The Knight First Amendment Institute today announced that Ujala Sehgal will be joining its staff as Director of Communications, where she will lead public outreach and education to further the Institute’s goal of defending the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age. Sehgal will begin her new role on June 26.

Sehgal was formerly the director of communications for the ACLU of New York, where she oversaw media outreach and public engagement campaigns on a broad range of civil rights issues including privacy, immigration, and criminal justice. Her work included advocating for increased transparency regarding NYPD surveillance and protecting privacy rights on digital platforms. She also led the ACLU of New York’s public response to President Trump’s executive order banning entry to the United States of people from seven predominantly Muslim countries. 

Prior to working at the ACLU of New York, Sehgal was the communications director at the Asian American Legal Defense Fund, where her public outreach and campaign work focused on racial justice, immigration, and voting rights, as well as defending against illegal surveillance by law enforcement.

Sehgal has also worked as a news writer for The Atlantic’s news website, reported on the media industry for Mediabistro and Business Insider, and edited the online cultural magazine The Millions. Before that, she was a regulatory attorney at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP.

Sehgal received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School with awards in critical race theory and legal writing, and her B.A. with honors from Carnegie Mellon University.