Department of State Nomination of Patricia M. Derian To Be Coordinator For Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs.

The President today announced that he will nominate Patricia M. Derian to be Coordinator for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the Department of State. Ms. Derian was a deputy director of the Carter-Mondale campaign and worked on the Carter-Mondale transition team with the HEW policy planning group.

She was born in New York and grew up in Virginia. She is a 1952 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Nursing. During the 1960's Ms. Derian worked in Mississippi on school desegregation and other aspects of the civil rights movement. She was elected a Democratic national committeewoman from Mississippi in 1968.

She is a member of the executive committee of the American Civil Liberties Union and is president of the Southern Regional Council. She is on the steering committee for the National Prison Project and is a member of the Center for Community Justice. She now resides in Virginia.