Yasmin Cader is the ACLU’s deputy executive director for program, strategy, and culture. She works closely with the executive director and senior leadership team to help lead the organization’s strategic direction, strengthen organizational culture, and align its nationwide work to defend and advance civil rights and civil liberties. Before assuming this role, she served as the ACLU’s deputy legal director and director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, where she led the organization’s work across criminal justice and racial justice.
Cader has appeared in many media outlets, including Mother Jones, The Marshall Project, NBC News, and The Wall Street Journal. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the The Washington Post, The Hill, Teen Vogue, and Newsweek.
A graduate of Howard University and Yale Law School, Cader began her career as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and later served as an Honors Program Trial Lawyer with the Employment Litigation Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Before joining the ACLU, she worked as a public defender in state and federal courts across the country. Cader currently lives in Los Angeles and is deeply involved with her community. Nationally, she is a leader in racial justice initiatives, mentoring the next generation of public interest lawyers, and serving in leadership roles with organizations like the Opportunity Agenda, Gideon’s Promise, the American College of Trial Lawyers, the National Criminal Defense College, and The Tsai Leadership Program at Yale Law School.
