Penda Hair

Penda Hair is a Founder and Co-Director the Advancement Project. With offices in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, Advancement Project supports, and strengthens, the work of community organizations and lawyers engaged in projects to advance racial and social justice, and to broaden democratic participation. Advancement Project currently focuses on three areas: 1) opportunity to learn, 2) police accountability, and 3) power and democracy. Hair attended Harvard Law School, where she served as Supreme Court Note Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Subsequent to graduation, Hair clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court. Immediately following her clerkship, she joined the faculty at Columbia University Law School; teaching in the areas of civil rights, women’s rights, and federal taxation. In 1982, Hair joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and served its New York and Washington, D.C. offices.