The Brennan Center is pleased to announce that Vanita Gupta and Steven Kersten have been elected to our board of directors. With their combined experience in the public and private sectors, they bring valuable expertise that will help drive the center’s work.
Gupta, a prominent figure in the fight for racial justice and political equality, joins the Brennan Center’s board as a distinguished scholar in residence at NYU School of Law, advising the school’s policing project on issues around government use of artificial intelligence.
Most recently, Gupta served as the associate attorney general in the Biden administration, overseeing the 13 divisions within the Department of Justice responsible for civil litigation and grantmaking. During her tenure, she led initiatives focused on relationships between law enforcement and communities, reproductive rights, and environmental justice. In the Obama administration, she was the head of the Civil Rights Division, where she played a key role in advancing criminal justice reform, protecting the rights of marginalized communities, and defending voting rights, including by overseeing challenges to strict voter ID laws in Texas and North Carolina.
Gupta served as president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, where she created and helmed the organization’s Smart Justice Campaign focused on ending mass incarceration while promoting public safety.
Kersten, a business executive and philanthropist based in Chicago, is the CEO of WaterSaver Faucet, the largest global manufacturer of laboratory faucets, valves, and related products. An American-based industrial company, WaterSaver Faucet was founded by his father and grandfather almost 80 years ago. He is also CEO of Guardian Equipment and Lakeview Property Investors.
In addition to his business endeavors, Kersten is actively engaged in civic leadership. He is a trustee at the University of Chicago and serves on the board of UChicago Impact, the advisory council of the UChicago Urban Education Institute, and various city task forces for World Chicago Business. He and his wife, Priscilla Kersten, also chair the board of the Square One Foundation, a family foundation focused on expanding economic and social opportunity in Chicago and the Midwest. The foundation is a generous supporter of many organizations, including the Brennan Center.
“We are thrilled to have two new leaders join our board of directors at this critical time. Vanita Gupta has a rare combination of law enforcement leadership and commitment to voting rights and civil rights, so vital as the Justice Department faces politicization. She has been a great civil rights leader and ally throughout her career. And Steven Kersten brings sharp business acumen and managerial insight that will be vital to our continued strength and growth. He is a passionate voice for democracy and the public interest in the vital worlds of philanthropy and business,” said Brennan Center President and CEO Michael Waldman.
