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Hector Villagra

Hector Villagra, JD, has been Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) since February 2011. He launched the Orange County Office of the ACLU SoCal in September 2005 and served as its Director until October 2009, when he became Legal Director for the ACLU SoCal. Before joining the ACLU, he served as Regional Counsel for the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) from 2001 to 2005 and as a staff attorney at MALDEF from 1999 to 2001. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Columbia University and a JD from Columbia Law School. After law school, he clerked for Chief Justice Robert Wilentz of the New Jersey Supreme Court and Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hector currently serves on the boards of Just Detention International and the California Immigrant Policy Center.