Emily Whitfield joined the anat. team in 2026 as Vice President of Business and Community Development,
bringing more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of communications, advocacy,
and the law. She has spent her career helping civil rights and social justice organizations tell
complicated stories clearly — and making sure those stories reach the people who need to hear
them.

Before joining anat., Emily founded Emily Whitfield Communications, a strategic
communications consultancy serving some of the country’s most respected legal and advocacy
organizations, including the ACLU, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Innocence Project, the
Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Vera Institute of Justice. She served as interim
communications director at five civil rights organizations and placed op-eds in the New York
Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle.

Earlier in her career, Emily spent nearly a decade as Media Relations Director at the ACLU,
leading the organization’s national communications strategy during some of its most
consequential years — including the post-9/11 civil liberties debates — and conducting annual
Supreme Court briefings for the country’s top legal journalists. Her work during that period
brought her to the attention of national media, including interviews on On the Media and This
American Life. During her tenure, the ACLU received the PRSA Silver Anvil Award for Excellence
in Public Affairs.

A lifelong New Yorker and proud product of the New York City public schools, Emily shares her
Lower East Side apartment with her bookseller husband and two “locally famous” dogs, Alfie
the dachshund and Percy the poodle. Her stepdaughter is currently studying education at
Hunter College.