Our speaker, Maggie Garrett is the Legislative Director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Maggie has been working on church-state separation issues for more than a decade. Although she started her civil liberties work as a litigator, she now works in the public policy arena. She represents Americans United before Congress and the Obama Administration, and she oversees the state legislative program. She leads the National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE), the national coalition that opposes school voucher legislation, and is the chair of the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination (CARD), which is the national coalition that fights to repeal the Bush Faith-Based Initiative.
Maggie has spoken about church-state issues in television and radio appearances and public presentations and has been quoted in numerous major newspapers.
Maggie was actually the first Madison Fellow in the Legal Department of Americans United in 2000 before she moved down south to work for the ACLU of Alabama and then the ACLU of Georgia. At the ACLU of Georgia, she litigated high-profile cases on issues including the separation of church and state, free speech, reproductive rights, and voting rights. She also served as its Legislative Director, lobbying the Georgia General Assembly on all ACLU issues.
Maggie graduated from Hamilton College, cum laude. And, she graduated with honors from The George Washington Law School, where she was the Production Editor of The George Washington Law Review.
We generally meet at noon for socializing, and then the talk starts at 1:00. The facility is wheelchair accessible. Atlanta Freethought Hall is a former Primitive Baptist Church, built in 1866. Atlanta Freethought Society was founded in 1985, which makes it one of Metro Atlanta’s oldest secular societies. AF Hall is the meeting place for Fellowship of Reason, Freedom of Religion Foundation of Atlanta, as well as other organizations. We rent the building at reasonable rates. If you would like to rent the hall for an organization meeting, a party, a wedding, etc., please see a Board Member.