people who believed in him, Ajwang made it to UCLA, where he studied political science.
Determined to give back, Ajwang worked after graduation at the Clinton Peace Centre in Northern Ireland, leading truth and reconciliation efforts. He then researched the rise of anti-Semitism, and the history of colonialism and racism in France, before returning to the U.S. to work as a legislative fellow in the office of U.S. Senator Cory Booker. In the Senate, Ajwang focused on issues of criminal justice and national security, and drafted legislation to restore rights and benefits for the poor, condemned and incarcerated. Through all of his experiences, Ajwang learned that the potential to live our individual promise is tied inextricably to our shared responsibility to one another.
To deepen his pursuit of racial justice, Ajwang worked from 2015 to 2017 at Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. He helped lead EJI’s Community Remembrance Project, researching and collecting soil at sites of forgotten violence throughout the American South as part of a campaign to memorialize the victims of lynching. His work is now on display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the nation’s first memorial for lynching victims. Ajwang also investigated civil and human rights violations in state and federal prisons, helped win the release of several incarcerated clients, and provided community lectures on the history of racial injustice from enslavement to contemporary mass incarceration. Working at EJI affirmed Ajwang’s belief that the fight for basic human rights is still critical in America today.
Ajwang Rading and Bryan Stevenson unveiling a historical marker in Georgia.
Understanding the potency of law and public policy in shaping people’s lives, Ajwang returned to UCLA to attend law school. While there, he worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California furthering prosecution of cybercrimes, successfully won legal benefits for marginalized veterans at a legal clinic, and taught ethics and organizational behavior at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Today, Ajwang is an entrepreneur, investor, technology attorney, and policy advisor in Palo Alto with a focus on emerging and socially-conscious companies, as well as next-generation technologies. Additionally, he frequently guest lectures at universities in the Bay Area, including Stanford and San Jose State University, and around the globe.
2022 Congressional Campaign Ad
In furtherance of never forgetting where he comes from, Ajwang serves on several boards and practices as a pro-bono attorney. He is a senior fellow at Humanity in Action, a member of the Silicon Valley committee of Human Rights Watch, an advisory board member of the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League, and is a board director for LifeMoves.