Keesha Gaskins-Nathan is the director for the Democratic Practice–United
States program and the Racial Justice Initiative at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Ms. Gaskins-Nathan is dedicated to advancing measures and ideas that improve
democratic systems and engage democratic culture in the United States to
support full and fair democratic and economic opportunity for all residents.
Ms. Gaskins-Nathan is a long-time organizer, lobbyist, and trial attorney. Prior to
joining the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, she was senior counsel with the Brennan
Center for Justice, serving as the director of the Redistricting and Representation
program. Her portfolio included redistricting reform, voting rights, and elections,
with a focus on voter suppression issues. Ms. Gaskins-Nathan is a frequent
lecturer and writer on issues related to women and politics, movement building,
and democratic transformation.
Ms. Gaskins-Nathan served as executive director for the League of Women
Voters Minnesota and the executive director for the Minnesota Women’s Political
Caucus. She worked for several years as a civil trial attorney and served as a
special assistant appellate public defender for the State of Minnesota.
She is the 2021-2022 Daynard Public Interest Fellow at Northeastern University
School of Law, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University School of International
and Public Affairs, 2019 Aspen Ideas Scholar, and 2008 Feminist Leadership
Fellow with the University of Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public
Affairs – Center on Women and Public Policy. She is a frequent commentator on
voting rights and redistricting reform and regularly appears on numerous news
and public affairs programming, including past appearances on Background
Briefing, The Great Battlefield, PBS’s NewsHour, MSNBC, and Bill Moyers.