The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund Bolster Anti-Hate and Bias Efforts

Civil rights coalition expands staff in wake of increased hate incidents

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shin Inouye, [email protected], 202.869.0398

WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and its sister organization, The Leadership Conference Education Fund, welcomed Becky Monroe as director, and Iman Boukadoum as senior manager, of the Fighting Hate and Bias program; and Charmaine Riley as a communications manager. The Fighting Hate and Bias program combats hate and bigotry, advances immigrant rights, and supports community leaders and advocates who have long been leading these fights.

“We are pleased to welcome Becky, Iman, and Charmaine to our team,” said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund. “They all bring a passion that will help us in our work to continue to build an America as good as its ideals. As we see an increase in the number of hate-motivated incidents around the country, we must increase our efforts to combat these actions that violate our values of equality and inclusion.”

Biographical Information

Becky Monroe is the director, Fighting Hate and Bias program. She was previously the director of the Divided Community Project, supporting local leaders in addressing the reasons underlying community division, including racism and other forms of discrimination. Before that, Monroe launched the Stop Hate Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She led a team of attorneys and organizers in developing innovative legal and advocacy strategies to support people targeted for hate. Monroe joined the Lawyers’ Committee after working for almost eight years for the Obama administration. At the Department of Justice, she was the director for policy and planning and senior counselor to the assistant attorney general for civil rights. She also worked at the White House Domestic Policy Council as a senior policy advisor. And as acting director of the DOJ’s Community Relations Service, she led implementation of its expanded statutory mandate to support communities combating hate. Before joining the government, Monroe was the director of the Employment Rights Project at Bet Tzedek Legal Services in California, where she represented undocumented immigrant workers and women trafficked for labor. Prior to Bet Tzedek, Monroe worked at Strumwasser and Woocher, LLP. A graduate of Georgetown University and Yale Law School, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard A. Paez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

Iman Boukadoum is the senior manager, Fighting Hate and Bias program. Previously, she was a senior staff attorney at the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) where she handled a diverse docket of discrimination, immigration, and national security cases. Prior to ADC, Boukadoum founded the Wafa House Inc. litigation clinic, where she represented marginalized immigrant survivors of domestic violence with limited English proficiency. Boukadoum was the project manager and counsel of the militarization of police investigation at the ACLU Center of Justice, which culminated in a groundbreaking report, War Comes Home. After law school, she was a fellow with the Department of Homeland Security, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, where she met regularly with diverse communities adversely impacted by DHS policies and worked on constitutional trainings for DHS law enforcement. Boukadoum is a board member with the American Constitution Society and the founder of the Muslim Social Justice Initiative — a rapid response nonprofit born in the wake of the Muslim travel ban and rise in hate crimes. Boukadoum has a B.A. with distinction from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the College of William and Mary School of Law.

Charmaine Riley is a communications manager. Riley is a public relations and communications professional with years of experience advocating for issues that directly impact communities. Previously, Riley was the social media and communications strategist at a literacy nonprofit where she worked with stakeholders to improve equity in education through events and digital resources. Prior to that, Riley’s communications work at the American Association for Cancer Research centered around connecting with communities and media to create awareness for cancer health disparities among women and people of color. Riley graduated from Western Washington University earning a B.A. in Journalism with a Public Relations emphasis.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org. 

The Leadership Conference Education Fund builds public will for federal policies that promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. The Education Fund’s campaigns empower and mobilize advocates around the country to push for progressive change in the United States. It was founded in 1969 as the education and research arm of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. For more information on The Education Fund, visit civilrights.org/edfund/.