Kumiki Gibson

Kumiki Gibson (born May 24, 1959) is a lawyer of Japanese and African American descent, originally from Buffalo, New York. She graduated from Harvard University in 1985 and from Northeastern University School of Law in 1988.

Gibson has served in a variety of positions in the private, not-for-profit, and public sectors, most recently as the Commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights, the State agency charged with enforcing the State's Human Rights Law. She was appointed to that post in January 2007 by then newly-elected Governor Eliot Spitzer and confirmed unanimously by the New York State Senate several months later. During her tenure as Commissioner, Gibson revamped the State agency, reducing backlogs and making it more effective in fighting systematic forms of discrimination. After Spitzer resigned from office in March 2008, Gibson tendered her resignation and left her post on April 11, 2008. Several newspapers claim that she was actually fired because she mistreated her employees. During her fourteen month tenure as commissioner, Gibson was sued by seven different Division employees for employment discrimination based on their age, non-gay sexual orientation, race and gender, among other things.

Prior to serving as a State executive, Gibson served as Senior Vice President of Administration and Governance, Chief Governance Officer, and Counselor to the President of the National Urban League, where she oversaw the development of a new strategy to advance the mission of this well-established civil rights organization. She was also a litigation partner at Williams & Connolly, the prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm, whose partners include Brendan Sullivan, David Kendall, and Greg Craig. During the Clinton Administration, she served as legal counsel to Vice President Al Gore from 1994 to 1997, replacing Gore's long-time aide, Todd J. Campbell. She started her trial career at the United States Department of Justice, where she prosecuted Federal civil rights cases, including racial and ethnic hate crimes.

Gibson is active, civically and professionally, currently serving on the Board of Directors of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, having been one of the founding Board members of the National Trust Community Investment Corporation, having been a board member of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, and having served on the Washington, D.C. Convention Center Authority Board, the District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure, and the Administrative Council of the United States.