ENDORSED
BY GIFFORDS
Amber Goodwin is a lawyer, organizer, and public safety advocate who has spent her career on the front lines with working families, survivors, and communities fighting for safety, health, and opportunity. She currently serves as an assistant district attorney in Travis County, Texas, where she advances community-centered violence prevention, gun diversion, and survivor support, and works closely with the City of Austin’s Office of Violence Prevention. Her work is grounded in a clear and urgent belief: Thriving communities are something we build together, and communities cannot thrive when basic needs go unmet.
Amber has helped Austin lead when the moment demanded action. In 2019, she chaired the Austin Gun Violence Task Force, helping establish and fund Texas’s first city Office of Violence Prevention and positioning Austin as a national model for prevention-first public safety. As communities faced rising violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked alongside local leaders to secure federal funding for community-based violence intervention, including the Safer Travis County Resolution, which expanded hospital-based intervention and alternatives to prosecution at a time when lives were on the line.
Amber got involved in the gun violence prevention field by working for one of her heroes, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, at GIFFORDS (formerly Americans for Responsible Solutions). There, she served as the national advocacy director, helping to support community coalitions and state legal advocacy fights.
Amber founded and led Community Justice Action Fund, the nation’s first Black- and Brown-led gun violence prevention organization. Under her leadership, the organization helped unlock more than $1.9 billion for community-centered safety strategies and shifted more than $12 billion in federal funding priorities toward prevention. She testified before Congress during the first-ever House hearing on urban gun violence and later served on the Biden-Harris Transition Team, helping coordinate national partnerships among violence prevention leaders during a pivotal moment for public safety policy. Amber is also the co-founder of the Community Violence Legal Network, a national effort defending the legal rights of communities working to prevent gun violence. Today, she is serving pro bono as part of the legal team challenging federal funding cuts that threaten lifesaving safety programs across the country, including in Austin. At a time when prevention programs are under attack, Amber is fighting to protect them.
Long before her national work, Amber was organizing locally. She organized in Austin during the 2008 Obama campaign and worked with Organizing for America Texas to expand access to healthcare during the passage of the Affordable Care Act, helping families gain coverage they could not afford to lose. Early in her career, she was the lead political organizer for the first successful Justice for Janitors union campaign win in the South, helping low-wage workers secure dignity, fair wages, and a voice on the job. She also organized in Austin with the Texas Organizing Project and worked in the Texas legislature, advancing environmental justice and community voice in policymaking.
Her leadership has been recognized locally and nationally, but the recognition that matters most to Amber is the trust placed in her by the Austin communities she serves. She was raised to believe that service is a responsibility and that every person deserves dignity, belonging, and opportunity. Amber Goodwin is running for Austin City Council because this moment demands leadership that listens, organizes, and delivers.
Amber has helped Austin lead when the moment demanded action. In 2019, she chaired the Austin Gun Violence Task Force, helping establish and fund Texas’s first city Office of Violence Prevention and positioning Austin as a national model for prevention-first public safety. As communities faced rising violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked alongside local leaders to secure federal funding for community-based violence intervention, including the Safer Travis County Resolution, which expanded hospital-based intervention and alternatives to prosecution at a time when lives were on the line.
Amber got involved in the gun violence prevention field by working for one of her heroes, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, at GIFFORDS (formerly Americans for Responsible Solutions). There, she served as the national advocacy director, helping to support community coalitions and state legal advocacy fights.
Amber founded and led Community Justice Action Fund, the nation’s first Black- and Brown-led gun violence prevention organization. Under her leadership, the organization helped unlock more than $1.9 billion for community-centered safety strategies and shifted more than $12 billion in federal funding priorities toward prevention. She testified before Congress during the first-ever House hearing on urban gun violence and later served on the Biden-Harris Transition Team, helping coordinate national partnerships among violence prevention leaders during a pivotal moment for public safety policy. Amber is also the co-founder of the Community Violence Legal Network, a national effort defending the legal rights of communities working to prevent gun violence. Today, she is serving pro bono as part of the legal team challenging federal funding cuts that threaten lifesaving safety programs across the country, including in Austin. At a time when prevention programs are under attack, Amber is fighting to protect them.
Long before her national work, Amber was organizing locally. She organized in Austin during the 2008 Obama campaign and worked with Organizing for America Texas to expand access to healthcare during the passage of the Affordable Care Act, helping families gain coverage they could not afford to lose. Early in her career, she was the lead political organizer for the first successful Justice for Janitors union campaign win in the South, helping low-wage workers secure dignity, fair wages, and a voice on the job. She also organized in Austin with the Texas Organizing Project and worked in the Texas legislature, advancing environmental justice and community voice in policymaking.
Her leadership has been recognized locally and nationally, but the recognition that matters most to Amber is the trust placed in her by the Austin communities she serves. She was raised to believe that service is a responsibility and that every person deserves dignity, belonging, and opportunity. Amber Goodwin is running for Austin City Council because this moment demands leadership that listens, organizes, and delivers.
We are proud to endorse Amber Goodwin for the Austin City Council.
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