Kara Dansky

Kara Dansky is Senior Counsel at the ACLU Center for Justice, which advocates for a transformation of the U.S. criminal justice system and an end to mass incarceration. At the ACLU, Kara advises the Center for Justice Director on matters of overall strategy and policy, oversees the implementation of Center programs, conducts advocacy and analysis, and writes papers, reports, and other program materials. Before joining the ACLU, Kara spent two years as Senior Advisor and Special Projects Lead at the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, where she advised senior Department leadership on cross-cutting topics such as the National Network of State and Local Fusion Centers, Department use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Border Searches of Electronic Devices, and the Future Attribute Screening Technology. Previously, she was the founding Executive Director and Lecturer in Law of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, which serves as Stanford's vehicle for promoting and coordinating the study of criminal law and the criminal justice system, including legal and interdisciplinary research, policy analysis, curriculum development, and preparation of law students for careers in criminal law. Kara has also served as a public defender with the Society of Counsel Representing Accused Persons in Seattle, staff attorney at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and law clerk for the Honorable Martha Vazquez of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. She is a cum laude graduate of University of Pennsylvania Law School and Johns Hopkins University.