At the ACLU of Louisiana, Ali secures news coverage with a laser focus on issues of racial justice, criminal legal reform, voting rights, immigrants’ rights, and other arenas the ACLU champions. To Ali, attention is love.
She fights tirelessly to bring attention to injustices perpetrated by Louisiana's history of slavery and segregation. Ali DeFazio is a seasoned journalist and multimedia expert. Above all else, she is an intense advocate for the dignity and respect of all persons. She has bylines in The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury, San Francisco magazine, Biz New Orleans, and more. Previously, she worked on a groundbreaking report that revealed hundreds of California police officers with criminal records. Despite legal threat from California's Attorney General, a database of the officers was published in over 30 newspapers.
In New Orleans, she was part of the evaluation team for the NOLA C.A.R.E.S. collaborative, a working group to build wealth for Black and Latine women working in Early Childhood Education. While a communications specialist in Tulane's Undergraduate Admission office, Ali was instrumental in bringing in Tulane's largest and most racially diverse applicant pool in history.
Ali graduated valedictorian from the University of San Francisco with her BA in politics and journalism. While there, she was Editor in Chief of the San Francisco Foghorn. She graduated from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism with a Masters in Journalism specialized in Investigative Reporting. As a military brat, Ali lived all across the world growing up. However, she calls Brussels, Belgium and New Orleans home.
