Civil Rights Act @ 60: From Segregation Toward Inclusion at School & Work

Jocelyn Samuels is Vice Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), appointed by President Biden in 2021 Prior to joining the Commission, she served as the Executive Director of the Williams Institute. She also served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. She previously served as a Vice President of the National Women’s Law Center, Labor Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and a senior attorney at the EEOC in the Office of Legal Counsel.  She received a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. from Middlebury College. 
 

Monica Woods was appointed as NARA's Chief of Staff in March 2024. In this role, Monica leads a diverse and broad portfolio focused on organizational optimization, collaborative engagements and partnerships, innovative programming, and impactful communications and outreach. Prior to joining NARA, Monica was executive vice president and chief operating officer of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. Before The Leadership Conference, Monica was Chief Administrative Officer and Vice President of Human Resources at the Urban Institute where she led capacity building, organizational transformation, and change management initiatives. Also, Monica spent several years as a federal employee with the Departments of Education and Homeland Security and the Library of Congress fostering organizational development, performance, and culture. Monica holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Spelman College and a master of public administration from American University. 

Panel with government civil rights leaders

Moderator

Michel Martin (moderator) is a host of Morning Edition. Previously, she was the weekend host of All Things Considered and host of the Consider This Saturday podcast.  Martin currently serves as a contributor for PBS’s Amanpour & Company. Her previous credits include ABC News, Nightline, as well as covering politics for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Martin has been honored by numerous organizations, including the Candace Award for Communications from The National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Martin holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a M.A. from Wesley Theological Seminary. In 2019, Martin was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievement in journalism.

Panel 

Catherine E. Lhamon is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education where she serves as the chief civil rights enforcer in the nation’s schools. She has served as Deputy Assistant to President Biden for Racial Justice and Equity; chaired the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; served in California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Cabinet as Legal Affairs Secretary; and was also Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education during the Obama-Biden Administration. She received her B.A. from Amherst College and her J.D. from Yale University.  


Kristen Clarke is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. In this role, she leads the Justice Department’s broad federal civil rights enforcement efforts and works to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all who live in America. Assistant Attorney General Clarke is a lifelong civil rights lawyer who has spent her entire career in public service. She received her B.A. from Harvard University and her J.D. from Columbia University. 


 

Charlotte A. Burrows is the Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), appointed by President Biden in 2021. Immediately prior to joining the Commission, she served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). She previously served as General Counsel for Civil and Constitutional Rights to Senator Edward M. Kennedy after working as a litigator in DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and in private practice. Chair Burrows also served as a judicial clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School.

Panel with civil rights advocates

Moderator

Karla Gilbride (moderator) was nominated by President Biden as General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2023. Previously, she worked at the non-profit organization Public Justice, where she served as co-director of the Access to Justice Project. Before joining Public Justice, General Counsel Gilbride worked as an attorney at Mehri & Skalet PLLC. In addition, she spent several years at Disability Rights Advocates litigating disability discrimination class actions and representing disabled consumers before the California Public Utilities Commission. She received a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from Georgetown Law.  
 

Panel

 Damon Hewitt is the President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Prior to joining Lawyers’ Committee, Hewitt was the inaugural executive director of the Executives’ Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, as well as the chief liaison from the philanthropic community to the White House. Hewitt worked for more than a decade as an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he was lead counsel on a variety of litigation and policy matters and supervised teams of lawyers and policy experts. Hewitt holds a B.A. in Political Science from Louisiana State University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. 
 

Janai S. Nelson is President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice. Nelson formerly served as LDF’s Associate Director-Counsel. Nelson received her B.A. from New York University and her J.D. from University of California, Los Angeles.




 

Mónica Ramírez is an attorney, author, and activist fighting for the rights of farmworkers, migrant women workers, and the Latine(x) community. She is the founder of Justice for Migrant Women and co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, The Latinx House, and Poderistas. Mónica has received numerous awards, including Harvard Kennedy School’s first Gender Equity Changemaker Award, Feminist Majority’s Global Women’s Rights Award, the Smithsonian’s 2018 Ingenuity Award, a James Beard Award, and the Hispanic Heritage Award.

 

John C. Yang is the president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC in Washington, D.C., where he leads the organization’s mission to advance the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and to build and promote a fair and equitable society for all through policy advocacy, education, and litigation. He has served in leadership positions for the American Bar Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, among many others. Prior to Advancing Justice | AAJC, John had served as a political appointee in the Obama Administration, the Asia-Pacific Legal Director of a Fortune 200 company, and as a partner at a large D.C.-based law firm. He also serves on the diversity council for several Fortune 500 U.S. companies.

Closing

Matt Nosanchuk is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations and Outreach in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. Most recently, Matt co-founded and led the New York Jewish Agenda (NYJA), a startup non-profit organization focused on education and advocacy on priority issues for the pluralistic and diverse Jewish community in New York City and State. Matt served throughout the Obama-Biden Administration in senior roles in the White House, on the National Security Council Staff, and at the Departments of State, Justice (DOJ), and Homeland Security (DHS).


 

A recording of this event will be available on the EEOC YouTube page at: The Civil Rights Act at 60: From Segregation Toward Inclusion at School and Work - YouTube