DSG | Koya partnered with the Independence Foundation on the search for a President & CEO. The Independence Foundation builds leadership, provides services, and encourages systems and cultural change through the support of organizations in the fields of healthcare, human services, legal aid, and the arts.

Our work resulted in the recruitment of Reggie Shuford to the role.

Shuford served as the Executive Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania for over 11 years and was a widely admired member of Philadelphia’s public interest legal community. Under his leadership, the ACLU of Pennsylvania doubled its membership and staff; litigated critical issues such as racial justice, voting rights, criminal justice, and marriage equality; and increased its annual budget from under $2 million to $6.6 million.

For the past two years, Shuford has served as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Justice Center, bringing his leadership skills back to the state where he grew up and attended college and law school. The Justice Center provides legal assistance to low-income persons and strategic advocacy to eliminate poverty and promote economic security. He initiated and has been leading the Center through a strategic planning and visioning process and has shored up its financial position by securing its first-ever endowment and breaking annual fundraising records.

Shuford has served on the Board of the Claneil Foundation and is a founding board member of New Hanover Scholars, an organization based in Wilmington, N.C., that gives grants to marginalized high school students on their way to college.

Shuford previously served as the Director of Law and Policy of the Equal Justice Society in San Francisco and as a Senior Staff Attorney at the National ACLU. He holds a B.A and J.D from the University of North Carolina and is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award and multiple Philadelphia Tribune designations as a “Most Influential African American.”