Gov. Chris Gregoire has appointed Yvonne Lopez-Morton to chair the Washington Human Rights Commission.
Lopez-Morton, an STCU member and Spokane Public Schools employee, will oversee the five-person commission to investigate, mediate and resolve discrimination of credit, employment, housing, or public accommodations based on race, sexual orientation and physical limitations.
“Yvonne Lopez-Morton has spent a lifetime of advocacy speaking out against racism and discrimination," Gregoire said in a press release announcing the appointment Oct. 20, 2007. "I am pleased to appoint someone with such a vital and passionate commitment to social justice to this position.”
Lopez-Morton, 60, is a project assistant for the Spokane Public Schools’ Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative and a supervisor of several after-school programs. She is the past chair of the Washington Commission on Hispanic Affairs and the past president of the Spokane Hispanic Business Professional Association.Lopez-Morton is a member of the board of the Women Helping Women Fund, the Washington State Association for Multicultural Education, United Way of Spokane County, the HBPA Foundation and Leadership Spokane. She is an advisor to the Washington Latino/a Education Achievement Program, a member of the Migrant Education State Advisory Committee, the Spokane County Civil Service Commission, and the Spokane Task Force on Human Relations.
She is involved with the Gonzaga University Law School Institute for Action Against Hate, an advisor to the Washington State University blue ribbon panel on community health access, and many other community agencies and programs. She received a bachelor of arts degree in journalism with minors in fine arts and English from the University of New Mexico.
