Anthony Romero
| Anthony D. Romero | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
July 9, 1965 New York City |
| Occupation | Executive director of the ACLU |
| Parent(s) | Demetrio Romero (father) Coralie Romero (mother) |
Anthony D. Romero is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He assumed the position in 2001 as the first Latino and openly gay man to do so.
Romero was born in New York City on July 9, 1965, to Puerto Rican parents Demetrio and Coralie Romero. Romero spent the initial years of his childhood growing up in a public housing project in the Bronx. He was the oldest of his siblings. His father worked as a houseman at a large Manhattan hotel and was repeatedly turned down for a more financially lucrative job as a banquet waiter, being told that it was because he did not speak English well enough. Demetrio Romero later decided to seek assistance from the attorney of the labor union he belonged to, hoping to file a grievance against his employer. He won the case, which allowed for him to seek out better paying work and later allowed for the family to improve their standard of living. The family subsequently moved to suburban New Jersey, where Anthony graduated high school.
Romero was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. He graduated from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1987 and from Stanford University Law School. He is a member of the New York Bar. He was a Dinkelspiel Scholar at Stanford University, a Cane Scholar at Princeton, and a National Hispanic Scholar at both institutions.
Romero started his career at the Rockefeller Foundation, notably leading a foundation review that helped determine future directions in civil rights advocacy. In 1992, Romero began working for the Ford Foundation, initially serving as a program officer in the Civil Rights and Social Justice Program. After less than four years in that position, he was promoted to the position of director, making him one of the youngest directors in the foundation's history. Prior to his departure, he served as the Director of Human Rights and International Cooperation, transforming the program into the foundation's largest. As director, he managed and facilitated roughly $90 million in grants to civil rights, human rights, and peace projects. Notably, he also launched progressive initiatives in affirmative action, voting rights and redistricting, immigrants' rights, women's rights, reproductive freedom, and LGBT rights.
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