“If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” Toni Morrison

Tanyka M. Barber is a Partner with TNG and has extensive experience in civil rights/equal employment opportunity compliance in both higher education and K-12 settings. Her key areas of expertise include Title IX, employment discrimination, diversity and inclusion, investigations, and policy development.

Barber leads TNG’s K-12 practice area and devotes substantial time working with K-12 systems to adopt best practices related to Title IX compliance. She serves frequently as a third-party neutral hearing advisor and decision-maker for TNG clients for sexual misconduct, discrimination, and Title IX grievance proceedings.

Prior to joining TNG, Barber served as the Director of Diversity and EEO and the Title IX Coordinator at Morgan State University, a historically Black college and university, in Baltimore, Maryland. Barber led the University’s non-discrimination, Title IX, and diversity initiatives for approximately 7,800 students and 1,200 employees, and was instrumental in developing the University’s Title IX grievance process, prevention, and training infrastructure. She also served in a similar capacity as the EEO Officer at Baltimore County Public Schools where she managed the EEO functions for a K-12 school system of approximately 17,000 employees. Barber draws on her past experiences performing these day-to-day tasks within the school-based setting when working with clients to execute strategies to resolve and mitigate civil rights-based issues. Barber also served as Assistant General Counsel at the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights which is the agency charged with enforcing the state’s civil rights statutes relative to employment, housing, and public accommodation discrimination.

A Maryland native, she earned her B.S. in Health Education from Morgan State University, her M.H.S. in Health Policy from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and her J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law.