Shankar Narayan

Legislative Director of the ACLU of Washington

Shankar Narayan is Legislative Director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, one of the strongest and most successful ACLU affiliates in the nation. He advances a legislative agenda that protects and strengthens the fundamental civil rights and civil liberties of all, from the strongest to the most vulnerable. The achievements of the legislative program he heads include legislation to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated individuals, to enforce non-discrimination laws in schools, to allow domestic partnership for same-sex couples, to ensure equal opportunity in community athletics, and to ban the shackling of pregnant inmates, among many other bills. Shankar was previously Policy Director at OneAmerica, an immigrant rights organization, and an associate at Preston Gates and Ellis. Shankar co-chairs the City of Seattle's Immigrant and Refugee Advisory Board, and formerly co-chaired the Detention Watch Network, a national coalition. Shankar is past president of the South Asian Bar Association of Washington, a former board member of the Asian Bar Association of Washington, and co-chaired the Ethnic Diversity in the Legal Profession Committee. Shankar has been named the King County Bar Association’s Outstanding Young Lawyer for 2010. Shankar was born in the former Soviet Union, grew up in the U.S., the Maldives, India, the former Yugoslavia, Thailand, and Russia, and enjoys climbing, travel, and writing.