Staff
EXECUTIVE
David Stern, Chief Executive Officer - BIO
Paul Igasaki, Deputy Chief Executive Officer - BIO
Yvonne Wynn, Executive Assistant
EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS/WEST
Diane T. Chin, Director -BIO
PROGRAMS
Law School Advocacy and Outreach
Kashyap Choksi, Director, Law School Advocacy and Outreach - BIO
Nada El-Eryan, Member Services Coordinator, Law School Advocacy and Outreach
Charlene Gomes, Senior Program Manager, Law School Advocacy and Outreach
Ericka Hines, Program Manager, Training and Evaluation
Heather Jarvis, Senior Program Manager, Law School Advocacy and Outreach
Karen Lash, Senior Program Counsel
Taryn Myers, Program Coordinator, Law School Advocacy and Outreach
Public Interest Law Opportunities
Cait Clarke, Director, Public Interest Law Opportunities - BIO
Martin Costello, Program Manager, AmeriCorps
Eric Harsch, Program Assistant, AmeriCorps
Coleman McMahon, Senior Program Manager, AmeriCorps
Jennifer Tschirch, Senior Program Manager, Fellowships
Imoni Washington, Senior Program Manager, Fellowships
Carlyn Zaugg, Program Assistant, Fellowships
DEVELOPMENT
Andy Zovko, Director of Development - BIO
Sarah Brooks, Development Manager
Beth Fung, Senior Grants Manager
Juliet Kline, Development Assistant
Danny Reed, Regional Director of Development
Pharelda Scott, Development Assistant
OPERATIONS
Amin Kakeh, Comptroller
Beverly Matlock, Senior Accountant
Todd Peterson, Senior Manager of Technology
Real Thornton, Senior Administrative Manage
COMMUNICATIONS
James Carroll, Director of Communications - BIO
Sarah Mahoney, Communications Specialist
Aaron Pickering, Communications Specialist
DAVID STERN
David Stern is Chief Executive Officer for Equal Justice Works. He is responsible for articulating the vision for the organization, working with the Board of Directors to develop the strategic directions for the organization, raising necessary funds, and ensuring the overall health of the organization. He joined the staff in 1992 as the first Director of the Fellowships program, and became Executive Director in June 1995. Since then, the organization’s budget has grown from roughly $1.5 million to $8 million, the staff has grown from eight to 36, the number of postgraduate fellowships has grown from roughly 20 to more than 100; and more than 95 percent of ABA-accredited schools are members of Equal Justice Works. David graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1985 and clerked for two federal judges in Baltimore. He then worked for a small public interest law firm that represented whistleblowers in government and private industry, as well as individuals discriminated against on the basis of their sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, or age.
PAUL IGASAKI
Paul Igasaki is Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Equal Justice Works where he provides leadership on programs and operations. Prior to joining Equal Justice Works, he was Executive Director of the Rights Working Group, a coalition of organizations working to restore civil rights lost since 9/11/01. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as Vice Chair, acting Chair and Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1994 to 2002. Previously, Paul was Executive Director of the Asian Law Caucus in California, Mayor Harold Washington’s Liaison to Asian Americans and counsel to the Chicago Human Relations Commission, Washington Representative for the Japanese American Citizens League, Staff Director of the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono/Private Bar Involvement Project and Reginald Heber Smith Fellow to Legal Services of Northern California. Paul is a graduate of Northwestern University and the UC Davis School of Law.
JAMES CARROLL
James Carroll joined Equal Justice Works in January 2007 as Senior Communications Manager. In that position, he served as primary media contact and publications manager and collaborated with program staff on outreach efforts. In May, he assumed additional duties for planning and unit management and was appointed Interim Director of Communications. Prior to relocating to Washington, James was Communications Manager for the Judicial Council of California, the governing body for the state court system. There he was responsible for agency efforts in five service areas: Publications, News Bureau, Public Education, Web Content, and Editorial Services. Previously, James worked in a variety of editorial and management positions for several newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area and was editor and co-owner of the Sonoma County Independent, a newsweekly based in Santa Rosa. Prior to his journalism career, James worked for two of the largest communications consulting firms, first in research and editorial services in the New York headquarters of Hill and Knowlton, and later as vice president and Western Region research manager for Burson-Marsteller. He holds a bachelor's degree in Communications from Fordham University.
DIANE T. CHIN
Diane T. Chin joined Equal Justice Works in March 2008 as Director of Equal Justice Works/West. In this role, she spearheads Equal Justice Works’ new office in San Francisco and develops programs to support and train Equal Justice Works Fellows and alumni throughout California and the West, in addition to assisting with fellowship selection and policy reform initiatives. Prior to joining Equal Justice Works, Diane served as the Associate Director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley Law School. She was the founding director of the Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School and a Lecturer in Law. Before joining the world of academia, Diane was a civil rights activist, serving as Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, a civil rights advocacy and services organization in San Francisco, Senior Trial Attorney for the Office of Citizen Complaints of the San Francisco Police Commission, Housing Attorney with Protection & Advocacy, Staff Attorney and Director of the Racial Violence Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, and Skadden Fellow at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the Boston Bar Association. Diane also served on the National Advisory Committee of Equal Justice Works for two years, on the Pro Bono & Public Service Committee of American Association of Law Schools, as its Program Co-Chair, and the Individual Rights & Responsibilities Section of the American Bar Association. She is a graduate of Mills College and Northeastern University School of Law. Diane was one of the members of the first class of Skadden Fellows and is the co-editor of Beyond the Big Firm: Profiles of Lawyers Who Want Something More (Aspen Publishers, 2007).
KASHYAP CHOKSI
Kashyap Choksi is the Director of the Law School Advocacy and Outreach Unit at Equal Justice Works. He has broad non-profit leadership and management experience, having served as the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at National 4-H Council and as a Senior Associate at Public Education Network. He has experience in organizational development, strategic planning, and business development, and has designed, implemented and assessed programs and initiatives in a wide breadth of issue areas in collaboration with corporations, foundations, non-profits, and the federal government. Kashyap graduated with a Ph.D. in Public Administration and policy from Virginia Tech, and holds a M.A. in International Affairs and a Master’s degree in Public Administration, both awarded by Ohio University. He credits his B.A. in Economics from Loyola College, Madras, India, and his Law degree awarded by the University of Madras, as silent springboards for his current work.
CAIT CLARKE
Cait Clarke was appointed Director of Public Interest Law Opportunities in May 2007. Cait is a respected legal educator who comes to Equal Justice Works with 18 years of experience teaching, training, and consulting on the law and legal affairs. Most recently as the director of Clarke Consulting she provided leadership and management consulting to nonprofit organizations, public defense and legal aid programs, including Equal Justice Works. She served as a principal and the legal education specialist with Watershed Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based firm specializing in negotiation training. Cait was the founding director of the National Defender Leadership Institute at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, which develops leadership capacity in public defense practitioners nationwide. Cait began her legal career practicing criminal defense representing the indigent in Maryland Courts. She then moved to New Orleans to join the law faculty of Loyola Law School as an Associate Professor of Law. Upon completion of her doctorate degree at Harvard, she taught at the Kennedy School of Government's Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management and ran the Executive Session on Public Defense. In her community work, Cait serves on the Board of Directors of the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and is a founding director of Gardenia House Inc., which provides shelter to migrant women and children. She was the co-chair of the National Consortium on Community Problem Solving and recently served as a member of the Advisory Board overseeing the development of the National Center for State Court's new Problem Solving Justice Toolkit. She is extensively published, with law reviews, articles, book chapters and book reviews to her credit. Cait holds her S.J.D. from Harvard Law School, LL.M from Georgetown University Law Center's Criminal Justice Clinic, J.D. from Catholic University's Columbus School of Law, and B.S. from Villanova University's School of Commerce and Finance. A native of Washington DC, Cait is happy to be back in DC living with her husband, the writer and editor Neil Shister, her son, William, and spending time with her step-daughters, Kate and Amelia, in New York City.
ANDY ZOVKO
Andy Zovko joined Equal Justice Works as Director of Development in March 2008 to lead the Development team. Over the previous 18 years he raised funds for a wide variety of causes including environmental protection, poverty assistance, and support for military families. Andy’s experience runs the gamut of the fundraising profession from membership (Environmental Defense, The Wilderness Society), to grants management (Catholic Charities of Washington, DC), to major and planned giving (Armenian Assembly of America, National Family Caregivers Association.) He first encountered Equal Justice Works in 2005 while raising funds for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, a host organization for Equal Justice Works Fellows. Andy has been active in the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 1994. He holds a Masters Degree from Oxford University in Syriac Studies and a Bachelors Degree from Princeton University in Near Eastern Studies.