Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said Manjusha Kulkarni will be exceptional in the new position. (photo courtesy of L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer’s office)

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer has appointed a leader in civil rights and the AAPI community to the city’s Ethics Commission, effective July 1.

“I am proud to announce that I am appointing a leading Angeleno, Manjusha Kulkarni, to a five-year term on our city’s Ethics Commission,” Feuer said. “The Ethics Commission, founded just three decades ago, leads the city in setting strict ethics and campaign finance regulations and holding candidates, elected and appointed officials accountable. Manju’s thoughtful, innovative leadership and great judgment will make her an exceptional ethics commissioner. I want to also thank my current appointee, the amazing Andrea Sheridan Ordin, for her faithful service as an ethics commissioner these past five years and for a lifetime of leadership and commitment to the people of Los Angeles.”

Kulkarni is the executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, a coalition of more than 40 community-based organizations serving and representing the 1.5-million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in L.A. County. She also co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, a national organization addressing COVID-19-related hate incidents against members of the AAPI community. Additionally, she is a lecturer in the Asian American Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, and previously headed the South Asian Network, served as a senior staff attorney at the National Health Law Program and as a lawyer in the Office of the Civil Rights Monitor in Los Angeles.

“We need elected officials and public institutions that will emulate the highest values of integrity and service,” Kulkarni said. “I am honored to join the city Ethics Commission to carry on the important work of preserving public trust and confidence for all communities in our elections and city government.”