Maine Civil Liberties Union Organizer Appointed Field Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org

Portland – The Maine Civil Liberties Union is very pleased to announce the appointment of Brianna Twofoot to Field Director of the MCLU. As organizer at the MCLU for the last two years, Twofoot has worked relentlessly on a wide variety of civil liberties issues.

“Brianna is a passionate defender of civil liberties and works tirelessly to connect constituents with the legislative process and our issues,” said Shenna Bellows, MCLU Executive Director. “She is an invaluable advocate for the rights of Mainers, and we look forward to her expanded role in directing the MCLU’s public education and field programs.”

In the past two years, Twofoot has developed the MCLU’s student Bill of Rights program to be truly statewide reaching schools from Aroostook and Washington to York counties. She also coordinated MCLU field campaigns on Maine’s solitary confinement bill; two bills that repealed REAL ID in Maine and a ballot initiative on the same issue; a bill that would have prohibited racial profiling in Maine; and several privacy bills, including two student privacy bills and a bill limiting the use of traffic surveillance cameras in the 124th legislative session. Federally, she worked on the MCLU’s opposition to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 2008 and the USA PATRIOT Act, and addressed issues of reproductive freedom in the Healthcare Reform Bill recently passed by Congress. She leads the MCLU’s work on the federal End Racial Profiling Act, which has not been introduced yet. She speaks on national panels on racial profiling and border crossing law.

As field director, she will oversee the MCLU’s public education and field programs, including the organization’s work in middle and high schools and organizing efforts on bills in the Maine legislature and Congress. As a member of senior staff, she will also have an increased role in the MCLU’s communications work.

A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, she served as a teacher in the Mississippi Delta through Teach For America, then led a charter school on the south side of Indianapolis, Indiana before returning to her home state of Maine. She is treasurer of the Maine Choice Coalition, and sits on the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition and Coalition for Maine Women. She is a board member for the Maine Women’s Policy Center. She currently resides in Portland.