J. Bennett Guess is the Executive Director at the ACLU of Ohio where he is responsible for leading the statewide organization to fulfill its mission to expand and protect civil liberties for every Ohio resident, with a specific focus on sentencing reform, bail reform, election modernization, LGBTQ rights, and reproductive justice. Before joining the ACLU, Ben held a number of high-level positions with the United Church of Christ’s national headquarters, based in Cleveland. Guess is a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a B.A. in journalism. He completed graduate studies in public administration at Murray State University, and earned a Master of Divinity at Vanderbilt University and a Doctor of Ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary.
As history painfully reminds us, during times of social uncertainty, political opportunism often leads to attacks on our civil liberties. At the ACLU of Ohio, we don’t choose between protecting people’s lives and safeguarding democracy. We can do both at the same time. Our organization’s priority work has long been about standing up for our […]
Ohioans need to have an urgent, nonpartisan, consensus-driven conversation about a subject we rarely talk about: our state’s woefully lackluster voter participation. Despite Ohio’s longstanding reputation for being the nation’s election barometer, when it comes to our record of showing up at the polls, “so goes Ohio” is not what we would ever wish for […]
