The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights announced today that it and its sister organization, The Leadership Conference Education Fund, had selected civil rights litigator and advocate Vanita Gupta to assume the leadership of both organizations. (The Equal Justice Society is a proud member of The Leadership Conference.)
Gupta will hold the titles of president and CEO of both organizations and officially assume the roles on June 1, 2017. She most recently served in President Obama’s administration as the head of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice.
She will succeed Wade Henderson, who has served as president and CEO since June 1996. Henderson, one of the preeminent civil and human rights leaders of the last 40 years, announced in November 2015 his intention to step down after the selection of a successor.