John D. Trasvina

John D. Trasviña
Born	San Francisco, California
Alma mater	Harvard University Stanford Law School
Occupation	Attorney HUD Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity spouse =

John D. Trasviña is the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Previously, he was president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). From 1997 to 2001 he was Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Career

Trasviña is a native of San Francisco, where he attended Lowell High School; he then received degrees from Harvard University and Stanford Law School. He has focused his work at the local and federal levels on civil rights, voting rights, immigration policy, worker rights and education.

After graduating from Stanford Law School, Trasviña began his career as a Deputy City Attorney in San Francisco from 1983 to 1985, and then went to MALDEF in Washington D.C. from 1985 to 1987 as a legislative counsel. From there he moved to Capitol Hill to work for Paul Simon in 1987 first as counsel and then in 1993 as General Counsel & Staff Director for the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights.

During the Clinton Administration he was appointed to be Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices at the U.S. Department of Justice in 1997. He also served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs at the U.S. Department of Justice.

After leaving DOJ in 2001 he was the Director of the Discrimination Research Center in Berkeley and taught at Stanford Law School. He returned to MALDEF, and took the position of President and General Counsel in November 2006.

On March 26, 2009, Trasviña was announced as President Obama's nominee to be Assistant Secretary of the [[Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. His nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 1, 2009.

Community involvement

Trasviña has been a member of the San Francisco Elections Commission, president of the Harvard Club of San Francisco. He has served on the boards of the La Raza Lawyers Association, CORO of Northern California, the Lowell High School Alumni Association, the League of Women Voters and the Pacific Coast Immigration Museum, Latino Issues Forum, Campaign for College Opportunity and the Harvard Club of Southern California.

He has also been an officer with the D.C. Hispanic Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, and the D.C. Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.

He has been called one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Business magazine. In 2000, he was honored with the MALDEF Award for Excellence in the Legal Profession and the Distinguished Service Award by the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership.

See Also

• Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

External links

• Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
• File a Housing Discrimination Complaint
• "Testimony of John Trasviña, Prevention of Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation in Federal Elections: S. 453". United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. 2007-06-07. Archived from the original on 2008-03-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20080327052836/http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=2798&wit_id=6514. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
• "Kanovsky, Kovar And Trasviña Sworn In As HUD Assistant Secretaries", HUD news release, May 5, 2009.
• Biography of John D. Trasviña, Assistant Secretary at HUD website (retrieved June 2, 2009).