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Ann Beeson is an experienced civil rights lawyer, former nonprofit CEO and philanthropy executive who has embraced a wide range of innovative strategies to advance social change.
Drawing on her background in law and anthropology, these days she is cultivating more just and sustainable ways of living and being in community. Ann is currently developing Kindle the Flame – A Pilgrimage of Song and Possibility, which aims to cultivate joyful belonging through a journey across the country to learn about, engage with and inspire emerging forms of community-based engagement. Beeson is also a chaplain-in-training at the Upaya Zen Center, where she is engaged in a two-year graduate program in socially engaged Buddhism.
Through The Pollinator, her Substack newsletter, she shares her wanderings in search of joy and justice. Most recently, Beeson was the Chief Program Officer at the Southern Poverty Law Center , where she oversaw programs to dismantle white supremacy and advance learning for justice. She previously served as CEO of Every Texan (the leading social justice think tank and public policy organization in Texas) and as the Executive Director of U.S. Programs at the Open Society Foundations, where she oversaw the distribution of $150 million annually to advance social justice. Beeson began her career at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she argued twice before the United States Supreme Court and litigated landmark civil rights and civil liberties cases around the country.
A proud Texan, Beeson obtained her law degree from Emory University School of Law, and her undergraduate and graduate degrees in anthropology and ethnomusicology from the University of Texas. Beeson is a strong believer in the role that art and culture play in building community, nourishing the spirit and advancing social change. She founded HATCH: Inspired Social Change, an initiative that brought together artists and social change leaders to develop creative social justice collaborations. She worked with celebrated theatre artist Anna Deavere Smith to conceive of and raise funds for Notes from the Field, a critically acclaimed performance piece and social justice initiative about the school-to-prison pipeline, told through the personal accounts of young people, parents and administrators.
