CUNY SPS Nursing Alum Joins Brooklyn Power 100
State Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest is #16 on the “political royalty of Kings County” register.
CUNY SPS congratulates alum Phara Souffrant-Forrest, who was listed #16 on the 2023 Brooklyn Power 100 list.
We are enormously excited to announce that CUNY SPS alum Phara Souffrant Forrest (BS Nursing ’20) was named #16 on the City & State New York’s 2023 Brooklyn Power 100 — an annual list of the top politicians, activists, and influencers impacting life in their home borough.
Souffrant Forrest, who was recognized by the magazine for her work as a New York State Assembly Member, is one of our many passionate, hardworking, and determined alum who applied the skills she learned from her CUNY SPS nursing degree toward a remarkable and inspiring career.
Souffrant Forrest got her start at CUNY SPS where — in an impressive balance of work, family, and studies — she completed the BS in Nursing program all while working as a nurse, managing her classwork, rallying as a tenants’ rights activist, and having a baby.
Even as she juggled all this, Souffrant Forrest recognized that the vast needs of the people she served while working as a field nurse and tenant organizer were not being met — and running for office was a better way to help them. Or as she explained, “Unfortunately, there’s only so much you can do as a nurse…what we need is a complete political transformation of our society.”
Since winning her seat for the 57th District in the New York State Assembly against a formidable incumbent candidate back in 2020, Souffrant Forrest has taken her lesson to heart — and is vigorously pursuing a progressive agenda for social justice.
Wasting no time, Souffrant Forrest began pushing for legislation during her first year in office. Her parole reform bill “Less is More,” which was signed into law in 2021, ends the practice of reincarcerating for minor parole violations.
“Forty-six percent of people who are locked back up in prison are there because of parole,” Souffrant Forrest noted, “and that’s crazy, because we were just keeping people in the cycle.”
As a long-time tenants’ rights advocate, Souffrant Forrest has also shaped a legislative agenda that aims to create stronger housing protections for vulnerable communities, establish a universal healthcare system in New York State, and increase access to higher education.
In looking back at her time at CUNY SPS, Souffrant Forrest recognizes that the School “changed my life,” and consequently worked to pass the New Deal for CUNY legislation, which would ensure that CUNY can continue to deliver for New York City’s diverse student population.
Even as she continues to pursue an agenda to support working people, Souffrant Forrest urges other nurses and nursing students — at CUNY SPS and beyond — to run for office.
“There should be more nurses as politicians, more nurses as policymakers, [and more nurses] guiding research, because the care aspect that nurses bring to the table is severely lacking in places where decisions get made,” she asserts.
