Dr. Theresa de Langis is the executive director of the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Women (NHCSW). A frequent speaker at state, national, and international conferences on women’s issues, de Langis is the author of numerous publications, including Advancing the Status of Women Worldwide: The History of Zonta International, 1919-1999, Double Jeopardy: A Report on the Training and Education Programs for New Hampshire’s Female Offenders (2004), and The TANF Report: A Series of Listening Sessions with Women on Welfare (2003). 

A member of the board of directors for the National Association of Commissions for Women (NACW), de Langis serves as chair of the NACW/UN CSW Committee, NACW delegate to the UN CSW annual sessions, and in 2007 organized a panel presentation, “CSWs: Institutional Mechanisms to Enhance the Status of Women and Girls,” as part of the NGO Parallel Forum of the 51st Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Dr. de Langis holds a doctoral degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and she is currently an adjunct faculty member in the Women’s Studies Department of the University of New Hampshire. Her personal activism is focused on the specific experiences and needs of refugee and immigrant women settled in the state. A graduate of the 2006 Class of Leadership New Hampshire, she is the recipient of the 2006 Susan B. Anthony N.H. Woman of the Year Award. She lives in Exeter, N.H. with her life companion and their daughter.

NHCSW is a governmental agency mandated by state statute to advocate for the diverse population of the state’s women and girls—from remote rural communities to urban refugee enclaves. The core duty of NHCSW is to identify and seek to remedy gender discrimination against women and girls, especially as it prevents them from actualizing their full human rights.  Dr. de Langis’ role as executive director is focused on research, analysis, and writing of public policy as it impacts women and girls; coalition building and educational outreach around the differential societal experiences and concerns of women and girls; and advocacy on the need to meaningfully mainstream the rights of women and girls within institutional practice and public policy.

Representative projects of NHCSW under her direction include coconvening the Gender Equity in Education Task Force with N.H. Department of Education; appointment to the Governor’s Oversight Committee on Welfare Reauthorization; publishing the Legal Handbook for Women in New Hampshire; organizing the Women’s Leadership Caucus for female lawmakers; and passage of model legislation that mandates gender-responsive, trauma-informed management and treatment strategies within the N.H. Department of Corrections.

NHCSW is a founding member of CHRONE, the Coalition of Human Rights Organizations of New England, established by the UNESCO Chair and Institute of Comparative Human Rights at the University of Connecticut. In 2006, as a result of attending the UN’s 50th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, NHCSW established a consultative relationship with Femmes Africa Solidarite, Senegal, a UN NGO working on women’s peace building in African nations, as a means to more formally build relationships with the women’s refugee population settled in the state from such African countries as Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, and Rwanda.