Desiree Pipkins

Desiree Pipkins is the former Research Director at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., the nation’s oldest civil rights law firm. At the Legal Defense Fund, Desiree worked on various civil rights matters including major Supreme Court litigation, policy, judicial nominations, and political participation issues. She served as the Coalition Coordinator for the Louisiana Voting Rights Network, a non-partisan coalition of state and national civil rights organizations that has monitored every major election since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Desiree has researched and lobbied Congress and state legislatures on behalf of a number of election reform and voting rights issues including the reauthorization of the expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act. She has also worked extensively on a major constitutional challenge to the core provision of the Voting Rights Act.
As a committed social activist, Desiree is an Outreach Director with the African American Coalition Against AIDS in Washington, D.C. and serves as a National Fair Housing tester. Desiree earned her B.A in History and African American Studies from Oberlin College.