Powering Real Public Safety

Alicia Yass, serves as the Policy Advocacy Director. Before coming to the ACLU-DC, Alicia was Chief Counsel for the Democrats on the House of Representatives, Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. There, she led work investigating COVID origins, NIH grant processes, and NY State’s COVID response in nursing homes. Prior to that, she was Deputy Executive Director for the DC Office of Police Complaints, providing oversight and guidance to DC’s MPD and HAPD. She was previously with the American Constitution Society (ACS), leading the lawyer chapters. Alicia started her legal career as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and was co-assigned as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where she prosecuted child pornography and child sex trafficking crimes. Alicia received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from George Washington University, and her law degree from New York University School of Law. In her free time Alicia teaches barre and puts on shows with the St. Mark’s Players.

Peggy Ramin is a Policy Counsel at the ACLU-D.C. Most recently, she worked as senior policy counsel for economic justice at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, where she led federal policy advocacy work on health care, employment, and anti-poverty issues. Prior to that, she was a staff attorney at Maryland Legal Aid, representing low-income clients in a range of civil legal and administrative matters. Before ​ law school, Peggy worked for the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), and also spent a year working for a public health organization in Vietnam as a Princeton in Asia fellow. She received her BA from Cornell University and her JD from the University of Maryland.