Khyla D. Craine, Esq.
Deputy Legal Director, Michigan Department of State, Member of the Board of Governors, National Bar Association

Attorney Khyla D. Craine's legal work has focused on voting rights/civic engagement, environmental justice, and corporate governance. Recently, Ms. Craine returned home to work for the Michigan Secretary of State as Deputy Legal Director where she provides legal and policy guidance to the Secretary and other business areas within the Department of State, works on risk mitigation, litigation strategies, and serves as the Chief Privacy Officer. In just over a year at the Department, Attorney Craine has worked with the Secretary to eliminate barriers for transgender, previously incarcerated, and youth in foster care to receive a driver's license or state identification. Moreover, she helps to drive the Department's Racial Equity Task Force.
Previously, Ms. Craine served as an attorney for the NAACP, the United States' largest and oldest grassroots civil rights organization. where she worked on several of the Association's corporate legal needs including risk mitigation, contract review and negotiation, and intellectual property/brand management, as well as its civil rights legal work managing and assisting the national organization and local units with litigation and amicus briefs.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan native is a graduate of Howard University School of Law and South Carolina State University. Ms. Craine served as the 2016-2017 Chair of the National Bar Association's (NBA) Young Lawyers Division (YLD). Through her leadership, the YLD was named Division of the Year by the President of the NBA. In 2014, Ms. Craine co-authored an article entitled Returning Citizens: How Shifting Law and Policy in Maryland Will Help Citizens Who Return from Incarceration in the University of Baltimore Law School's Law Forum. She has also written op-eds and columns for The Root Magazine. A frequent speaker across the country, Ms. Craine has spoken on civil rights/social justice before the National Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, HBCU Pre-Law Summit, and others. For her work she has received numerous awards, including the 2019 National Bar Association Equal Justice Award and President's Award; 2016 National Bar Association Top 40 under 40 Nation's Best Advocates Award; 2016 Young Alumni of the Year, Washington, D.C. Chapter, South Carolina State National Alumni Association; 2015 NAACP Youth and College Division Director's Award; and 2014 National Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Chair's Award.
Her work in service to the community continues through membership in the NAACP, National Bar Association; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., where she leads the Sorority's advocacy on the 2021 Redistricting advocacy and outreach as a member on the National Social Action Commission; and the Junior League of Ann Arbor, Michigan.