Colleen Kane Gielskie

Director of Operations

Colleen Kane Gielskie is the daughter of farmers and immigrants, grew up in the Catskill Mountains of New York, and has lived in New Orleans since 2009. She was the Assistant Director for Communications and Operations at the ACLU of Louisiana from 2009 to 2018, was an active member of the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition (OPPRC) from 2010 to 2017, and is a lifelong participant in liberation movements. After taking some time off to write and make theatre with Southern Rep, Colleen joined VOTE in May 2020 as the Special Projects Manager. At the beginning of 2021, Colleen was promoted to Director of Operations to further her impact both in the organization and the community.

Colleen studied French and Art History at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at New Paltz. She would love to talk to you about alternatives to incarceration, a future without policing, and post-colonial Maghrebi literature.