Katherine Culliton-González was appointed by President Biden to serve as Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on January 20, 2021. Reporting directly to the Secretary, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) supports the mission of the Department to secure the Nation while preserving our values, including liberty, fairness, and equality under the law.Â
Ann Beeson is the Chief Program officer at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she oversees programs to fight hate and dismantle white supremacy, advance learning for justice in schools and communities, and preserve and continue the legacy of the civil rights movement. With 25Â years of experience as a civil rights lawyer, nonprofit CEO and philanthropy executive, Ms. Beeson has transformed institutions and embraced a wide range of innovative strategies to advance social change. She began her career at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she ultimately served as an associate legal director of the National Legal Department. She has argued twice before the U.S. Supreme Court, litigated numerous landmark cases around the country and founded groundbreaking programs to stop the erosion of human rights and civil liberties.Â
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Unit Chief Ron Reed currently serves as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Civil Rights Unit chief. He formerly served as FBI New Orleans Civil Rights supervisor and Civil Rights program coordinator for the state of Louisiana. Unit chief Reed is a graduate of Southern University at New Orleans and holds Use of Force Instructor and Domestic Human Intelligence Collector professional certification from DHS and the FBI, respectively. He is a former Louisiana State Trooper and United States Army Veteran.
Hugh Handeyside is a Senior staff attorney in the ACLU’s National Security Project, where he works on issues related to government watch listing, racial and religious discrimination, due process, and border-related practices. He is a graduate of Stanford University, the London School of Economics, and the University of Michigan Law School. Mr. Handeyside previously worked for several years on complex litigation matters at Perkins Coie LLP and Corr Cronin Michelson Baumgardner & Preece LLP.Â
Abed A. Ayoub serves as the national legal and policy director of the American -Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee (ADC), the country's largest Arab American civil rights organization, based in Washington, D.C. Throughout his career Mr. Ayoub has worked to address issues impacting Arabs and Muslims in the United States, including matters related to discrimination, immigration, hate crimes, surveillance and profiling. Under his leadership the ADC legal department has successfully assisted and provide pro bono support to thousands of impacted community members across the country. Mr. Ayoub regularly advocates on behalf of the community with lawmakers and government agencies, and also works to enhance the community’s economic empowerment, and access to education.
Associate Director, James Byrd Jr. Center to Stop Hate, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Arusha Gordon leads the James Byrd Jr. Center to Stop Hate at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The Byrd Center’s mission is to combat hate crimes and hate incidents, support communities and individuals targeted for hate, and challenge white supremacy using litigation and other legal advocacy. Ms. Gordon’s recent cases include a suit against the Proud Boys for their vandalism of a historic Black church, a case concerning the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and a precedent-setting case suing neo-Nazis and other White supremacists for a race-based cyberattack. Ms. Gordon also leads the Committee’s work training law enforcement on how to better respond to hate crimes, helping implement a program that has trained more than 1,300 officers and prosecutors across the country.
In addition, her work addresses the alarming trend of white supremacists in law enforcement. She previously worked with the Committee’s Voting Rights Project, where she litigated cases under the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, and other statues in both Federal and state court
Kathy Ko Chin is CEO of Jasper Inclusion Advisors, which advises on philanthropic strategy, currently serving as senior advisor on program strategy to The Asian American Foundation (TAAF). Through 2020, Ms. Ko Chin served as president and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum for over a decade. The daughter of immigrants from China, Ko Chin's 40-year career has been committed to building community institutions that contribute to a just and multiracial society, which led the American Public Health Association to honor her with the prestigious Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award in 2020. From 2014 to 2017, Ms. Ko Chin served as a member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and joined The Kresge Foundation Board of Trustees in 2017.
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Jonathan Greenblatt is the CEO of the (Anti-Defamation League (ALD) and its sixth national director. As chief executive of ADL, Mr. Greenblatt leads all aspects of the world’s leading anti-hate organization. He is an accomplished entrepreneur and innovative leader with deep experience in the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Since becoming CEO in July 2015, Greenblatt has modernized ADL while refocusing it on the mission it has had since its founding in 1913: to fight the defamation of the Jewish people,
and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.Â
John C. Yang is the president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) in Washington, DC, where he leads the organization’s mission to advance the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and to build and promote a fair and equitable society for all through policy advocacy, education, and litigation. He has served in leadership positions for the American Bar Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, among many others. Prior to his role at AAJC, Mr. Yang had served as a political appointee in the Obama Administration, as the Asia-Pacific Legal Director of a Fortune 200 company, and as a partner at a large DC-based law firm. He also serves on the diversity council for several Fortune 500 U.S. companies.
Manjusha (Manju) P. Kulkarni is executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), a coalition of more than 40 community-based organizations that serves and represents the 1.5 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County. Ms. Kulkarni co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, the nation’s leading aggregator of COVID-19-related hate incidents against AAPIs. Additionally, Ms. Kulkarni is a
Lecturer in the Asian American Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She was recently recognized by TIME magazine as one of the 100
most influential individuals in 2021 with the co-founders of Stop AAPI Hate, Cynthia Choi and Russell Jeung.
Ms. Kulkarni work has been featured in the New York Times, and on CBS News and CNN, as well as in numerous ethnic media outlets. She is a member of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and was recently appointed to the California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board by CA Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.
Jo-Ann Yoo is the executive director of the Asian American Federation (AAF), a membership organization that works with the nearly 70 nonprofits that represent and support the pan-Asian community. Established in 1989 under the mission to raise the influence and well-being of the pan-Asian American community through research, policy advocacy, public awareness and organizational development, AAF is a pan-Asian non-profit organization representing a network of 70 community service agencies in the Northeast. These agencies work in the fields of health and human services, education, economic development, civic participation, and social justice. Ms. Yoo's professional experiences include program management and operations, fundraising, and advocacy in the fields of community development and immigrant rights. She currently serves on the NYC's Racial Justice Commission for New York City's Charter revision, and on the State Racial Equity Task Force for Vaccine Distribution, as well as on the boards of Nonprofit New York and the Advocacy Institute. Ms. Yoo was named to City and State NY's 2021 Power 100, acknowledging the impact of NY's nonprofits & their leaders on our City. Jo-Ann is particularly proud of her immigrant heritage and loves to hear others’ immigration stories. Â
Jessica J. Lee is a senior research fellow in the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Her research interests include U.S. foreign policy toward the Indo-Pacific region, with an emphasis on alliances and North Korea.
Ms. Lee is a non-resident senior associate fellow at the Asia Pacific Leadership Network, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Committee on North Korea.Â
Ms. Lee analysis has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, USA Today, the Washington Times, The Nation, Arms Control Today, and Quincy Institute’s news platform Responsible Statecraft.Â
Marcus Coleman leads at the intersection of religious affairs, community capacity building, public-private partnerships, and crisis management to help people before, during, and after disasters. Mr. Coleman’s experience in the private sector includes serving as co-lead for the behavioral science and communications practice at Hassett & Willis Associates (HWC). Prior to HWC, Mr. Coleman was the special assistant at the DHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. During his time at the DHS Center, he supported more than 15 disaster activations and special mission responses including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, the 2015 influx of unaccompanied children, and post-incident national outreach and messaging after several active shooter incidents. Mr. Coleman received a FEMA Administrator’s award for his leadership in building a national outreach and effort to encourage collaboration between faith leaders local first responders to develop emergency operations plans that safeguarded houses of worship.
Michael G. Masters is the national director and CEO of the Secure Community Network (SCN), the official homeland security and safety organization of The Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Prior to joining SCN, Mr. Masters served as the senior vice president of The Soufan Group, a strategic advisory firm that assists public and private sector organizations to address emergent threats, and as the CEO of CivicScape, an advanced analytics company. Mr. Masters previously served as the executive director of the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for Cook County, Illinois, as the chief of staff for the Chicago Police Department and as an assistant to former
Mayor Richard M. Daley. Mr. Masters has held faculty appointments at both the John Marshall School of Law and at Northeastern University, serves on a number of Task Forces for the United States Department of Homeland Security, previously served on the Executive Board of the FBI’s Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force, and sits on the Boards of a number of non-profit and civic organizations.
Ms. Kiran Kaur Gill is the executive director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), a national Sikh American media, policy, and educational organization. SALDEF’s mission is to empower Sikh Americans by building dialogue, deepening understanding, promoting civic and political participation, and upholding social justice and religious freedom for all Americans. Ms. Gill has been doing advocacy work for over 10 years including providing Sikh Awareness training to over 1000 TSA, FBI and law enforcement officers and helping to establish the SikhLEAD New Jersey program which encourages civic engagement among Sikh students. Under her leadership this year, the SikhLEAD program was expanded to 17 additional states and placed 83 Sikh students in legislative internships around the country and on Capitol Hill. Prior to her role as executive director, Ms. Gill was president and CEO of PARS Environmental, Inc. a full service environmental consulting firm based in Robbinsville, NJ. Â
Salam Al-Marayati, President, Muslim Public Affairs Council is the president and co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). He oversees MPAC’s groundbreaking civic engagement, public policy, and advocacy work. He is an expert on Islam in the West, Muslim reform movements, human rights, democracy, national security, and Middle East politics. He has spoken at the White House, Capitol Hill and represented the United States. at international human rights and religious freedom conferences.
Mr. Al-Marayati, President, Muslim Public Affairs Council is nationally recognized for his commitment to improving the public understanding of Islam and policies impacting American Muslims.
Todd Richins is the director of security operations for the United States and Canada for The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints. He has worked for the Church security department for 24 years. During that time, he’s been a security officer in property, visitor, and event protection, in personal protection, providing security for Church leaders, a security operations operator, and in many management positions, including as director of 90 security officers. He's current team handles security issues for over 7,500 meetinghouses and 89 temples located in the United States and Canada.
Bureau Chief of Intelligence and Investigations, District of Columbia Homeland Security & Emergency Management Agency (DC HSEMA)
Rev. John Mein serves as the bureau chief of intelligence at the National Capital Region Threat Intelligence Consortium at DHS and Emergency Management Agency. Prior to his work at HSEMA, Rev. Mein served as the deputy director of the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. In this position he was responsible for leading the coordination of responses to work with victims and families that been directly impacted by homicides and non-fatal shootings in the District of Columbia. Rev. Mein also worked in the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Public Safety and Justice in Washington, DC. Prior to coming on board to the Deputy Mayor’s office,
he worked as a community outreach specialist in the Metropolitan Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Branch of the MPD’s Homeland Security Bureau.
Professor, American University, Director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL)
Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education at the American University in Washington, DC, where she directs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) in the Center for University Excellence (CUE). Dr. Miller-Idriss has testified before the U.S. Congress and regularly briefs policy, security, education and intelligence agencies in the United States, the United Nations, and other countries on trends in domestic violent extremism and strategies for prevention and disengagement. She is the author, co-author, or co-editor of six books, including Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right, published by Princeton University Press in October 2020. In addition to her academic work, Miller-Idriss writes frequently for mainstream audiences, both as an opinion columnist at MSNBC and in other recent by-lines in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, CNN, The Hill, Politico, The Guardian, Le Monde, Salon, and more.Â
Director Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, Department of Homeland Security (DHS, CP3)
John Picarelli is the director of the (DHS Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3). He serves as the senior official leading the Department’s prevention mission addressing targeted violence and terrorism. As head of the Center,
Mr. Picarelli coordinates staff and programs located across the United States that empower state and local partners to prevent individuals radicalizing to targeted and extremist violence. He leads five teams that provide financial, education, and technical assistance supporting the establishment, expansion, and enhancement of local prevention frameworks tied to behavioral threat analysis and management.Â
Deputy Assistant to the President & Deputy Homeland Security Advisor, National Security Council (NSC)
 Joshua A. Geltzer is the Deputy assistant to the President and deputy Homeland Security Advisor. Before serving in this role, Dr. Geltzer oversaw the National Security Council staff’s review of policy to mitigate the threat of domestic violent extremism, which resulted in the issuance of the first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism. Dr. Geltzer, who served as executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, previously held the position of senior director for Counterterrorism and deputy legal advisor at the National Security Council and as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Director, VHA Workplace Violence Prevention Program, Senior Consultant with SIGMA Threat Management Associate
 Dr. Lynn Van Male is the director of the US Veterans Health Administration’s Workplace Violence Prevention Program, a past second vice president of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (2017-2021), and an assistant professor of Psychology at Oregon Health and Sciences University. Predating her executive leadership positions, Dr. Van Male delivered direct patient care services on the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Team at the Portland VA Medical Center. In recent years, Dr. Van Male has provided subject matter expertise regarding behavioral threat assessment and management to The Joint Commission, served as an invited member of the FBI symposium faculty addressing targeted attack prevention, and served on the scientific merit review committee for the 4th, 5th, and 6th International Conference on Violence in the Health Sector. Dr. Van Male’s violence prevention solutions for healthcare settings were published in 2016 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Liz Hume is the acting president and CEO at the Alliance for Peacebuilding. She is a conflict expert and has more than 20 years of experience in senior leadership positions in bilateral, multilateral institutions and nongovernment organizations.
She has extensive experience in policy and advocacy and overseeing sizeable and complex peacebuilding programs in conflict-affected and fragile states in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. From 1997 to 2001, Ms. Hume was seconded by the US Department of State to the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo as the Chief Legal Counsel and Head of the Election Commission Secretariats.Â
Michael Breen is president and CEO of Human Rights First, one of the nation’s leading human rights advocacy organizations. Established in 1978, Human Rights First’s mission is to ensure that the United States is a global leader on human rights. The organization works in the United States and abroad to promote respect for human rights and the rule of law. Breen leads a staff with offices in New York City, Washington, DC., Los Angeles, and Houston. Before joining Human Rights First, Mr. Breen served as president and CEO of the Truman National Security Project, a nationwide membership organization of diverse leaders inspired to serve in the aftermath of 9/11 and committed to shaping and advocating for tough, smart national security solutions. Prior to his work at the Truman Project, Mr. Breen led soldiers in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Army officer, including by serving for a year as a platoon leader in the Pech and Korengal Valleys with the 173rd Airborne. After leaving the military, he served in the Office of White House Counsel and co-founded the International Refugee Assistance Project, working with refugee families in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Mr. Breen holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Dartmouth, having also studied in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the United Kingdom.
Faith-based organizations and affinity groups are an integral part of a whole-of-society approach to supporting local prevention frameworks, including addressing the issues of hate crimes and discrimination.
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This Digital Forum will highlight how faith leaders, houses of worship, advocacy, and affinity groups are vital partners in a public health approach to violence prevention. By partnering with the major faiths and affinity groups represented in America, local resiliency against violence and terrorism can be improved and strengthened.
