NAACP selects new leader: Benjamin Todd Jealous, 35

The Rhodes scholar will become the youngest president and CEO in the 99-year history of the civil rights organization.

Benjamin Jealous, who was educated at Ord Terrace Elementary School in Seaside, Pacific Grove Middle School and York School in Monterey before becoming the only Rhodes scholar in Monterey County's history, was named president and CEO of the NAACP on Saturday.

Jealous, 35, lives in Alameda with his wife, Lia Epperson, a professor of constitutional law at Santa Clara University, and daughter, Morgan. He has been working as president of The Rosenberg Foundation, a grant-making organization that provides economic support to working people in California.

"I am tremendously excited. It's a real chance to get my generation of people — those from 25 to 45 years old — really engaged in the work of this association, and to get this association really engaged in the issues of this century," Jealous said. "This is an historic time and the association is needed, now as much as ever.

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