Maria 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 launched initiatives to increase minority access to higher education, provide legal counsel for students in substandard schools, and convene African-American and Latino community leaders to discuss the impact of immigration reform. She regularly contributes to national and local media on school integration, the importance of an independent judiciary, and civil rights challenges in today's security climate. Blanco is also the co-chair of the California Coalition for Civil Rights, a group dedicated to building a progressive national agenda for civil and human rights.
Prior to her position at the Lawyers' Committee, Blanco served as the National Senior Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wan an attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, and a professor of law at Golden Gate University's School of Law. She has 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.