Jules Cowell brings two decades of communications and organizing experience to the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties as the deputy communications director. Her specialty is creating written, visual, digital and news content for a wide array of civil rights issues. A lifelong activist, Jules has been involved with many grassroots organizations and activist movements fighting for immigrants’ rights, rights of people who are incarcerated, racial equity, police accountability and LGBTQ causes.
Jules is a Japanese American – during World War II, her family was forcibly relocated by the U.S. government and incarcerated at Topaz Internment Camp for nearly four years. More than four decades later, Jules’ grandmother received $20,000 in reparations and a formal apology from the U.S. government. Jules’ grandmother, who was raised in extreme poverty on a flower farm, saved every penny of her reparations money and used it to send Jules to college.
Jules earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from San Diego State University and has enjoyed a successful freelance career as a graphic designer, writer, marketing manager and communications expert. She spent several years working as a writer and graphic designer for a chain of 16 regional publications, and she has worked as the marketing manager for a national contractor and an international art supply company.
Due to increasing anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, Jules felt that history was repeating itself and this motivated her to co-found an immigration nonprofit, providing mutual aid to immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. For nearly five years, Jules served as chief operating officer, advocating for immigrants’ rights and helping newly arrived asylum seekers reunite with their families and sponsors in the United States.
