Board of Directors

Board of Directors Sacramento Chapter ACLU

We’ve included the names, offices and emails of the Board. For information about how to get the ACLU involved in a case or issue, please contact Chair Jim Updegraff (updegraf AT pacbell.net).

Allen Asch (aasch AT aol.com) is Chapter Representative to the ACLU/NC, and a former public defender in Placer County and Missouri. An ACLU member since 1983, and volunteer attorney since 1996, he helped the ACLU persuade the Missouri Department of Corrections that precluding the mentally ill from drug treatment violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. He wrote an ACLU amicus brief to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the KKK’s right to advertise on government radio, and penned the ACLU-NJ policy on the confidentiality of adoption records and guidelines for physicians explaining a minor’s right to confidential reproductive health care.

Jerrold B. Braunstein (jbbraunstein AT sbcglobal.net) is a former partner with Dennis, Schotty & Braunstein, and solo practitioner attorney, specializing in commercial litigation, bankruptcy and consumer law, he is a Pro Tem Judge with Sacramento Superior Court, and past President of the Sacramento Society for the Blind.

Barry Broad (broad AT bglaw.org) is a lawyer and lobbyist, principally on behalf of labor unions. He currently serves as Chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Sacramento, is a member of the Resolutions Committee of the California Democratic Party, and serves as Chair of California Employment Training Panel. He is also the author of a spy novel, Eve of Destruction (2008), and is working on a sequel.

Daniel Costa (daniel620c AT gmail.com) is a peace activist in the Sacramento area and is Vice President of Veterans for Peace, Sacramento Chapter. He lives in mid-town Sacramento and has observed and photographed abuses against the homeless and mentally ill. Daniel wants to work with the ACLU to document and help stop these injustices.

Lanette Davies (cpr4mercy AT yahoo.com) is a leader in the Medical Marijuana movement. She has established a patients rights organization here in Sacramento and has participated in lobbying, grass roots organizing, and educating others. She has a love for civil rights issues and works exhaustively on upholding and maintaining our civil liberties.

Basim Elkarra (belkarra AT cair.com) is a leader in the Muslim American community, and Executive Director of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV). He serves on the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s advisory committee and was a member of the Human Rights Commission of San Francisco. Basim has worked with non-profit organizations, congressional campaigns, interfaith dialogues, and has done extensive work within the Muslim community on an educational and organizational level.

Adriana Gianturco Saltonstall (agsaltonstall AT aol.com) has been an ACLU member most of her life, she is the former Director of the California Dept. of Transportation (Caltrans), and Director of the Office of Statewide Planning in Massachusetts. She promoted, in the 1970s, mass transit, car-pool lanes, inter-city and commuter rail service and increased bicycle use. She is a former reporter for Time Magazine and currently is retired in Sacramento.

Nurline Holmes is a retired secondary school teacher. She worked in the city school system for thirty years. Before establishing residence in Sacramento, she lived in Buffalo, New York. Her husband was president of the NAACP and she served on the Women's Auxiliary Board. In that capacity she dealt with a variety of civil rights issues. She led marches, instructed boycotts and assisted in organizing the numerous participants on the march to Washington DC in 1963. More recently, she served as president of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society for three years. She represented the US as a citizen ambassador for People to People visiting Prague, St. Petersburg and Moscow. She is willing to serve in any capacity where needed.

Jerry Jaggers (jaggers6 AT yahoo.com) has been a member of the ACLU in various locations since 1965. He is currently serving on the Sacramento County Grand Jury but will make time to attend the board meetings and participate in ACLU activities. He is a retired engineer from Lockheed.

Bill Lackemacher (sac4democracy AT hotmail.com) works on progressive political and issue-based campaigns in the Sacramento area. He is the ACLU Sacramento Webmaster and the Communications Director and Webmaster for Sacramento for Democracy, an organization devoted to civil rights, peace and justice. He is also concerned about the status of our civil liberties in light of the current administration’s attacks on our Constitution and the Bill of Rights through the Patriot Act and other legislation.

Nikos Leverenz (nikosleverenz AT hotmail.com) is the former director of the Drug Policy Alliance in Sacramento and graduate of McGeorge School of Law. He has an extensive background in legislative and media advocacy. His policy writing has appeared in local and national media outlets. He currently works with various community groups to advance individual rights, evidence-based public policy, and secular civil government. He became a proud card-carrying member of the ACLU during George W. Bush's first term.

Mary Ann Martorana (macdon1 AT copper.net) is a retired community organizer and activist who has been a member of the ACLU both in California and Massachusetts for years. She has worked on and lobbied for a number of issues including education and training for mothers on welfare, job creation for displaced workers and housing for low income families. She has served on several governor's councils in Massachusetts and is the former president of the Massachusetts Tenants Organization. She fought to prevent the sale of Boston Public Housing and led the effort to prevent the dispossession of the Tenants of the Columbia Point Housing Project.

Cody M. Naylor (cmnaylor AT gmail.com) is a local activist. He is an employee of the CA State Legislature and serves as chair of the chapter’s Development Committee.

Rev Ashiya Odeye (therev AT justicereformcoalition.org) is Sacramento director of the Justice Reform Coalition, co-founder of the Neighbors Building Village and former community outreach chair for the Sacramento NAACP. A longtime civil rights and social justice activist, he was co-organizer with the Free Geronimo Pratt project, the Black Panthers as well as other civil rights and anti-war actions, from Fort Dix and Kent State in the Vietnam War years to today. He is Reverend Director of the Order of the Olufunmi – the first Rastafarian organization West of the Mississippi.

Mary Reddick (mreddick AT csus.edu) is currently head of Online Curriculum Library Services at the CSUS Library. She was formerly director of the Technology Assisted Curriculum Center at the University of Utah, and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science. She’s a longtime ACLU and American Library Association member.

Debra Reiger (debra.reiger AT earthlink.net) is an anti-war activist and social justice advocate in the Sacramento community and has planned numerous local events to oppose the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. She currently serves as a director on the board of a national non-profit organization and is active at a statewide level in promoting progressive issues.

Dianne Segura (dnnsegura AT gmail.com) is a recognized Latina entrepreneur by the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, is a California native, and calls Sacramento home via the now-President Barack Obama campaign. Dianne has a long-history of social justice, coalition work, as efforts include leading the YWCA, working for the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, as well as developing collaboration efforts throughout the state that focus on community empowerment. Her national justice efforts also include collaboration work with the Mexican Legal Defense Fund and National Council of La Raza, among additional. Dianne is proponent of social and civil justice endeavors, who also enjoys traveling, bikram yoga and discovering and meeting new and inspiring people, places and things!

Ayah Shields (president AT helpingandhealing.org): As noted by Dr. Maya Angelou’s famous poem, Ayah Shields, a loving mother and wife, is a Phenomenal Woman. Growing up in the Deep South brought experiences such as racism and discrimination, thus her passion for social equality has been ingrained in her since she was a child. Her personal mission in life is to help those who are disenfranchised and neglected by the very systems that were implemented to help them progress. She knows that the key to helping people is to have a genuine desire to do so, and remembering that people are people first. Serving as a social justice family advocate for many years, Ayah is President of the Board of Directors for Helping and Healing Families Inc (HHF), a not-for-profit organization serving families that are impacted by violence and crime.

Sally E. Smith (aclu_sacramento AT citlink.net) is a writer and editor for several national magazines, and is the former Executive Director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA). She has extensive public relations experience and has organized demonstrations against corporations, organizations and national political figures on behalf of consumers. Sally is Secretary of the ACLU-Sacramento Board.

Christine Thomas (babysoft777 AT hotmail.com) has been employed in a public defender office since 1988, and is currently working as a paralegal assisting in habeas corpus representation of inmates confined to California’s Death Row. In her free time, she is known as a liberal and political activist speaking out and working on behalf of others whenever possible.

John Tjaden (frisian320i AT hotmail.com) joined the national and Sacramento Coalition to Stop the Patriot Act, and worked with the ACLU to convince the Sacramento City Council to pass a virtually unanimous resolution against the USA Patriot Act. He is a member of Sacramento for Democracy, participates in local civil rights activities, and notes that he is “one of the many watching the watchers.”

James G. Updegraff (updegraf AT pacbell.net), Chair of the ACLU-Sacramento Board, is a semiretired banker and has been active for many years with numerous non-profit organizations. He is deeply concerned about the continuing threats in recent years against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, believes the ACLU is in the center of the struggle to protect our civil liberties and that a chapter in Sacramento will assist in these efforts. Jim feels a “strong commitment to participate in this struggle.”

Carol Velarde (cavelarde AT aol.com) has been a proud “card-carrying” member of the ACLU for decades. Since 1999, she has been the California Legislative Liaison for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and a member of the organization’s National Advisory Council. In addition to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment religion clauses, she is a fervent supporter of reproductive and privacy rights. A longtime community activist, Carol is a member and secretary of the Sacramento Jewish Community Relations Council. She was Field Representative for the late Congressman Bob Matsui.

Cres Vellucci (civillib AT comcast.net) is a former daily newspaper reporter for many publications, including the Sacramento Bee and a wire service at the State Capitol. He attended law school and was a law school assistant dean. He has worked as the executive director of a civil liberties group, and filed several federal civil rights suits against police. Currently, he is a strategic media relations consultant for local, state and national social justice organizations and progressive political candidates.