Angélica Salceda (she/her/ella)

Angélica Salceda is the director of the ACLU of Northern California’s Democracy and Civic Engagement Program. In her capacity, Angélica supervises and supports a team of attorneys and legal-policy assistants who work on voting rights, open government, and free speech issues. She focuses both on policy and litigation, providing strategic vision and leadership that shapes the work of the Program.

In her previous role as a staff attorney at the ACLU, she worked on a range of issues including immigrants’ rights, economic justice, open government, reproductive justice, and voting rights. While working on immigrants’ rights issue, she was counsel on Zepeda Rivas v. Jennings, a federal constitutional challenge to conditions of confinement during the COVID pandemic. She was also part of the litigation team in Lyon v. I.C.E., a class action on behalf of immigrant detainees in northern California to address the lack of reasonable telephone access in immigration detention facilities, a condition of confinement that prevents immigrants from fully and fairly litigating their deportation cases. She was also successful in settling a Federal Torts Claim act on behalf of two Guatemalan teenage sisters who were assaulted by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.

Prior to joining the ACLU as a staff attorney, Angélica was an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by Fenwick & West. As an Equal Justice Works Fellow, Angélica led a project to identify and remove educational barriers impacting pregnant and parenting students in California’s Central Valley. She authored a report titled, “Breaking Down Educational Barriers for California’s Pregnant and Parenting Students.” As a result of her report, the California Legislature passed and approved Assembly Bill 302 to ensure that lactating students in K-12 schools have access to a private, secure place to breastfeed or express milk during school hours.

Angélica is a graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law, where she participated in the International Human Rights Clinic on a project focused on the human right to water in California. As a student with the clinic, she co-authored a report titled, “The Human Right to Water Bill in California: An Implementation Framework for State Agencies.” While in law school, Angélica served as the UC Berkeley School of Law student body president, External Vice President of the UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly, and President of the University of California Student Association.

Angélica received her undergraduate degree in Political Science and History with a minor in Anthropology from University of California, Los Angeles. She was a 2007-2008 Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellow and was subsequently hired as a legislative aid in the California Assembly.