Nicole Austin-Hillery serves as the President & CEO at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF). In this role, Austin-Hillery will lead and inspire a team of high-performing leaders and staff as they create and implement plans to carry out the organization’s mission and achieve strategic goals.
Prior to joining to the CBCF, Austin-Hillery led Human Rights Watch’s efforts to end violations in abusive systems within the United States. Her work focused on addressing and combatting systemic racism, improving the U.S. immigration system, tackling rights problems within the domestic criminal justice system and advocating for policies to address poverty and inequality informed by international human rights standards.
Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Austin-Hillery was the first Director and Counsel of The Brennan Center’s Washington, D.C. office. At the Brennan Center, she oversaw the growth and development of the Center’s advocacy and policy development work in Washington and served as its chief representative before Congress and the Executive Branch. Prior to her time at the Brennan Center, Austin-Hillery litigated at the law firm of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC as part of the firm’s civil rights employment class action practice and as the George N. Lindsay Civil Rights Law Fellow at the national office of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C. where she focused on housing litigation and policy.