Grande H. Lum was confirmed as the Director of the Community Relations Service (CRS) on June 29, 2012. Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Community Relations Service is the Department's "peacemaker" for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, and national origin. With passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, CRS also works with communities to employ strategies to prevent and respond to alleged violent hate crimes committed on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or disability.

Mr. Lum brings extensive expertise in dispute resolution, including providing mediation, facilitation and training. He has worked with students, educators, diplomats, community leaders, law enforcement, government officials, attorneys, scientists and business executives.

Before joining CRS, Mr. Lum was a clinical professor at the University of California Hastings School of the Law, where he directed its Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. Prior to his tenure at Hastings School of Law, Mr. Lum was the founder of Accordence, a dispute resolution training firm; a principal of ThoughtBridge, a mediation firm; and a partner with the consulting firm Conflict Management Incorporated. He has also been an adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law and co-manager of the Alternative Dispute Resolution externship program at Stanford Law School, where he had also been a fellow at the Gould Center for Conflict Resolution. His published works include The Negotiation Fieldbook, which is currently in its second edition. Additionally, Mr. Lum served as the Director of the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Program at the Small Business Administration, and currently serves on the Board of Overseers of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, a U.S. Department of Commerce initiative.

Mr. Lum received his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.