Janani Ramachandran is a public servant, attorney, mother, and musician. She is proud to have been elected to the Oakland City Council representing District 4 with nearly 70% of the vote in 2022. Janani is the youngest person ever to serve on Oakland City Council, as well as the city's first South Asian and LGBTQ woman of color elected official. Born and raised in the East Bay, Janani is a graduate of Stanford University and Berkeley Law. She chairs Oakland's Finance and Management Committee, and represents the city on regional bodies including the East Bay Wildfire Coalition and the Association of Bay Area Governments. Janani has previously served as a Commissioner on the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs, and also on the City of Oakland Public Ethics Commission.

Janani has dedicated her life to empowering communities and fighting for ethical and accountable government. The daughter of immigrants from small South Indian villages, Janani's passion for justice was born at an early age. At 16, Janani founded a nonprofit that built libraries in under-resourced schools in her local community. During her time at Stanford, she studied political and economic development, and engaged in research that taught her the hallmarks of good governance. Later, Janani worked as a home-visiting case manager at a community health clinic, serving pregnant mothers experiencing domestic violence and housing insecurity. Witnessing the injustices her clients faced at the hands of our inequitable legal system, she was driven to make a difference as a lawyer and attended Berkeley Law. As an attorney, Janani worked at the Oakland-based nonprofit Family Violence Appellate Project, pursuing legal appeals and advocacy efforts to improve access to justice for all survivors of domestic violence and abuse. She also worked at Centro Legal de la Raza, representing immigrant workers in wage theft and discrimination cases in Oakland.

Janani is also a longtime vocalist, performing classical music since age five and a member of local R&B groups with her partner in life Osagie the Great. She is also the founder of the nonprofit Tiger Arts which puts on cultural events including the annual Oakland Diwali festival. Janani aspires to use her voice through political advocacy, music, and storytelling to shine a bright light on Oakland's incredible cultural landscape, and uplift our creatives, small business owners and entrepreneurs to put Oakland on the international stage for all right reasons.

Janani began her journey into politics with a fierce grassroots movement that disrupted business-as-usual politics, with over 2,000 volunteers and small-dollar donors. She is excited to keep shifting the political narrative and re-frame what politics can look like and the way it can prioritize the people.