Diamond James (she/her) serves as the Director of Office of Race and Equity at the Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department (LA Civil Rights).
Diamond James leads in equity and empowerment programming, and policy work for LA Civil Rights. Previously, Diamond served as the departments' Director of Innovation and orchestrated the launch of the Reparations Advisory Commission's Black Experience Study. Prior to her tenure at LA Civil Rights, Diamond was the Director of former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's Innovation Team (i-team), disseminating COVID-19 data, and designing processes to advance mayoral gender equity and racial equity efforts. Diamond has a long history and familiarity with the City of Los Angeles. She joined the City of LA full-time in 2018 as the i-team’s Civic Designer, but had been a part-time Recreation Assistant in the early 2000s working at several parks and summer camps. In between her City roles, Diamond has been a visual journalist at the Washington Post; a youth civic educator in Baltimore and New York City; and a facilitator on topics ranging from WIC food benefits to alcohol outlet density. Diamond holds a Masters of Arts in Social Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Bachelor’s of Journalism Science degree from Northwestern University.