Philip Tegeler was appointed as PRRAC’s Executive Director beginning in January of 2004 and is transitioning to the role of Senior Counsel in 2025. Mr. Tegeler has worked as a civil rights lawyer for over 40 years, specializing in fair housing and educational equity policy and litigation. At PRRAC, Mr. Tegeler supports our research and advocacy on federal housing policy, and our technical assistance work with the “Mobility Works” technical assistance group. He also helps lead the work of the National Coalition on School Diversity, which PRRAC co-founded in 2009.
Mr. Tegeler has written extensively on the intersection of civil rights law and federal housing and school policy. His most recent publications include “Coordinated Action on School and Housing Integration: The Role of State Government,” University of Richmond Law Review (2019) (co-author); “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing and the Inclusive Communities Project Case: Bringing the Fair Housing Act into the 21st Century,” in Metzger et al, Facing Segregation: Housing Policy Solutions for a Stronger Society (Oxford University Press, 2018); “Disrupting the reciprocal relationship between housing and school segregation,” in A Shared Future: Fostering Communities of Inclusion in an Era of Inequality (Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2018) (co-author); “Predicting School Diversity Impacts of State and Local Education Policy: The Role of Title VI,” in Frankenberg et al, School Integration Matters: Research-Based Strategies to Advance Equity (Teachers College Press, 2016); and “The ‘Compelling Government Interest’ in School Diversity: Rebuilding the Case for an Affirmative Government Role,” in the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform (2014).
Before coming to PRRAC, Phil was an attorney with the Connecticut ACLU, where he also served as Legal Director from 1997-2003. At the ACLU, he litigated cases in federal and state courts involving fair housing, school desegregation, land use law, voting rights, first amendment law, gay rights, prison conditions, criminal justice, and other institutional reform litigation. He has also worked as Legal Projects Director at the Metropolitan Action Institute in New York City (a public interest urban planning organization), and taught for three years in the University of Connecticut School of Law clinical program.
Phil was co-founder and the first board president of the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, served as a member of the Connecticut Housing Coalition Board for nine years, and is currently on the board of Mobility Works and the Open Communities Alliance (CT). He is also an active member of the Housing Justice Network.
Phil has taught as an adjunct professor at the UConn Law School and at Columbia Law School, where his courses have included “Federal Courts,” “Advanced Civil Procedure: Class Actions,” and “Housing and Civil Rights.” Phil is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia Law School and member of both the Connecticut and District of Columbia Bar.
