Defending Rights & Dissent Announces New Executive Director Shannon Al-Wakeel

Civil liberties advocacy group Defending Rights & Dissent today announced the appointment of veteran human rights attorney and former board co-president Shannon Al-Wakeel as its new Executive Director. 

Al-Wakeel brings more than a decade of experience defending civil liberties and human rights, with particular expertise at the intersection of national security policy, free expression, and the protection of Muslim communities’ constitutional rights. Board co-president Sascha Meinrath welcomed Al-Wakeel to the new position:

It is my great pleasure to announce Shannon Al-Wakeel as Defending Rights & Dissent’s new Executive Director! Shannon’s deep expertise and visionary leadership are essential at this pivotal moment in the fight against government overreach and the defense of civil liberty; and, I am thrilled to be working alongside her as we expand DRAD’s reach and impact. 

Following several years as an immigrants’ rights lawyer, Al-Wakeel was the founding Executive Director of Muslim Justice League, a Boston-based nonprofit established by Muslim women in 2014. Most recently, Al-Wakeel was executive director of the Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest at Stanford Law School. Al-Wakeel has served on Defending Rights & Dissent’s board of directors since 2020, and was elected co-president in 2025. Al-Wakeel said in a statement:

I’m thrilled and honored to be stepping into Defending Rights & Dissent’s executive director role. Defending Rights & Dissent has been a prescient and uncompromising opponent of political repression, from its roots in the civil rights era to today. As we face down surging authoritarianism, we will stay true to that legacy and take whatever risks are necessary to protect the rights to free expression and activism and stand with those most targeted.

Al-Wakeel succeeds longtime Executive Director Sue Udry, who will retire in November 2026 after nearly two decades leading the organization. Al-Wakeel’s tenure will officially begin on October 5.

Udry has led DRAD since 2007, building on a career spanning four decades of advocacy for peace, civil rights, civil liberties, and economic justice. During her tenure, she guided the organization through the 2015 merger of the Defending Dissent Foundation and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, bringing together two trailblazing civil liberties organizations and laying the foundation for Defending Rights & Dissent as it exists today.

Under Udry’s leadership, DRAD built a large civil society coalition to challenge FBI political spying, strengthened relationships with Muslim civil rights groups to challenge structural Islamophobia and end the Countering Violent Extremism program, and was an early advocate for whistleblower protections and key member of the coalition that freed Julian Assange. Udry said in a statement:

It’s hard to leave DRAD after almost twenty years, but handing the reins over to Shannon is easy. She will bring passion, expertise, knowledge and vision to take the organization to the next level. I know too, that our amazing staff will continue accomplishing miracles. DRAD has consistently been at the vanguard of civil liberties advocacy, taking principled stands to defend First Amendment rights and challenge government repression. That legacy will live on under Shannon’s deft leadership.

Defending Rights & Dissent is a national civil liberties organization that defends the American people’s right to know and freedom to act through grassroots mobilization, public education, policy expertise, and advocacy journalism.