Board of Directors
Born in Brownsville, Texas, Norma V. Cantú earned a summa cum laude degree from Pan American University (now the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) at age 19 and graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law at age 22. Her early career included employment as a state investigator of abuse/neglect of elders in long-term health care facilities; she also taught 8th and 9th graders. At MALDEF, she litigated civil rights cases for 14 years, representing Hispanics and non-Hispanics in education and employment cases. In 1993, she was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Education and confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Cantú directed a staff of over 800 investigators including over 100 attorneys. She led the issuance of policy on Titles VI and IX, the Americans with Disability Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
After serving at OCR for six years, Cantú joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, where she trained graduate students as school leaders and education lawyers. She designed the first disability law class for the UT School of Law, drawing inspiration from colleagues Judith Heumann and Justin Dart. At UT Austin, two departments chaired by Cantú were ranked among the best educational departments nationally.
In 2020, President-Elect Biden named Norma V. Cantú to the Transition Team for the U.S. Department of Education. In 2021, President Biden appointed Norma V. Cantú as the first Hispanic female to chair the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding federal commission established in 1957. She served as Chair for two years, participating in investigations, such as FEMA’s responses to hurricanes in Texas and Puerto Rico, maternal health care, and hate crimes against people of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent in the United States. Her administration was the first to adhere to Congressional actions to expand the reach of the US Commission to cover five US territories.
After 22 years as a full professor, Norma V. Cantú retired from teaching at UT Austin. She remains active in national service. Recently, she was elected Chair of the MALDEF Board of Directors. Among other volunteer work, she is a member of the boards of the Center for Law and Education and the Barbara Jordan Freedom Foundation.
