Deepa Iyer
Deepa Iyer is the Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a national, non-profit organization in the Washington, DC area. She has guided SAALT’s direction on policy advocacy, programs and partnerships since 2004. Ms. Iyer is also the Chair of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans. An attorney by training, Ms. Iyer has previously worked at Asian American legal organizations as well as the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she litigated immigration-related unfair employment practices and addressed the post September 11th backlash facing South Asian, Muslim, Sikh and Arab American communities. Regarded as an expert on the impact of September 11th on immigrants and minority communities, Ms. Iyer is the Executive Producer of a documentary on hate crimes, has written extensively on the post 9/11 backlash, and taught classes at Columbia University, Hunter College and the University of Maryland.
