Kaplan Educational Foundation Honors Danielle Conley and Harold Elish for Commitment to Equity and Opportunity

The Kaplan Educational Foundation (KEF), which seeks to eliminate barriers to higher education for overlooked and underserved community college students and develop them as world leaders and advocates for their communities, will present its 2024 Leadership Award to Danielle Conley and Harold Elish.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240501978493/en/

Kaplan Educational Foundation 2024 Leadership Award honorees Danielle Conley & Harold Elish (Photo: Business Wire)

Ms. Conley and Mr. Elish will accept the Leadership Awards at the Foundation’s annual benefit on May 15th in New York City. The Award recognizes a demonstrated commitment to increasing opportunity and equity for individuals who have been overlooked and underserved, in education and beyond.

As a partner at Latham & Watkins, LLP, Ms. Conley routinely counsels clients on best practices for developing and implementing anti-harassment compliance programs and corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. She has significant experience conducting sensitive internal investigations on issues pertaining to racial and gender equity.

Prior to joining Latham, Ms. Conley served as Deputy Counsel to President Biden where she established and led the first-ever White House Counsel’s Office team dedicated to civil rights and advancing racial, gender, and LGBTQ equity. In that role, she advised the President, Vice President, and other senior White House officials on a wide array of legal issues related to voting and democracy, policing and criminal justice reform, reproductive rights, tech accountability, and judicial nominations. Among other high-profile efforts, Ms. Conley helped shepherd Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic nomination and confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.

During the Obama administration, Ms. Conley served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, where she worked on a wide range of litigation and policy issues and managed some of the agency’s most significant and high-profile civil rights enforcement matters.

Ms. Conley currently chairs Latham’s Women Enriching Business (WEB) Committee, where she focuses on promoting the long-term success of women lawyers and executives around the globe. She is also a Director of Graham Holdings Company and has served on several nonprofit boards, including for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.