Governor Newsom Appoints Manjusha Kulkarni To State AAPI Commission
Photo: AAPI Equity Alliance
India-West Staff Reporter
SACRAMENTO, CA – Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed civil rights advocate Manjusha P. Kulkarni to the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs, his office announced on January 16. The role carries no compensation and does not require Senate confirmation.
Kulkarni currently serves as Executive Director of the AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition of more than 40 community-based organizations representing roughly 1.6 million Asian American and Pacific Islander residents in Los Angeles County. She also co-founded Stop AAPI Hate in 2020, now recognized as the nation’s largest reporting center tracking anti-AAPI incidents.
Her advocacy has drawn national visibility. Alongside Stop AAPI Hate co-founders Cynthia Choi and Russell Jeung, Kulkarni was named to the TIME100 Most Influential People in the World and the Bloomberg 50 lists.
Kulkarni’s work has been featured in major national outlets including The New York Times, NPR, and CNN, as well as in regional and ethnic media. She has provided briefings and policy insights to institutions such as the Aspen Institute, the World Bank, and the United Nations. In January 2024, she delivered a TEDx talk at the University of California, Berkeley focused on civil rights and community empowerment.
Beyond organizational leadership, Kulkarni serves on the Board of Directors of LA Voice, sits on the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, and is a member of the California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board.
Earlier in her career, Kulkarni served as Executive Director of South Asian Network and was a Senior Attorney at the National Health Law Program. She also worked on a landmark pro bono legal effort representing Japanese Latin Americans who were forcibly taken to the U.S. and incarcerated during World War II. The case resulted in reparations of $5,000 and a formal apology from President Bill Clinton.
Kulkarni holds a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University and a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law.
