Maya Harris

Maya Harris

Harris in 2011
Personal details
Born Maya Lakshmi Harris
(1967-01-30) January 30, 1967
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois,
U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Tony West
Children Meena Harris
Relatives Kamala Harris (sister)
Alma mater UC Berkeley (BA, 1989)
Stanford Law School (JD, 1992)

Maya Lakshmi Harris West (born January 30, 1967) is an American lawyer, public policy advocate, author, and television commentator. She is a political analyst for MSNBC[1] and in 2015 was appointed to be one of three senior policy advisers to lead the development of an agenda for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.[2] She was formerly a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.[3] From 2008 until she took her current position, she was Vice President for Democracy, Rights and Justice at the Ford Foundation. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, she served as the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California.[4][5] Before joining the ACLU, the former law school dean (Lincoln Law School of San Jose) was a Senior Associate at PolicyLink. She has authored two publications which include a report highlighting community-centered policing practices nationwide and an advocacy manual for police reform.

Biography

Early life and education

Born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, Harris grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the daughter of an Indian mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan Harris (1938–2009), a breast cancer researcher, who emigrated from Chennai, India, in 1960,[6] and a Jamaican-American father, Donald Harris, a Stanford University economics professor.[7] Her paternal grandfather, Rajam Gopalan, was an Indian diplomat.[8] They were raised with beliefs from Baptist and Hindu faiths.[9] When she was 8, she and her older sister, Kamala, worked to get the apartment building they lived in to open an unused courtyard as a place for children to play.[10] She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. That year, she enrolled in Stanford Law School. 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.[11]

Maya Harris with her sister, Kamala, at San Francisco City Hall in 2014

Following law school, Harris served as a law clerk for United States District Court Judge James Ware in the Northern District of California. In 1994 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.[12]

Harris served as a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She also taught contract law at New College of California School of Law and Lincoln Law School of San Jose. At 29, she was one of the youngest deans of a law school in the United States.[13]

Advocacy

Harris was a Senior Associate at PolicyLink, a national research and action institute dedicated to advancing economic and social equity. In that capacity, she organized conferences around police-community relations[14] and advocated for police reform,[15] authoring Organized for Change: The Activist's Guide to Police Reform.[16]

Harris served as Executive Director of the Northern California American Civil Liberties Union. In her role as the head of the largest affiliate office of the ACLU, Harris directed and coordinated litigation, media relations, 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."[17] In 2003, Harris was the Northern California director for No on 54, the campaign to defeat Proposition 54, which sought to end affirmative action in the state.[18]

Harris authored the essay "Fostering Accountable Community-Centered Policing", which appeared in the 2006 book The Covenant with Black America.[17]

In 2012 Harris was Vice President for Democracy, Rights and Justice at the Ford Foundation. One of the issues she addresses through her position is the problem of child brides.[10]

Personal life

Harris is married to Tony West. She has a daughter from a previous relationship, Meena Harris. She and West met at Stanford Law during registration in 1989, when then 5-year-old Meena tried to play hide-and-seek with him. They became friends and began a relationship after graduation.[19]. Meena graduated from Stanford before attending Harvard Law.[13] She has one granddaughter, Amara.[20]

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/20/playbook-juice-june-20-239744
  2. ↑ Nather, David (April 14, 2015). "Hillary Clinton names top three wonks for campaign". Politico.
  3. ↑ Horwitz, Sari (September 3, 2014). "Tony West, third-ranking official at Justice Department, to step down". The Washington Post.
  4. ↑ "Maya Harris, ACLU-NC Executive Director". ACLU. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  5. ↑ Ifill, Gwen (2009). The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (1st ed.). New York: Anchor Books. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-7679-2890-8.
  6. ↑ ": The New Face of Politics… An Interview with Kamala Harris". DesiClub. Retrieved February 2, 2011.
  7. ↑ "PM Golding congratulates Kamala Harris-daughter of Jamaican - on appointment as California's First Woman Attorney General". Jamaican Information Service. December 2, 2010. Archived from the original on January 15, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Obituary: Dr. Shyamala G. Harris". San Francisco Chronicle. March 22, 2009. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  9. ↑ Owens, Donna M. (January 13, 2016). "California Attorney General Kamala Harris Plans to be America's Next Black Female Senator". Essence. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  10. 1 2 Dzieza, Josh (March 10, 2012). "Legal Power Sisters Credit Mom". The Daily Beast.
  11. ↑ "Officially Speaking". Student Lawyer. Law Student Division, American Bar Association. 27 (2). December 1998.
  12. ↑ Equal Justice Society; Protecting Equally: Dismantling the Intent Doctrine & Healing Racial Wounds, Maya Harris
  13. 1 2 Driscoll, Sharon (May 17, 2010). "Tony and Maya: Partners in Public Service". Stanford Lawyer.
  14. ↑ Hafertepen, Eric (July 5, 2001). "News: We Have to Talk About This". CityBeat.
  15. ↑ Prendergast, Jane (June 2, 2001). "Researchers urge police reforms". The Cincinnati Enquirer.
  16. ↑ "PolicyLink Guide Offers Innovative Strategies for Police Reform Advocates". PolicyLink. April 8, 2004.
  17. 1 2 "Fostering Accountable Community-Centered Policing". The Covenant with Black America (1st ed.). Chicago: Third World Press. 2006. pp. 71–95. ISBN 978-0-88378-277-4.
  18. ↑ "Prop. 54 soundly beaten: The tide turned when foes of the ballot measure shifted gears from bias to health care". The Sacramento Bee. October 8, 2003.
  19. ↑ Horwitz, Sari (February 27, 2012). "Justice Dept. lawyer Tony West to take over as acting associate attorney general". Washington Post. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Gamma & Grandpa!". @meena. Instragram.
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