Arcelia Hurtado, Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates

Arcelia Hurtado serves as Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates, a civil rights organization dedicated to advancing equal opportunity for women and girls through impact litigation and advocacy.

Raised in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, Ms. Hurtado received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993 and 1997, respectively. Her legal career has been devoted to providing legal representation to those who would not otherwise have access to it. Ms. Hurtado has worked with numerous community-based organizations such as La Raza Centro Legal, to secure the rights of immigrants in the fields of employment, housing, and immigration. As a trial lawyer, she has litigated over a dozen jury trials representing juveniles and adults accused of misdemeanors and felonies. As an appellate lawyer, she has represented people on death row. She has argued cases before numerous courts including the California Supreme Court. Ms. Hurtado has also devoted a substantial portion of her time to community service serving on the boards of various professional and non-profit organizations such as Women Defenders, San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association, Our Family Coalition, and Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, among others. Ms. Hurtado is the founder of the Women Defenders Fellowship which supports law students pursuing careers in indigent criminal defense. She has also taught Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at several Bay Area law schools.