Denise Viera

Ms. Viera is Senior Advisor in the Department of Justice where she has worked on civil rights compliance and coordination issues since June 2011. She initially joined the US Department of Justice, Community Capacity Development Office (CCDO) as Deputy Director in 2005 where she lead grant-making efforts to over 300 public safety/neighborhood revitalization sites across the country, and headed CCDO’s policy development, technical assistance and administrative functions. She has over 25 years of housing and community economic development work experience. Ms. Viera has provided training and technical assistance to hundreds of organizations across the country. She has also worked to develop local, state and national policy in the areas of community economic development, housing finance, fair housing, provision of housing and other support resources for victims of domestic violence and previously incarcerated people, and increased access to financial resources and financing tools for underserved communities. In her role at DOJ she is using these skills to promote increased public safety in America’s most distressed communities.

Ms. Viera earned her BA from the University of Michigan in political science and communications, an MS in community economic development from the New Hampshire College Graduate School of Business, a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law, and holds graduate certifications from the Pratt Institute and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.