Prof. Cruz Reynoso and his wife visited Stanford University as the honor guest of Stanford Cultural Interactions club and Pacifica Institute for a joint sponsored event on April 21, 2009. Pacifica Institute Outreach Committee representatives, Dr. Omer Oralkan and Dr. Ridvan Sahan met with Prof Reynoso and his wife for a welcome dinner. Upon arrival to Oak Lounge, Tresidder Memorial Union at Stanford, cheerful crowd, doctoral student Canibek, president of Cultural Interactions club and Dr. Ridvan Sahan took few minutes to introduce Prof. Reynoso and the event sponsoring organizations. Prof Reynoso was next invited to stage to give his insightful speech titled Civil Rights in America: Obama’s Promise. Cruz Reynoso was an associate justice for the California Supreme Court and the Third District Court of Appeal. He previously was special counsel for Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler, and professor of law and Boochever and BirdChair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality at the UC Davis School of Law. From 1994 to 2004, Mr. Reynoso served as vice chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He also was a professor of law at UCLA School of Law. In 2000, Mr. Reynoso received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, for his lifelong devotion to public service. He also was a recipient of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation Award in Education. In 2008 he was a Justice and Civil Rights Team Lead of the transition team of the President-Elect Barack Obama. After Prof. Reynoso’s engaging speech, crowd had a chance to further talk to honored guest over coffee and cookies. He kindly responded to all the questions and provided his delightful insight.
