Vanita Gupta has spent most of her professional career as a civil rights advocate, first as a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and then with the American Civil Liberties Union.
From 2014 until 2017, Gupta was a United States Assistant Attorney General for the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In this role, she spearheaded criminal justice reform and presided over the investigations into police departments following the unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after the deaths of Freddie Gray and Michael Brown.
Now, Gupta is the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, taking over the mantle from Wade Henderson, who retired this year after leading the organization for more than two decades.
Founded in 1950, the 67-year-old organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., adheres to a multi-issue civil rights platform that addresses a wide range of issues, including immigration, voting rights, LGBTQ rights and improving access to educational opportunities for historically disenfranchised groups.
“I think having Vanita in this new role as president is a reflection of our values as an organization, and we’re very proud of the fact that she has taken over,” says Henderson, who is now the Joseph L. Rauh Chair of Public Interest Law at the David A. Clarke School of Law at University of the District of Columbia.
“There have been only men on the job. I think having a woman, having a child of immigrants is a reflection of the broadening of the civil rights mandate and the way in which organizations like the Leadership Conference have helped to make that happen,” says Henderson.
Gupta, a graduate of Yale University and New York University Law School, grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is the first in her family to become a lawyer. She says that her dedication to civil rights work comes from a place of passion as well as personal experience. “I grew up kind of excited and engaged with world events,” says Gupta.
