As ACLU-TN's first Community Engagement Director, Claire’s department will work to build long-term political, community and electoral power for civil liberties and civil rights in our state, working collaboratively with partners – on coalition building, voter mobilization, volunteer engagement, community organizing, leadership development and more – to create widespread support for people-led change movements in Tennessee.
Claire first joined ACLU-TN in 2012 as a youth outreach intern while studying social work at MTSU. In her ten years at ACLU-TN, Claire’s advocacy work has included organizing a Know Your Rights workshops series at HBCUs across Middle Tennessee on interacting with police; creating ACLU-TN's Stand Up/Speak Up youth activism manual, which teaches young Tennesseans how to organize in their schools and communities; designing a statewide public education campaign on the abusive practices of private prison giant CoreCivic; working with Black rural voters in West Tennessee to overcome barriers to the ballot box during the 2020 election, and helming a multi-media story collection project highlighting the voices of rural Tennesseans impacted by the money bail system.
