The Leadership Conference Announces New Staff Member and Additions to Senior Leadership Team

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Stephen Peters, [email protected], 202.466.1887

WASHINGTON — The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund announced today that Scott Simpson is rejoining the organizations as managing director of campaigns and programs. The organizations also announced Jesselyn McCurdy as executive vice president of government affairs, Shin Inouye as executive vice president of communications, and Corrine Yu as senior advisor to the president.  

“We are so fortunate to have Scott Simpson return,” said Wade Henderson, interim president and CEO of The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund. “Scott’s depth of experience in advocacy and dedication to equity for every individual in this country will be invaluable in our work building an America as good as its ideals.” 

“We are thrilled that Jesselyn McCurdy, Shin Inouye, and Corrine Yu will be taking on even greater responsibilities on our senior leadership team,” continued Henderson. “Their incredible talent and commitment to this organization and our work are truly outstanding, and their strategic leadership will no doubt continue moving us forward in the fight to protect and advance civil and human rights.”

Scott Simpson returns to The Leadership Conference after serving as the public advocacy director of Muslim Advocates, a national civil rights group for American Muslims, where he directed rapid response, policy, campaigns, communications and organizing. Prior to his work at Muslim Advocates, he served as the media and campaigns director for The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund; as a faculty member at the Howard University School of Communications; as a staffer to former Congresswoman and current HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge; and as an HIV testing, needle exchange, and outreach worker for several HIV/AIDS organizations. Simpson has served on the boards of HIPS, Q Street and the LGBT Congressional Staff Association. He is the editor of two books, “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition” written by Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and “From the Closet to the Courts: Expanded 30th Anniversary Edition” written by his great aunt, gay liberation leader Ruth Simpson. He is a graduate of Southeastern University and the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.

Jesselyn McCurdy previously served as the Managing Director of Government Affairs at The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund. She previously held the role of deputy political director at the National Political Advocacy Department (NPAD) of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and led the NPAD Equality Division that engages in federal and state advocacy as well as campaigns on immigrants’ rights, racial justice, and Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian issues. McCurdy also led the ACLU’s federal criminal justice advocacy work on federal sentencing, prison reform, drug policy, and capital punishment. Prior to this, McCurdy served as counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee and as co-director of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Education and Youth Development Division. McCurdy received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Political Science from Rutgers University and her Juris Doctor from Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.

Shin Inouye was the Managing Director of Communications at The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund. Inouye was an appointee in the Obama-Biden Administration, where he served two years as Press Secretary and Acting Senior Advisor for Intergovernmental and External Affairs at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Prior to that, he worked for six years as the Director of Specialty Media for the White House Office of Communications, serving as a spokesman for media outlets that serve the AAPI, Faith, LGBT, Native American, Rural, Veterans, and college communities, among others. He previously worked on the 2008 Obama for America campaign, and was Communications Director for Congressman Jerrold Nadler and a Senior Legislative Communications Associate at the ACLU’s Washington legislative office. He graduated with departmental honors from the Johns Hopkins University.

Corrine Yu was the senior program director of special projects for The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund. Yu previously served as The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund’s managing policy director, the director of education, and the director and counsel of the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, a private, bipartisan organization established to monitor the civil rights policies and practices of the federal government and to examine important policy issues affecting equal opportunity. She was the co-editor of the Citizens’ Commission’s highly respected biennial reviews of the Clinton administration’s civil rights track record. Prior to joining the Citizens’ Commission, Yu was an attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans and Doyle where she specialized in First Amendment, antitrust, and other litigation. She is a graduate of Brown University and Boston College Law School.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

The Leadership Conference Education Fund builds public will for federal and state policies that promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. The Education Fund’s campaigns empower and mobilize advocates around the country to push for progressive change in the United States. It was founded in 1969 as the education and research arm of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. For more information on The Education Fund, visit civilrights.org/edfund/.

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