Human Rights First announces new Executive Vice President for Programs and Policy
WASHINGTON — Human Rights First is pleased to announce the hiring of Kareem W. Shora, J.D., LL.M. as Executive Vice President for Programs and Policy, a new position at the organization. Shora currently serves as the acting Deputy Director for Policy and Programs with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) and will join Human Rights First on October 19.
“Kareem Shora is the kind of leader who can tie together the policy and advocacy work that are both the hallmarks of Human Rights First, but up to now have been separated,” said Human Rights First President and CEO Michael Breen. “His government experience and policy acumen offer us the opportunity to link our programs so that we can best help our clients, move legislation, press Congress and the administration, and affect the lives and human rights of people across the country and around the world.”
“I am humbled to join the Human Rights First team in keeping our nation true to its ideals at home in order to champion those values abroad,” said Shora.
At DHS CP3, Shora serves on the leadership team, setting the direction of numerous financial, educational, and technical assistance efforts around local violence prevention frameworks across the United States. He leads CP3’s engagement on violence prevention activities among civil rights, civil liberties, and other community-based organizations. Shora also helps manage the implementation of the new DHS public-health approach to violence prevention, with special attention to Domestic Violent Extremism (DVE) and its impact on American communities.
He spent over a decade leading the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) community engagement section where he designed and managed programs promoting civil rights and civil liberties internationally and domestically. He is a recipient of the 2015 Homeland Security Secretary’s Award for Excellence.
Shora joined DHS in October 2010 after a ten-year tenure with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). At ADC he served as legal advisor, legal director, and then national executive director responsible for a staff of 26 in four offices across the country. While at ADC, Shora was the youngest member and only civil rights advocate appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), the official advisory panel for the DHS Secretary on homeland security chaired by former Director of Central Intelligence Judge William Webster.
A recipient of the 2003 American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award, Shora has been published by the National Law Journal, TRIAL Magazine, the Georgetown University Law Center’s Journal on Poverty Law and Public Policy, Harvard University JFK School of Government’s Asian American Policy Review, the American Bar Association’s Air and Space Lawyer, and the Yeshiva University Cardozo Public Law Policy and Ethics Journal, among others. Today he authored “A Twenty-Year Lesson: The Role of Civil Rights in Securing our Nation” in the Journal of National Security Law and Policy’s special edition covering the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
After earning his J.D. at the West Virginia University (WVU) College of Law, Shora received his LL.M. specialty in International Legal Studies (Public International Law) from the American University Washington College of Law.
