Friend –

This year has certainly brought us our fair share of challenges, but I'm thrilled to announce it has also brought us two new team members who're dedicated to protecting and enhancing the civil liberties and civil rights of all Alaskans. They bring a wealth of knowledge, unique experiences, and determination that will help us do our part to help create a more perfect union that ensures that "we the people" really means all of us. Please join me in giving them a warm Alaska welcome.

Mike Garvey joined the ACLU of Alaska in October 2020 with a wide range of advocacy experience and policy expertise, which he will draw on to work toward justice alongside Alaskans and Alaskan communities. Mike comes to Alaska after six years at ACLU National, where he worked on advocacy projects at the federal and state levels. He focused primarily on advancing policy to support community living for people with disabilities, protect pregnant workers, and reduce harm students with disabilities face in schools. He also helped lead a collaborative effort to launch a new version of the ACLU's congressional scorecard.

Prior to joining ACLU National, Mike was a graduate assistant in the Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project at the ACLU of Pennsylvania. A social worker by training, he believes in working with rather than working for, and that the wisdom and experience of directly impacted people are central to advocacy. Mike was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA, and spent the first half of his professional life as a sports reporter. Away from work, Mike is an avid runner and photographer. He and his wife are thrilled to live in Alaska and go on adventures outdoors with their pets.

Aadika Singh joined the ACLU of Alaska as a staff attorney in July 2020 but has been on Team ACLU since 2008, having previously worked at ACLU National and the ACLU of Michigan. During law school, in addition to her work for the ACLU, Aadika served Senator Patrick Leahy's U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee team and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (under Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta). Aadika has nearly a decade of national and local administrative and legislative advocacy experience in criminal justice reform and immigrants' rights. She is committed to undertaking litigation and advocacy informed by community voices and needs.

Aadika is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was senior editor of the Law Review. After law school, she served as a law clerk to Justice Bridget M. McCormack of the Michigan Supreme Court, U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh in Philadelphia, and Judge Theodore A. McKee on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Aadika is a Sikh Indian-American woman who arrived in the United States as an asylum seeker when she was eight years old. Her family fled a politically motivated assassination campaign in India, found refuge in Iraq, but were pushed out of Ramadi due to the onset of the first Gulf War. In America, Aadika grew up in low-income communities of color in California's East Bay, playing basketball and reading. She speaks Hindi, Punjabi, and Spanish. When not lawyering, she enjoys playing outside and cooking with her gorgeous husband and delightful baby boy.

Sincerely,

Joshua Decker
Executive Director, ACLU of Alaska