Board of Directors    MEMBER

Dennis deLeon
Member, Casa Promesa
Latino Commission on AIDS

Dennis deLeon was born in Los Angeles, California in 1948. He attended Occidental College graduating with a B.A. in 1970 and served as student body president. Dennis became a lawyer in 1974 after attending Stanford Law School. Aside from academic achievement, his time in school was marked by leadership in undergraduate and law school organizations.

After clerking for a California appellate court judge and working for a private law firm, Dennis joined the Civil Division at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. as a trial attorney. While there he was one of the founders of the largest Latino employee organization in the Department of Justice. From the federal government, Mr. deLeon went back to California to work as Regional Counsel for California Rural Legal Assistance, working to provide legal services for migrant farmworkers in California's agricultural communities. In that capacity he worked with diverse community based organizations covering a range of issues.

In 1982 Dennis was appointed to serve as Senior Assistant Corporation Counsel in the New York City Law Department. In this position, he was involved in a wide range of civil rights issues including the implementation of the Immigration Reform and Control Act, Gay and Lesbian anti-discrimination, gender discrimination in pension programs, discrimination by private clubs against women, monitoring city agency equal employment compliance programs, and misconduct by police officers.

While continuing with his responsibilities as Senior Assistant Corporation Counsel, in 1986 Mr. deLeon was appointed by Mayor Edward I. Koch to serve as Executive Director for the Mayor's Commission on Hispanic Concerns. The Hispanic Commission issued a report with far ranging recommendations for Latino New Yorkers. Mr. deLeon worked with hundreds of Hispanic organizations in receiving testimony and recording numerous recommendations.

In 1988 Mr. deLeon was appointed by then Borough President David Dinkins to serve as Deputy Borough President for Manhattan. In that position he represented the Borough President at the Board of Estimate and before many legislative and community organizations. In addition, Mr. DeLeon was extensively involved in resolving conflicts between communities over land use issues, enforcing Mayor Dinkins’ policies on city contractors doing business in South Africa and several civil rights issues.

In 1990, when David Dinkins became Mayor of New York City, Mr. deLeon was appointed to serve as Director of Transition for a two month period. In March 1990 he was appointed to serve as Chair of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. During his tenure, the Commission successfully developed legislation to reform the City Human Rights Law to expedite the resolution of complaints and to provide more opportunities for the disabled to seek redress for discrimination. Under his leadership the Commission assumed a new level of public advocacy for the rights of Latinos, Gays and Lesbians, women, immigrants and all other groups protected by the City Human Rights Law. Mr. deLeon was responsible for creating the Youth Commission on Human Rights, the Office of Mediation and Conflict Resolution, the Civil Rights Training Institute and the Bias Strike Force and Hotline. He also intervened to address disputes in several communties, including those between Hasidic leaders and African-Americans in Crown Heights and Williamsburg, between Dominican-Americans and the police in Washington Heights, gays and the Irish community leadership in the St. Patrick’s Day March, and Italian-Americans and African-Americans in Canarsie.

In September 1994, Mr. deLeon was selected to become President of the Latino Commission on AIDS, a service and advocacy program addressing HIV/AIDS in the Latino community. In this capacity he heads a broad based community effort to respond to the needs of Latinos infected and affected with HIV. Under his leadership the Commission has developed a national clearinghouse for AIDS treatment information in Spanish, a network of religious leaders offering HIV prevention programs in Spanish-speaking congregations, technical services that address the needs of Latino community based organizations. He has also been instrumental in the Commission’s efforts to form AIDS Leadership Committees to mobilize the gay Latino community, immigrants with HIV, women with HIV, New York State inmates with AIDS and several other groups in educating the Latino community on a range of AIDS issues.

Mr. deLeon serves on the Board of Directors of several organizations, including the Gay Men’s Heath Crisis, Dominican Sisters Home Care, Legal Action Center, and Prisoner Legal Services. For three years, he was a Board Member for the Puerto Rican Bar Association.