WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced that he has nominated the following individuals to serve in key roles:

•     Paul Monteiro, Nominee for Director of the Community Relations Service, Department of Justice

•     Laura Ross, Nominee for Member of the Board of Directors, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Paul Monteiro, Nominee for Director of the Community Relations Service, Department of Justice

Paul Monteiro currently serves as Chief of Staff to the President and Assistant Vice President of External Affairs at Howard University. He is also an At-Large member of the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Public Schools Board of Education. He is the son of immigrants and the first in his family to graduate high school. Monteiro attended the University of Maryland and the Howard University School of Law.

After serving on Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign as the Deputy Director for Religious Affairs, he joined the White House staff as an Associate Director in the Office of Public Engagement. In that role, he worked on President Obama’s Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Initiative, the My Brother’s Keeper mentorship program for young men, and as a liaison to religious and secular belief communities as well as ethnic groups including Arab American and Afghan American groups. 

In 2014, President Obama appointed Monteiro as National Director of AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the federal anti-poverty program established in 1965 as the domestic counterpart to the Peace Corps. Monteiro later served as head of the Community Relations Service (CRS) at the U.S. Department of Justice until January 2017. During his tenure, CRS mediators worked to address conflicts in several states related to law enforcement-involved shootings and the rise of hate crimes targeting various groups.

Laura Ross, Nominee for Member of the Board of Directors, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Laura Ross is a retired attorney with a career in public service. Ross’ past professional experience includes the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, MFY Legal Services, eight years as Chief of Staff to the Attorney General of the State of New York, and subsequently, Legislative Counsel to a New York State Senator. She began government service at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, was a former Legislative Assistant to a U.S. Congressman from Flint, Michigan, and was appointed by President Barack Obama to represent the United States at the 64th United Nations General Assembly.

Ross is currently a member of the Screening Panel for New York’s Federal Judiciary. She was a Trustee of New York Public Media (WNET, WLIW, and NJTV); a Director of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City; a Trustee of WNYC Public Radio; President of NYANA, a refugee resettlement agency; a Member of the Board of the Horace Mann School; a Trustee of the Citizens Budget Committee; and a Trustee for Turnaround for Children, an educational not-for-profit. Ross resides in New York City with her husband, who is a retired attorney.

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