Heading one of the nation’s premier civil rights advocacy organizations, Karen K. Narasaki is president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center, a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice. AAJC, which works to advance the human and civil rights of Asian Americans, and build and promote a fair and equitable society for all, pursues its mission through public education, policy advocacy, litigation and community building. AAJC’s programs include: affirmative action, broadband and media diversity, census, health care, immigration and immigrant integration, language access and voting rights.
Ms. Narasaki, a nationally respected authority on immigration and civil rights and renowned advocate for the Asian American community, holds a number of leadership positions in the civil rights and immigrant rights arenas, including vice chairwoman of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the nation’s oldest and broadest civil rights coalition.
Ms. Narasaki also leads the Rights Working Group, a coalition of human, civil and immigrant rights groups working to address the erosion of civil liberties and basic immigrant rights since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Additionally, she sits on the board of Common Cause and serves on the advisory councils for the Federal Communications Commission, Walmart, Nielsen Media Research and Comcast Corporation and NBCUniversal, all of which led Washingtonian Magazine to name her one of the “100 most powerful women in Washington” in 2001, 2006, 2009 and 2011.
Ms. Narasaki is a graduate, magna cum laude, of Yale University and Order of the Coif, of the UCLA School of Law.
