Terry M. Ao is the director of the census and voting programs for the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC). A national expert on decennial census and census policy matters, Ms. Ao co-chairs the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights’ Census Task Force with the National Association of Latino Elected & Appointed Officials (NALEO) and sits on the U.S Department of Commerce’s 2010 Census Advisory Committee as a permanent substitute advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Ms. Ao has been consulted on matters pertaining to the privacy and confidentiality of census data, planning for the 2010 census and the American Community Survey, and other important issues.
Ms. Ao is a leading expert on section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, and election protection. In 2006, Ms. Ao published an article in the Alabama Law Review discussing the impact of the immigration debate on the reauthorization of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, entitled “When the Voting Rights Act Became Un-American: The Misguided Vilification of Section 203.” Ms. Ao also published an article in the Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice along with several colleagues, “Voting Rights in California: 1982-2006.” Ms. Ao has also co-authored a chapter in the ABA publication, America Voters! A Guide to Modern Election Law and Voting Rights, entitled “Meeting the Demand of a Growing Language-Minority Voting Populate.”
Ms. Ao has appeared before the national, ethnic, local and regional media on her program areas. She has also been a featured speaker at many different events. Ms. Ao has also provided staff briefings on Capitol Hill on issues of importance to the community.
Ms. Ao was counsel on a joint amicus brief with MALDEF filed on behalf of petitions in Bartlett vs. Strickland case before the U.S. Supreme Court in the North Carolina redistricting case in 2008 and was counsel on an amicus brief filed in the Crawford v. Marion County Election Board case before the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the Indiana photo voter ID law should be struck down in 2007. In 2003, Ms. Ao was counsel on the amicus curiae briefs filed in support of the University of Michigan in the landmark affirmative action Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Her amicus work also includes assisting in the drafting of amicus briefs in both Adarand v. Mineta in the U.S. Supreme Court and Grutter v. Bollinger in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ms. Ao received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from American University Washington College of Law and her Bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Chicago.
