Neisha-Saxena

Neisha Saxena (She/Her) serves as the Deputy Director and Civil Rights Administrator for the Office of Diversity and Equity. She also manages the Equity Policy Team focused on: civil rights compliance and policy work, disability equity, LGBTQIA+ equity, gender justice, data and evaluation, the work of the Multnomah Youth Commission and other policy initiatives at the direction of the County Chair's Office.   

Prior to this role, she worked in the Department of County Human Services where she managed the Anti-Poverty Initiatives Team dedicated to innovative approaches to dismantling the root causes of poverty and systemic racism. Initiatives staffed by that team include the County's pilot projects relating to Long Term Rent Assistance, Immigration Legal Services, Legal Services Days, and Renter Relations.

Prior to working at Multnomah County, Neisha lead a team at Home Forward dedicated to an anti-poverty demonstration project.  Before that she was a civil rights lawyer for 15 years, at Disability Rights Oregon and Legal Aid Services of Oregon, focusing on housing, employment, and public benefits law.  She was a founding member of the Portland Fair Housing Advocacy Committee, the Portland Commission on Disabilities, and has served in leadership roles on the Oregon State Bar Affirmative Action Committee and Disability Law Section, the Home Forward 504 Board, the Oregon Council on Developmental Disabilities, the PPS Superintendent's Advisory Committee on Enrollment and Transfer, among many other boards and commissions. 

Neisha is a native of Chicago, raised in a South Asian immigrant family.  She has a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and a BA, magna cum laude, from Wellesley College.  She lives in NE Portland, with her husband Kurt Tandan and son Ari Tandan.

Neisha can be reached at: neisha.saxena@multco.us