Kamala Lyon

Assistant Director for Governmental Relations and Legislative Analysis

Kamala has over 20 years of governmental relations and legislative experience. She has served in the UC Office of Federal Governmental Relations (UC FGR) since 2001. Kamala is a California native and received a B.A. in Politics from UC Santa Cruz. After graduation, Kamala spent four years working on Capitol Hill for members of the U.S. House of Representatives from California, before returning to California to attend law school.

Kamala received her J.D. degree from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, where she specialized in Governmental Affairs and legislation. Immediately prior to joining FGR, Kamala served as a law clerk for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and as a legal research analyst for UC’s Continuing Education of the Bar, in Oakland.  Kamala is admitted to practice law by the California Bar and the District of Columbia Bar.

As part of the UC Federal Governmental Relations research team, Kamala is responsible for tracking and analyzing issues related to:

  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Intellectual property/commercialization issues (in coordination with the health and clinical affairs team and UC FGR’s associate director)
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer
  • Tax issues (in coordination with the education, research, and health and clinical affairs teams)
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • U.S. Department of Interior
  • U.S. Department of Transportation