PEREZ NAMED DIRECTOR OF OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced that she will appoint Thomas E. Perez as director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights. Perez will work to ensure that programs and activities funded by the department are in compliance with all civil rights laws and that people have equal access to HHS programs without discrimination.

"HHS is fortunate in gaining the benefit of Tom Perez's extensive expertise in civil rights," said Secretary Shalala. "His vast knowledge will be a major plus for the Clinton administration as we work to determine our policies for our civil rights program."

Mr. Perez will come to HHS from the Department of Justice, where he served as deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights. In this capacity, he assisted in policy development and oversight of the litigation activities of the civil rights division. From 1995 to 1998 he was on detail from the Justice Department and served as special counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. During that time, he was the senator's principal adviser on civil rights, criminal justice, and certain constitutional issues.

Mr. Perez joined the Justice Department in 1989 through its honors program and served as a trial lawyer in the civil rights division's criminal section before becoming deputy chief of that division.

A first generation Dominican-American, Mr. Perez graduated from Harvard Law School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 1987. His wife, Ann Marie Staudenmaier, is a staff attorney at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. They have two daughters, Amalia and Susana.

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