Lawyer, Producer, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice
ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project
Called a “beacon of hope for transgender people around the country,” Chase Strangio is Deputy Director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project and a nationally recognized expert on transgender rights. Chase litigates extensively in federal and state courts across the country and defends the rights of LGBTQ people before state legislative bodies. Chase has been counsel in some of the past decade’s most pivotal legal fights on behalf of transgender litigants including the ACLU’s challenge to North Carolina’s notorious HB2, Carcaño, et al. v. Cooper, et al, the ACLU’s challenge to Trump’s trans military ban, Stone v. Trump, the case of Aimee Stephens, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v EEOC at the Supreme Court and recent challenges to anti-trans laws and policies in Idaho, Texas, Tennessee, Indiana and Arkansas.
Chase was also counsel in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that struck down bans on marriages for same-sex couples. In addition to his advocacy in the courtroom and state legislatures, Chase appears regularly in media, including appearances on The Rachel Maddow Show, Vice, NowThis, PBS NewsHour, Democracy Now, The Daily Show and Pod Save America. He has also produced multiple short films including the Emmy-award-winning short, Texas Strong.
President and Professor of Politics
Mount Holyoke College
Danielle R. Holley is the twentieth president of Mount Holyoke College. A noted legal scholar and educator, Holley served as Dean of the School of Law at Howard University (2014 - 2023) prior to joining Mount Holyoke. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Holley also previously served as a law clerk to Judge Carl E. Steward on the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Her achievements during her tenure at the Howard School of Law include the introduction of a six-year BA/JD program, the launch of experiential learning and career preparation initiatives with World Bank, Microsoft and Amazon Studios, among others, and a 200 percent increase in fundraising success, including a $10 million grant to support public interest law, the largest in the Howard School of Law’s history.
President Holley’s scholarship spans the governance of public schools, increasing access to higher education and diversity in the legal profession. Her contributions to the legal profession and higher education have been recognized with numerous awards including the inaugural Impact Award from the Association of American Law Schools, the American Bar Foundation’s Montgomery Summer Research Diversity Fellowship Distinguished Alumni Award, the Lutie Lytle Conference Outstanding Scholar Award, the National Bar Association’s Heman Sweatt Award and the University of South Carolina Educational Foundation’s Outstanding Service Award. She was twice awarded the Outstanding Faculty Member award during her tenure at the University of South Carolina School of Law.
