The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana announced Monday that Akilah Maya Deernose will be its next executive director, beginning Sept. 4.
Akilah Deernose
She will replace Caitlin Borgmann, who stepped down as executive director in February after serving in that capacity since 2015. ACLU of Montana officials said they conducted a nationwide search. The ACLU of Montana is a civil rights and civil liberties organization and is an affiliate of the national ACLU.
Currently the ACLU’s senior staff attorney, Deernose will be the first Black woman, and first person who identifies as LGBTQ2S, to lead the organization in its 51-year history.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have a leader with Akilah’s passion, vision, intelligence, and commitment to equity for all inside the organization and throughout the state taking the helm of the ACLU of Montana,” Paul McKean, president of the ACLU of Montana board of directors, said in a news release.
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As senior staff attorney, she has helped fight for the civil rights and liberties of Montanans in state and federal courts since 2021.
Her cases have included Marquez v. State of Montana, where she serves as lead counsel challenging Montana’s discriminatory law making it near-impossible for transgender Montanans to amend their birth certificates, and van Garderen v. State of Montana, where she challenged a Montana statute denying medically necessary gender-affirming care to transgender youth.
Prior to joining the ACLU, Deernose was a staff attorney at the Montana Legal Services Association, where she provided legal aid and guidance to survivors of domestic violence.
Deernose was born in the East Bay area of California, and spent the first half of her childhood there, before moving to Tacoma, Washington.