Maya Harris

Maya Harris is the Director of the Racial Justice Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, where she directs and coordinates the Project's litigation, media, lobbying, and grassroots organizing work. The Project's priorities are eliminating racial disparities in the criminal justice system and achieving educational equity in California public schools. Ms. Harris also recently served as the Northern California Political Director for the NO on Proposition 54 campaign (Proposition 54 was an October 2003 ballot initiative that sought to ban the collection of data on race and ethnicity).

Before joining the ACLU, Ms. Harris was a Senior Associate at PolicyLink, where she conducted research and developed advocacy tools to advance community-centered policing. She also authored a national report highlighting community-centered policing practices in dozens of cities across the nation. Ms. Harris is a compelling speaker, addressing issues related to the criminal justice system. She has appeared in the media as an expert contributor on policing and has been invited to give testimony on police reform issues. Before joining PolicyLink, Ms. Harris was Dean of Lincoln Law School of San Jose, where she developed and implemented the school's academic policies and programs. In addition, she recruited faculty, directed community outreach, and was responsible for fiscal oversight. At the time of her appointment in 1996, the National Law Journal reported that, "at age 29, she is perhaps the youngest law school dean in the country."

Ms. Harris served as a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, teaching tort law. At Hastings College of the Law she taught gender discrimination law. She also taught contract law at New College School of Law and Lincoln Law School of San Jose. Born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, Ms. Harris grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. That year, she enrolled in Stanford Law School, where she served as an Associate Editor of the Stanford Law Review. While at Stanford, she was active with the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, serving as Co-Coordinator of the Domestic Violence Clinic and Co-Chair of the Student Steering Committee. In 1992 she received a Juris Doctor degree conferred with Distinction. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for United States District Court Judge James Ware in the Northern District of California. In 1994 Ms. Harris joined the San Francisco law firm of Jackson Tuffs Cole & Black, LLP, working in civil and criminal litigation. In 1997 the Young Lawyers Division of the National Bar Association honored her with the Junius W. Williams Young Lawyer of the Year Award. The following year, she was named one of the Top 20 Up and Coming Lawyers Under 40 by the San Francisco Daily Journal.

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