Amber Duke is the ACLU of Kentucky's deputy director. She is currently serving as the interim executive director. Our former executive director, Michael Aldridge, ended his tenure with the ACLU of Kentucky on December 31, 2021. Read more about Michael's 14 years as executive director here.
Amber Duke joined the ACLU of Kentucky as the organization’s first communications manager in December 2012. She was then communications director and oversaw the expansion of her department before becoming the organization's deputy director in 2020.
Amber started her career as a television news producer and grew frustrated as stations focused heavily on breaking news and neglected in-depth stories that could impact people's lives. She left TV to work for the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research at the University of Louisville. Amber was inspired by the way Anne Braden used her journalism skills to advance social change, particularly regarding racial justice. That work helped her stop looking at her time in TV as a waste of time, but instead as an opportunity to use her skills in service of movement work. When the ACLU of Kentucky decided to hire a communications manager, Amber knew it was the perfect vehicle to work on the issues she cared about while using her communications skills to advance the organization's work and engage Kentuckians.
Amber earned a Master of Arts from the University of Louisville’s Pan African Studies Department, where she focused on the history of African-American, female journalists. She also earned a Graduate Certificate in Public History from the University of Louisville’s History Department. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies from New York University.
Amber is a proud mom. When she is not chasing her daughter, she's chasing her husband and German shepherd, or has her nose deep in a book!