Learning Lab

Advancing Equity, Diversity and Civil Rights in a Shifting Policy Environment

Only available as part of a package

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are essential to the core mission of legal aid providers: ensuring equal access to justice. However, intensifying anti-DEI opposition has created widespread confusion over what practices remain legally permissible and how to talk about this work safely. In this session, participants will examine: -How DEI and civil rights are currently being eroded. -What effective resistance to these rollbacks looks like. -Strategic ways to protect and continue their mission-driven work in a hostile climate.

  • explain the legal status of DEI initiatives, navigate current anti-DEI opposition, and identify permissible practices under civil rights law.
  • gain the confidence to implement legally compliant DEI programs and the knowledge to defend their initiatives amid anti-DEI challenges.
  • learn how current anti-DEI efforts are connected to broader civil rights rollbacks and discover strategic ways to push back.

Kathryn Youker, JD

Kathryn Youker, JD

Director, Economic Justice Project

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Katy Youker is the Director of the Economic Justice Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a team that uses impact litigation, policy advocacy, and community education to dismantle barriers to economic opportunity faced by Black communities and other communities of color. In this role, Katy works to protect and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across various sectors including nonprofit services, healthcare, and government. Before joining the Lawyers' Committee in 2021, Katy spent close to two decades at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid representing farmworkers and low-wage workers in litigation in state and federal court, and for nine years, served as the Coordinator of TRLA's Labor and Employment Practice Group.
Khadijah Silver

Khadijah Silver

Khadijah M. Silver, JD/MPH (they/them) serves as Director, Gender Justice and Health Equity at Lawyers for Good Government, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. In this role, they leverage deep experience in legal research, analysis and writing; community organizing; and legislative drafting in health policy to help community-led coalitions unearth, understand, communicate, and uproot the causes of systemic injustice. Over their four years with L4GG, Khadijah has drafted and defended laws that protect vulnerable groups from further discrimination in access to health care by applying existing state constitutional protections to the present context.

Immediately before joining L4GG in July 2022, Khadijah served as Communications Director at Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF, now A4TE), where they led narrative change and campaign strategy for trans and non-binary civil rights working in strong, respectful partnership with national and grassroots organizations. Prior to that role, they held a career in health law and policy journalism at Medcity News, Above the Law, Law360, Institutional Investor and more. Earlier, they spent a total of seven years in the role of Executive Director at grassroots youth advocacy organizations Resilience Advocacy Project and BetterBio, and served in various management and leadership roles at high-impact public health and legal organizations before that. Khadijah holds a BA from Mills College, JD from Boston University School of Law, and MPH in Health Policy and Management from SUNY Downstate. They are a member in good standing of the New York State Bar.

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