Terry Ao

Terry M. Ao is Director of 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. 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 also a leading expert on Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and other voting related issues. Her articles on voting rights have been published in the Alabama Law Review, the Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice, and the ABA publication, America Votes! A Guide to Modern Election Law and Voting Rights. Ms. Ao has also written or co-written several briefs in important voting rights-related cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. 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