Lilian Sotolongo Dorka

Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Lilian joined EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) in April 2024, as Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. In this role, she works with OLEM components to identify and implement opportunities to integrate environmental justice and external civil rights considerations in OLEM’s planning, rulemaking, guidance, policy directives, monitoring, and review activities. Lilian works with OLEM’s Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Assistant Administrator on comprehensive approaches for advancing environmental justice, civil rights, and equity for all communities served through OLEM programs, activities and services, including those who have been historically underserved, overburdened, marginalized, and exposed to disproportionate levels of harmful environmental, quality of life, and health impacts from pollution. In September 2022, Lilian became the first ever Deputy Assistant Administrator (DAA) for External Civil Rights in EPA’s new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR). OEJECR is charged with advancing EJ and civil rights. As the DAA for External Civil Rights, Lilian provided leadership to: improve and enhance the agency’s ability to infuse equity, civil rights, and environmental justice into all EPA practices, policies, and programs; enforce federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin (including limited-English proficiency), sex, disability, or age by recipients of EPA financial assistance; and, provide services and expertise in alternative dispute resolution, environmental conflict resolution, consensus-building, and collaborative problem solving.

Between 2017 and 2022, Lilian served as the Director of EPA’s External Civil Rights Compliance Office (ECRCO), within the Office of General Counsel, responsible for enforcing the federal civil rights laws. Lilian joined EPA and the Senior Executive Service in December 2014 as Deputy Director and then Acting Director of EPA’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). In that capacity, she was also responsible EPA’s internal civil rights programs, including EEO, Affirmative Employment and Reasonable Accommodations.

Prior to coming to EPA, Lilian worked for the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for 27 years. There, she served in various legal and management capacities, most recently as the Senior Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for over 10 years, to advance enforcement of federal civil rights laws and ensure equal educational opportunities for all students.

Lilian has been working to advance civil rights enforcement, justice, and equity through federal service for over 36 years and considers it her life’s work. She received her BA degree in political science and English literature from the University of Miami, Miami FL, and her JD from the Catholic University School of Law, Washington, DC. Lilian was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of six.