Damon Hewitt

Damon T. Hewitt is the President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. With over 20 years of experience in civil rights litigation and policy, Hewitt has held leadership roles in nonprofit, philanthropic, and public sectors. As the former executive vice president at the national Lawyers’ Committee, he spearheaded strategic efforts for racial justice.

Prior to joining the national Lawyers’ Committee, Hewitt served as the inaugural executive director of the Executives’ Alliance for Boys and Men of Color—a philanthropic network focused on addressing policies and false narratives that negatively impact young men of color. Through his leadership, the Alliance facilitated over $200 million in grantmaking efforts on issues such as police accountability and college completion. Hewitt also acted as the chief liaison from the philanthropic community to the White House on policy matters affecting young men of color.

Hewitt has also worked as a Senior Advisor at the Open Society Foundations, coordinating philanthropic responses to uprisings following police killings of unarmed Black people. He spent over a decade as an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he led litigation and policy initiatives, supervised teams of experts, and established an office in New Orleans to address post-Hurricane Katrina advocacy efforts. Hewitt also served as executive director of the New York Task Force on Police-on-Police Shootings.

He is a recognized voice in broadcast and print media, co-authoring a book on the School-to-Prison Pipeline and publishing numerous articles in law journals and popular media. Hewitt holds a B.A. in Political Science from Louisiana State University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He resides in suburban Maryland with his partner and three children, dedicated to the next generation’s racial justice work.