Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Taps Veteran Journalist for Top Communications Post

Media 03.16.06

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation’s premier civil rights and human rights coalition, and its sister organization, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF) announced today that veteran journalist Karen DeWitt will join both organizations as Director of Communications. DeWitt will bring her nearly four decades of print and television journalism experience to LCCR and LCCREF beginning March 27, 2006.

“Karen brings great strategic vision and skill to our team and award-winning website,” said Wade Henderson, LCCR’s executive director. “She is an experienced, proven professional who will help call greater attention to our most pressing civil rights issues, such as renewing the Voting Rights Act and driving back assaults on affirmative action.”

DeWitt has worked for a number of major news organizations in a variety of roles. She was a senior producer for ABC’s “Nightline” and its website, ABC.com. While with the network, she wrote and produced “Found Voices,” a broadcast based on interviews with ex-slaves, which won the New York Black Journalists 1st Class Feature Award for 1999. She served as a Washington correspondent for The New York Times and as columnist, White House correspondent, foreign correspondent, and assistant national editor of USA Today. For the last year, she has been a senior correspondent and the first-ever Washington editor of The Examiner.

In addition to DeWitt, LCCR and LCCR/EF are pleased to announce the following staff additions and promotions:

Corrine Yu has been promoted to the position of Director of Special Projects. In this capacity she will assist the executive directors with the planning and implementation of new initiatives for LCCR/EF.

Valerie Frias has joined LCCR/EF’s policy team as a staff counsel, focusing on judicial and international human rights work. During the recent Supreme Court vacancies, she served as counsel to Sen. Patrick Leahy on the Senate Judiciary Committee.