Keesha Gaskins-Nathan is the director for the Democratic Practice–United States program and the now resolved Racial Justice Initiative at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Ms. Gaskins-Nathan is dedicated to advancing measures and ideas that improve democratic systems and engage democratic culture in the United States to a achieve full and fair democratic and economic opportunity for all.
Keesha has worked as an organizer, lobbyist, and trial attorney. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, she was senior counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice, serving as the director of the Redistricting and Representation program. Her portfolio included redistricting reform, voting rights, and elections, with a focus on voter suppression issues. Ms. Gaskins-Nathan is a frequent lecturer and writer on issues related to gender equity and politics, movement building, and democratic transformation.
In her early career, Keesha served as executive director for the League of Women Voters Minnesota and the executive director for the Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus. She worked for several years as a civil trial attorney and served as a special assistant appellate public defender for the State of Minnesota.
In 2024, Keesha kicked off the Political Climate Adaptation project in partnership with Amy Chester, Director of Rebuild by Design. The PCA is a national program focused on reimagining climate adaptation principles from physical infrastructure to social and political infrastructure. Partners in the effort include The Partnership Funds, Future Currents, ReBuild by Design, The Movement Collective, and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute on Race and Justice at Harvard University.
Currently, she is a Commissioner for the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board and the board chair for The Workers' Lab, a national home for worker-centered innovation. She is a board member of the Stonewall Community Foundation and the League of Women Voters Education Fund. She is also on the advisory boards for The Partnership Funds, Trusted Elections Fund, and the Center for Information & Research on Civic Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University.
Keesha is honored to be a Senior Fellow at Atlantic Global, working on Decolonizing Futures. She was a 2022-2023 Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity, the 2021-2022 Daynard Public Interest Fellow at Northeastern University School of Law, the 2019 Aspen Ideas Scholar, and 2008 Feminist Leadership Fellow with the University of Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs – Center on Women and Public Policy.
Keesha is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, teaching courses on Democracy, Movements, and Public Policy.