ACLU of Michigan 2017 Board Election Ballot

ACLU of Michigan 2017 Board Election
Nominee Biographies

The nominees to the Board all share a strong commitment to the mission of the ACLU and the qualities needed to serve as trustees of our organization which include, in some combination, issue expertise, important local representation from a diverse group of communities, and skill sets that will enrich the organization’s financial and long-term health and sustainability. The Board of Directors works to ensure that the ACLU is committed to its nonpartisan mission and maintains its values of readiness, reliability, respect and strategic action.

Each of these excellent candidates has expressed a commitment to active participation in the stewardship of the ACLU of Michigan.  Cast your ballot in support of the nominees for the 2017 Board election. 

Gary Boren received a B.S. degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan and a J.D. in 1979 from the University of Michigan Law School. He is in private practice specializing in bankruptcy law. He is a member of the Michigan Bar Association and admitted to practice in Michigan state courts, as well as the Federal District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Eastern District of Michigan and the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Gary is a former member of the board of directors of the Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Association. He is currently on the board of the Minerva Project, Inc., the Washtenaw Area Housing Coalition and the Packard Community Clinic.

Peter Hammer is the director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School which is dedicated to promoting the educational, economic and political empowerment of under-represented communities in urban areas and to ensuring that the phrase equal justice under law applies to all members of society. Professor Hammer was instrumental in editing and compiling Judge Damon J. Keith’s new biography, Crusader for Justice: Federal Judge Damon J. Keith (2013). He has become a leading voice on the economic and social issues impacting the city of Detroit, and has added new courses to the law school curriculum on Race, Law and Social Change in Southeast Michigan and Re-Imagining Development in Detroit: Institutions, Law & Society. Professor Hammer has expertise in the fields of domestic health law and policy, as well as international public health and economic development. Professor Hammer received his undergraduate education at Gonzaga University and completed his professional and graduate education at the University of Michigan, where he received a J.D. and a Ph.D. (economics). Before entering private practice, he clerked for the Hon. Alfred T. Goodwin, former chief judge of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Gilda Jacobs is CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy. From 2003-2010 she was a Democratic member of the Michigan Senate representing the 14th District. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan where she received her bachelors in science with a distinction in education and a master’s degree in behavioral sciences in education and worked as a special education teacher. She was the first woman elected to the Huntington Woods City Commission (1981-1994) and then served as Mayor Pro Tem of Huntington Woods (1993-94), Oakland County Commissioner (1995-1998), and was elected to the Michigan State House of Representatives in 1998 where she served for two terms. She made history as the first female floor leader in either chamber of the legislature and was Chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, vice-chair of the Economic Development, Small Business & Regulatory Reform Committee and the Families and Human Services Committee, and served on Government Operations and Health Policy Committees.

Loren Khogali is an attorney with the Federal Defender Office in Detroit where she represents indigent clients charged in federal court in all phases of criminal cases. She is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and Western Michigan University where she received a B.S. in Psychology and B.A. in French. Following law school, Khogali worked as a law clerk in the Superior Court of Massachusetts where she assisted Justices in all phases of civil and criminal state court litigation.

Jessica Lieberman is a 2003 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School where she served on the Michigan Journal of Race and Law where her primary academic interests were in race and gender discrimination, civil rights and poverty law. Upon completing her J.D., she stayed at home to raise her children. 

Joe Marogil lives in the Grand Rapids area. He received his J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and his B.A. from Michigan State University. His legal work focuses on health law and the regulation of medical devices and pharmaceuticals. He has long participated in social justice and anti-war advocacy. He is an active member of both the Western Branch local chapter and the Western Branch Lawyers Committee of the ACLU of Michigan. Previously he has been involved with the National Lawyers Guild, Amnesty International, volunteered with the Illinois branch of the ACLU, and has participated in organizing numerous conferences and events on critical social justice issues. 

Lisa Schmidt is an attorney in private practice in Southfield, Michigan. She has operated her practice, Schmidt Law Services, PLLC, since 2011. Before that time she practiced in Berrien County, Michigan. She attended Michigan State University where she graduated with Highest Honors from the College of Arts and Letters, and Thomas M. Cooley Law School where she graduated magna cum laude. Lisa is also happy to serve on the Affirmations Faith Alliance in Ferndale, Michigan, which helps to unite members of the LGBT community with accepting and supportive congregations of faith, and to volunteer providing pro bono legal services through the Family Law Assistant Project.

Derrell Slaughter was born in Detroit, raised in Metro Detroit, and now resides in Lansing. He is a graduate of Michigan State University. Derrell has been on the executive board of the Lansing Area ACLU for the past three years and has served as the chair of its Racial Justice Committee for over a year and a half. In the short time he has been in this chairman position, he has developed strong relationships with other progressive organizations with the purpose of getting Greater Lansing area law enforcement officers to actively promote and use more progressive policing tactics. In addition to this policy work, his committee has successfully hosted five highly attended forums on various criminal justice topics.  In addition to his work with the Lansing Area ACLU, he has run a number of state and local political campaigns in Lansing and Metro Detroit and has the pleasure of serving on the Ingham County Board of Health.

Nathan Triplett, MA, JD is the Political Director of Equality Michigan and has worked in various capacities as an organizer, policy advocate, and elected official throughout his 15 years of LGBTQ advocacy and public service. For eight of those years, Triplett served on the East Lansing City Council and in 2013 was elected as the city's youngest Mayor.

During his Council tenure, Triplett championed numerous pro-LGBTQ initiatives, including an Equal Benefits Ordinance, Domestic Partner Registry, and Other Eligible Individual Benefits Policy for municipal employees. Triplett's work earned East Lansing back-to-back perfect scores on the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index. In addition to his work in East Lansing, Triplett served as the President of the Board of Trustees of the Michigan Municipal League and as a member of Michigan Equality, the National Stonewall Democrats, and the National Board of Directors of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). A GLSEN's Pathfinder Award recipient and the former Director of Priorities Michigan, Triplett has arduously worked to pass comprehensive nondiscrimination ordinances in cities across Michigan.

An ally of the LGBTQ community, Triplett is a graduate of Michigan State University's James Madison College with degrees in Political Theory/Constitutional Democracy and Social Relations. He also holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor from the Michigan State University College of Law. He lives in East Lansing with his wife and newborn son.

Joe Tuchinsky is a devoted, life-long civil libertarian, and has been an active member of the ACLU of Michigan’s State Board and its Lansing Branch local board for more than 35 years. As the State Board’s Treasurer for many years, he chaired its Budget and Audit Committee, where he developed the plans to fund the building purchase and to manage cash flow, among many other initiatives. He has also been an active member of the Executive Committee, Investment Committee, and Governance Committee. With a degree in accounting and 20 years of experience as director of three different nonprofit advocacy organizations, followed by 25 years as a consultant assisting and advising nonprofit organizations with financial and IRS-compliance matters, he brings the ACLU a high level of expertise in nonprofit management.