Norma V. Cantu

In 2004, the American Bar Association's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession honored Cantú with its Spirit of Excellence Award for "opening doors for many and preventing other doors from closing."

In 2002, Cantú co-founded the Mexican-American Legislative Leadership Foundation, a not-for-profit organization to encourage students to gain experience on staff to the Texas Legislature. She currently serves on its board.

Since 2001, Cantú has served as a visiting professor of law and education at the University of Texas at Austin. While at UT, she has developed and taught courses on disability law, school reform, performance management in education, politics and policy in education, and the intersection of law and policy in education.

In 1996, she interpreted Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the federal statute that was created to prohibit sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal financial assistance, as requiring schools to offer "proportional opportunity" for female and male athletes. Her work on Title IX resulted in her being named to the Women’s Institute on Sports and Education Hall of Fame on September 27, 1996 and as one of the "50 Most Influential People in College Sports" by College Sports Magazine.

On March 5, 1993, President Clinton nominated Cantú to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Education for the Office for Civil Rights. She was sworn in on May 24, 1993.

She joined MALDEF in 1979, serving as a trial and appellate lawyer in federal and state courts in class action impact civil rights cases. In 1983, she was named the National Director of the Carnegie Endowment-funded Education, Litigation and Advocacy Project at MALDEF and also worked as a Staff Attorney on the Chicana Rights Project. In 1985, she became the regional counsel and education director of MALDEF, overseeing its offices in Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. That same year, she was named as one of the "100 Most Influential Hispanics in the U.S." by Hispanic Business Magazine. While at MALDEF she litigated scores of important cases affecting educational funding, disability rights, student disciplinary policies, access to special services for English-language learners, and racially hostile environments.

Cantú started her career as an English teacher in Brownsville, Texas, in 1974. After graduating from Harvard Law School, she worked with the Nursing Home Task Force of the Texas Attorney General's office and as an English teacher in San Antonio.

Cantu graduated from Brownsville High School (now Homer Hanna High School) in Brownsville, Texas in 1971. She received her B.A., graduating summa cum laude, from the University of Texas–Pan American in 1973. In 1977, at the age of 22, Cantu received her J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.

Norma V. Cantú (born November 2, 1954) is an American civil rights lawyer and educator. She is currently a professor of law and education at the University of Texas at Austin. She served as the Assistant Secretary of Education for the Office for Civil Rights under President Bill Clinton and as regional counsel for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.