Karen Narasaki

Narasaki was born in Seattle, Washington. She is the twin sister of playwright and actor Ken Narasaki. She became interested in civil rights when at age eight she accidentally overheard the pained voices of her parents discussing where their family would live next. Seattle was no longer an option. Although her father was a second generation Japanese American, served in the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the U.S. Army, the all-Japanese American unit that fought in Europe during World War II, and an engineer at Boeing, the possibility of buying his family a house in Seattle was out of the question due to racial covenants at the time. After graduating from Yale University and UCLA law school, Narasaki worked as a corporate attorney at Perkins Coie. While at the firm, Narasaki moonlighted as a civil rights activist at Asian American and women’s rights groups.

A nationally recognized expert on affirmative action and immigrant, civil and voting rights Narasaki has appeared on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, ABC and CBS News, Hardball with Chris Matthews and has been quoted in just about every major American newspaper. During the Clinton administration, Narasaki was invited to the White House on several occasions to advise the president on civil rights issues. On April 22, 2009 she was named to the Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age of the Federal Communications Commission.

Recognized by Washingtonian Magazine in 2001, 2006, 2009 and 2011 as one of the "100 most powerful women in Washington, D.C.," Narasaki has received numerous awards and accolades. In 2005, she was the recipient of the American Bar Association Spirit of Excellence Award, and has received the Congressional Black Caucus Chair's Award, International Channel We the People Award, and was named one of the 100 Most Influential Asian Americans of the Decade by A. Magazine. Along with numerous other awards, she is also the 2004 recipient of the Greater Sacramento Urban League Ruth Standish Baldwin Award, the 2000 U.S. Department of Justice Citizen Volunteer Service Award, the 1999 Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Community Award, and the 1994 National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Trailblazer Award.

In 1986, Narasaki said goodbye to corporate America to enter the nonprofit sector as an advocate for human and civil rights. She has a long history of civil rights activism. Under Narasaki’s leadership, AAJC - which is affiliated with the Asian American Institute in Chicago, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles, and the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco - led the passage of the reauthorizations of key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In doing so, AAJC helped unite African American, Latino, Native American and other stakeholders to identify the necessary research, while organizing testimony, training organizers and educating the public about the continuing existence of discriminatory barriers and behavior in voting.

Karen K. Narasaki (born April 4, 1958) is an American civil rights leader and human rights activist. She most recently served as a Commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights after President Barack Obama appointed her in July 2014. She is the former president and executive director of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC. Advancing Justice | AAJC is a Washington, D.C.-based, nonprofit civil rights organization whose mission is to advance the human and civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans through advocacy, public policy, public education and litigation. Prior to her post at AAJC, she served as the Washington, D.C. representative to the Japanese American Citizens League.