Parveen Chopra - Career

Career

Parveen Chopra was the first Indian American to be appointed to a public office on the eastern sea board of the United States of America as a Commissioner of Human Rights in Nassau County, New York which he led effectively for twenty years as a Commissioner (1988–2008), vice chairman since 1996, and as chairperson since 2004. He worked to mitigate the effects of discrimination on the basis of age, sex, race, color, creed, marital status, national origin, disability and arrest and conviction. He helped countless people to get their jobs back or appropriate settlements in regards to compensation and pension benefits. He was involved in organizing seminars educating thousand of Presidents of private organizations or heads of departments of public organizations so that job and housing discrimination could be minimized. Under his leadership of the Commission, they set up policies to fight discrimination in housing and public conveniences also. Chopra led the Commission to prepare rules of procedure for discrimination cases in housing matters to be followed by the judges and also led the team to interview and select Housing Court Judges that will reduce discrimination even further in the future. He also presided over the commission hearings on discrimination by the police.

Chopra was also the first Asian-American to work as Commissioner of Planning from 1996 to 2002 and served it in open hearings to the public and improved the quality of life of 1.3 million Americans in Nassau County, New York, in the areas of land use, zoning, density, environment, transportation, population dynamics, urban planning and economy. The Planning Commission also acted as an adviser to the legislature. Chopra also took the lead in attending over three hundred town hall meetings to get the input of citizenry and helped to prepare the master plan for Nassau County that will guide its development and certain future legislative acts until the year 2020.