ACLU of Washington Leadership
Executive Director
Kathleen Taylor, executive director of the ACLU of Washington since 1980, is the leader of the state's largest civil liberties and civil rights group. more»
She oversees the work of 30 staff members, including seven attorneys, as well as policy, organizing, and communications professionals. With more than 24,000 active members, the ACLU of Washington is among the ten largest affiliates in the nation.
Under Taylor's direction, the ACLU of Washington has taken a leadership role in opposing excesses of the war on terrorism, advancing racial justice, challenging excessive drug laws, addressing technology's impact on liberty, while continuing its historic role of guaranteeing free speech and religious liberty for all.
In 1994, Taylor was designated "Outstanding Non-Lawyer" by the King County Bar Association for "distinguished and meritorious service to the legal profession and the public." She was one of the leaders of the Initiative 120, the Reproductive Privacy Act, which was approved by the voters in 1990 guaranteeing reproductive freedom in Washington. Prior to working for the ACLU, she headed the Coalition on Government Spying, which exposed extensive political spying by Seattle police and led to Seattle's adoption of the nation's first law restricting political spying by police.
Prior to moving to Seattle in 1976, Taylor worked for Senator Frank Church (D Idaho) in Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of the University of California - Santa Barbara and a native of Idaho.
Senior Staff
Sarah Dunne, legal director, joined the ACLU of Washington in 2006, where she directs its legal program. Dunne has more than a dozen years of public interest litigation and policy experience that includes several landmark cases. more»
For the ACLU, Dunne has litigated among others, Witt v. Air Force. Prior to the ACLU, Dunne was in private practice in Seattle and before that served as a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. While at DOJ, Dunne litigated education cases involving race and sex discrimination that resulted in significant reform at the state and local level. She represented the United States during the remedial stage of United States v. Commonwealth of Virginia (VMI), and filed the first Title IX athletics case on behalf of the United States. Dunne worked on more than 20 desegregation cases in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina and served as lead counsel for the Jefferson County Schools case – Alabama’s largest school district with over 35,000 students.
Dunne grew up in South King County. She graduated from Stanford University with honors and the University of Chicago Law School. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Paez then with the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California.
In 2006, Dunne was honored by the Washington State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Divisions with its Professionalism Award for her substantial pro bono and volunteer work while in private practice. Dunne serves as Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s IRR Committee on the Rights of Women and as a volunteer attorney for the KCBA Federal Civil Rights Clinic. Dunne is also a board member of New Futures, a non-profit providing services to low-income students and families in South King County.
Mary Gagliardi, development director, has 15 years of experience in developing and managing programs for advocacy and civil rights organizations. more»
Since joining the ACLU in 2008, Gagliardi has presided over the ACLU-WA's largest fundraising effort to date, a $10 million campaign to help expand the ACLU's work in key states and grow the ACLU's influence nationwide. She currently oversees all development efforts and manages a team of development professionals who raise $1.5 million annually.
Her career also includes consulting and working with numerous women’s and reproductive rights organizations. She served as the director of marketing for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in California, the largest state affiliate in the country, over a period of historic growth in which the affiliate tripled in size.
Gagliardi received a graduate degree in international business from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Alison Holcomb, drug policy director, pursues reform strategies aimed at replacing reliance on criminal sanctions with approaches that treat drug abuse as a public health concern and at the same time respect civil liberties, reduce incarceration, and promote racial justice. more»
Before coming to the ACLU of Washington in 2006, she focused on drug and asset forfeiture defense, served as a vice-president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and chaired the Legal Frameworks Group of the King County Bar Association’s Drug Policy Project. She has also served on the Seattle City Council’s Jail Capacity Study Advisory Group, I-75 Marijuana Policy Review Panel, and the Washington State Bar Association's Pro Bono & Legal Aid Committee. In 2008, NORML awarded her the "Pauline Sabin Award, in recognition of the importance of women in leadership positions in organizations dedicated to ending marijuana prohibition."
Born in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Holcomb graduated from Stanford University with Honors in 1990 and the University of Washington School of Law in 1993.
Doug Honig, communications director of the ACLU of Washington since 1990, oversees the organization's efforts to advance public understanding of civil liberties and the work of the ACLU in our state. more»
His duties include coordinating media relations, editing all ACLU-WA publications, overseeing content on its website, handling requests for information, and planning educational programs and events. He has spoken widely on civil liberties issues to school and community groups and is author of
On Freedom’s Frontier: A History of the ACLU in Washington.
Before joining the ACLU staff, Honig was an award-winning journalist. He produced documentaries for public radio and television in Seattle and wrote for a wide range of publications, including the Seattle Weekly and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Prior to moving to Seattle in 1970, he received a BA from the University of Michigan and an MA in History from Stanford. He grew up in the Washington, DC area.
Linda Mangel, education equity director, works to protect students from discrimination and harassment by providing training and tools for schools in complying with civil rights laws. more»
She also works to eliminate school practices and policies that push students, often students of color, out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
Linda has practiced civil rights law for over 20 years, beginning at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, and later at the Northwest Women’s Law Center in Seattle, WA. She returned to the Federal Government to work for the Federal Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, where she developed an expertise in education civil rights law. Before joining the ACLU in 2010, Linda founded the Education Equity Consulting Group which conducted civil rights compliance reviews and training for school districts.
Linda's hometown is Washington D.C. and she graduated from William Smith College and Georgetown University Law School.
Shankar Narayan, legislative director, joined the ACLU of Washington in 2008. He advances a legislative agenda that protects and strengthens the fundamental civil rights and civil liberties of all, from the strongest to the most vulnerable. more»
The achievements of the legislative program he heads include legislation to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated individuals, to enforce non-discrimination laws in schools, to allow domestic partnership for same-sex couples, to ensure equal opportunity in community athletics, and to ban the shackling of pregnant inmates, among many other bills.
Shankar was previously Policy Director at OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone), a Seattle-based organization that advances democracy and justice by empowering immigrant communities. Prior to that, Shankar built a practice in technology and intellectual property law at Preston Gates and Ellis LLP (now K&L Gates).
Shankar was named the King County Bar Association’s Outstanding Young Lawyer for 2010. He co-chaired the City of Seattle's Immigrant and Refugee Advisory Board, and the steering committee of the Detention Watch Network, a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to reform the U.S. immigration detention system. Shankar has previously served as president of the South Asian Bar Association of Washington, board member of the Asian Bar Association of Washington, and co-chair of the Ethnic Diversity in the Legal Profession Committee of the King County Bar Association.
Shankar was born in the former Soviet Union, grew up in the U.S., the Maldives, India, the former Yugoslavia, Thailand, and Russia, and enjoys climbing, travel, and writing. Shankar holds a B.S. from Bates College, an M.P.A. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Liezl Tomas Rebugio, field director, oversees the management and direction of statewide mobilization on priority issues, guides and supports the network of chapters and activists, and develops links with other civil rights and community-based organizations across the state. more»
Prior to the ACLU, Rebugio was the Anti-Trafficking Project Director at the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) where she engaged in public education and policy advocacy on state and federal trafficking issues, and worked with chapter members, advocates, and allies across the country to build an anti-trafficking movement.
In 2009, she was named as an "activist to watch" by ColorLines magazine. Prior to moving to Seattle in 2002, Rebugio lived in Washington, D.C. where she provided direct services to adults living on the street. She is a graduate of Gonzaga University and the University of Washington and grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Jennifer Shaw, deputy director, is responsible for leading the policy advocacy work and for coordinating multi-disciplinary, high impact campaigns for civil liberties that involve legal, legislative, public education and mobilizing programs. more»
Jennifer came to the ACLU after 16 years as a litigation attorney, first as a public defender and then in private practice in Seattle. She started at the ACLU as the Legislative Director in 2004 and became the Deputy Director in 2008. She served on the King County Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Panel and the Seattle Mayor’s Police Accountability Review Panel. She is a member of the Seattle University Law Alumnae Board and mentors law students and new attorneys. She is a 1987 graduate of the Seattle University Law School and earned undergraduate degrees in English and Political Science from the University of Washington in 1984.
Board of Directors
President: Jesse Wing – Seattle. Civil Rights Attorney, MacDonald Hoague & Bayless.
First Vice President: Doug Klunder – Seattle. Volunteer Attorney.
Second Vice President: Jean Robinson – Seattle. Owner, The Robinson Company.
Treasurer: Randy Gainer – Seattle. Attorney, Davis Wright Tremaine.
Secretary: Brooks Holland – Spokane. Assistant Professor, Gonzaga Law School.
National Board Representative: Peter Danelo – Seattle. Attorney, Retired from Heller Ehrman LLP.
Michelle Aschenbrenner – Seattle. Microsoft Program Manager.
Venkat Balasubramani – Seattle. Technology and Internet Lawyer, Focal PLLC.
Rory Bowman – Vancouver. Macintosh Computer Consultant, MacRory.com
Emily Cooper – Seattle. Civil Rights Attorney, Disability Rights Washington.
Jennifer Fan – Seattle. Managing Director, Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, University of Washington School of Law.
Sahar Fathi – Seattle. Legislative Aide, Office of Seattle Councilmember Mike O'Brien; Attorney and Chair of MELAW Legal Clinic.
Patrick Gallagher – Seattle. VP of Engineering and Artist.
Mary Gallwey – Seattle. Retired professor, Washington State University.
Carol Guthrie – Spokane. Director of the Breast Division and Practicing Surgeon, Providence Cancer Center.
Cindy Jordan – Spokane. Attorney/Tribal Judge, Private Practice, Coeur d’Alene and Nez Perce Tribes.
Daniel Larner – Bellingham. Professor of Theatre, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western Washington University.
Paul Lawrence - Seattle. Attorney, Pacifica Law Group.
Judith Mercer – Bellevue. Project Manager, Derflan, Inc.
Noel Nightingale – Seattle. Civil Rights Attorney.
Jeffery P. Robinson – Seattle. Criminal Defense Attorney, Schroeter, Goldmark & Bender.
Matthew J. Segal – Seattle. Attorney, Pacifica Law Group.
Ash Wahi – Seattle. Software Engineer.
David Whedbee – Seattle. Attorney, MacDonald Hoague & Bayless.
Sherri Wolson – Seattle. Attorney and community volunteer.