Sarah Gillooly

Sarah Gillooly (they/them/theirs) was the Vice President for State Outreach & Engagement at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

While at AU, Sarah worked every day to build the power of AU’s members and supporters to protect religious freedom for all Americans. As a Quaker and a queer, non-binary, white co-conspirator from the South, Sarah knows that their liberation is bound up with yours.  

Before joining AU, Sarah served as the Director of Political Strategy & Advocacy at the ACLU of North Carolina, where they oversaw the organization’s political, organizing and legislative agendas in North Carolina. In that role, Sarah lobbied in the North Carolina General Assembly on a broad range of civil rights and liberties issues including LGBTQ equality, reproductive freedom and the First Amendment and built integrated advocacy campaigns in the areas of immigrant rights and criminal justice reform.

Prior to joining the ACLU, Sarah worked at Planned Parenthood for 10 years at the state and national levels. While serving at Planned Parenthood Federation of American (PPFA) in Washington, D.C., Sarah led a nationwide contraceptive equity policy project and worked with affiliates across the country to help them develop advocacy campaigns for a changing world. They started their professional career as a community health worker in Kansas City and later as an organizer for LGBTQ equality.

Sarah holds a master’s degree in women’s studies from Loyola University Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Ga. They are also an experienced full-spectrum doula.