Urban Leadership Awardee

Elizabeth Julian

Image of Elizabeth Julian
Urban Leadership Awardee

Elizabeth Julian

Founder and Senior Counsel, Inclusive Communities Project Former Assistant to the Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Elizabeth Julian is the founder and senior counsel of Dallas-based Inclusive Communities Project. In 2015, The Inclusive Communities Project won a Supreme Court case ruling that policies, that even inadvertently cause segregation, are illegal under the Fair Housing Act. This landmark ruling will help to fully realize the original goals of the Fair Housing Act, not only to prevent individual housing discrimination but also to address the decades of systemic discrimination that led to segregated communities across the country. Prior to her work with Inclusive Communities, Ms. Julian served as Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Clinton administration, and has practiced poverty and civil rights law since the beginning of her career.