Ramona Emilia Romero is an American lawyer and former government official. She was the General Counsel of the United States Department of Agriculture and currently serves as Vice President and General Counsel of Princeton University.

Biography

Romero was born in the Dominican Republic and emigrated to the United States when she was 11 years old. She graduated from Barnard College in 1985 and was president of the student government her senior year. She then went to

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

and was director of the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project. She received her J.D. from Harvard in 1988. From 1988 to 1996, Romero was a lawyer at Crowell & Moring, where she defended clients in civil and criminal enforcement actions brought by the Federal government of the United States. She joined

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

in 1998 as Senior Counsel, then Corporate Counsel in charge of commercial and antitrust litigation, and Corporate Counsel and Manager of Operations and Partnering. From 2008 to 2010, she was also General Counsel of DuPont joint venture Sentinel Transportation. She was President of the

Hispanic National Bar Association The Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) is a 501(c)(6) organization representing Hispanics in the legal profession, including attorneys, judges, law professors, legal assistant and paralegals, and law students in the United States and its ...

from 2008 to 2009, and testified at the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in that capacity. In 2010, Romero was nominated by President Barack Obama to be General Counsel of the United States Department of Agriculture. She was confirmed by the United States Senate in late December 2010 and was sworn in on January 14, 2011. Romero left USDA for Princeton University in 2014, when she became the University's Chief Legal Officer. In 2019, Romero was named a trustee of Barnard College. She was appointed by President Joe Biden to the

President's Commission on White House Fellowships The White House Fellows program is a federal fellowship program established via Executive Order by President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964, based upon a suggestion from John W. Gardner, then the president of Carnegie Corp ...

in 2021. Romero is an elected member of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...

Personal life and family

Romero lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with her husband and two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Romero, Ramona Living people American politicians of Dominican Republic descent United States Department of Agriculture officials Dominican Republic emigrants to the United States American women lawyers Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Lawyers from Princeton, New Jersey Princeton University people Obama administration personnel Barnard College alumni Harvard Law School alumni DuPont people Biden administration personnel 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Year of birth missing (living people)