Libby Skarin has been promoted to campaigns director for the ACLU of North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
In her new role, Skarin will be responsible for developing and implementing effective, non-partisan issue campaign strategies that will strengthen and defend civil liberties and civil rights throughout the tri-state region. Skarin will coordinate with and work alongside ACLU staff in each of the three states as well as partner organizations and impacted communities on campaign initiatives.
“With Libby as our new campaigns director, our capacity to create change in is bigger than ever,” said Heather Smith, executive director of the ACLU of North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. “Libby’s passion for and commitment to constitutional rights and social justice, along with her knowledge of policy and dedication to civil rights, is exactly what we need in our three states to fight new threats to freedom head-on – and win.”
Skarin will focus her campaign work on the ACLU’s priority areas of indigenous justice, LGBTQ and Two Spirit equality, criminal justice reform, immigrants’ rights and First Amendment issues.
Skarin joined the ACLU in 2014 as the policy director for the ACLU of South Dakota. In this role, Skarin served as the primary lobbyist for the ACLU and oversaw some of the ACLU’s greatest legislative victories for civil rights, including the passage of a bill ending life sentencing for juveniles, the historic gubernatorial veto of anti-transgender legislation and stopping the repeal of presumptive probation.
Prior to joining the ACLU, Skarin served as an assistant attorney general for the state of Iowa and worked with the Sioux City Human Rights Commission as well as Iowa Legal Aid to provide assistance to underserved communities.
Originally from Iowa, Skarin is a graduate of the University of Iowa and the University of Iowa College of Law.
About the ACLU of North Dakota
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of civil liberties and civil rights. The ACLU of North Dakota is part of a three-state chapter that also includes South Dakota and Wyoming. The team in North Dakota is supported by staff in those states.
The ACLU believes freedoms of press, speech, assembly, and religion, and the rights to due process, equal protection and privacy, are fundamental to a free people. In addition, the ACLU seeks to advance constitutional protections for groups traditionally denied their rights, including people of color, women, and the LGBTQ communities. The ACLU of North Dakota carries out its work through selective litigation, lobbying at the state and local level, and through public education and awareness of what the Bill of Rights means for the people of North Dakota.
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