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Theresa Amato
"Bridging the Democracy Gap from the Local to the National"
Wednesday, February 21, 6:00 p.m., Langdell South
Theresa Amato is the founder and executive director of the Citizen Advocacy Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to building democracy in the western suburbs of Chicago. In 1993, Ms. Amato started the Center to strengthen the public's capacities, resources, and institutions for self-governance at the community level by teaching about civic tools, by advocating on matters of public concern, and by identifying, confronting, and removing undemocratic governing practices and abuses of local power. In March 2000, Ms. Amato took a leave of absence to serve as the national campaign manager for Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign on the Green Party ticket.
Ms. Amato, a native of Itasca, Illinois, graduated with honors from Harvard/Radcliffe Colleges in 1986 with a degree in Government and Economics, and from the New York University School of Law in 1989, where she was a Root-Tilden-Snow Scholar, and the senior Note & Comment Editor of the New York University Law Review. After law school, she worked as a consultant in Haiti and the Dominican Republic with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights to expose slave labor on cane-cutting plantations. Her 1991 report for the Lawyers Committee, entitled "A Childhood Abducted," led to Emmy-winning coverage on Prime Time Live, Congressional hearings, and a reform decree.
From 1991-1993, Ms. Amato was a litigator at Public Citizen in Washington, DC, a nonprofit, health, safety, and environmental advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader. At Public Citizen Litigation Group, Ms. Amato litigated several open government and governmental accountability cases in federal courts. She was also the Director of the Freedom of Information Clearinghouse and a frequent lecturer on U.S. information policies and open government laws.
In January of 1997, The American Lawyer recognized Ms. Amato as one of the future leaders of the legal profession by naming her among the country's 45 young lawyers (under 45) outside the private sector, whose vision and commitment are changing lives. In 1998, Harvard Law School named Ms. Amato a 1998-1999 Wasserstein Public Interest Law Fellow for her outstanding dedication to public interest law.