Rachel Laser, ’95, to Deliver Lehigh University 2024 Baccalaureate Address
Social Justice Advocate Rachel Laser Named 2024 Baccalaureate Speaker
Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, will deliver the university’s 2024 Baccalaureate address Saturday, May 18, at 4 p.m. in Packer Memorial Church. Baccalaureate is a major university event during commencement weekend.
Laser, a lawyer and social justice advocate, has centered her professional life on issues of freedom, equality and inclusion in public policy. Before assuming her present position, she served as a senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center and as the director of the Culture Program at Third Way, a Washington, D.C. think-tank dedicated to building common ground between progressives and evangelical Christians on a variety of controversial issues.
As deputy director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, she ran interfaith campaigns on gun-violence prevention, paid family leave, gender equality and immigration reform. She has briefed members of Congress, White House staffers and political consultants, and she has testified before Congress on issues related to church-state separation. Her media appearances include MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC and ABC, and she has written opinion pieces for various publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
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