Placed Leaders

Jace Woodrum

Executive Director

ACLU of South Carolina

We partnered with ACLU of South Carolina on their Executive Director search. The ACLU of South Carolina (ACLU of SC) works daily in communities, courts, and the South Carolina Legislature to defend and advance the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the U.S. and South Carolina Constitutions.

The search resulted in the recruitment of Jace Woodrum to the role.

Woodrum is the first transgender Executive Director in the 100-year history of the nationwide ACLU.

Woodrum has seemingly boundless energy and a deep passion for advancing social justice. He leads the storied organization at a critical time, when the freedoms of South Carolinians are under increasing attack.

Woodrum started his career in social change in 2010, when he began his role as Communications Director of One Colorado.  Overtime he grew to become the Deputy Executive Director of One Colorado, where he was managing a team of organizers and communicators mobilizing Coloradans in support of relationship recognition policies and pro-equality candidates.

While at One Colorado, Woodrum publicly came out as a transgender man and transitioned from female to male, educating Coloradans along the way.

After working at the state-level, Woodrum joined the Equality Federation, a national capacity builder for the LGBTQ movement. Next, Woodrum moved on to the Gill Foundation, one of the nation’s largest funders of LGBTQ advocacy. There he developed, funded, and managed a $3 million program to educate Americans about what it means to be transgender, contending with right-wing narratives and countering harmful attacks.

After many years in the LGBTQ movement, Woodrum took on a new cause: health equity. At the Colorado Health Foundation, the state’s largest philanthropy, he created a program using public opinion and messaging research to advance the organization’s policy goals in areas like affordable housing, health care access, and racial justice. Fundamentally an optimist, Woodrum believes that people can change their minds—if we’re willing to consider what they need to hear more than what we need to say.

He resides in Columbia with his wife, Addison, and his son, Charlie. The three of them love boating the state’s lakes and cheering on its minor league baseball teams.

Woodrum holds a Bachelors of English from the University of South Carolina.