Audrey Wiggins

Legal Director

Audrey Wiggins is a Legal Director at Democracy Forward.

Audrey is a career civil rights attorney with both career public sector and private sector experience. Audrey joins Democracy Forward after serving as the senior adviser to the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Audrey also served as the deputy associate general counsel in the HHS Office of General Counsel (OGC) Civil Rights Division, the executive chair of the HHS OGC Training Committee and the executive chair of the HHS OGC Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Work Group, which she founded. While at HHS,  Audrey managed teams focused on issues related to civil rights, health information privacy, equity, DEIA, conscience and artificial intelligence. Audrey became well-known for her passion in following Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) jurisprudence. She created a consistent platform for training sessions dedicated to the review of decisions and how they apply to the work of HHS for colleagues and senior leadership. 

Audrey also served as a deputy chief in the Employment Litigation Section in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.  As a Deputy Chief, Audrey supervised both attorney and administrative staff in the Section’s litigation.  Audrey also served in leadership roles at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law where she supervised litigation and other advocacy efforts in the areas of employment discrimination, community development, fair housing, fair lending and environmental justice. While at the Lawyers’ Committee, Audrey served as the co-chair of the Employment Task Force of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Earlier in her career, she served as an attorney advisor for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and as a public defender. 

Audrey holds a Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. Audrey is a double HBCU (Historically Black College and University) graduate with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Broadcast Journalism from Hampton University and a Juris Doctor degree from N.C. Central University.  Audrey is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, North Carolina and the U.S. Supreme Court.