ACLU-EM Executive Director Brenda L. Jones announced at the group’s June 16 Annual Membership Meeting that she will retire at the end of this calendar year. “Despite my girlish looks," she kidded, "I am nearing the age of retirement and I’ve decided that this is a good moment in our history for me to pass the baton.”
Jones will be leaving a more robust operation than the one she joined back in September of 2004. Staff has more than doubled from four to nine full-time members, the operating budget has tripled, and the office headquarters moved into the renovated historic Selkirk’s Auction House building in Gaslight Square. Also, in 2008, the ACLU-EM became one of only 10 state ACLU affiliates out of more than 50 nationwide to participate in the National ACLU Strategic Affiliate Initiative (SAI) program. The SAI provides selected ACLU state affiliates with resources to expand their programs and infrastructure at an accelerated rate.
“We had great confidence that under Brenda’s leadership the Eastern Missouri affiliate could accomplish the SAI goals, which include building up the staff, programs and financial resources to make an even greater impact on civil liberties protection in Missouri,” says National ACLU executive director Anthony Romero. “And Brenda did not disappoint. The affiliate is making steady progress in all those areas.”
Jones greatly expanded the legal work of the ACLU-EM affiliate, increased public education and raised the group’s profile in many communities. Her legacy includes creating the Muslim rights program and nurturing the police and prison accountability work that has won wide community support as well as the respect of many within the city and professional justice establishments. She instituted an advocacy strategy that integrates the ACLU’s legal, public education and legislative programs. “I wanted our programs to work more closely together because the need is enormous. We can litigate only so many cases each year, but we can service many more through our education projects, community-based initiatives and legislative work,” Jones says. “The key is a clear strategy and top-shelf staff — lawyers and organizers who run with the ball, allowing me to focus on the infrastructure, resources and the future.”
Jones set the organization on a trajectory of growth and modernization related to programs, board operations and regional expansion. For example, in her first year as director, she took the ACLU southeast to Missouri’s “Bootheel” where, she says, “some of the most egregious civil liberties violations are happening.”
“Brenda has accomplished a lot of positive changes over the years. A case in point is helping put the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and its counterpart in western Missouri on the path of merging into one statewide ACLU of Missouri,” says ACLU Board President Sheila Greenbaum. “We’re sorry to lose her, but she has brought the ACLU of Eastern Missouri to the point where it’s organizationally strong and ready to handle this westward expansion.” Leading civil libertarian, historian, author and ACLU Leader Samuel Walker was the keynote speaker at the ACLU-EM annual meeting where Jones announced her retirement. He said, “With what Brenda’s accomplished at the Eastern Missouri affiliate, she would be a worthy consultant to help other ACLU affiliates grow their organizations.”
Jones says, “It has been a rewarding eight years to work not only on programs and governance, but also with the board to extend diversity throughout the staff and all operations. A driving force in my life and career has been to help a wide diversity of people become ‘co-owners’ of great institutions, like the ACLU.” She also expanded diversity for the St. Louis Symphony in 1992 as their community relations manager when she created “In Unison,” a program that altered the Symphony’s relationship to African-Americans. Several years later as director of communications for the Missouri Botanical Garden, she initiated the project that led to the creation of the George Washington Carver Garden and sculpture.
Responding to questions about what’s next in her personal or professional life, Jones says, “Suffice it to say that I’m retiring from the ACLU but not from my commitment to working for positive change.”
Jones expects to retire at the end of this year but says she will be available until a new executive director is hired. A search committee has been formed and a nationwide search is underway.