Meet the New AHA Staff Member: Ali Huiskens
Please welcome the Appignani Humanist Legal Center’s new Staff Attorney, Ali Huiskens!
What is your educational and work background?
Before joining the American Humanist Association, I represented employees in complex workplace disputes involving discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wage and hour violations, and related civil rights claims in federal and state court, as well administrative agencies. Most of my employment litigation matters involved a power imbalance in the workplace, so to me, helping clients regain dignity and a sense of voice mattered just as much as the legal outcome. Alongside that work, I have dedicated significant time to pro bono efforts through the National Lawyers Guild, including legal support for protest movements and broader civil liberties work focused on due process and expanding access to legal help.
I earned my J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law and a B.A. from Loyola University Chicago.
How did you first learn about humanism?
The more I read and learn about humanism, the more familiar it feels. I learned about humanism much later than I learned about theistic religions. After encountering and researching humanism, I felt a sense of relief because reason and compassion were not in conflict, finally.
Did you grow up in a traditional religious faith? How did it impact you?
Yes. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school through undergrad. In some ways, it had an unexpected upside. It made me someone who asked a lot of questions. In that environment, though, asking questions had boundaries. Over time, seeing how doubt was handled made me incredibly skeptical of any belief system that demands conformity over curiosity.
What interested you most about working for the American Humanist Association?
The AHA stood out to me because their work forces courts and institutions to answer questions that are often avoided, especially around belief, neutrality and whose rights get taken seriously. I’m drawn to cases that press courts to address those questions directly, especially when the law is unsettled and institutions benefit from ambiguity. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to pair litigation with a broader community!
What book has influenced you the most?
Toni Morrison’s “Sula.” It made me feel seen and challenged at the same time. I love that Morrison refuses to make anyone easy to categorize. I have reread it, recommended it, and carried parts of it around in my head for years, mostly because it keeps pulling me back to the same question of who gets to be complicated and who gets punished for it.
If you could have dinner with any three people in the world (living or dead), who would they be and why?
Jane Goodall. I love how her work breaks the idea that humans are the main characters and everything else is scenery. The patience and attention she brought to her research feel like their own kind of moral grounding. Her work reminds me that empathy is a way of paying attention to reality.
Angela Davis. Angela Davis’ devotion to liberation work, and the courage and intellectual discipline she brings to it, are hard to match. She has shaped how so many people understand liberation politics, especially around prisons, racial capitalism, and international solidarity, while bearing real personal risk. I deeply admire her insistence that justice must be bigger than what feels “realistic.”
Kim Gordon. She’s authentically cool and I’ve always been drawn to her refusal to perform. To me, she models staying sharp and honest, even when culture rewards people for smoothing themselves out.