Alanah Odoms

Alanah Odoms is a distinguished civil rights attorney, nationally recognized public speaker, and devoted mother to her daughter, Élan Jolie Hebert. She serves as Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana and made history as the first Black woman to lead the organization in its 70-year history. Since beginning her tenure on June 4, 2018, she has expanded the affiliate from a staff of two into a multi-disciplinary team of twelve working at the forefront of the nation’s most consequential civil rights battles. Under Alanah’s leadership, the ACLU of Louisiana has adopted a community-centered model of advocacy that restores constitutional rights from the ground up. Her work confronts the enduring legacies of slavery and structural racism, including racial gerrymandering, mass incarceration, immigrant detention, and discriminatory policing. Recognizing Louisiana as one of the most racially gerrymandered states in the country, Alanah spearheaded a statewide redistricting campaign that mobilized thousands of residents to demand fair representation. These efforts resulted in historic victories, including the creation of a second Black congressional district and a second Black seat on the Louisiana Supreme Court—outcomes that will reshape political power and democratic participation for generations.

Today, the ACLU of Louisiana is litigating Callais v. Louisiana, one of the most important voting rights cases of this generation. The case sits at the center of the national fight to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and will help determine whether states may continue to dilute Black political power through racial map-drawing. Alanah also leads the organization’s defense of religious freedom in Roake v. Brumley, a landmark case that will define the future of church-state separation in public schools. The ruling will have sweeping implications for religious liberty, parental rights, and constitutional neutrality nationwide. In addition, the ACLU of Louisiana remains on the front lines of resisting mass detention and deportation. Under Alanah’s leadership, the organization launched a first-of-its-kind habeas corpus project to secure the release of people unjustly held in Louisiana’s immigrant detention centers, reasserting due process and human dignity in a system designed to erase both.

Alanah is a frequent national media commentator, regularly providing constitutional analysis on MSNBC and CNN, where she is widely regarded as a clear and moral voice during moments of democratic crisis. In Fall 2027, she will release her forthcoming book, The Love Amendments: A Blueprint for Reclaiming Our Freedom in Dangerous Times, with Broadleaf Publishers. The book reframes the Reconstruction Amendments as a living moral framework for democracy and argues that love, dignity, and belonging must be treated as constitutional imperatives.

Previously, Alanah served as Deputy General Counsel and Director of the Division of Children and Families at the Louisiana Supreme Court. She is a graduate of Rutgers School of Law–Newark and a magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers College. She is also an alumna of the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, the Eagleton Institute of Politics, and the Institute for Women’s Leadership.

Her honors include the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Award, Rutgers Law School (2022) and the inaugural Torch Lighters Award, Rutgers College Institute for Women’s Leadership (2025).

Grounded in both joy and justice, Alanah also mentors young girls through Girls on the Run, bringing together her love of movement, leadership, and cultivating the next generation of courageous changemakers.