Candidate Statements for the 2025 Board Nominees

I have long been committed to the model and mission of the ACLU. As a law student, I interned with multiple ACLU affiliates and projects, including the Washington Legislative Office, the Reproductive Freedom Project, the ACLU of San Diego, and the National Security Project. I worked on a variety of issues, including challenges to executive overreach during the so-called “War on Terror” and advocacy against repressive immigration legislation.

After law school, I clerked on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the District Court for the District of Columbia and then spent five years litigating fair housing, fair lending, public accommodations, employment, and education matters with civil rights firm Relman Colfax and more than two years litigating against the criminalization of poverty and prosecutorial overreach at Civil Rights Corps. I am now a Fair Lending Market Specialist in the Enforcement Division of the CFPB, where I build, advise on, and coordinate fair lending and anti-discrimination matters across a range of financial institutions. In my time serving on the Board, I have served on several committees and am the current chair of the Legal Panel and a member of the Executive Committee.

Personally, as a Puerto Rican raised by two women, I have seen firsthand the variety of ways in which discrimination and prejudice can tangibly impact people and communities. I have devoted my career to the promotion of civil rights and civil liberties, and I believe my personal background and professional experiences allow me to meaningfully contribute to the Board. Thank you for your consideration.

As a public policy expert and former Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy, I bring over two decades of leadership advancing equity, economic justice, and civil rights. My work has spanned federal policymaking, nonprofit advocacy, and direct engagement with communities historically marginalized by race, disability, and poverty.

Throughout my career, I’ve worked to ensure that the principles of justice are more than words. At the U.S. Department of Labor, I led the development of policies to end subminimum wages for people with disabilities, expand mental health supports in the workplace, and promote equitable use of AI in hiring. At the Center for American Progress, I directed anti-poverty strategies addressing systemic barriers faced by disabled people and communities of color. Across these roles, I’ve built coalitions, advised senior leaders, and collaborated with diverse audiences, including youth, advocates, and policymakers from the U.S. and abroad.

If elected to the ACLU-DC Board, I would bring my deep commitment to advancing civil rights through systemic policy change and community-centered advocacy. I am particularly eager to support the affiliate’s efforts to address the intersection of disability, racial justice, and economic inequality—issues that are often overlooked but deeply connected to core civil liberties. I look forward to contributing strategic insight, policy expertise, and a collaborative spirit to strengthen the affiliate’s work and impact across the District.

Having just completed my term, I am honored and excited to be nominated to return to the board of the ACLU-DC. I’ve lived in DC 35 years, been a member of ACLU since Barry was mayor, and I’ve never felt greater urgency to protect our civil liberties. I’m eager to do more to fight for voting rights, immigration rights, LGBTQ+ rights, free speech, prison reform, and racial justice for our neighbors and all Americans – and statehood for DC.

I’m eager to continue to connect my passion for protecting our civil rights with my experience in growing and running a strong non-profit. Running a performing arts organization prepared me for ACLU board membership: fundraising, community engagement, overseeing staff, implementing strategic plans, etc. In my time, our nonprofit orchestra has more than tripled our number of annual performances, established an award-winning educational program for thousands of DC public school students, and increased our operating reserves by 2,500%. We annually serve 10,000 people of all ages, 60% participating free of charge. In 2020, DataArts identified the Bach Consort as the second-highest performing music organization among thousands of organizations nationally.

I’ve served on the board of directors of Culture Capital and co-founded ArtsAction DC, advocating for arts funding in the Wilson Building.

ACLU protects our rights, our diversity, and our democracy, all under attack. I want to protect the people of DC, including my own two small children, by making ACLU-DC as strong as possible. Thank you for your consideration.

I am honored to be nominated to serve on the Board of the ACLU of DC. I have been a resident of Washington, DC for over 25 years and care deeply about my community and fellow Washingtonians.

I am the Director of Government Relations at the National Education Association (NEA). I have over 25 years of experience in policy and advocacy, the last twelve at NEA. I was a legislative staffer in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives and before that represented various education organizations in the private sector. Throughout my professional career, civil rights and education have always been a focal point of my work. As a first-generation college graduate, I have worked my entire career to ensure that everyone is afforded equity and access throughout this country, regardless of race, gender, education, income, or sexual orientation.

I am a graduate of the University of Michigan and Tulane University Law School and a member of the DC Bar. I live on Capitol Hill with my family.

I am excited about the opportunity to work with the ACLU during these challenging times for our nation.

I am honored to be nominated to serve a second term on the Board of the ACLU of DC. I have enjoyed my Board service thus far, and have been eager to chair the Legislative Committee this past year.

I have worked on policing and community safety issues from a variety of different perspectives – in academia, embedded directly in MPD, at a national philanthropy, and now at a nonprofit research organization. Substantively, my work has spanned several relevant topics, including police use of technology, accountability policies and practices, violence reduction, alternate response, and traffic stops. I bring a unique vantage point to bear on these issues, with deep understanding of policy, research, and strategy, as well as firsthand knowledge of implementation challenges and opportunities in DC and beyond. I am also well-versed in criminal justice data infrastructure, and more generally in thinking about data collection and use to improve public safety outcomes. My background and training in the study of civil conflict and state repression also offers relevant insights to the work of the ACLU, especially in the coming years.

I am a proud Washingtonian and committed to ensuring the civil rights and liberties of our city and its residents are protected. We face a challenging time as a country and a city, and supporting the work of the ACLU of DC is more important than ever. It would be my privilege to continue doing so as a Board member.

Since joining the Board I completed a term as Vice President and serve on the Legislative and Personnel committees and on the Legal Panel. I am especially proud of introducing a policy to bring economic equity and professional structure to our intern program.

I am an ardent ambassador for ACLU across diverse communities. I am a native of the District of Columbia and an alumnus of its public schools. My instincts for justice draw from lived experience as the target of anti-LGBTQ police violence, as an employee of a disfavored federal agency whose published writing was censored, and as the advocate for a family member incarcerated in the mental health system.

My most gratifying professional work has advanced both free expression and voting rights. As legal director of Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts I ran a clinic for an array of artists (including the creator of “Sooner or Later Everyone Needs the ACLU”—my own motto as a member.) I sit on the steering committee of the Free Expression Network, 65 organizations, including ACLU National, dedicated to First Amendment values. For the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law I supervised volunteer attorneys fielding reports of barriers to the ballot. All remind me constantly that small details of process have huge consequences for fundamental rights.

We live now in a unique emergency for civil liberties on every front. But veterans of historic crises often look back not only in frustration and dismay but with warmth and enthusiasm because of those alongside them. I can foresee 2025 as the best as well as the worst of times among the brilliant, brave people of ACLU.

I am honored to be nominated to serve as an ACLU-DC board member. I’ve collaborated with ACLU staff members at ACLU national and local affiliates throughout my career, and I deeply respect the work that they do.

I’ve focused my career at the intersection of racial justice and the criminal legal system. I recently joined the University of the faculty of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law as the director of a newly created post-conviction criminal defense clinic. In my professional life prior to joining academia, I spent more than a decade in non-profit leadership at the Innocence Project, the Death Penalty Information Center, the national NAACP, and the Ohio Justice & Policy Center. I also represented death-sentenced individuals as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the District of Arizona Federal Public Defender’s Office.

I’m actively engaged in my local and national community as a member of the Washington branch of the NAACP and a board member of the DC Affordable Law Firm, Witness to Innocence, and the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Section of the National Bar Association.

The work of the ACLU-DC is more important than ever, and I would be proud to serve the organization at this pivotal time. Thank you again for your consideration of my nomination.

My name is Claudia Gordon, and I am a Deaf attorney and dedicated civil rights advocate. It has been an honor to serve on the ACLU-DC Board, and to represent our Affiliate on the National ACLU Board. I am seeking re-election to continue this vital work, especially during these politically unprecedented times when the defense of civil liberties is more critical than ever.

If re-elected to the ACLU-DC Board, I will continue to leverage my unique disability civil rights plus intersectional insights and perspectives. My lived experience as a Deaf individual deeply informs my understanding of systemic inequities and the urgent need for inclusive advocacy. I believe these insights are invaluable as we confront challenges across various civil liberties fronts.

The values I bring to the Board include, but are not limited to, authenticity, strong community connections, and a collaborative spirit. I am committed to fostering an environment where diverse voices are heard and respected, ensuring that our strategies are robust and truly representative of the communities we serve. My work has consistently focused on building bridges and empowering marginalized groups.

I am passionate about advancing the ACLU’s mission to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. My continued service will ensure that the perspectives of disabled communities, and other intersectional identities, remain at the forefront of ACLU-DC’s advocacy. I am ready to continue contributing my expertise and dedication to the fight for justice and equality for all.