2015 DOT Civil Rights Virtual Symposium Speaker Bios - Session 2

Session 2: Propelling Forward Your Title VI Program

Sara Pratt, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Housing and Urban Development

Sara Pratt has been Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Programs at HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity since September 2010. She oversees HUD’s enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and other civil rights laws, the Fair Housing Assistance Program, the Fair Housing Initiatives Program and HUD’s enforcement of Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act. As Director of Enforcement at the Department of Housing and Urban Development between 1993 and 1999, Pratt participated in a number of initiatives relating to discrimination in housing and lending including leading FHEO’s enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, Title VI and other civil rights laws. She has worked as an attorney, trainer and fair housing and civil rights expert for thirty-eight years.

Before her return to HUD, Pratt staffed the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, co-chaired by former HUD Secretaries Jack Kemp and Henry Cisneros, and helped prepare a report issued in December 2009 on the future of fair housing. She assisted with the development of the report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination “Residential Segregation and Housing Discrimination in the United States,” issued in January 2008. She was a member of the faculty of the National Fair Housing Training Academy and the National Fair Housing Alliance’s Fair Housing School and served on the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Fair Housing Task Force. Her recent publications also include “Disparate Impact under the Fair Housing Act: A Proposed Approach, co-authored with Robert Schwemm and available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1577291 (December 2009).

Pratt has been an expert witness in a number of fair housing cases, including United States ex rel Anti-Discrimination Center v. Westchester County, NY, and United States v. Village of Island Park, as well in National Fair Housing Alliance v. Prudential Insurance Company. Pratt served as Director of Enforcement and Compliance for the National Fair Housing Alliance from May 1999 to December 2000. She was Director of the Office of Enforcement in HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in Washington, D.C. from 1993-1999 and Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Fair Housing in HUD’s office of General Counsel from 1991-1993. She also practiced civil rights law in Louisville, Kentucky, held a variety of positions with the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, and has served as a national and international consultant on fair housing matters. She is editor and primary author of “Damages for Embarrassment and Humiliation in Housing Discrimination Cases.”

Daria Neal, Deputy Chief, Federal Compliance and Coordination Section, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice

Daria Neal is a Deputy Chief in the Federal Coordination and Compliance Section in the Civil Rights Division, DOJ and works with federal agencies to ensure consistent enforcement of civil rights statutes and Executive Orders that prohibit discrimination in federally conducted and assisted programs and activities. Additionally, Ms. Neal leads the Federal Interagency Working Group on Title VI and represents the Civil Rights Division on the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice which was created by the 1994 Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations. Ms. Neal also serves as an adjunct professor at Howard
University School of Law teaching courses in environmental justice. Ms. Neal previously served as Senior Counsel for the Environmental Justice Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She worked with communities to address environmental justice issues such as discriminatory zoning and violations of environmental laws. Ms. Neal coordinated the National Commission on Environmental Justice on the Gulf Coast which issued the report, Protecting Vulnerable Coastal Communities: Meaningful Political Action and Strategies for Environmental Justice after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Ms. Neal also convened a group of environmental justice advocates, academics and attorneys to issue the report Now is the Time: Environmental Injustice in the U.S. and Recommendations for Eliminating Disparities.

Recently, Ms. Neal published an essay in the Howard Law Journal entitled Recent Developments in Federal Implementation of Executive Order 12,898 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Monica McCallum, Regional Operations Division Chief, Office of Civil Rights, Federal Transit Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation

Monica McCallum started her Federal career in 2007 as a Presidential Management Fellow with FTA's Office of Civil Rights, and has worked as both a Regional Civil Rights Officer for Region 10 (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington) and the Regional Operations Division Chief. She works regularly with 4 civil rights compliance and oversight areas: ADA, DBE, EEO, and Title VI. Ms. McCallum received an Interdisciplinary Bachelor's Degree with a focus in Political Science, Sociology, Women’s and Cultural Studies from Western Washington University. She then did three years of National Service with AmeriCorps*VISTA working for the Washington Reading Corps, a literacy project in low-income Washington schools. In 2007, she completed a Master's in Public Administration at Seattle University. She lives in Seattle, WA with her husband and 2 sons, ages 2 and 19.