COLUMBUS – Mark T. Gavin, Sr., a veteran community organizer, has joined the ACLU of Ohio as Campaigns Director.
In this senior-level role, Gavin will lead a new, emerging staff team focused on building people power, and growing and mobilizing the ACLU of Ohio’s grassroots networks, especially working to achieve the ACLU’s criminal justice reform goals.
Gavin comes to the ACLU from Indivisible, where he was the senior statewide organizer for Ohio and Michigan and the deputy organizing director for Indivisible’s 12-state Midwest region. He previously worked as regional director at For Ohio’s Future, as the Ohio Democratic Party’s Northeast Ohio regional coordinator and field director, as a community organizer with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, and as a field organizer in President Barack Obama’s 2012 and 2008 campaigns.
Gavin attended Youngstown State University and is a graduate of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute. He has worked on numerous candidate and issue-based campaigns. A native of Warren, Ohio, Gavin will be based in the ACLU’s Columbus office.
“Mark comes to the ACLU with broad experience working to advance social change and a passion for community organizing,” said J. Bennett Guess, executive director. “As one of Mark’s former colleagues said about him, ‘The only thing greater than his work ethic is the capacity of his heart.’ We are so grateful he has joined our leadership team.”
The ACLU of Ohio’s new campaigns team is being supported, in part, with a significant five-year investment by National ACLU, which is committed to growing mobilization efforts and overall organizational capacity in 13 pivotal, powerful states.
“It’s a privilege to walk into this new role at such a storied organization,” said Gavin. “I’m truly excited to work towards a more just Ohio through growing and activating the ACLU of Ohio’s people power base with the rest of the Campaigns Team. I’m especially ready to tackle our state’s unfair bail system. No one’s freedom should be dependent on their family’s ability to pay.”
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