Evan Milligan

Co-Director, Common Good Program

Born into a unique activist/artist community and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, Evan Milligan attended Birmingham-Southern College where he graduated in 2003 as a religion major.  After graduating from college, Evan became a community organizer with the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama (FOCAL) and served as a justice fellow for the Equal Justice Initiative. He earned his JD at New York University School of Law, and returned to EJI, serving as a law fellow and as program manager. Evan served as a policy advisor for Commissioner Rodney Ellis of the Harris County Commission, where he led a research and advocacy initiative focusing on community-based violence interruption. Evan served as the founding executive director of Alabama Forward, a statewide civic engagement table advancing efforts of nonpartisan organizations throughout Alabama to expand the voter base, protect voting rights, and make election systems as accessible as possible. Evan is also the named plaintiff in Allen v. Milligan, a federal lawsuit filed under Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Evan and his co-plaintiffs, leading to the creation of a second Congressional district providing Black Alabamians an opportunity to elect a candidate of choice. Evan currently serves as co-director of the Western State Center's Common Good program, helping civic leaders in the United States understand the relationship between antisemitism, other forms of ethnic bigotry, and authoritarianism.