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.
Lhamon has received professional honors including Disability Rights California’s National Leadership Award in 2023, Yale Women’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in 2019, and the Feminist Majority Foundation and Ms. Magazine’s Wonder Women Award in 2018. Politico Magazine named Lhamon one of Politico 50 Thinkers Transforming Politics and the National Action Network honored Lhamon with their Action & Authority Award.
Education
J.D., Yale Law School (1996)
B.A., Amherst College (1993)