Phyllida Burlingame

Phyllida Burlingame
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California

Phyllida Burlingame is the Reproductive Justice Policy Director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. Her publications include Sex Education in California Public Schools: Are Students Learning What They Need to Know? (ACLU of Northern California, 2003), a survey of sex education programs in over 150 school districts across the state, and Sex, Lies and Politics: Abstinence-Only Curricula in California Public Schools (Applied Research Center, 1997). She played an instrumental role in drafting and ensuring passage of the California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act (SB 71, 2003) and the California Sexual Health Education Accountability Act (AB 629, 2007). The former requires sex education in California public schools to be medically accurate, comprehensive, and free of bias, while the latter extends these requirements to state-funded community-based sex education. Burlingame has collaborated with California state agencies to guide the implementation of these laws and also works with parents and community members, and with allied organizations throughout California, to ensure that local schools and agencies and comply with them. Burlingame also serves as a resource for sex education advocates in other states and nationally who look to the ACLU of Northern California’s work and California’s legislation as models. She is the steering committee chair of Bay Area Communities for Health Education. Ms. Burlingame is a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College.