Policy and Program Development Director
Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
2850 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 500
Berkeley, CA 94705-7220
Tel: 510-643-9291
Fax: 510-643-7095
Email Address: mechaveste@law.berkeley.edu
Maria Echaveste is the Policy and Program Development Director at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy. Maria Echaveste joined University of California’s Berkeley School of Law as a Lecturer after co-founding a strategic and policy consulting group, serving as a senior White House and U.S. Department of Labor official. From 1998 to 2001, she served as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. Among her responsibilities in this role was overseeing issues relating to Mexico and Latin America. She has worked as a community leader and corporate attorney. She is also a Senior Fellow with the Law School’s Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity.
Ms Echaveste is also a non-resident fellow of the Center for American Progress working on issues such as immigration, civil rights, education and Latin America.. She continues to provide strategic and policy advice to a variety of corporate, non-profit and union clients through her consulting firm, NVG, LLC.
Ms Echaveste is a member of the Board of Directors of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy, and Mi Familia Vota (an organization focused on increasing Latino civic participation). She also serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton appointed her as a Special Representative to Bolivia in 2009-2010. In September 2010, Echaveste joined the Board of the US/Mexico Foundation to help develop its Mexican-American Leadership Initiative seeking to engage Americans of Mexican descent to engage constructively with Mexican civil society organizations. Echaveste recently completed serving as a member of the Board of Directors of CARE, a humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and the Alliance for Excellent Education, focused on education reform issues.
Ms. Echaveste received a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Stanford University in 1976. In 1980, Ms. Echaveste received a Juris Doctor from the University of California at Berkeley.
EDUCATION:
B.A. Stanford University (1976)
Juris Doctor University of California, Berkeley School of Law (1980)