Diann Rust-Tierney became the Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in 2004. She is an experienced non-profit manager with thirty years of public policy and litigation advocacy. She manages the operations of the organization and directs programs for the organization and its 100 affiliate organizations seeking to change public policy on the death penalty. Previously, Rust-Tierney served as the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project. Before that, she served as the Chief Legislative Counsel, and Associate Director of the Washington Office of the American Civil Liberties Union. There she supervised six senior legislative counsel and lobbyists and managed the civil rights and civil liberties legislative program. During her tenure at the ACLU, she was the lead advocate on capital punishment on Capitol Hill, coordinating a coalition of national organizations on the issue. She was also the lead lobbyist on a broad portfolio of issues ranging from criminal justice policy, women's rights, civil rights and legislation to enhance and protect individual rights regardless of sexual orientation. Prior to joining the staff at the ACLU, she engaged in litigation and public policy advocacy to advance the rights of women and girls at the National Women's Law Center. Rust-Tierney received her undergraduate degree in political science from the College of Wooster in Ohio and her law degree from the University Of Maryland School Of Law.