Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Names Susan Liss Executive Director

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Jun 03, 2011, 10:54 ET

Experience in policy, advocacy and government boosts fight against tobacco

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has named Susan M. Liss, a former Clinton administration official and a longtime leader of public interest organizations, to be its Executive Director.

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Liss joins the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids after serving as Democracy Program Director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, where she oversaw and managed the center's program on advocacy and policy reform of democratic systems in the United States, including issues such as voting rights and elections, money and politics, and filibuster reform.

Before her appointment at the Brennan Center, Liss served decades in Washington as a leading public interest lawyer and advocate, and in senior government positions including special counsel to Vice President Al Gore and Chief of Staff to Tipper Gore. She also was director of federal/state relations for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under Gov. Deval Patrick.

Liss served in senior leadership roles in the Clinton administration's Justice Department, first as deputy assistant attorney general responsible for judicial nominations and later as a top official in the Civil Rights division. She has been a key policy and legal strategist for several civil rights, civil liberties and women's rights groups, and early in her career worked as attorney-advisor to Commissioner Michael Pertschuk at the Federal Trade Commission.

"Susan's impressive record of leadership on so many important issues makes her an invaluable asset to our organization as we meet new challenges in the United States and internationally," said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "We are delighted to be working with her."

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is a leading force in the fight to reduce tobacco use and its deadly toll in the United States and around the world. It advocates for public policies that prevent kids from smoking, help smokers quit and protect everyone from secondhand smoke. These include higher tobacco taxes, smoke-free air laws, well-funded tobacco prevention and cessation programs, and effective regulation of tobacco products and marketing.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. and around the world. It is responsible for more than 400,000 deaths and $96 billion in health care costs annually in the United States alone, and kills nearly six million people around the world each year.

SOURCE Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids