Kathy Sinback has been the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee since September 2022.
Before coming to ACLU-TN, Kathy dedicated 25 years to pursuing reforms in education, policing, and youth justice in order to staunch the school to prison pipeline in Tennessee. Sinback began her career with the Metropolitan Public Defender’s Office, where she represented youth facing transfer to the adult system. She was then an attorney with the Metropolitan Department of Law where she served as a senior attorney for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and advised public safety departments of the Metropolitan Government. From 2014 to 2022, Kathy served as the Court Administrator of the Davidson County Juvenile Court where she helped visionary youth justice leader Judge Sheila D.J. Calloway implement sweeping reforms to stop the criminalization of youth and substitute meaningful interventions, which contributed to a decrease in youth arrests in Nashville by over 60% in eight years.
Kathy was a 2017 member of the Tennessee General Assembly’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Juvenile Justice and served as chairperson on the Alignment Nashville Action Team on Student Discipline; the Early Intervention Committee of the Community Mental Health Systems Initiative; and the Tennessee Joint Task Force on Children’s Justice and Child Sexual Abuse.
In addition to her systems work in youth justice, Sinback is also well-known for her work as Cyntoia Brown Long’s juvenile court attorney and clemency advocate. Brown Long, whose case received international attention, was trafficked during her early teen years, then arrested at age 16 for killing a man who had solicited her for sex. She was sentenced to life in prison until her sentence was commuted by then Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. Sinback worked closely with Brown Long throughout the process and continues to partner with her to advocate for change to the criminal legal system. Kathy is a 2022 recipient of the Humanitarian Award from the Tennessee Juvenile Court Services Association for “compassion, support, and outstanding contributions to youth justice” in Tennessee.