Board Member
Catherine E. Lhamon is the inaugural executive director of the Edley Center on Law and Democracy. Until January 20, 2025, she was the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, where she served following United States Senate confirmation. From January through October 2021, Lhamon managed President Biden’s equity policy portfolio as Deputy Assistant to the President for Racial Justice and Equity. From December 2016 until January 2021, she chaired the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, to which President Obama appointed her. She also served in California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Cabinet as Legal Affairs Secretary from January 2019 through January 2021. Before these roles, Lhamon had also been Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education during President Obama’s Administration. In addition to her government service, Lhamon litigated civil rights cases at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, National Center for Youth Law, and Public Counsel Law Center, and she clerked for the Honorable William A. Norris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.