Senate confirms Trump pick to lead civil rights division at Education Dept.
Kimberly Richey previously held the role on an interim basis
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U.S. Department of Education headquarters building in Washington, DC.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleThe Senate voted this week to confirm Kimberly Richey as the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, eight months after President Donald Trump named her to the role.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which Richey will lead, is responsible for overseeing investigations into antisemitism at American schools and universities. The Trump administration laid off more than half of the division’s investigators earlier this year, sparking sharp criticism from congressional Democrats.
Richey previously served in the same role on an interim basis for the final months of Trump’s first term. For much of that administration, she was deputy assistant secretary of the office that oversees special education issues.
She first worked at the Education Department in the George W. Bush administration after being hired by Ken Marcus, now the chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
Richey comes to Washington from Florida, where she had been serving as senior chancellor for Florida’s Department of Education. Before that, she was deputy superintendent of the Virginia Department of Education.
Richey was one of more than 100 Trump nominees confirmed on Tuesday night, after Senate Republicans changed chamber rules last month to allow senators to vote on their nominations as a group.
One of the additional nominees confirmed was Stephanie Hallett to be U.S. ambassador to Bahrain. Hallett was previously the chargé d’affaires ad interim at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, serving as acting ambassador during the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023.
Jacob Helberg, a former top Palantir official, was confirmed as under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment. In 2020, Helberg was a major donor to President Joe Biden’s campaign, but he cited anti-Israel trends in the Democratic Party as a reason for supporting Trump in 2024.
The Senate also confirmed Sergio Gor as U.S. ambassador to India. Gor, a former senior aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), served until August as head of the Presidential Personnel Office at the White House, where he was known for his isolationist leanings.