LOUISVILLE - The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights announced its new executive director today during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Celebration.

Linda Strite Murnane retired June 1, 2004, with the rank of colonel from the U.S. Air Force where she served for 30 years and for the last 10 years as a military judge in the U.S. and Europe.  She will begin the executive director post effective Feb. 1.

Ms. Murnane grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since then, she has lived all over the world. During her military career, she served as an attorney, a judge advocate, military judge of the Eastern Circuit in Washington D.C., and chief circuit military judge of the European Circuit in Germany. When she retired, she was chief circuit military judge of the Eastern Circuit in Washington D.C. Before becoming an attorney, she served four years as a print journalist and public relations specialist at Langley and Keesler Air Force bases.

She received a bachelor’s degree and graduated magna cum laude from the Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton, Vir., which was then part of the College of William and Mary of Williamsburg, Vir. She received her law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law where she was an Urban Morgan Fellow in International Human Rights. She received the American Jurisprudence Award for Excellence in Constitution Law at Loyola University before transferring to Cincinnati. She did extensive human rights work while in the military, working not only in the states and in Europe, but in Asia and Africa as well. She has published several articles for national publications including the American Bar Association Judges Journal and Judicial Division Record. In 2004, her essay on issues relating to legal assistance in the military and privatization took first place in the American Bar Association LAMP Essay contest. In 2003, she received the Ohio State Bar Association Nettie Cronise Lutes Award for opening doors to women and girls in the field of law.

She comes to the commission from just across the Ohio River near Maysville, Ky., in Brown County, Ohio, where she has been a felony prosecutor in a small town setting.

KCHR is the state agency that enforces the Kentucky Civil Rights Act.  It receives, initiates, investigates, conciliates and rules upon jurisdictional complaints.  KCHR has jurisdiction in housing, employment, public accommodations, financial transactions, and private clubs. 

The Kentucky Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status in housing, disability, age (40 or over) in employment, and smoking status in employment.  Complaints not dismissed, settled or conciliated go to administrative hearing where commission decisions have the authority of a court of law.

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