Media Contact

ACLU SoCal Communications & Media Advocacy, communications@aclusocal.org, 213-977-5252

October 31, 2018

Community Advocate Rosa Lopez and Attorney Jordan Wells are First Staffers

Press Conference, Thursday, Nov. 1, at Kern County Liberty Bell

BAKERSFIELD — The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California will mark the opening of its Kern County office in Bakersfield with a press conference for local media on Nov. 1. Community Engagement Policy Advocate Rosa Lopez and Staff Attorney Jordan Wells will each make brief remarks and take questions. With the office still undergoing some renovations, the press conference will take place at the Kern County Liberty Bell in downtown Bakersfield.

Lopez has been an active organizer and policy advocate almost her whole life, devoting herself to uplift the lives of marginalized community members. Before joining the ACLU SoCal, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and worked as a career pathway specialist with the statewide John Muir Charter Schools, developing and managing career programs to re-engage young adults in education. She has strong local roots, growing up in the small Kern County town of Weedpatch and graduating from Arvin High School before going on to earn a bachelor's in Latin American Latino Studies from UC-Santa Cruz. She is currently a candidate for a master’s in Public Administration from Cal State University-Bakersfield.

Wells will focus primarily on litigation and advocacy related to civil rights and civil liberties, particularly those issues relating to immigrants’ rights and police practices. He was previously on staff at the New York Civil Liberties Union where he litigated a wide range of cases, including a successful First Amendment challenge to an ordinance banning day laborers from soliciting work; a challenge to a Long Island sheriff’s practice of detaining immigrants for ICE; and a case seeking to establish farmworkers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively. Wells graduated from New York University’s School of Law in 2013. Prior to law school, he coordinated a campaign to obtain labor rights for New York farmworkers.

The ACLU SoCal, founded in 1923, was the first affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. The organization has been a leader in landmark legal cases and advocacy regarding free speech, racial discrimination, gender equity, police practices, immigrants’ rights, education equity, reproductive justice, LGBTQ rights, and more. The other three offices of the ACLU SoCal are in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, and San Bernardino.

WHAT: Press conference to mark the opening of the Kern County office of the ACLU of Southern California.

WHO: Community Advocate Rosa Lopez and Staff Attorney Jordan Wells will speak and take questions.

WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 1, at 10 a.m.

WHERE: Kern County Liberty Bell
1415 Truxtun Ave.
Bakersfield, CA

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