Jamillah Richmond is a first-time candidate for Boulder City Council running on a platform of climate justice, community-driven government, affordable housing and supporting workers and small businesses.
Richmond is the co-founder of Education Without Oppression, a nonprofit launched in 2025 to “expose and dismantle racist, discriminatory practices in public schools.” She also works as a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant and is pursuing her doctorate in Leadership for Change at Fielding Graduate University. She previously worked in project management and customer service.
Richmond describes herself as a community advocate who has worked with unhoused residents and helped immigrant families obtain medical resources. She serves on the city’s Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan Community Assembly, the Boulder Valley School District Accountability Committee, and the Parents of Color Council, which she co-founded. She is also board chair at Haven Ridge, which provides services to unhoused women, transgender adults and children.
Her work with the Parents of Color Council has focused on racial disparities in student discipline. Richmond has urged BVSD to acknowledge racism as a cause of those disparities and consider whether students were defending themselves when responding to bullying.
Richmond’s advocacy has also drawn her into contentious disputes over race, bullying and discipline. In 2023, BVSD reached separate settlements with Richmond and another family over a conflict involving their children, admitting no wrongdoing in either case.
Richmond was involved in another legal dispute in 2025 after an employee at William Oliver’s Publick House in Lafayette threatened to call police during a disagreement over food she said was unsafe. Richmond sued the restaurant’s owners, alleging racial discrimination, negligence and outrageous conduct. The business paid her to settle the case without admitting liability.
Richmond serves on the Boulder Progressives board. She entered the race after its endorsement process ended, but the group is supporting her campaign, saying she is “passionate about education, affordable housing, a more accountable city government, and meaningful police oversight.”
Richmond moved to Boulder in 2019 and is raising her 13-year-old daughter in affordable housing in Martin Acres.
Occupation: Diversity and education consultant
Neighborhood: Martin Acres
Rent or own?: Rent
Age: 42
Endorsements: Boulder Progressives, informally