Meena Morey Chandra joined the University of California, Office of the President as its inaugural Systemwide Anti-Discrimination Director on May 5th, 2025. A key member of the Systemwide Office for Civil Rights (SOCR), she provides education, investigation and resolution guidance, and strategic support related to UC’s Anti-Discrimination Policy to UC’s 10 campuses, six academic health centers, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Prior to joining UC, Ms. Morey Chandra served an enforcement director at the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR). A member of the Senior Executive Service, Ms. Morey Chandra oversaw the three regional offices in the Central Time zone: Chicago, Kansas City, and Dallas. Responsible for overseeing federal civil-rights law enforcement for 15 states, she led about 125 employees. During her nearly twenty-seven years with OCR, Ms. Morey Chandra held nearly every position in the agency on the enforcement side—starting as a staff attorney, then team leader, program manager, regional director for OCR Cleveland overseeing two states, (Ohio and Michigan), and finally as enforcement director, overseeing three regional offices. Ms. Morey Chandra has investigated, negotiated, and supervised thousands of OCR cases—and has deep expertise in Title VI, Title IX, Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some of the matters on which she worked were high-profile, groundbreaking, and sensitive matters in OCR requiring coordination with other department agencies, the U.S. Department of Justice, and local law enforcement. She also led a team that revised OCR’s case processing manual used to process thousands of cases annually.
Before joining OCR, Ms. Morey Chandra was in private practice where she worked as a litigator at a plaintiffs’ boutique law firm, mostly on large class-action cases. Ms. Morey Chandra earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Cleveland State University and her juris doctorate from Cleveland State University College of Law.