Named one of the Time 100’s 2025 100 Most Influential People In The World, one of the Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian Magazine, as well as one of The NonProfit Times’s Power & Influence Top 50 and their 2025 Influencer of the Year, Skye Perryman is the President & CEO of Democracy Forward, a nonpartisan, national legal organization that promotes democracy and progress through litigation, regulatory engagement, policy education, and research. Ms. Perryman is known for developing innovative legal strategies, building unique communities and coalitions, and values-based leadership.
Under Ms. Perryman’s leadership, Democracy Forward has played a leading role in inspiring courage and in protecting the American people from harmful and unlawful federal executive action, including securing an nationwide order stopping the freeze on funding and essential services, opposing executive actions that undermine diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, protecting due process, blocking the detainment of unaccompanied migrant children, blocking attempts to withhold federal funds for public schools and direct service providers for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, opposing attempts to politicize our nation’s non-partisan civil service, and preventing the shut down of media outlets like the Voice of America. The organization has filed hundreds of legal actions this year alone, launched hundreds of investigations, and, through its Democracy2025 initiative, has organized the largest, most successful affirmative litigation effort against executive branch excesses in United States history.
Ms. Perryman’s work has been recognized widely for its positive impact on people and communities. She has received numerous awards and recognitions for her commitment to public service and her professional work. Ms. Perryman is a frequent guest lecturer and keynote speaker on matters at the intersection of law and policy. She has testified before the U.S. Congress and other expert bodies and her legal work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as well as state supreme courts. Ms. Perryman appears on both network and cable television and her work and commentary is routinely covered in outlets such as The New York Times, NPR, NBC News, The Washington Post, Texas Monthly, The Houston Chronicle, Teen Vogue, MSNBC and CNN.
Ms. Perryman grew up in Waco, Texas and is a proud product of K-12 public education. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Philosophy magna cum laude from Baylor University where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and a Juris Doctor with honors from the Georgetown University Law Center where she served as an Editor for the American Criminal Law Review.