Biography of María Blanco, Executive Director, Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute for Race, Diversity and Ethnicity – University of California, Berkeley Law School – Serving on Obama’s Education Transition Team

María Blanco joined UC Berkeley Law School on July 1, 2007 as the first Executive Director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity (Warren Institute). Blanco is a Boalt alumna (’84) who brings more than 20 years of experience as a litigator and advocate for immigrant rights, women’s rights and racial justice. Blanco formerly served as the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

As Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee, Blanco oversaw litigation and policy work in the area of immigrant integration and rights, securing the right to vote and expanding the franchise, and African-American civil rights. She regularly contributes to national and local media on school integration and funding inequities, the importance of an independent judiciary, and civil rights challenges in today’s post 9/11 security climate.

Prior to her position at the Lawyers’ Committee, Blanco served as the National Senior Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In that capacity she spent from 2001 to 2003 establishing MALDEF’s office in the Southeast Region of the United States and headed MALDEF legislative office in Sacramento, California where she was key in the passage of legislation that provided for in-state tuition for undocumented students attend state universities and colleges. After graduating from Boalt, Blanco served as staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and then joined the non-profit firm of Equal Rights Advocates in San Francisco where she successfully litigated pivotal civil rights cases, such as Davis v. San Francisco, which brought women for the first time into the San Francisco Fire Department; and Castrejon v. Tortilleria La Mejor, which established that undocumented workers are covered by federal anti-discrimination laws.

She also was an advisor to the Obama campaign starting with the California primaries.”

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