Contributor

Deepa Iyer

Deepa Iyer is the Executive Director of SAALT. Deepa has had over seven years of experience in civil rights and immigrant rights advocacy.

She began her public interest career at the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, where she managed the Census 2000, Language Rights, and Voting Rights programs. She then served as Trial Attorney at the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, where she represented individuals suffering from workplace discrimination due to their immigration status or national origin, and assisted with the Division’s efforts to address backlash discrimination in the wake of September 11th. Deepa most recently served as the Legal Director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, where she institutionalized a multilingual legal referral hotline and organized a pan-ethnic coalition that successfully advocated for linguistic access to government services and benefits.

Throughout her career, Deepa has addressed issues affecting the South Asian community. She is the Executive Producer of a 26-minute documentary featuring hate crimes survivors and community organizers. She has taught classes on legal issues affecting Asian Americans at Columbia University and Hunter College in New York City and has written on language access and post 9/11 backlash. Reach Deepa at deepa@saalt.org.

Posted at 9:33 AM, Apr 12, 2007 in Guests | Permalink