Race and Democracy—Restoring and Increasing Civic Participation

Associate Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund

Jacqueline A. Berrien joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) as its new Associate Director-Counsel in September, 2004. She succeeds Theodore M. Shaw, who became LDF's new Director-Counsel and President in May. In her new position, she will work closely with Mr. Shaw in supervising LDF's litigation, public education, and organizational work.

Ms. Berrien has been a Program Officer in the Governance and Civil Society Unit of the Ford Foundation's Peace and Social Justice Program since November 2001. She launched the Foundation's American political participation and representation grant portfolio, and over three years administered more than $13 million dollars of grants to advance political equality in the United States and promote greater political participation by underrepresented groups, particularly people of color, women, and youth.

Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Ms. Berrien was an Assistant Counsel with LDF. Between 1994 and 2001, Berrien coordinated all of LDF's work in the area of voting rights and political participation.

Ms. Berrien has also taught trial advocacy at Harvard and Fordham law schools and is an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School, where she teaches a course entitled Blacks and American Law. In recognition of her professional accomplishments and dedication to the field of public interest law, Berrien received the Muhammad Kenyatta Young Alumni Award from the Harvard Black Law Students Association in 1993, and was designated a Wasserstein Public Interest Law Fellow in 1991. She has published several articles on race and gender discrimination issues.

Ms. Berrien is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she served as a General Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree with high honors in government from Oberlin College, and also completed a major in English.

Co-Director, Advancement Project

Ms. Hair heads the Washington office of Advancement Project. Throughout her career as an aggressive advocate for justice, Penda Hair has compiled a stellar track record of victories both in and out of court. She was one of the key leaders behind the national effort to protect affirmative action programs, helped develop crucial amendments to the Fair Housing Act, argued major civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and won the most extensive redistricting remedy ever imposed in a litigated voting rights suit. She also authored the Rockefeller Foundation's report on innovative civil rights strategies, Louder Than Words: Lawyers, Communities and the Struggle for Justice (2001). Ms. Hair is also the former director of the Washington, D.C., office of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. and has twenty years of civil rights experience. After graduation from Harvard Law School in 1978, she clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Wilfred Feinberg and former Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, and became a professor at Columbia University Law School. In 1998, the American Lawyer named Hair as one of the top public interest attorneys under age 45.

Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR); Counsel to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF)

Mr. Henderson is well known for his expertise on a wide range of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights issues. Currently he works on issues involving nationwide election reform; federal judicial appointments; public education reform; hate crimes; criminal justice reform; issues of immigration and refugee policy; and human rights. Under his leadership, the LCCR has become one of the nation's most effective defenders of civil and human rights. He is also working on civil liberties and civil rights concerns emanating from the "war against terrorism" and the search for homeland security. Mr. Henderson successfully spearheaded the coalition's defeat of numerous anti-affirmative action bills in the late 1990's, including efforts to eliminate affirmative action in higher education and in government contracting.

Prior to his role with the Leadership Conference, Mr. Henderson was the Washington Bureau Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was also previously the Associate Director of the Washington national office of the American Civil Liberties Union, where he began his career as a legislative counsel.

Mr. Henderson serves as the Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Professor of Public Interest Law at the David A. Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. He is a recent recipient of the prestigious 2003 Congressional Black Caucus Chair's Award; the District of Columbia Bar's William J. Brennan Award for 2002; the 2002 Everett C. Parker Award from the Office of Communication, Inc. of the United Church of Christ; as well as many other awards.

Mr. Henderson is a graduate of Howard University and the Rutgers University School of Law (Newark). He is a member of the Bar in the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and the United States Supreme Court. He is the author of numerous articles on civil rights, human rights and public policy issues.

Assistant Director, The Sentencing Project

Marc Mauer, Assistant Director of The Sentencing Project, has directed programs on criminal justice reform for twenty-five years. He is the author of some of the most widely cited reports in the field of criminal justice, including Young Black Men and the Criminal Justice System, and the Americans Behind Bars series, comparing international rates of incarceration. His 1995 report on racial disparity and the criminal justice system led the New York Times to editorialize that the report “should set off alarm bells from the White House to city halls—and help reverse the notion that we can incarcerate our way out of fundamental social problems.” His 1999 book on criminal justice policy, Race to Incarcerate, was named a semifinalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Mr. Mauer is the co-editor of a new book, Invisible Punishment, a collection of essays on the social cost of imprisonment. He has also served as a consultant to the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Institute of Corrections, and is a member of the American Bar Association's Committee on Race and the Criminal Justice System.

Mr. Mauer directed state and nationwide efforts in criminal justice for the American Friends Service Committee from 1975-86 and served as that organization's National Justice Communications Coordinator. Since 1987, he has served as Assistant Director of The Sentencing Project, a national organization engaged in research and advocacy on criminal justice issues. In that capacity, he has testified before Congress, addressed a broad range of national and international conferences, and appeared frequently on radio and television networks. Mr. Mauer is regularly interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, National Public Radio, and many other media outlets.

Mr. Mauer has received the Helen L. Buttenweiser Award (1991) from the Fortune Society in New York, the Donald Cressey Award (1996) from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for contributions to criminal justice research, and the Alfred R. Lindesmith Award (2003) from the Drug Policy Alliance for achievement in drug policy scholarship.

Mr. Mauer received his B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan.