WASHINGTON – The White House announced Thursday that President Joe Biden has nominated Catherine Lhamon as assistant secretary of the Civil Rights Office at the Department of Education.
Lhamon is currently Assistant to the President and Assistant Director of the Home Affairs Council for Racial Justice and Justice at the White House, where she manages the President’s equity policy portfolio. She is a former American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney and chaired the U.S. Civil Rights Commission from 2017-2021.
She also served as Legal Secretary for California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Her portfolio at Education, where she previously served in the same position under former President Barack Obama, includes LGBTQ rights, sexual misconduct and racial discrimination in the country’s K-12 schools, universities and colleges. Lhamon was assistant secretary of civil rights in the Department of Education, to which President Obama nominated her, and the Senate ratified her in 2013.
“I am thrilled that President Biden is appointing Catherine Lhamon as Assistant Secretary of the Civil Rights Office at the Department of Education. Catherine has dedicated her career to making sure that justice is at the core of everything she does, “US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement released by his office on Thursday.
“She has a strong background in fighting for color and underserved communities, whether as the current deputy director of the Home Affairs Council, past chair of the US Civil Rights Commission, or as a civil rights educator at Georgetown University. We are very excited to have Catherine serving as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, and we know she will continue to fight for fairness, justice and justice for all American students. “
Lhamon has also tried civil rights cases at the National Center for Youth Law, the Public Counsel Law Center, and the ACLU Foundation in Southern California. Lhamon has taught federal civil rights appeals at Georgetown University Law Center under the Appellate Litigation Program and served as clerk for the Honorable William A. Norris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
“Catherine Lhamon is the right choice to lead the Department of Education’s civil rights division at a critical time for the country and the agency. There is much work to be done to roll back Betsy DeVos’ harmful policies and legacies, from her attacks on transgender students to her outrageous revocation of discriminatory discipline and rewrite of the rules of Title IX, ”said Adele Kimmel, director of Student The Civil Rights Project at Public Justice announced the blade in an email.
“During her previous tenure in the same job, Catherine campaigned for equality, enforced Title IX, and ensured the students had an ally within the federal government. It will do so again and the Senate should endeavor to ratify it quickly so that it can begin restoring the Department’s commitment to protecting civil rights and the dignity of students and fulfilling the promise made by the Biden administration DeVos to undo the damage done. Kimmel added.
Lhamon was born in Virginia and raised in California. He graduated from Amherst College and Yale Law School. Lhamon and her husband and two daughters move between California and Maryland.
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