Executive Director of UC Free Speech Center

I am delighted to announce that Michelle Deutchman has agreed to become the first executive director of the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. She has a distinguished record of advocacy and teaching on free speech and other First Amendment issues.

An alumna of UC Berkeley and the USC Gould School of Law, Ms. Deutchman has served in various leadership positions at the Anti-Defamation League for the past 15 years, most recently as national campus counsel. In that role, her responsibilities include providing guidance to ADL’s 24 regional offices on matters related to speech on university and college campuses; acting as ADL’s national voice on campus free speech issues; facilitating workshops with campus stakeholders on free speech principles and best practices for responding to hateful speech; and overseeing civil rights advocacy and providing strategic legal, legislative and public relations counsel for the seven western regional offices. She is a lecturer at the UCLA School of Law and a frequent presenter of educational programs at universities, schools and public service organizations.

As executive director of the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, Ms. Deutchman will be responsible for planning and executing the center’s activities, including advancing its fellows program, establishing national conferences, and serving as a liaison to the UC Office of the President, UCI and our sister UC campuses, as well as other universities and organizations engaged in shaping the national dialogue about free speech. Reporting directly to me, she will assume her new role on May 29 and will be based at UCDC in Washington, D.C., and at UCI.

I look forward to working with this outstanding attorney and steadfast advocate for the First Amendment as we advance the vital work of the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.

Chancellor Howard Gillman