Molly Curren Rowles will join the ACLU of Maine as its executive director in May 2024. Curren Rowles has worked in nonprofit management in various public interest settings, addressing issues from human rights and racial justice to religious liberty and equity in access to technology.
Most recently, Curren Rowles was executive director of the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine. There, she developed new programs, grew the agency’s capacity, and engaged interfaith and community connections in an array of ways, including collaborating with HIAS to build a Refugee Resettlement program that has resettled over 300 people in Maine since it opened in 2022.
She previously spent seven years at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, where she began her legal career as a Coffin Fellow. At Pine Tree, Molly specialized in complex family law cases and domestic violence advocacy. She then served as the York County Attorney, providing direct representation in many types of cases, including consumer, eviction, public benefits, and habitability. She also connected clients who experienced discrimination to accessible legal assistance. In 2016, she returned to Pine Tree to build and manage a new statewide intake program.
As a child growing up “off the grid” on a small family farm in rural New Hampshire, Curren Rowles developed a deep connection to the natural world and a profound appreciation of the bill of rights. She is honored to have an opportunity to join the ACLU of Maine’s team as it addresses some of the most contested and critical issues we face as a state and throughout the country – from strengthening our democracy and creating a fair legal system, to preserving bodily autonomy and holding government accountable.
Curren Rowles is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College, from which she earned her B.A. in Religion and Biblical Literature. She earned her J.D. from Cornell Law School, with a concentration in public interest law. She lives in Portland with her husband, three children, two cats, one dog, and five chickens.
