Daria Neal, Director of Policy and Advocacy, US - Center for Reproductive Rights

Daria Neal, Director of Policy and Advocacy, US - Center for Reproductive Rights

Chaloner is pleased to announce that Daria Neal has joined the Center for Reproductive Rights as their Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, U.S. Programs. In this role, Daria will lead the Center's federal and state policy and advocacy efforts, driving strategic initiatives to advance and protect reproductive rights across the United States.

Daria brings over two decades of experience leading civil rights, policy, and compliance initiatives across federal government and nonprofit advocacy. Most recently, she served as Chief (Senior Executive Service) in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, Policy and Strategy Section, where she led the Division's civil rights policy and strategy on issues including race and gender discrimination, hate crimes, education, and artificial intelligence, and represented DOJ on the White House HBCU Initiative Working Group. Prior to that, she spent 14 years as Deputy Chief in DOJ's Federal Coordination and Compliance Section, overseeing civil rights enforcement in federally funded programs, transforming the Department's data collection framework, and directing groundbreaking Title VI investigations, including a resolution agreement for residents of Lowndes County, Alabama securing equitable access to waste management services.

Earlier in her career, Daria served as Senior Counsel for the Environmental Justice Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where she directed national litigation and policy advocacy, led post-Katrina/Rita environmental justice efforts, and was selected by the Ford Foundation as one of five U.S. attorneys for international exchanges in Kenya and Mozambique. She began her legal career as an Employment Litigation Associate at Jackson Lewis LLP and at Wiggins, Childs, Pantazis, Fisher & Goldfarb LLC.

Daria has served as an Adjunct Professor teaching Environmental Justice seminars at Howard University School of Law since 2010 and previously at New York University School of Law. She is the recipient of the John R. Dunne Award, one of the Civil Rights Division's highest honors, along with the Assistant Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award and multiple performance awards. Daria holds a J.D. from UCLA School of Law and a B.A. in History, cum laude, from Hampton University, and is licensed to practice in Virginia, D.C., and California.

About the Center for Reproductive Rights

The Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization working to ensure that reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights around the world.