Annual Member Meeting: Board Candidates

ATTEND THE ACLU OF MINNESOTA’S ANNUAL MEETING 

The ACLU of Minnesota is gearing up for its (virtual) annual meeting, and you are invited. Members will elect board members, hear reports about the organization’s activities and financial condition, and conduct other business via Zoom. 

ACLU of Minnesota Annual Meeting 
9 a.m. Central 
Saturday, April 24, 2021 

Please register in advance for the Zoom meeting by April 20.  

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information on how to join the meeting. 

The ACLU-MN Board’s Governance Committee hereby submits the following list of nominees to serve three-year terms as members of the Board of Directors: 

NEW BOARD MEMBERS SEEKING ELECTION TO THREE-YEAR TERM

Adair Mosley (he/him) is president and CEO of Pillsbury United Communities, a pioneering community impact agency guided by a vision for thriving communities where everyone has personal, social, and economic power. A passionate change-maker and relentless strategic innovator, Adair seeks radical and inclusive solutions to communities’ most urgent needs, co-created with those most affected. His strategic framework moved PUC’s focus upstream to building infrastructure and collaborations addressing multi-dimensional social issues. He launched Justice Built Communities, an equitable economic development corporation to prevent gentrification and displacement and prioritize wealth creation in black and brown communities. Adair is a member of the Itasca Project, the CEO Council for the Alliance of Strong Families and Communities and serves on the boards of MinnPost and the Center for Economic Inclusion. He was selected to Harvard Business School’s Young American Leaders Program, named one of Grist’s 50 Fixers, and received the General Mills Foundation’s Local Legend Award for embodying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision and legacy. Adair graduated from the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan’s Executive Leadership Institute. He was an American Express Leadership Fellow in 2014 and earned a certificate in Human-Centered Design at Stanford. 

 

Aisha Ghani (she/her) is an anthropologist of religion and law at the University of Minnesota. Her ethnographic work in the United States examines the management and regulation of Islam and Muslim communities in U.S. courts. She explores these issues by tracing the formation of “legal Islam,” a term that indexes the juridical processes, political contingencies, and secular sensibilities to which Islam is subject, and through which it is transformed into a legally permissible American religion. She is currently working on two projects. “Questioning Terrorism” is a courtroom ethnography that explores how terrorism trials assist the state in defining and establishing boundaries around American Islam and American secularism. Her second project, “The Science of Islamophobia,” turns to a series of recent U.S. religious discrimination cases in which scientific discourses have been activated to argue that Islamic practices are unsafe, unsanitary, unhygienic or environmentally corrosive. These legal contestations – around Muslim cemeteries, wudu (ablution), and workplace safety – will be explored as "scientific frontiers" in the evolution of Islamophobia. Aisha received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University. During the 2020-21 academic year, Aisha is on fellowship leave as a Member at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.  

Anika V. Ward (she/her) For more than 20 years, the founder and principal of Sankofa Leadership Network has worked to improve outcomes for youth and families through partnerships that leverage the power of community voice, vision and leadership. Most recently the senior director of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota Center for Prevention, she has spent her career advancing initiatives in education, cultural arts and science, workforce development, community health and well-being. Her work has affected community groups, nonprofits, museums, state and local government, and healthcare organizations. Anika led the state’s strategies to attract, retain and support leaders of color in executive positions, and worked to build career pathways for women and people of color as director of the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center at the Science Museum of Minnesota. A daughter of Saint Paul’s historic Rondo neighborhood, Anika’s work and approach reflect her belief in community leadership and representation. She enthusiastically engages often-untapped community assets and perspectives (including elders, youth and cultural leaders) to bring communities and institutions’ power together for good. Anika holds a Master’s in Human Services, and a Bachelor’s in Human Resource Management from Concordia University. The Minneapolis/Saint Paul Business Journal named her a “40 under 40.” 

Charles “Derek” Batchlor (he/him) was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Rockville, Md. Upon graduation from high school, he attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he earned a Bachelor of Science. Derek spent eight years on active duty as a naval nuclear submarine officer. While serving as a naval officer, Derek completed his Master of Science in Information Management at George Washington University. Upon his honorable discharge from the Navy, Derek began his civilian career as a Nuclear Engineer at Wisconsin Electric Power Company, now called WE Energies. While at WE Energies, he also earned his Master of Business Administration degree from Marquette University. After five years at WE Energies, Derek decided to take on a new challenge at General Electric where he held several roles at GE Nuclear Energy, GE Industrial Systems, GE Corporate and GE Healthcare. Derek has also held leadership roles at McKinsey & Company, Target Corporation, Cargill, U.S. Bank and TCF Bank. Derek resides in Eden Prairie with his wife, Cynthia, and 16-year-old son, Christian. His daughter, Micayla, is a middle school teacher in Arkansas. 

Kim Ferguson (she/her) is the chief administrative officer of U.S. Bancorp Wealth Product Management, responsible for driving execution of strategic initiatives for all client segments. With more than 20 years of wealth management experience, Kim is known for making business objectives and team alignment a priority in driving strategy and turning vision into reality. Throughout her career, she has proven her ability to conceptualize and launch a business, exceed revenue targets in tumultuous markets, develop business solutions and identify untapped opportunities to increase sales. Her community interests include working for the empowerment of families and children. She currently serves on the YWCA St. Paul Board and Finance Committee as well as the Mission Effectiveness Committee of Hennepin County Medical Center. Kim holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Spelman College. She is based at U.S. Bank’s headquarters in Minneapolis.   

Linus Chan (he/him/they) is an associate professor of clinical law and director of the Detainee Rights Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School. He is an immigration attorney who focuses on removal defense for those detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also teaches in the area of the intersection of criminal and immigration law. 

Nida Sajid (she/her) is an interdisciplinary scholar of social justice movements, South Asian studies and global intellectual history. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Nida has taught and conducted research in five countries: Canada, Germany, India, the Netherlands and the United States. As a global nomad who grew up in India, Nida has a keen interest in creating solidarity networks to discuss diversity, ethnic conflict and social justice in different cultural and political contexts. Her work connects religious studies with the global histories of racialization to generate opportunities for an intercultural dialogue on race, caste and indigeneity. She has extensive research and teaching experience in the areas of transnational feminism, postcolonial theory, humanist philosophy and global migration. She also writes on human rights and Islam from an intersectional perspective. In addition to teaching and research, Nida is actively involved in outreach programs to build strong intellectual and cultural ties with new immigrant communities in Minnesota and to forge an innovative curriculum for public engagement at the University.  

Ronald DeHarpporte (he/him) Except for two years in the U.S. Army, Ron has lived within eight miles of where he was born in south Minneapolis all his life. He graduated from Minneapolis Roosevelt High School and the University of Minnesota. After working in the corporate world for a few years, Ron started his own company in the consumer electronics business and operated it for more than 30 years before selling it his employees in 2001. He has been interested in preserving our civil liberties since high school, and served as a volunteer intern for the ACLU of Minnesota at the old office on Central Avenue during college. He joined the board of directors in 1972 and has remained – with the exception of breaks due to term limits – ever since. Ron is pleased and proud to be asked to serve on the board for another term, and looks forward to helping continue the excellent work of the ACLU of Minnesota toward creating a better and fairer society.  

Samira Afzali (she/her) is currently a vice president at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. In her role as the UDAAP Assessment Leader, her large team focuses on consumer protection and banking with a particular emphasis on compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act and the FTC. Prior to this, Samira spent several years as an immigration attorney, starting her legal career in New Jersey. Upon arriving to Minneapolis in 2012, Samira re-established her practice. While her focus was still on immigration law, she took a keen interest in the financial impacts on the daily lives of Iranian immigrants in the U.S., and specifically international students as a result of enhanced U.S. sanctions against Iran. Samira worked closely with her network of Iranian American activists, legal scholars and policy advisors, and collectively challenged the norm that U.S. sanctions are “harmless” through advocacy, direct action and legal challenge. Samira is grateful for the opportunity to serve on the ACLU-MN Board of Directors to help center conversations on racial justice, equity, and identity, and to amplify diverse voices. Samira currently lives in Saint Paul with her two little children and her husband.  

Sarah Walker (she/her) is a local and national criminal justice reform and voting rights advocate. She is executive director of Secure Democracy. She is responsible for the organization's policy change advocacy at the federal, state and local levels overseeing regional, campaign, program, engagement and administrative staff. Sarah spent nearly a decade working in public affairs and government relationships prior to joining Secure Democracy. Sarah spent seven years as chief operating officer at 180 Degrees, Inc. During her time there, she founded the Minnesota Second Chance Coalition. Sarah brings extensive research experience to issues of politics, inequality, criminal justice reform and the role of philanthropic organizations in setting interest group agendas. Her public policy work has received many accolades. She is the recipient of the 2010 Minnesota Council of Nonprofits statewide advocacy award, the 2010 Hennepin County Bar Association Advancing Justice Award, the 2010 and 2011 winner of the Politics in Minnesota's Leaders in Public Policy award and the 2012 Minnesota Associations for Children's Mental Health's Outstanding Service Award for her work in juvenile justice. In 2012, Politics in Minnesota awarded her the Unsung Hero award for her work in criminal justice reform. 

Shannon Geshick (she/her) is a Bois Forte Band of Chippewa tribal member and executive director of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. In this capacity, she works to protect tribal sovereignty and promote the well-being of all American Indians in the state. Shannon served as the board chair for the Roseville and Saint Paul school districts’ American Indian Parent Committees and was recognized as the Parent of the Year by the Minnesota Indian Education Association in 2017. She is a founding member of the Indigenous Employee Resource Group at the Minnesota Department of Transportation and has worked extensively with Lift to End Poverty and Minnesotans Standing Together to End Poverty as a board member. Shannon is passionate about socioeconomic justice and increased access to institutions historically limited or denied to American Indians and people of color. She is a voice of those who are underrepresented, misrepresented, and marginalized. Shannon graduated high school while homeless, but since has earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Ethnic Studies and Master’s Degree in Tribal Administration and Governance from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Shannon is an avid backyard gardener and excels at listening to good jokes. She has worked for the state of Minnesota since 2011. 

Sharon Kennedy Vickers (she/her) serves the City of Saint Paul and the global civic technology community as chief information officer (CIO) and director of the Office of Technology and Communications. As CIO, she is responsible for ensuring the city uses data and technology to create a more welcoming, just and inclusive Saint Paul by co-creating people-centered digital solutions. She leads the city’s central IT organization, providing enterprise IT strategy and services – cyber security, infrastructure and operations, software/solution design and delivery, data management, human-centered design, service/help desk and digital communications. Sharon leverages more than 20 years of software engineering, consulting, technical project management and leadership experience in multiple industries including private, nonprofit, education and government. Her experience includes five years as a CIO for a national nonprofit and 12 years working in higher education. She is recognized as a champion for tech equity and is focused on creating an inclusive digital economy in Minnesota. Sharon is co-founder of Techquity, a professional platform for African Americans in technology. She is also a co-organizer of Code Switch, a civic hackathon. She focuses on making place and space for Black and Brown communities to use data and technology to co-create solutions that positively affect them. 

Silvia Ontaneda-Everson (she/her) is a passionate advocate for the human rights of refugees and immigrants, particularly women and children. She is a retired diplomat, an entrepreneur and an international consultant with vast experience in foreign public policy and international trade. She is the founder of the Trade Center of the Americas, a startup focused on building a more inclusive and sustainable global economy by providing business and investment opportunities to women and minorities across the Americas. Silvia is the founder of two unique initiatives established in the Ecuadorian Foreign Service. These initiatives were created to provide free family health services and pro bono legal representation to undocumented immigrants. They were the first of their kind built in partnership with local private organizations and a foreign consular mission, at no cost to the government or constituents. Silvia and her family are proud residents of Minnesota. She is an alumna of the University of Minnesota Law School. She has served on the board of several organizations, including the Legal Rights Center, the Center for Women in Leadership and Diplomacy, Global Minnesota, the FBI Citizens’ Academy Children’s Opioid Prevention Task Force, among others.  

Dr. Steve Miles (he/him) is a professor of medicine and bioethics emeritus of the University of Minnesota. As a non-lawyer member, he brings an extensive knowledge of torture, especially that which is abetted by physicians. He has assisted case development and testified on the abuse of war-on-terror prisoners. His book “Oath Betrayed: America’s Torture Doctors,” is one of the most complete accounts of that history. He has served on the Board of the Center for Victims of Torture in Minnesota. His 2020 book, “The Torture Doctors: Human Rights Crimes and the Road to Justice,” was shortlisted for the Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. Steve has also assisted attorneys who are trying to prevent physician-assisted capital punishment. Most recently, he was part of the Santa Cruz Symposium that addressed the problem of solitary confinement. Dr. Miles joined the ACLU-MN Foundation Board in 2017. A lifelong Minnesotan, Steve has worked in refugee camps and other international disasters. He lives in Minneapolis and is a volunteer master gardener with the University of Minnesota Extension. 

Summra Shariff (she/her) serves as executive director and president of Twin Cities Diversity in Practice (TCDIP). Since taking on the position in 2018, Summra has built on the organization’s past successes by re-energizing programming at all levels to maximize TCDIP’s ability to attract, recruit, advance and retain attorneys of color in the Twin Cities. She restructured the Emerging Leaders Group (ELG) to create a stronger community of rising lawyers of color, which provides expanded opportunities for business development, mentorship, networking and leadership. Summra has worked with the board to refresh programs, initiatives and operations among all stakeholders, and to continuing strengthening community relationships. Prior to TCDIP, Summra worked with underrepresented groups, including communities of color. She was the diversity and inclusion and pro bono coordinator for a national law firm. She’s a former long-term member of the Minnesota Justice Foundation’s Board and Executive Committee and a former board member for the Housing Justice Center. She formerly held a leadership role with the Minnesota Asian Pacific American Bar Association. Summra currently serves as vice-chair for the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Diversity and Inclusion Section, on the board of Gender Justice and on the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Legal Services Advisory Committee. 

Tamara Cabán-Ramirez (she/her/ella) is originally from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and is a long-term resident of the Twin Cities. Her solo practice of 15 years focuses on criminal defense and immigration law. Her practice is bilingual and serves diverse clients with a focus on the Latinx and immigrant communities across the state. She works with a constituency that includes a diversity of social, economic, racial and religious groups in both urban and rural settings. Tamara’s experience includes substantial public service and volunteerism. She has a deep network of community partners equally committed to diversity, inclusion and equity issues affecting our state. She is a past-president of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association and currently serve on its Judicial Endorsement Committee. She also serves as deputy regional president of the Hispanic National Bar Association, co-chair of the Special Committee on Puerto Rico, and the ImmiGRANT Defense Fund Task Force. Most recently, Attorney General Keith Ellison appointed her to the newly created Minnesota Attorney General’s Conviction Review Unit advisory board. Additionally, she serves as member at-large of the Windom Dual Immersion School Parent Teacher Organization and the MPS Joint Immersion Coalition, an advocacy group of families with children in immersion programs in the Minneapolis Public Schools system. 

Terrion L. Williamson (she/her) The native of Peoria, Ill., is an associate professor of African American & African Studies and American Studies at the University of Minnesota, where she is also affiliate faculty in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies and serves as director of the Black Midwest Initiative. She earned a J.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she served as executive editor of the University of Illinois Law Review, and a Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity from the University of Southern California. She is the author of “Scandalize My Name: Black Feminist Practice and the Making of Black Social Life” (Fordham University Press, 2017) and the editor of “Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest” (Belt Publishing, 2020). She is currently working on a book titled “We Cannot Live Without Our Lives: Black Women and Serial Murder in the American Midwest.” 

CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS SEEKING RE-ELECTION TO THREE-YEAR TERMS 

Colleen McGarry (she/her) is a partner with Fox Rothschild LLP, and her practice centers on complex business and commercial disputes, with an emphasis on matters involving distressed commercial real estate. Her experience includes bankruptcy and foreclosure proceedings involving hotels, residential and commercial development projects and retail malls. Colleen also clerked at the Minnesota Court of Appeals for the Honorable Edward J. Cleary. Colleen grew up throughout the Midwest, including stints in Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Colorado and Washington (not exactly the Midwest) before settling in Minnesota in 2011. She can often be found running the lakes with her dog, Winnie. 

Jean F. Holloway (she/her) is currently senior vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer and secretary of CryoLife, Inc., a medical device company. Prior to this, Jean was dean of the Hamline University School of Law, where she was instrumental in the merger between that law school and the William Mitchell College of Law, and taught classes in business ethics and corporate governance. Before that, she was the general counsel of C.R. Bard, Inc. and deputy general counsel of Medtronic, both medical device companies. She also clerked for the Honorable Luther M. Swygert of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She is active in the local community, serving on the boards of the Mitchell-Hamline School of Law, Jewish Family and Children's Services of Minneapolis and the Infinity Project. She also volunteers at Volunteer Lawyers Network, providing pro bono services in the areas of employment, bankruptcy and children's rights. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and Business School (cum laude), and Yale University (magna cum laude). Jean is married to Avi Nahum, an ICU physician at Regions Hospital in Saint Paul and she has three children, Aaron, Ari and Rebi, and three grandchildren, Ezra, Ester and Ezekiel.   

Jeff Holland (he/him) is a community leader with expertise in technology, finance and business transformation. He recently left Delta Air Lines after 22 years and is seeking his next career opportunity. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts and his Master of Public Affairs degree from the Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota. His volunteer work has included board service for Prepare + Prosper, the Compassionate Ocean Zen Center and Consortium Carissimi.  

Joseph T. Green (he/him) is secretary, general counsel and executive vice president of TCF Financial Corporation, where he has worked since 1986. Joe is a 1976 graduate of the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science & the Arts (B.A. in Political Science with high distinction), and a 1980 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an editor of the Michigan Journal of International Legal Studies. He also holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management (1990). Joe is a past chair of the American Bankers Association Mid-Size Bank General Counsels Committee and past chair of the Business Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association. He also served on the board of OneVillage Partners, a nonprofit providing services to villages in eastern Sierra Leone. He currently serves on the board of the Minnesota Orchestral Association (chair 2021-2022).   

Kathy Junek (she/her) has most of her adult years as a wife and mother (five kids, five grandkids). Kathy also has worked as a public defender in Anoka County (J.D. from William Mitchell, 2008) and as an accountant (MBA from Stanford, 1977). At the ACLU-MN, her work included stints on the finance, program and governance committees, as well as a significant amount of time on the ad hoc by-laws group. Her experience includes more than five years on the board of the Minnesota Orchestra, where she has been active on the DEI, finance and development committees.    

June Carbone (she/her) is the Robina Chair of Law, Science and Technology at the University of Minnesota. Previously she served as the Edward A. Smith/Missouri Chair of Law, the Constitution and Society at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and Associate Dean for Professional Development and Presidential Professor of Ethics and the Common Good at Santa Clara University School of Law. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School, and her bachelor’s from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. She teaches Property, Family Law, and courses on gender, assisted reproduction and law and genetics. She has written “From Partners to Parents: The Second Revolution in Family Law” (Columbia University Press, 2000); the third, fourth and fifth editions of “Family Law” with Leslie Harris and the late Lee Teitelbaum (Aspen, 2005, 2009, 2014); “Red Families v. Blue Families” (Oxford University Press, 2010); and “Marriage Markets: How Inequality is Remaking the American Family” (Oxford University Press, 2014), both with Naomi Cahn.  

Raleigh Levine (she/her) is a professor of law and the James E. Kelley Chair in Tort Law at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Professor Levine’s academic interests focus on constitutional law, including the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and press, and election law. She was a news editor and producer for CNN Headline News before attending Stanford Law School, from which she graduated with honors. After clerking for the Ninth Circuit, she spent the first years of her legal career as a litigator, specializing in speech, press and election law issues for the Southern California ACLU and other public interest-oriented law firms. In addition to teaching, writing and submitting amicus curiae briefs on constitutional and election law topics on behalf of high-profile public interest organizations, she frequently comments as an expert on those issues for local and national news media. Professor Levine currently serves on the boards of directors for the ACLU of Minnesota, the Infinity Project, and SALT (the Society of American Law Teachers).