Salmah Y. Rizvi is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi. An appellate litigator, community organizer, and crisis manager, Rizvi works to build lasting peace that safeguards civil rights by seeking truth, justice, and healing.
Her civil rights litigation, research, and advocacy have centered on houseless rights, prison monitorship, reentry programs, mandatory minimums, religious freedom, LGBTQIA+ rights, free speech, freedom of assembly, reproductive rights, racial justice, Native Hawaiian rights, and immigration.
Rizvi is a former Associate of Ropes & Gray LLP and Clerk for Judge Theodore A. McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals and Judge J. Michael Seabright of the U.S. District Court of Hawai‘i. Rizvi founded the American Muslim Bar Association and was a Board Director for Witness to Mass Incarceration. Rizvi has also provided legal support to the ACLU of Maryland, NYCLU, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Before law school, Rizvi supported high-value missions for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense for nearly a decade, earning honors from Members of Congress and the U.S. President’s office. She was also a Human Rights Commissioner in Maryland.
Rizvi, a child of immigrants, holds the following (fully-merit-based-funded) degrees: J.D. from NYU School of Law, M.S. from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, B.A. in Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University. She is a Soros Fellow, Vanderbilt Medalist, and Truman Scholar.
Rizvi lives in Honolulu with her husband, Professor Saquib Ali Usman, and their children, organizing healing programs for the Zawiyah Foundation of Hawai‘i in her free time. Rizvi loves to travel, has been to over 65 countries, and speaks five languages.