Phara Souffrant Forrest

Phara Souffrant Forrest is a 31-year old maternal health field nurse, lifelong Brooklynite, and candidate for the New York State Assembly in District 57. Born to a Haitian family in Crown Heights, Phara got started in politics young - attending protests at City Hall against police brutality with her dad. After attending public schools in the district, Phara went on to SUNY Geneseo for her undergraduate degree and then CUNY City Tech for her nursing degree. For the past year, Phara has been working as a maternal health field nurse for Community Care, part of the HHS network. Phara has also been picking up shifts with the Administration for Children’s Services, where she treats children in the care of the children’s services system

Phara is now running for the New York State Assembly on a platform of free universal healthcare, a Green New Deal for New York, and universal rent control. She knows that everything from the environment to housing is connected to our healthcare and the only way to best take care of her patients is to fix our state’s structural problems. She is also fighting to ensure that nurses have safe staffing standards across New York and that all of our safety net hospitals are fully funded. 

She has been endorsed by New York Communities for Change, State Senator Julia Salazar, Sunrise NYC, and many other community organizations throughout New York.