Message from the Executive Director – Kathleen B. Nalty, J.D.

It is so rewarding to be part of a legal community that is leading the country in diversity and inclusiveness efforts.  While other communities throughout the country used the economy to put these issues on the back burner, Denver's legal community pooled their resources to create a nonprofit -- Colorado Campaign for Inclusive Excellence (CCIE) -- to ensure that diversity and inclusiveness efforts would be sustained.  All sectors of the legal community -- law firms, corporate legal departments, law schools, legal nonprofits, government law offices, and bar associations - have come together to support a new paradigm - inclusiveness - that will provide real solutions to the diversity dilemma.  Because of this support, CCIE has been able to create and publish the legal industry's first-of-its-kind manual on how to create inclusive workplaces.  It offers a new model for advancing organizational inclusiveness and a detailed 6-step process tested by 10 Denver legal organizations, including firms, corporate law departments, and government offices, to help create cultures of inclusion.  I look forward to continuing to partner with legal organizations in our community in their own campaigns to create inclusive workplaces.
--Kathleen Nalty

Kathleen Nalty, CCIE Executive Director
Kathleen Nalty received her B.A. from the University of Denver and her J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School. Ms. Nalty started her legal career as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge John L. Kane, Jr. (Denver, Colorado). In 1986, Ms. Nalty was selected to participate in the Attorney General’s Honors Program at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. She joined the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division and prosecuted cases involving hate crimes, police brutality, and slavery. After returning to Colorado, Ms. Nalty cofounded the Colorado Lawyers Committee’s Hate Violence Task Force. She was selected as “Individual of the Year” by the CLC in 1997 for her work as Co-Chair of the Task Force. From 2002-2007, she worked for the University of Denver Sturm College of Law as a Consultant in the Career Development Office where she specialized in assisting employers and students with diversity programs and initiatives. While at D.U., Ms. Nalty assisted in founding the annual Rocky Mountain Diversity Legal Career Fair. She also served as Co-Chair of the Diversity in the Legal Profession Committee of the Colorado and Denver Bar Associations, Co-Chair of the 2007 Rocky Mountain Legal Diversity Summit in Denver, and developed workshops for the State High School Diversity Conference. In October 2008, Ms. Nalty was a co-recipient of the Sam Cary Bar Association’s “Diversity Leadership Award” and received the Colorado Asian Pacific American Bar Association's "Minoru Yasui Community Service Award" in April 2009.  She has served as the Executive Director of the Colorado Campaign for Inclusive Excellence since its inception in October 2007.

Andrea  Juarez, Communications Director

Andrea Juarez received her B.A. in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Prior to pursuing her law degree, Ms. Juarez was an Affirmative Action recruiter in Austin, Texas and later became the managing editor of a bilingual publication. In law school, she was a copy and articles editor for the Wisconsin Law Review. In her third year of law school, Ms. Juarez studied at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy researching the rights of third country nationals in the European Union. After graduation, she relocated to Denver to work in a large firm where she practiced employment law from 2001 to 2004. Subsequently, Ms. Juarez began working as a freelance writer and is the recipient of a Scribes in Excellence Award from the Colorado Association of Black Journalists

Amanda Gonzalez holds degrees in Psychology and Cognitive Science from Occidental College and will complete her J.D. from the University Sturm College of Law in May of 2011. Before pursuing her law degree, Ms. Gonzalez worked as a community organizer and grant writer with various nonprotifs including The Occidental College Women’s Center, Pacific Lodge Boys’ Home and The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. While at the Sturm College of Law, Ms. Gonzalez facilitated intergroup dialogues for college and law students and assisted Prof. Catherine Smith with her work, which focuses on critical race theory and sexual orientation and the law. 

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