Meet the Co-Chairs

Sylvia Neil

Sylvia Neil is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School.  She founded and chairs the Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and Law at Brandeis University and co-edits its book series (Brandeis University Press).  Ms. Neil currently sits on the boards of the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Vice Chair), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago (vice chair), Chicago High School for the Arts, and is president-elect of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Ms. Neil also serves on the Visiting Committee for the Humanities at the University of Chicago, the national advisory committees of Human Rights Watch Women’s Rights Division, WomenOnCall and the national board of NARAL.  In 2013 she received the Rabbi Robert J. Marx Social Justice Award from the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs

Carrie Newton

A longtime member of the ACLU, Carrie is a lawyer and political activist who is currently working as a consultant to law firms and in-house attorneys that want to improve their pro-bono footprint. This business endeavor is a natural marriage of Carrie’s professional experiences, which include having practiced corporate law at Katten Muchin Rosenman and Edwards Wildman, and serving in leadership roles in the non-profit community as the Senior Director of United Way’s Volunteer Center and Executive Director at Camp of Dreams. Carrie’s greatest role is as mom to toddler Ariella, who reminds Carrie every day why it is so important to continue the fight for civil liberties. Newton earned her bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Michigan.