Our Staff

Here in Michigan, our story begins as early as 1955, when social justice advocates came together and began to plan for a state organization. The ACLU of Michigan was officially established in 1959 to defend our civil liberties.

  • Marc Allean
    Krzys Fellow

    Marc Allen joined the ACLU of Michigan as a Krzys Fellow in 2013. He works in the West Michigan Regional Office. Marc is focusing on issues at the intersection of poverty and civil rights, including challenging criminal laws that disproportionately affect the poor. He also works on religious liberty and church/state issues.

    Marc graduated from Michigan State University’s James Madison College in 2009 with a degree in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy. He graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 2013. During law school, Marc worked at the Michigan Innocence Clinic and interned at the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief in Washington, D.C.

    Marc grew up in the Upper Peninsula and speaks fluent Yooper.

  • Miriam Aukerman
    West Michigan Regional Staff Attorney

    Miriam Aukerman joined the ACLU of Michigan in December 2010 as the staff attorney for the newly-opened West Michigan Regional Office. In addition to building a robust legal program in West Michigan, Miriam participates in advocacy activities, such as public speaking, media interviews and outreach work to increase understanding of constitutional rights and the ACLU’s work.

    Prior to joining the staff of the ACLU, Miriam worked with Legal Aid of Western Michigan in Grand Rapids, as both a Soros Justice Fellow and then as the founding director of the Reentry Law Project. Miriam litigated numerous high impact cases challenging the legal barriers preventing individuals with criminal records from obtaining housing, employment and education. She also spearheaded a multi-faceted statewide campaign to achieve systemic reform on reentry issues.

    For nearly ten years, Miriam has been an active member of both the ACLU of Michigan Western Branch Board and its Lawyers Committee. She has served as a cooperating attorney on many important issues including racial profiling in Grand Rapids and a challenge to a Dearborn ordinance restricting protests, which resulted in a significant Sixth Circuit decision on the right to protest. She also led the ACLU’s election protection efforts in Grand Rapids in 2004 and 2008.

    Miriam graduated summa cum laude from both Cornell University and the New York University Law School, where she received numerous academic and public interest awards. She was also a Keasbey Scholar at Oxford University, earning a master’s degree with honors in international relations. Following law school, she was selected for a judicial clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York with Judge Pierre Leval.

    The daughter of a minister, Miriam lives with her husband and two children in Grand Rapids.

  • Mary Bejian
    Director of Philathropy

    Mary Bejian joined the ACLU of Michigan staff in 2004 as the organization’s first full-time Field Organizer. After serving as the ACLU’s Field Director and Deputy Director, Bejian now heads the organization’s strategic fundraising efforts as Director of Philanthropy. Coming from an advocacy background, Bejian seeks to strengthen the ACLU’s capacity through high-level donor engagement in advocacy campaigns and in bringing like-minded thought leaders and people of influence into the organization as lay leaders and financial supporters. In her diverse past lives at the ACLU, she has lead member recruitment efforts, managed online communication efforts, facilitated the work of issue advocacy campaigns and planned strategic educational and fundraising events.

    On the program side, Bejian has been instrumental in coalitions addressing voting rights, affirmative action, LGBT rights, immigrant rights and others. In 2008, she was awarded with the Humanitarian of the Year Award by Brown Chapel A.M.E. in Ypsilanti, Michigan, for her efforts to stop racial profiling by law enforcement.

    Before joining the ACLU staff, Bejian spent nine years coordinating undercover housing discrimination testing at the Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan. In a volunteer capacity, she served as Chairperson for the ACLU of Michigan Washtenaw County Branch for two years prior to joining the staff. In addition, Bejian has worked on issues related to the politics of HIV/AIDS, sexual assault prevention and racial profiling. Bejian holds a degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

  • Brenda Bove
    Paralegal

    Brenda Bove works with six staff attorneys under the supervision of the legal director. She helps execute case filings and case work.

    She oversees statewide legal department intake, including the hiring, training and supervision of undergraduate interns who help with the legal intake operation, including maintenance of the intake data base.

  • Darrell Dawsey
    Communications Director

    Darrell Dawsey joined the ACLU of Michigan in 2014 as the Communications Director. He is a multimedia content creator and veteran journalist who has done work for numerous print and digital outlets, including The Detroit News, USAToday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Daily News, The Los Angeles Times, Essence magazine and the groundbreaking Time.com "Assignment: Detroit" project. He has also hosted radio and television programs and recently worked as a columnist for news site Deadline Detroit.

    Dawsey is the author of three books, including Living To Tell About It: Young Black Men in America Speak Their Piece and the best-selling I Ain't Scared of You: Bernie Mac on How Life Is.

    A former editorial director at a major ad agency, Dawsey has developed and led branded publications and digital initiatives for an array of government and corporate clients, among them the United States Postal Service, General Motors, GMAC Financing, OnStar and USAA Insurance.

    He is a graduate of Wayne State University and lives in metropolitan Detroit with his wife and two children.

  • Stephan Bobalik
    Major Gifts Officer

    Stephan Bobalik joined the ACLU of Michigan in 2015 and focuses his work on major donor engagement and stewardship. He is a longtime ACLU volunteer and past member of the LGBT Leadership Committee.

    Prior to joining the ACLU of Michigan staff, Stephan held positions in presidential and gubernatorial campaigns and worked as Director of Institutional Partnerships at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He's also served as Director of Foundation and Government Partnerships at the Sphinx Organization.

    He is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a bachelor of music degree in voice performance and actively performs musical and performance art ensembles. He can be heard on several albums, including the Grammy-winning BOLCOM: Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

    Stephan lives in downtown Detroit with his plants and taxidermy collection.

  • Rana Elmir
    Deputy Director

    Rana Elmir joined the ACLU of Michigan in 2006 as the Communications Director and was named Deputy Director in 2013. Rana is a member of the ACLU of Michigan’s leadership team and plays a key role in shaping the future of the ACLU-MI and increasing the effectiveness and shaping the ACLU of Michigan's public policy campaigns. In addition, she continues her responsibilities to increase understanding and appreciation of the Bill of Rights and the ACLU's mission through digital and traditional media. 

    Rana is a graduate of Wayne State University’s Journalism School and the Journalism Institute for Minorities. She speaks fluent Arabic and is the winner of a number of awards including the Chips Quinn Scholars Program, Wayne State Media and Ethics Scholarship and Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Inaugural Scholarship and the Rosa Parks Scholarship. 

    In 2004, she was a member of the North American Media Justice Delegation to the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia where she presented on the issue of empowering communities of color in the U.S. through media engagement.

  • Mark Fancher
    Racial Justice Staff Attorney

    Mark P. Fancher is the staff attorney for the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU of Michigan. Through his work, he addresses: racially disproportionate rates of incarceration; racial discrimination against public school students of color, racial profiling, attacks on the democratic rights of communities of color and abusive police practices. 

    Fancher was formerly the Senior Staff Attorney for the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice where he specialized in workers' rights. He served on the staff of the State Bar of Michigan from 1998 to 2000 where he coordinated projects to encourage greater pro bono participation by Michigan's lawyers. He was a visiting assistant clinical professor at the University of Michigan Law School from 1996 through 1998. 

    Before moving to Michigan, Fancher was the Director of Litigation for Camden Regional Legal Services in New Jersey. He has also been in private practice where he specialized in employment discrimination and community economic development. Fancher is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Law - Camden. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Tennessee. 

    Fancher has played leadership roles in the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) for numerous years. He has also lectured across the country and written extensively on issues that include: the U.S. military presence in Africa, political repression in the U.S., and the land and resource rights of traditional indigenous communities.

  • Curt Guyette
    Investigative Reporter

    Curt Guyette joined the ACLU of Michigan in the fall of 2013 as interim media liaison, and then made the transition to investigative reporter, a newly created position funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation. He now writes about exclusively issues involving emergency management and open government.

    Prior to joining the ACLU of Michigan, Curt worked as a print journalist for more than 30 years, the last 18 of which were spent at the Metro Times, an alternative newsweekly based in Detroit. While there, the topics of his stories varied widely, from exposes that pulled back the curtain on political machinations to tales of individual struggles against systemic abuse. Along with a deep-seeded irreverence toward the powerful, his work has been shaped by compassion for the underdog, and a relentless desire to see justice – be it social, economic or environmental – served. Those values eventually led him to a job with the ACLU of Michigan.

    A native of Pennsylvania, Curt graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in English writing. He is the recipient of numerous local, state and national journalism awards. The State Bar of Michigan has honored him three times for his outstanding coverage of legal issues.

  • Giancarlo Guzman
    Education Outreach &Policy Advocate

    Giancarlo Guzman joined the ACLU of Michigan in April of 2015 as part of the education team where we believe that all children in Michigan should receive the same high quality of education. His responsibilities include community outreach and policy identification needed to improve the educational system throughout the state of Michigan. 


    Giancarlo is a Detroit native and community organizer with extensive experience partnering across public, private and municipal sectors with individuals and organizations to facilitate and improve communities and their functioning. 

    Before his arrival at ACLU of Michigan, Giancarlo served as a policy analyst for Detroit City Council, followed by seven years as a grassroots community organizer focused on reducing health disparities in the Latino and African-American communities of southwest and eastside Detroit respectively. During this time Giancarlo helped to create a myriad of community activities with participation from thousands of community members. 

    He then served with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan as a manager in the Community Investments & Partnerships (CIP) department, working across the region to organize various community based organizations, churches, and schools to improve the quality of life for people in the community. An emphasis was placed on coordinating and facilitating positive changes in the regional food system, including increasing the number of children participating in school feeding programs.

    Giancarlo received his Bachelor degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and his Master of Public Administration from the University of Michigan, Dearborn. Working in the public sector has always been a significant commitment for him.  He takes great pride in his ability to work with others to achieve and surpass collective goals.

Pages