The three remaining commissioners voted on June 30 to install Harris, a relative newcomer to PHRC, as the temporary head of the agency. The agency announced her appointment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Debate flared in Harrisburg in February over concerns about the PHRC use of taxpayer dollars to attend and sponsor an event, which honored Lassiter, with another civil rights groups.<\/p>\n
Emails show Lassiter instructed his staff<\/a> to bypass state spending rules to secure taxpayer-funded tables for himself and his team at an awards banquet hosted by the Philadelphia NAACP.<\/p>\n Lassiter said the payments were both proper and aligned the agency\u2019s mission. The NAACP ultimately provided the tables at no cost to taxpayers. The governor\u2019s office has not announced findings from the audit.<\/p>\n Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. \u2014 a longtime member of the commission who was named interim chair<\/a> during the shake-up \u2014 said Harris will be instrumental in \u201ceasing tensions and stabilizing the agency following a period of uncertainty,\u201d according to a statement posted on social media. <\/p>\n Jones did not respond to a request for additional comment on Thursday. The commissioners will lead a search process to determine a permanent replacement, said PHRC spokesperson Amanda Brothman Jumper.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: How a $20,000 expense for an awards gala upended Pa.\u2019s civil rights enforcement agency<\/a><\/p>\n Harris will be \u201cfocused on ensuring operational continuity, supporting staff, and maintaining the Commission\u2019s commitment to enforcing Pennsylvania\u2019s civil rights laws,\u201d Brothman Jumper said.<\/p>\n Harris was hired in April 2025 as regional director of the commission\u2019s Philadelphia office, overseeing civil rights complaints filed in eastern Pennsylvania. Before that, she spent a decade as a human relations specialist at the U.S. Social Security Administration, worked at American Airlines, and co-founded a nonprofit, according to her LinkedIn page. <\/p>\n Harris said in a statement that she will focus on providing stability to PHRC\u2019s staff of investigators and attorneys, who mediate potential civil rights violations in places of employment, housing, education, and accommodations. <\/p>\n \u201cI believe moments of transition can also be moments of opportunity,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n PHRC\u2019s executive director is chosen by the commissioners, who are nominated by the governor and require approval from the state Senate. <\/p>\n A spokesperson for Shapiro said the administration has submitted several nominations to fill the vacant commissioner seats.<\/p>\n Acknowledgment<\/p>\n The Inquirer\u2019s journalism is supported, in part, by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and readers like you. News and editorial content are created independently of The Inquirer\u2019s donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer\u2019s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com\/donate<\/a>. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org\/supporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission has announced Wednesday the appointment of Amber J.E.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,103089],"class_list":["post-239705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-civil-rights-commission-chad-lassiter-amber-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/circle_outline_footer_light_theme.png\"\/)
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