Maya Harris

Maya Harris is Vice President for Peace & Social Justice at the Ford Foundation. She was named to that position in June 2008. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, she served as the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California. Before joining the ACLU, the former law school dean (Lincoln Law School of San Jose) was a Senior Associate at PolicyLink. She has authored two publications, which include; a report highlighting community-centered policing practices nationwide and an advocacy manual for police reform.

In her role as the head of the largest affiliate office of the ACLU, Harris directs and coordinates litigation, media relations, lobbying, and grassroots organizing work. "The Project's priorities are eliminating racial disparities in the criminal justice system and achieving educational equity in California public schools." In 2003, Harris was the Northern California director for No on 54, the campaign to defeat Proposition 54, which sought to end affirmative action in the state.

Harris served as a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She also taught contract law at New College of California School of Law and Lincoln Law School of San Jose. Born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, Harris grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. That year, she enrolled in Stanford Law School. While at Stanford, she was active with the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, serving as Co-Coordinator of the Domestic Violence Clinic and Co-Chair of the Student Steering Committee.

Following law school, she served as a law clerk for United States District Court Judge James Ware in the Northern District of California. In 1994 Harris joined the San Francisco law firm of Jackson Tuffs Cole & Black, LLP, working in civil and criminal litigation. In 1997 the Young Lawyers Division of the National Bar Association honored her with the Junius W. Williams Young Lawyer of the Year Award. The following year, she was named one of the Top 20 Up and Coming Lawyers Under 40 by the San Francisco Daily Journal.

Harris is married to Tony West. West was nominated by President Obama to the position of Assistant Attorney General and heads the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice. He worked previously as a partner in the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster LLP, as a Special Assistant Attorney General in the California Department of Justice and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of California. Her older sister, Kamala Harris, is the Attorney General of California.