Nicole Austin-Hillery

President & CEO

Nicole Austin-Hillery is a civil and human rights leader whose transformative work in the legal and policy arenas has been instrumental in working to uphold justice, shift systems, and change lives on both a national and global scale. As President & CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), she leads the organization in advancing the global Black community through impactful public policy research, education, and leadership development in all areas where systemic change is most needed from the halls of Congress to corporate board rooms and beyond.

Named to ESSENCE magazine’s 2024 Power 40 list of the most influential people in business in the government and politics category, she is a bridge-builder. Ms. Austin-Hillery skillfully connects private, public, and corporate sectors to channel resources toward shared visions of progress on behalf of CBCF. Under her stewardship, CBCF has expanded its scale by launching new and revised programs, campaigns, and initiatives and has  overseen the growth of CBCF’s partnerships and thought leadership. This has resulted in a surge of emerging changemakers in the Foundation’s leadership pipeline, a growing impact on public policy and research, and a wider reach empowering Black communities worldwide.

Ms. Austin-Hillery has spent her career on the frontlines of the fight for civil and human rights and empowering threatened, underrepresented and disenfranchised individuals and communities. Prior to joining the Foundation, she led Human Rights Watch’s efforts to combat systemic racism, improve the U.S. immigration system, address issues within the domestic criminal justice system, and advocate for policies that tackle poverty and inequality through the lens of international human rights standards.

Ahead of her tenure at Human Rights Watch, Ms. Austin-Hillery was the inaugural Director and Counsel of the Washington, D.C. office for The Brennan Center for Justice. There, she oversaw the expansion of the Center’s advocacy and policy development with specific focus on justice reform, Constitutional integrity and ensuring every American’s right to vote is protected. In her capacity, she also served as the Center’s chief representative before Congress and the Executive Branch.

A respected and trusted voice on civil rights and a sought-after speaker on a wide range of critical issues, Ms. Austin-Hillery has testified before legislative bodies at the state, local, and federal levels. Her insightful commentary has been featured in major news outlets, including the Washington Post, Time Magazine, The Hill, and CNN.com.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Austin-Hillery practiced civil rights employment class action litigation at Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, and served as the George N. Lindsay Civil Rights Law Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, focusing on housing litigation and policy.

Ms. Austin-Hillery’s dedication to justice and democracy is unwavering. She served as the 2018-2019 President of the Washington Bar Association, is a past President and current Advisory Board member of the Washington Council of Lawyers, formerly served as an Advisory Committee Member of the ABA Standing Committee on Election Law, serves on the Board of Common Cause and is a former co-chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Defense Function Committee. She has also been an adjunct civil rights professor at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.

She has been recognized for her work with numerous awards and honors including the Washington Council of Lawyers President’s Award, the 2023 Bison Breaking Barriers Award from Howard University, a Leadership Recognition Award from the National Bar Association and a Community Service Award from the Open My Heart Foundation. Nicole has also served as a visiting lecturer at her undergraduate alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University and at the Chautauqua Institution.

Originally from the state capital city, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she honed her roots as a true performer and thespian at heart, Ms. Austin-Hillery is a graduate of the Howard University School of Law and Carnegie Mellon University. She is also a former David A. Wassertein Public Interest Fellow at the Harvard University School of Law.