Robert Gnaizda

Robert Gnaizda (gə•nāz•duh) is General Counsel and Policy Director for the Greenlining Institute based in Berkeley, California. A graduate of Columbia College and Yale Law School, he has been known as an advocate of social justice for over 40 years.

Prior to co-founding the Greenlining Institute, he co-founded Public Advocates, the West Coast's first public interest law firm. He served under former California Governor Jerry Brown as California's Health Director and Chief Deputy Secretary for Health, Welfare and Prisons and was the State Bar representative for the Federal Judicial Selection Committee.

Gnaizda was Statewide Litigation Director for California Rural Legal Assistance, representing with low-income and mistreated farm workers in California's Salinas Valley during the era of Ceasar Chavez.

He has been chief counsel in over 100 class action court and administrative cases focusing on minority economic empowerment and civil rights.