Morris S. Casuto retired in 2010 after serving for 37 years as a member of the Professional Staff of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). He was the founding Director of the San Diego Regional Office after serving in the ADL's offices in Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana. During his tenure with the ADL, he developed a national reputation as an expert on hate crimes and extremist and terrorist organizations.
For more than 10 years, he taught for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where he helped conceive, write and teach a unique multi-day hate/bias crime seminar. Mr. Casuto served as Chair of the U.S. Attorney's Hate Crimes Working Group, which was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to develop a hate crime victim assistance project. Mr. Casuto also served as a member of the faculty of the San Diego Regional Public Safety Academy for 22 years, teaching cadets and officers how to identify and deal with hate crimes. He organized a task force that created the San Diego Hate Crimes Registry, which analyzed all police reports that checked the Hate Crimes Box and published an annual report on hate crimes in San Diego County for the public.
In partnership with the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Mr. Casuto initiated a year-long series of interfaith programs that culminated in the first visit by a Catholic bishop to a San Diego synagogue. He served for five years as a member of the Integration Task Force, which was tasked by the California Superior Court to oversee integration efforts by the San Diego Unified School District.
Under his leadership, the ADL organized a Student Leadership Conference, which brought together thousands of students from throughout San Diego County to learn to identify and cope with bias, racism and anti-Semitism. The ADL also developed an annual Counterterrorism Conference for local, county, federal and military personnel. In cooperation with the Juvenile Court, the ADL created a multi-week intervention program for youth at risk.
Mr. Casuto served as a public member on the TJSL Dean Search Committee that resulted in the appointment of Thomas Guernsey as Dean and President of the law school in 2013.
