Attorney Karen McCreary has been selected as the new executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, the organization announced Monday. McCreary has served as associate counsel and senior associate counsel for the University of Utah, worked in private practice and been a law clerk for U.S. District Judge David Winder in Salt Lake City. In addition, she has done international relief work in Africa and India, been a migrant worker advocate in Alabama and counseled at-risk youth. The new director said she is excited about taking on the job of defending constitutional rights in the post-9/11 era. McCreary earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado and a master's degree from the University of Denver Graduate School of International Studies. Her law degree is from the University of Utah. She is past president and a current board member of the Salt Lake City chapter of Amigos de las Americas, an elder and deacon at the Wasatch Presbyterian Church and a trustee of Prescott College in Arizona. She replaces Dani Eyer, who is stepping down after five years in the position. During her tenure Eyer handled the dispute over free speech in the Main Street Plaza and testified about the Patriot Act before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Eyer said being director has been "an amazing opportunity." "I've been honored to have the opportunity to come to work every day and consistently defend the individual liberties found in the Bill of Rights," she said. - Pamela Manson