Arizona AG announces Civil Rights board appointments

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on Tuesday announced five appointments to the Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board.

The new members bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the Board, enhancing its mission to eliminate discrimination and promote civil rights across the state of Arizona, according to Mayes in a press release

“The Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board plays a crucial role in protecting and promoting civil rights in our state,” she said in the release.

The new members are:

• Dr. Heather M. Ross has been appointed as the board’s chair. Ross is an assistant professor at Arizona State University, specializing in health equity and policy. Ross also serves as the board chair for the Arizona Anti-Defamation League and Chair of the Phoenix Women’s Commission.

• Enrique Davis-Mazlum has been appointed as vice chair of the Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board. Davis-Mazlum holds a doctorate in gender equality in politics and has been recognized for his work in defending secularism and promoting gender equality and human rights.

• Justin Weinstein-Tull is a law professor at Arizona State University, specializing in constitutional law, state and local courts and governments, and election law. His background includes serving as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and as a law clerk to the Honorable Sidney Thomas of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

• Holli Ploog is a retired attorney with a 30-year background in information technology transformation and government coalition building and currently serves as vice mayor of Sedona. She has worked with various local, state, federal, and international agencies.

• Lydia Peirce Linsmeier is a partner at Carpenter Hazlewood Delgado & Bolen LLP in Tempe, specializing in fair housing. She is passionate about accessibility issues and serves as a board member for Disability Rights Arizona.

The Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board is a politically balanced volunteer body consisting of residents appointed by the Arizona governor. The board is authorized to make periodic surveys of the existence and effect of discrimination in the enjoyment of civil rights by any person within the state of Arizona, to foster the elimination of discrimination through community effort, and to issue publications of the results of studies, investigations, and research as in its judgment will tend to promote goodwill and the elimination of discrimination.

For information about the Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board, please visit https://www.azag.gov/civil-rights/acrab.