2025 Equal Justice Conference

Heidi Behnke

Statewide Project Manager at Georgia Legal Services Program

Heidi Behnke, MSc., PMP, is the Statewide Project Manager for Georgia Legal Services Program and has served with GLSP since 2013. Her role involves monitoring milestones/benchmarks, creating budgets, resource allocation, and ensuring project deliverables are met.

Ignacio Jaureguilorda

Director, Civil Access to Justice Initiatives at Center for Justice Innovation

Ignacio Jaureguilorda is the Director of Civil Access to Justice Initiatives at the Center for Justice Innovation. He has spent over a decade working to bridge the civil justice gap by building partnerships across the public and private sectors.

James Leonard

Commissioner of Records at City of Philadelphia

Jim Leonard is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, who has spent most of his career in public service on behalf of the City of Philadelphia. He has served as the Commissioner of the City of Philadelphia Department of Records since 2016.

Jennifer Shack

Director of Research at Resolution Systems Institute

Jennifer Shack is Director of Research at Resolution Systems Institute. She has more than two decades of experience conducting complex evaluations of court-based ADR programs and researching the effectiveness of ADR in court settings.

Jenny Mittelman

Attorney at Law at State Bar of Georgia (Retired)

Jenny Mittelman was a lawyer regulator with the State Bar of Georgia for 35 years, where she prosecuted disciplinary cases and provided ethics advice.

Julia Wilson

Coach & Consultant at Julia Wilson Coaching

Julia R. Wilson is a leadership and team coach and nonprofit management consultant working with individuals and teams in civil legal services nonprofits around the country. She brings to her work over 25 years of experience in legal services, having served in a variety of roles from staff attorney to executive director.

Julian Castronovo

Deputy Director at LGBTQ+/HIV Unit, Legal Services NYC

Julian Castronovo has a J.D. from CUNY School of Law and is a Supervising Attorney at Legal Services New York City (LSNYC) in the Comprehensive Rights Unit. Julian provides representation to marginalized clients in an array of civil proceedings in New York City and helps coordinate and mentor LSNYC's pro bono name and gender marker change clinic.

Karen Westwood

Law Library Director at Hennepin County Law Library

Karen Westwood is Director of the Hennepin County Law Library in Minneapolis, MN. Her background is in law firm, government, and academic law libraries. She also practiced law for a short time doing corporate and securities work.

Kelly Tautges

Pro Bono Counsel & Director at Faegre Drinker

Kelly Tautges serves as Faegre Drinker’s pro bono counsel and leads the professional team that manages and supports the firm’s pro bono practice and community service activities.

Kristi Schulenberg

Chief Operating Officer at Maryland Legal Aid

Kristi Schulenberg serves as Chief Operating Officer at Maryland Legal Aid (MLA), where she spearheads operational initiatives that ensure efficient, high-quality legal support for underserved communities. With extensive experience in nonprofit management, Kristi has been instrumental in enhancing service delivery and organizational effectiveness.

Lauren Gilbride

Executive Director at The Chicago Bar Foundation

Lauren Gilbride is the Managing Attorney of Intake and the Volunteer Lawyers Program at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. She oversees an intake department that handles over 25,000 requests for service and provides advice and other assistance to several thousand clients each year.

Margaret Hagan

Executive Director at Legal Design Lab

Margaret Hagan is the executive director of the Legal Design Lab, an R&D lab for more accessible, intuitive, and engaging legal services at Stanford. She is a lecturer at Stanford Law School and Institute of Design (the d.school).

Matthew Kugizaki

Pro Bono Director at Inland Counties Legal Services

Matt Kugizaki is an attorney and the Pro Bono Director at Inland Counties Legal Services, a nonprofit legal services organization serving Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Matt oversees ICLS’ pro bono programs, including a Small Business Clinic and a Bankruptcy Clinic.

Michael Froehlich

Managing Attorney at Community Legal Services

Michael Froehlich (he/him) is the Managing Attorney of Community Legal Service’s Homeownership and Consumer Rights Unit. He leads CLS’s work on behalf of homeowners and victims of predatory consumer scams.

Michelle Garcia

Deputy Director at New Mexico Legal Aid

Michelle Garcia J.D. (she/her/ella) is the Deputy Director of New Mexico Legal Aid. She is a graduate of Loyola University who is admitted to the New Mexico Bar, the Navajo Nation Bar, the State Bar of Louisiana, the Pueblo of Pojoaque, and the Federal District Court of New Mexico.

Nell Brimmer

Prior to joining the Center for Reproductive Rights as the U.S. Director of State Advocacy, Nell Brimmer served as the Director of Policy and Government Affairs at the National Institute for Reproductive Health.

Nicole Kiker

Maryland Justice Passport Program Manager at Civil Justice, Inc.

Nicole Kiker has been the program manager for the Maryland Justice Passport (MJP) at Civil Justice, Inc. for over two years. She began her career as a Research Program Coordinator for the Poverty and Inequity Research Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

Nikole Nelson

CEO at Frontline Justice

Nikole Nelson is the founding CEO of Frontline Justice. Prior to joining Frontline Justice, Nikole was the Executive Director of Alaska Legal Services Corporation, Alaska’s only statewide provider of free civil aid.

Nora al Haider

Assistant Director at Stanford Legal Design Lab

Nóra Al Haider is the Assistant Director at the Stanford Legal Design Lab. Nóra is a multilingual lawyer and interdisciplinary researcher. She combines the fields of law, design, data, and tech to increase access to justice and equity in the legal system.

Rachel Schaefer

Assistant Federal Public Defender at Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Texas

Rachel Schaefer is an Assistant Federal Public Defender with the Capital Habeas Unit for the Northern District of Texas, in Dallas. In this role, she represents people sentenced to death by Texas juries and courts in their federal habeas petitions and related litigation.

Roxane Crowley

Attorney at Philadelphia Legal Assistance

Roxane Crowley (she/her) is an attorney in the Consumer Housing Unit at Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA) where she supervises the Tangled Title Team. The majority of her career has involved working on tangled title and heirs’ property issues.

Russ Bloomquist

Program Manager & Senior Full Stack Developer at Maryland Legal Aid

Russ Bloomquist is a Program Manager & Senior Full Stack Developer at Maryland Legal Aid, specializing in software development, innovation, and automation. With over 25 years of experience in design and development, Russ has a proven track record of leading transformative technology projects that improve access to legal services.

Salena Copleland

Executive Director at Legal Aid Association of California

Salena Copeland (she/her) is the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Association of California. She has extensive experience in legal services and is dedicated to promoting access to justice and strengthening the legal aid community in California.

Samantha DiDomenico

Director at Stout

Samantha DiDomenico is a Director in Stout’s Transformative Change Consulting group. Samantha has 10 years of experience providing consulting services to for-profit and non-profit clients in a variety of industries. She has expertise in understanding large, complex systems and data, and in developing and implementing strategies to drive meaningful change.

Samira Nazem

Principal Court Management Consultant at National Center for State Courts

Samira Nazem is a Principal Court Management Consultant at the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) overseeing the Eviction Diversion Initiative which supports state and local courts in designing, implementing, and evaluating eviction diversion programs and related court reform efforts.

Sandra San Emeterio Fair

Director of Community Outreach and Education at Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut

Sandra L. San Emeterio Fair, Esq., is the Director of Community Outreach and Education at Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, where she leads efforts to expand access to justice for underserved communities.

Sateesh Nori

Senior Legal Innovation Consultant at Just Tech

Sateesh Nori is a Senior Legal Innovation Strategist at Just Tech. He is also a clinical adjunct professor at New York University School of Law, where he co-teaches the Housing Rights Clinic.

Silvia Argueta

Executive Director at Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

Silvia Argueta has been the Executive Director at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) since 2008. LAFLA is the frontline law firm for low-income individuals in Los Angeles County. LAFLA is committed to promoting access to justice, strengthening communities, fighting discrimination, and effecting systemic change through representation, advocacy, and community education.

Simone Chriss

Director of the Transgender Rights Initiative at Southern Legal Counsel

Simone Chriss is a civil rights attorney and the Director of the Transgender Rights Initiative at the non-profit public interest organization Southern Legal Counsel (SLC).

Stephanie Beaugh

Access to Justice Projects Counsel at Louisiana State Bar Association

Stephanie Beaugh, Access to Justice Projects Counsel at the Louisiana State Bar Association (LSBA), serves as staff liaison to the Self-Represented Litigation, Technology, and Accessibility Committees of the Access to Justice Commission.

Thomas Martin

Chief Executive Officer at LawDroid

Tom Martin is a legal bot advocate, lawyer, author, and speaker. He is CEO and founder of LawDroid Ltd., a legal AI company dedicated to helping lawyers automate their law practice.

Tracey Frisch

Executive Director and Division Vice President at AAA-ICDR Foundation and American Arbitration Association

As Division Vice President of Mediation, Tracey leads the American Arbitration Association’s mediation business. Prior to this role, Tracey was the Associate General Counsel for the American Arbitration Association involved in a variety of legal matters that impacted the Association.