Amanda Nordstrom
Campus Advocacy Team
Amanda is Strategic Campaigns Counsel for FIRE’s Campus Rights Advocacy department, where she helps college students and faculty stand up to censorship and fight for their free speech rights on campus. A lifelong activist known for her creative and compassionate approach to advocacy, Amanda is driven by her commitment to helping people stand up for what they believe in — on campus and beyond. She takes pride in helping individuals navigate complex challenges with clarity, principle, and courage.
Before joining FIRE, Amanda spent more than 11 years fighting tirelessly as a formidable voice for the voiceless with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) Laboratory Investigations Department. She brings her finely-tuned negotiating skills to the team after her years of heading up PETA’s cruelty-free company certification program, working with hundreds of multinational corporations and institutions to stop testing on animals and cut ties with the cruel industry. Her dedicated work exposing the sordid international trade in monkeys for experimentation helped her build a massive toolkit of creative advocacy skills — from public education to grassroots pressure to corporate outreach — that make her a uniquely innovative and resourceful advocate.
She grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in women’s studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and earned her law degree with honors from Rutgers University School of Law.
Amanda adores her rescued menagerie (a wrinkly little French bulldog and her feline overlords), and can often be found immersed in her latest subversive craft project, on a thrift store road trip, or at a local rock show. She’s an exhibited embroidery artist and teacher, and one of her pieces was featured at Philadelphia’s nearby National Liberty Museum.
Recent Writings
- Navigating the Kafkaesque nightmare of Columbia's Office of Institutional Equity,
- University of Maryland tried to suspend the First Amendment on October 7. The Constitution doesn’t allow that.,
- When shouting silences speaking: Disinvitations, shoutdowns, and civil disobedience,
- Medical College of Wisconsin backs out of hosting symposium citing concerns about controversial speakers,
- Protestors chased down Riley Gaines after her campus speech. SFSU says it’s ‘proud’ of the event’s handling.,
- OUTRAGEOUS: SFSU students shout down Riley Gaines and accost her after event,
- NYU grad student employee fired, investigated for writing on garbage,
- Black Hills State University Director of Public Safety censored, cursed at student group recruiting on public sidewalk,
- ‘Your words are violence!’ Cornell students shout down Ann Coulter in latest heckler’s veto to roil campuses this semester,
- Tennessee Tech still investigating, enforcing event ban on LGBTQ+ and theater groups that hosted drag show,
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