Lilian joined EPA in December, 2014 as the Deputy Director of EPA’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Lilian is currently the Acting Director of OCR. Lilian also serves as EPA’s Language Access Coordinator to ensure that limited-English proficient persons can access EPA programs, services, and activities.

Prior to coming to EPA, Lilian worked for the U.S. Department of Education (ED)’s Office for Civil Rights since 1987, where she served in various legal, management and public relations and press capacities. While at ED, Lilian worked extensively on various legal issues to ensure equal educational opportunities for all students, including:

• access for English language learner students and limited-English proficient parents;
• sex discrimination and gender equity;
• disability access; and
• race equity issues.

She was the ED-wide Language Access Coordinator, a voting member of ED’s IT Investment Review Board Working Group, and one of the founding members (in 1989) of the Education Department’s Hispanic Employees Council. Lilian has been working in the civil rights enforcement arena for 29 years and considers it her life’s work.

Lilian was born in Cuba and came to the United States at the age of six. She began her American education experience in Union City, NJ, as an “English learner” herself, and with very little support. She received her B.A. degree from the University of Miami, Miami FL, and her J.D. from the Catholic University School of Law, Washington, D.C.