Right to Housing Forum 2022 Speaker Bios
Eric Tars, National Homelessness Law Center
Eric Tars serves as the National Homelessness Law Center’s Legal Director, working on its human rights, civil rights, and children’s rights programs through trainings, litigation, and policy advocacy at the international, national, and local levels. Working across federal agencies, Eric has helped develop a national policy framework against the criminalization of homelessness. He has led the Law Center’s work on Martin v. Boise through a successful 9th Circuit appeal, leading dozens of west coast cities to modify their enforcement of homeless criminalizing ordinances. Eric is frequently quoted in national and local media, including the Washington Post, LA Times, AP Wire, NPR, and Vice News.
Before coming to the Law Center, Eric was a Fellow with Global Rights’ U.S. Racial Discrimination Program, and consulted with Columbia University Law School’s Human Rights Institute and the US Human Rights Network. Eric’s work has spanned the country and the globe. He coordinated the involvement of hundreds of organizations in the hearings of the U.S. before the UN Committee Against Torture and Human Rights Committee in 2006. Eric has conducted numerous trainings on integrating human rights strategies into domestic advocacy and he currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board of the US Human Rights Network.
Sen. Saud Anwar, Connecticut Senate
Saud was first elected to public office in 2011 as a member of South Windsor’s Town Council. He has served two terms as South Windsor mayor, once from 2013 to 2015 and once from 2017 to 2019. Saud is a medical doctor with specializations in treating lung diseases and critical care medicine, occupational and environmental medicine. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals. Saud was trained in pulmonary and critical care medicine at, and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from, Yale University. Saud also works with humanitarian and peace initiatives on a local, national and global scale.
Rep. Nicole Macri, Washington State House of Representatives
Nicole Macri was elected to the Washington House of Representatives in 2016, and represents the 43rd legislative district of Washington, which includes the Seattle neighborhoods of Downtown, First Hill, Capitol Hill, Madison Valley, Madison Park, Montlake, University District, Ravenna, Wallingford, Fremont and Phinney Ridge.
She serves as vice chair of the Appropriations Committee and is a member of the Health Care & Wellness Committee. She is also co-chair of the Washington State LGBTQ Caucus.
Nicole has more than 20 years of experience championing progressive causes on issues around affordable housing, homelessness, human services, behavioral health, and health care, including reproductive and abortion care. She has been at the forefront of the Housing First movement nationally, and is a recognized leader in practical and effective strategies that end the homelessness of people living with serious disabilities.
Outside the Legislature, Nicole is the Deputy Director for the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) in Seattle, where she has worked since 2002. She has championed Seattle’s Housing Levy, and was appointed by the City Council to serve successive terms as a member of the Housing Levy Oversight Committee. In 2014, she received an Emerging Leader Award from the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle/King County for her outstanding work in the field of affordable housing, and recently received the 2017 Inclusion Award from the Seattle Commission for People with Disabilities for her work towards improving the lives of disabled Seattleites. Nicole was selected by the Milbank Memorial Fund and the Reforming State Group to participate in the 2017-18 Emerging Leaders Program, which brings together legislators and other statewide leaders from across the nation to strengthen their skills in effective health policy formation and implementation. She was then named a Milbank Memorial Fund Fellow for 2021-22. Macri was named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People by Seattle Magazine in 2019, and one of the 100 most influential people in Seattle in 2021 by Seattle Met.
Nicole holds Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington, and completed a Certificate in Executive Leadership at Seattle University’s Albers School of Business. She lives with her partner, Deb Cayz, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
Kath Rogers, ACLU of Southern California
Kath Rogers is a staff attorney on the ACLU SoCal Dignity for All project where she works to advance the rights of unhoused community members through litigation and policy advocacy. Prior to joining the ACLU, Kath served as Program Manager and Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California, helping to launch and develop Agents of Change: Civil Rights Advocacy Initiative – a first-of-its-kind undergraduate clinical program. She also served as Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles where she collaborated with coalition partners and stakeholders to advance policies relating to free speech, housing justice, and labor and immigrant rights.
Kath also maintained a solo legal practice focused on civil rights cases. Her legal work included defending unhoused clients and activists, as well as co-counseling on a federal constitutional class action lawsuit, Arundel v. City of San Diego, challenging criminalization of houselessness, which resulted in a settlement to change discriminatory policing practices.
Kath graduated with High Honors from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego and received her BA in History with Provost Honors from the University of California San Diego. Prior to her law career, Kath worked as a community organizer for more than a decade on local and state campaigns to advance social justice.
Judith Samuels, the Samuels Group
Judith Samuels, MBA, PhD, is the CEO of The Samuels Group, an active consultancy to philanthropies, global NGOs, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Dr. Samuels’ research spans health and mental health services, education, homelessness, policy and interventions. Early in her research career she was a member of research teams that built the evidence for supportive housing, housing first and the Critical Time Intervention (CTI). Dr. Samuels consulting work spans intervention design and testing, program evaluation and policy studies.
Of significance, her work with homeless families is cited in the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health’s final report and she is the lead author on “Homeless Children: Update on Research, Policy, Programs and Opportunities,” commissioned by ASPE at HHS. And in her recent role as head of HOMEworks that released a study and paper “A Right to Housing in NYC: Impact on Families With Children” which garnered broad support. She has held appointments as the tenured Head of the Policy Analytic Lab and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Policy and Services Research Lab (CHAMPS) at the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, as an Assistant Professor at the NYU Medical School Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, as a Research Professor and an Adjunct Professor at the Steinhardt Graduate School in Global Public Health and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, both at NYU. Judith has worked on housing and homelessness in 22 states, several countries and served on numerous non-profit management boards and research Advisory boards.
Tristia Bauman, National Homelessness Law Center
Tristia Bauman combines litigation, legal education, and legislative advocacy strategies to prevent and end homelessness. Her work focuses on combating the criminalization of homelessness and advocating for laws that protect the civil and human rights of homeless people. Tristia also conducts legal trainings around the country, writes reports and other publications related to housing, and serves as a legal resource for homeless advocates.
Tristia began her law career at Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. as a housing attorney working with low-income tenants in federally subsidized housing. She later served for several years as an Assistant Public Defender in Miami-Dade County.
Tristia hails from Auckland, New Zealand but was raised in Washington State where she attended the University of Washington as an undergraduate and law student. She received her B.A. in Anthropology in 2000 and her J.D. in 2006.
Paul Boden, Western Regional Advocacy Project
Paul Boden (Executive Director) became homeless at the age of 16. He began volunteering at a drop-in shelter in San Francisco in 1983, eventually becoming a program director there. He then worked as a case manager in a supportive hotel program for mentally ill people. Paul served as Executive Director of San Francisco’s Coalition on Homelessness for 16 years and was a founder of the Community Housing Partnership, a nationally recognized permanent housing corporation with optional supportive services. He served as president of its Board for 10 years. Paul was also a board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless and co-chair of its civil rights and grassroots organizing workgroup. He has received dozens of community awards during the last twenty-five years and recognition from the city and county of San Francisco, the State of California, and the Congress of the United States. Paul regularly writes articles and op-eds and travels throughout the country giving talks and trainings.
Earl J. Edwards, Boston College Lynch School
Dr. Earl J. Edwards is an Assistant Professor in the Education Leadership Department at Boston College Lynch School of Education. He completed his doctoral degree in Urban Education at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, his Master’s Degree in Public School Leadership from Columbia University, and his B.A. in Sociology from Boston College. His current research interests focus on the following:
- Racial and socioeconomic disparities in education
- Educational policies and leadership practices that impact students experiencing homelessness
- The role of structural racism and implicit bias in perpetuating Black homelessness
David Peery, Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity
Grant writer and regulatory compliance consultant for health care providers, non profits and social entrepreneurs. Through his consulting business, Innovative Compliance Strategies (“ICS”), Mr. Peery works in partnership with nonprofits, social entrepreneurs and socially responsible small businesses to raise capital, conduct fundraising campaigns, write grant and other funding applications and engage in strategic planning and feasibility studies. ICS tailors its services to help social entrepreneurs implement their visions consistent with ethical and sustainable business practices.
ICS also helps health care providers comply with federal and state licensing and regulatory requirements, acts as an outsource compliance officer for its clients, and conducts in-house continuing education seminars and new-employee training on corporate compliance policies. ICS also represents health care providers in Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance payment appeals and claims denials.
Through his DC-based law practice, Mr. Peery defends health care providers against false claims and fraud/abuse allegations. He also represents whistleblowers in qui tam actions and consumer class action litigation.
Graham Pruss, UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations
Dr. Graham J. Pruss is an ethno-archaeologist who studies vehicle residency in North America. His research focuses on the intersection of lived experiences, social services, legal systems, and public policy development. Graham joined the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the University of California San Francisco’s Center for Vulnerable Populations as a Postdoctoral Scholar in 2020, after receiving his PhD from the University of Washington Department of Anthropology. Dr. Pruss mixes participatory, qualitative, and quantitative methods to better inform policy makers and convey complex research to non-academic audiences. Graham was inspired to focus on the habitation of vehicles in public space by extensive travel with his family in vehicles during his childhood and close relationships with long-term vehicle residents throughout his life. He brings diverse perspectives to research on housing adaptation and instability, as a former social service outreach specialist for vehicle residents (2013-2015) and previous recipient of social welfare programs as a homeless youth and teen parent in the 1990s.
Graham directed the Vehicular Residency Research Program (VRRP) at Seattle University from 2012 to 2013. Pruss presented on the state of vehicle residency to Seattle City Council in 2012, and in 2015 joined All Home – the (US HUD mandated) Seattle/King County Continuum of Care coordinating agency – where he served on the Executive Board, Governing Board and as co-Chair of the Policy Committee. Graham has worked as a Liaison for the Unhoused Community with the City of Seattle, served on the Mayor of Seattle’s Innovation Advisory Council, and led the documentation of regional vehicle residency for the annual point-in-time count of unsheltered people from 2017 to 2020.
Pruss has been working closely with the National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC) to organize an inaugural North American Vehicle Residency Summit in fall 2022 and is co-chair of the National Vehicle Residency Legal Forum with NHLC senior attorney Tristia Bauman.
Sarah Fox, Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness
Sarah Fox is the Chief Operating Officer at the CT Coalition to End Homelessness. She has extensive experience leading statewide public policy initiatives, building coalitions and cross-system partnerships, and developing housing and services solutions for vulnerable and complex populations. Before her current position, Sarah managed statewide advocacy initiatives and advanced community capacity-building efforts. Sarah has been instrumental in the development of the nationally lauded system to coordinate access to homeless resources and helped lead Connecticut’s efforts to end veteran, chronic, and family homelessness. Before joining the CCEH team in 2011, Sarah worked as a family violence victim advocate at Domestic Violence Services of Greater New Haven and as a recovery and advocacy advisor working with individuals living with chronic mental illness at Fellowship Place, Individuals living with chronic mental illness at Fellowship Place, Inc. Sarah received her B.S. in Communications with a concentration in Program Planning and Development from Cornell University and her M.S.W. with a concentration in Policy Practice from UCONN School of Social Work. In her graduate career, Sarah interned in the Office of Congressman Christopher Murphy, the Office of State Representative Toni Walker, and the Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work.
Miranda Guedes, University of Miami Law School Human Rights Clinic
Miranda Guedes is a second-year law student at the University of Miami. She is a Legal Intern for the Human Rights Clinic, where she focuses on addressing human rights violations surrounding homelessness and the lack of adequate housing on an international, national, and local level. In addition to the Clinic, she is a Junior Editor for The University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review, a student journal committed to the promotion and publication of scholarly articles that address the legal, social, economic, and psychological issues that affect communities of color.
Katherine Murray, University of Miami Law School Human Rights Clinic
Katherine Murray is a second-year law student at the University of Miami. She is a Legal Intern for the Human Rights Clinic, where she focuses her work on addressing human rights violations surrounding homelessness and the lack of adequate housing on an international, national, and local level. In addition to the Clinic, she is a member of the Human Rights Society and works as a Law Clerk at Heise Suarez and Melville, P.A.
Michael Santos, RESULTS
Michael Santos is the Senior Policy Associate at RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund. Michael has a long history of working on the rights of low-income and underrepresented communities, as an attorney with Bay Area Legal Aid, Home Base, and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and in other roles through the Department of Health and Human Services and various non-profit organizations including as as a fellow at the Clinton Foundation where he worked on an initiative to decrease the upward trend of childhood obesity in the United States. Michael obtained his JD from USC Gould School of Law and his SC.B in Biomedical Engineering and Ethnic Studies from Brown University.
Sarah Walters, University of Miami Law School Human Rights Clinic
Sarah Walters is a second-year law student at the University of Miami. She currently works as a Legal Intern for the University of Miami’s Human Rights Clinic. In the clinic, she focuses on housing rights on an international and national level with an emphasis on Indigenous rights. Outside of the clinic, Sarah participates in local advocacy efforts in Miami.
Joseph Mead, Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection
Joseph Mead is Senior Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Before joining the Institute, he was a tenured professor with a dual appointment in a law school and public administration program. He taught courses such as civil procedure, legislation and regulation, administrative law, nonprofit law, public interest lawyering, and public policy. He received the 2020 Junior Faculty Member of the year award from the Society of American Law Teachers for a “commitment to justice, equality, and academic excellence” combining teaching, scholarship, and advocacy. Mead also has more than a decade of litigating structural constitutional cases for both plaintiff and defendant. For several years he served as Associate General Counsel and cooperating attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, bringing strategic constitutional challenges to federal, state, and local laws that restrict constitutional rights. Before that, Mead served as a Trial Attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Federal Program Branch, where he defended the constitutionality of federal statutes and major agency policies in courts throughout the country. Mead has also published two dozen peer-reviewed and law review articles on nonprofit and constitutional law, litigation, and the criminalization of poverty, which have been cited in federal and state appellate courts and influenced public policy. He has also written and spoken about his research in national and local outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many others. He also serves as a Contributing Editor to the Nonprofit Law Professor Blog. Mead’s legal career started with clerkships for Judge Cornelia Kennedy of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge David Lawson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He received his juris doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was named to the Order of the Coif and served on the Michigan Law Review.
Kirsten Anderson, Southern Poverty Law Center
Kirsten Anderson is the Southern Poverty Law Center’s deputy legal director for its Economic Justice Practice Group. She manages a dedicated team of attorneys and other legal professionals and is responsible for the overall vision, strategic planning and leadership of the SPLC’s economic justice work across the Deep South. Anderson is an experienced civil rights litigator whose cases have set precedents advancing legal protections for people experiencing homelessness. She is a founding member of the national “Housing Not Handcuffs” campaign committed to ending the criminalization of homelessness. And she is frequently invited to speak on homelessness and poverty, and the importance of ensuring inclusive and nondiscriminatory housing policies.
Ellen Degnan, Southern Poverty Law Center
Ellen Degnan is a Staff Attorney at Southern Poverty Law Center. She is a graduate of University of Miami School of Law and Yale University.
Lily Milwit, National Homelessness Law Center
Lily Milwit graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in May 2021. While in law school, Lily worked as a student attorney with the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic, where she advocated on behalf of court-involved youth in the District of Columbia. She was also the President of Georgetown’s chapter of If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, and a member of Georgetown Law Students for Justice in Palestine, Georgetown Youth Advocates, and the Georgetown chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. While in law school, Lily served as a Research Assistant for multiple projects, including indigenous land dispossession, critical race theory and the law, and the role of the law in supporting social movements like Me Too and Black Lives Matter. She has interned with Lawyers for Children, The Poverty & Race Research Action Council, The National Partnership for Women & Families, Equal Justice Under Law, and Bread for the City.
Lily graduated from Tulane University, where she majored in Political Science, English, and Communications, and was the Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper.
Diana Simpson, Institute for Justice
Diana Simpson is an attorney with the Institute for Justice. She joined the Institute’s headquarters office in 2013 after working as a constitutional law fellow in the Arizona office.
Diana litigates to protect private property and other individual rights, with a particular interest in challenging irrational zoning decisions and abusive fines and fees practices. For instance, she represented a homeless shelterafter a North Carolina town invoked bogus reasons to prohibit it from opening. The team obtained a federal court victory recognizing that the government violated the Constitution by irrationally denying the shelter its needed permit to open. She currently represents a Texas auto mechanic who faces an impossible-to-comply-with minimum parking requirement. And she is lead attorney in a class action lawsuit against the City of Chicago challenging its impound system, which imposes excessive fines and harsh fees on tens of thousands of Chicago residents and visitors each year. Beyond these cases, she has represented many other Americans in their fight to pursue their dreams.
Diana’s work has been featured by outlets including The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio’s 1A, The New York Times, and many others nationwide.
Jeremy Penn, National Homelessness Law Center
Jeremy Penn, Esq., uses she/they pronouns and is a licensed attorney in the District of Columbia. She graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in May 2021. She served as Executive Editor for the Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives, 3L Delegate in the Student Bar Association House of Delegates, President for OutLaw, Georgetown Law’s LGBTQ+ student affinity group, and Treasurer for Georgetown’s student chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
While in law school, Jeremy interned with Law for Black Lives, the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, the Congressional Office of Representative Donna Shalala, and the Civil Rights Section of the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. She also served as a Research Assistant for Professor Naomi Mezey. Prior to joining the Law Center, Jeremy assisted families fleeing Afghanistan after the US withdrawal.
Jeremy graduated from the University of Miami, where she majored in Ecosystem Science & Policy, Applied Physics, and Geography with minors in Mathematics and LGBTQ Studies. She is a proud New Jersey native.
Aleya Jones, True Colors United
Aleya Jones is the State Policy Officer at True Colors United where she manages the State Policy Index and works with the Chief Policy Officer to implement our federal, state, and local legislative public policy agenda. Prior to joining True Colors United, she was a research assistant at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies supporting efforts to eradicate persistent and evolving barriers for Black people in America related to economic policy, tech policy, and the future of work. Earlier in her career, she interned at the Lumina Foundation and assisted the Federal Policy team with equity driven higher education policy analysis and research. Before moving to DC, she worked as a program coordinator with America Needs You, fighting for the economic mobility of first-generation, low-income college students in Chicago. Aleya earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development and Family Studies from Colorado State University and a Master’s Degree in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies from Loyola University Chicago.
Rachel Blake, Regional Housing Legal Services
Rachel works on policy and advocacy at RHLS. Her current work includes the intersection of housing and health, energy efficiency, and equal access to housing-related rights.
Christine Kulumani, DC Bar
Christine M. Kulumani is a staff attorney with the Nonprofit & Small Business Legal Assistance Programs at D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center. In this role, she manages regular legal clinics for small businesses and nonprofits, directly provides legal advice to small businesses, and nurtures relationships with District government agencies, community partners, law firms, and corporate legal departments.
Prior to joining the Pro Bono Center, Christine worked as legislative counsel at the Council of the District of Columbia, the District’s 13-member legislative body. Before that, she worked as a project assistant at the American Bar Association Racial Justice Improvement Project.
Christine holds a B.A. in political science from the University of New Mexico and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School. She is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and New Mexico.
Joseph Jampel, Regional Housing Legal Services
Joe represents nonprofits that are developing and preserving affordable housing as well as community groups working to ensure equitable neighborhood development. Joe is also involved in a variety of policy initiatives to increase affordable housing supply and equity. Joe is a member of the Executive Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Real Property Section. In 2018, Joe was a Billy Penn “Who’s Next: Real Estate and Housing” honoree. From 2017-2019, Joe was an Independence Foundation Fellow. Joe holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Harvard College.
Darryl Maxwell, DC Bar
Darryl Maxwell is a Director for the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center, responsible for the Nonprofit & Small Business Legal Assistance Programs. His work is focused on providing pro bono legal support, education, and counsel to community-based nonprofits and disadvantaged small businesses. Prior to joining the Pro Bono Center, Darryl worked in private practice.
He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the George Washington University Law School.
Darryl currently serves as Board Chair of the Latino Economic Development Center, an organization that assists Latinos and other D.C.-area residents with small business development, microlending, affordable housing preservation, and pathways to homeownership. He also serves at his law school alma mater as a Professorial Lecturer in Law.
Katie Meyer Scott, National Homelessness Law Center
Katie joined the Law Center in 2021 as the Senior Youth Attorney, where she advocates for laws and policies that will help end youth homelessness. Before joining the Law Center, Katie was a staff attorney at Solid Ground in Seattle, WA providing legal representation to low-income people in administrative hearings and appeals for state public benefits. A 2006 graduate of University of Washington School of Law, Katie has also worked as the Director of Pro Bono Programs at Homeless Persons Representation Project in Baltimore, MD and served as a volunteer, board member, staff attorney and Executive Director of Street Youth Legal Advocates of Washington, an organization that provided accessible civil legal representation to homeless and at-risk youth and young adults. In her spare time, she is an avid gardener and enjoys exploring the beauty of the Pacific Northwest with her family.
Mary Benton, Alston & Bird
Mary serves as Alston & Bird’s pro bono partner, leading all pro bono and community service efforts firmwide. Mary also has more than 20 years of experience advocating for taxpayers, negotiating with revenue departments, and litigating in court to obtain the best resolution for multistate tax clients and has been a frequent speaker at national SALT conferences and symposia.
Michelle Jackson, Alston & Bird
Michelle Jackson is an associate in the Compensation, Benefits and ERISA Litigation Group, focusing on litigation. Employers, plan sponsors, insurers, and fiduciaries rely on Michelle’s guidance in navigating regulatory compliance issues and litigation avoidance strategies. When clients face litigation concerning claim processing, defined benefit and cash-balance plans, post-retirement welfare, ESOPs, multiemployer plans, severance plans, or fee-based fiduciary claims, they look to Michelle for defense.
At the Duke University School of Law, she served as the managing editor for the Alaska Law Review and the chief executive editor for the Duke Law & Technology Review. Michelle also served as the director of the pro bono group Street Law, which teaches basic legal skills to incarcerated youths. Michelle received the International Human Rights Clinic Advocacy Award for her work with the clinic monitoring a human rights program within the State Department.
She received her B.S. from the University of Florida in public relations and worked in corporate communications before law school.
Matt Kelsey, Alston & Bird
Matthew K. Kelsey is a partner with Alston & Bird’s Financial Restructuring & Reorganization Group. He focuses his practice on complex in-court and out-of-court Chapter 11 matters for ad hoc creditor groups, financial institutions, agents and trustees, official committees, and debtors. Matthew provides distressed-investing advice to investment firms, hedge funds, and other financial institutions. He works in a variety of industries, including real estate, retail, pharmaceutical, infrastructure, finance, shipping, and construction sectors.
Matthew has been listed a leading restructuring lawyer in Chambers USA and the International Financial Law Review. Matthew led the Brookstone Holdings Chapter 11 matter, recognized by The Deal as the 2019 “Restructuring Deal of the Year.” He was also nationally recognized as one of 12 “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyers” in 2011 by Turnaround & Workouts Magazine.
Matthew earned his J.D., with honors, from Rutgers University, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and was the recipient of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Medal of Excellence. He received his B.A. from Thomas Aquinas College.
Marisol Bello, Housing Narrative Lab
Seasoned content and creative director at ease working with various platforms; multi-media editor with a background as a veteran journalist who uses storytelling to craft narratives and engage audiences. Team leader who supervises staff, consultants and program budgets and manages multiple tasks and deadlines with ease and flexibility in shifting, fast-paced environments.
Sarah Steinheimer, Legal Services of Northern California
Sarah is an attorney with Legal Services of Northern California, and a lead attorney on Warren v. Chico. Sarah Jane Steinheimer is an active member of the California Bar and was admitted 8th December 2009. Sarah graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law.
Ed Johnson, Oregon Law Center
Ed Johnson is Director of Litigation at the Oregon Law Center, and he is a lead attorney in Johnson v. Grants Pass.
Maig Tinnin, Fair Housing Council of Oregon (non-attorney)
Maig Tinnin works as a Southern Oregon Enforcement Liaison Specialist at Fair Housing Council of Oregon, which is a Government company with an estimated 9 employees; and founded in 1990.
Jeff Preptit, ACLU of Tennessee
Jeff Preptit is an attorney with ACLU of Tennessee, and he previously served as a public defender in Nashville.
India Pungarcher, Open Table Nashville (non-attorney)
India holds a bachelor of science degree in dietetics and global health from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is a Midwest transplant who came to Nashville to pursue her master of public health degree at Vanderbilt. She started as a volunteer and immediately fell in love with the Open Table Nashville way – building relationships and standing in solidarity with our friends. She wants to spend her career working with and advocating for people experiencing homelessness and affordable housing by merging efforts from local government, advocacy, and research sectors. She believes housing is a fundamental human right and supports housing first models.
Francine Friedman, Akin & Gump
Francine Friedman provides policy and public affairs guidance to clients facing high-stakes litigation or negotiations. She assists with messaging and third-party outreach and input, including traditional media and op-eds on social media. Francine is particularly adept at distilling complex issues down to high-impact talking points. She also conducts policy-maker outreach and the development of litigation strategy.
Hans Rickhoff, Akin & Gump
Hans Christopher Rickhoff is Senior Policy Counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. He represents clients in legislative, regulatory and administrative matters at the federal, state and local levels. Mr. Rickhoff also advises foreign sovereigns on U.S. foreign policy matters, including developing and implementing strategies to enhance their relationships and advocate their policy objectives before the Legislative and Executive Branches of the U.S. Government.
Denise Ghartey, Community Justice Project
Denise Ghartey is a Justice Catalyst Fellow focusing on climate gentrification and racial justice work. Denise believes in liberation movements that are driven by the community and is deeply passionate about working with those directly impacted. Denise works to promote equitable development through representation of tenants and community organizations in eviction and land use hearings, strategic litigation, policy advocacy, and the development of community land trusts. Denise attended Hamilton College as a Posse Scholar and studied Africana Studies and Philosophy. Before law school, Denise worked as a case manager, homelessness prevention advocate and paralegal in Boston, MA. Denise received her J.D. from Harvard Law School where she was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, Harvard Defenders and where she was awarded the William J. Stuntz Memorial Award for Justice, Human Dignity and Compassion.
Noah Patton, National Low Income Housing Coalition (non-attorney)
Born and raised in the DC area, Noah came to NLIHC from Baltimore, MD, where he worked at the Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc. (HPRP), helping to advocate for policies to expand public benefit programs and protecting Housing Choice Voucher holders. After working as a campaign and state house staffer in Maryland, Noah received a JD from the University of Baltimore School of Law. While in law school, Noah was heavily involved in coordinating Legal Observers of the National Lawyers Guild to protect the legal rights of Baltimore-area political protestors and served as a Kellogg’s Law Fellow at the NAACP Office of the General Counsel working on transit equity and educational policy. Noah received his BA in political science from McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. He has been a member of the Maryland bar since 2018.
Evlondo Cooper, Media Matters (non-attorney)
Evlondo Cooper is a senior writer with the climate and energy program at Media Matters.
Sean Kidd, University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry (non-attorney)
Sean Kidd is a Clinical Psychologist, Senior Scientist, and the Division Chief of Psychology at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and an Associate Professor in the University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry. Areas of focus have included developing and trialing interventions for individuals with severe mental illnesses and youth who have experienced homelessness. His research has included trials of cognitive and critical time interventions for schizophrenia spectrum populations, housing stabilization interventions for homeless youth, digital health interventions for severe mental illness, and global health work in the area of climate change and homelessness.
