Two new senior staff members have joined the Americans United team.
Rebecca Markert is AU’s new legal director. She comes to AU from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, where she was the legal director of a team of attorneys for 15 years. Markert is also a co-host and creator of “We Dissent,” a popular monthly podcast featuring secular women attorneys discussing religious liberty and church-state separation. Americans United now joins FFRF and American Atheists in sponsoring the podcast.
Markert earned a B.A. in political science, international relations and German from the University of Wisconsin and received her law degree from Roger Williams University School of Law. She currently serves as a program chair for the Madison (Wisc.) Lawyers’ Chapter of the American Constitution Society and formerly served as the president for the Legal Association for Women.
Mari Hirose is AU’s new chief program officer, overseeing and coordinating the organization’s program strategies. She works with AU’s key departments and oversees the Legal Academy.
Prior to joining AU, Hirose served as the U.S. litigation director at the International Refugee Assistance Project and before that worked at the New York Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union and the workers’ rights law firm Outten & Golden LLP. Hirose, who holds a law degree from Stanford Law School, has taught at the New York University School of Law and Fordham School of Law, and her writings have appeared in several legal journals.
“With White Christian Nationalism on the rise and church-state separation under threat like never before, I’m thrilled that super talents like Mari and Rebecca are joining the Americans United team,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United. “I welcome them to the growing AU community. It’s a critical time to unite Americans of all beliefs with the nonreligious to defend this foundational constitutional principle.”