Changes

<strong>[[Lisa Graves]]</strong> became is the new Executive Director of the [http://www.prwatch.org Center for Media and Democracy], which publishes SourceWatch, PRWatch and BanksterUSA, in July 2009. She previously served as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government, as a leading strategist on civil liberties advocacy, and as an adjunct professor (at George Washington University Law School).

Highlights of her 15-year career in public policy in Washington, DC, include: <ul><li>Testifying before congressional committees against the Bush Administration's illegal warrantless wiretapping and [http://intelligence.house.gov/Media/PDFS/FISATranscript091807.pdf efforts to entrench these unconstitutional policies], its intrusive [http://intelligence.house.gov/Media/PDFS/Graves032807.pdf collection of personal financial records and other private information] about innocent people, and its plan to increase A more detailed bio can be found [http://homeland.house.gov/SiteDocuments/20070906113654-66444.pdf military/intelligence satellite spying on Americans], a plan she [http://www.privacylives.com/thirty-three-groups-urge-congress-to-oppose-nao-appropriations-and-authorization/2008/06/09/ helped stop] as a coalition leader (while a partner at the [http://www.cnss.org Center for National Security Studies]).</li><li>Leading a national civil liberties coalition that helped lay the groundwork for the first filibuster of flawed post-9/11 policies; [http://blog.reformthepatriotact.org/index.php?/authors/5-Lisa-Graves,-Senior-Legislative-Counsel,-ACLU stalling efforts to make the Patriot Act permanent in 2005| here]]; and testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the need to [http://ftp.fas.org/sgp/congress/2005/031505transcript.pdf reform the Freedom of Information Act] to speed disclosures to citizens (as the Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy for the [http://www.acluprwatch.org American Civil Liberties Union]).</li><li>Advising Senator [[Patrick Leahy]] on judicial nominations; staffing successful filibusters of unfair candidates for lifetime jobs as federal judges; and directing and conducting in-depth research about candidates for these positions of trust as well as into the history of judicial nominations and Senate procedures (as the Chief Nominations Counsel for Senator Leahy, Chair/Ranking Member of the [http:/user/judiciary.senate.gov Senate Judiciary Committee]). </li><li>Serving as the lead counsel for the DOJ Working Group on Judicial Nominations for Assistant Attorney General Eleanor D. Acheson, in coordination with the White House Counsel's Office; drafting congressional testimony and speeches for Attorney General [[Janet Reno35268 here]]; and handling other special projects, such as serving as the managing editor and co-author of [http://www.usdoj.gov/archive/opd/gunviolence.htm reports to the President] (as Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Senior Counsel, and Counsel in the Office of Policy Development/Office of Legal Policy).</li></ul> Graves began practicing law by arguing cases before the appellate courts, as a career appointee selected through the Attorney General's Honor Program, after a clerkship with a federal judge. She earned her J.D., cum laude, from Cornell Law School, where she was Managing Editor of the <em>Cornell Law Review</em> and Co-Leader of the Women's Law Coalition, among other honors. She earned a B.S., with highest honors, from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where she was an award-winning collegiate debater, won the Top Political Science Graduate Award, and was the Wisconsin Institute for the Study of War, Peace & Global Cooperation's Peace Scholar. Graves has appeared on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNBC, BBC, C-SPAN, and other news programs and on numerous radio shows, including National Public Radio, Democracy Now!, Air America, and Pacifica Radio. Her analysis has been quoted in <em>The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe</em>, The Associated Press, Reuters,<em> USA Today, The Nation, Vanity Fair, Congressional Quarterly, Roll Call, National Journal, Legal Times, Newsday, Wired</em>, and <em>Mother Jones</em>, among others, as well as online in The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, and other blogs.