EXECUTIVE

David Stern, Executive Director - BIO
Susan Gurley, Deputy Director - BIO
Patrick Sanders, Special Assistant to the Executive Director 

PROGRAMS

Law School Advocacy and Outreach

Catherine Beane, Interim Director, Law School Advocacy and Outreach
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 - BIO
Sarah Whitfield, Program Coordinator, Law School Advocacy and Outreach

Public Interest Law Opportunities

Cait Clarke, Director, Public Interest Law Opportunities - BIO
Martin Costello, Program Manager, AmeriCorps
Luis Gonzalez, Program Assistant, AmeriCorps
Eric Harsch, Program Assistant, AmeriCorps
Aieysha Kayani, Program Assistant, AmeriCorps
Coleman McMahon, Senior Program Manager, AmeriCorps
Jennifer Tschirch, Senior Program Manager, Fellowships 
Natalie Wasserman, Compliance Specialist, AmeriCorps
Yvonne Wynn, Program Coordinator, Fellowships

EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS/WEST

Shirley Hochhausen, Director

DEVELOPMENT

Kathy Clark, Interim Director of Development
Beth Fung Ceglio, Senior Grants Manager
Cate Horan, Events Assistant
Alexandra Salama, Events Manager
Pharelda Scott, Development Assistant
Sarah Snik, Individual Giving Manager

OPERATIONS

Leigh Mitchell, Operations Manager
Nadine Smith, Administrative Coordinator
Diana Sun, Staff Accountant

COMMUNICATIONS

Sally Carlson, Director of Communications - BIO
Shakirah Hill, Communications Specialist
Sarah Mahoney, Senior Communications Specialist

DAVID STERN

David Stern is the Executive Director 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. In 2008, David was named one of Washington's greatest lawyers of the past 30 years by the Legal Times.

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Susan K. Gurley

Susan K. Gurley is a lawyer with experience in executive management, international development, advocacy and higher education. She has a reputation for anticipating market shifts, redefining corporate strategies and leading organizations through tumultuous change to becoming stronger, more profitable and sustainable businesses. In addition, Ms. Gurley has experience in managing international organizations, creating new organizations and helping to develop public- private partnerships.

Ms. Gurley's career includes serving as a Senior Alliance Advisor for the United States Agency for International Development, the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), Assistant Dean of International and Graduate Programs and Adjunct Faculty Member at the Georgetown University Law Center to working for various U.S. government agencies in the areas of international development and legal reform. She has also worked in the areas of consumer product safety and Corporate Social Responsibility. During her tenure with ACTE she was frequently quoted in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Washington Post, NPR, BBC, and the Los Angeles Times. She also appeared on CNN. Ms. Gurley has also testified before Congress on issues related to data privacy.

Ms. Gurley has a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and speaks French, Hungarian and German.

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SALLY CARLSON

Sally Carlson joined Equal Justice Works as Director of Communications in September 2009. She was previously the Director of Communications for Kidsave International, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding permanent families for older orphans and children living in foster care. Before relocating to Washington in 2007, Sally lived in Massachusetts where she ran her own consulting company for 15 years, providing marketing communications expertise to a diverse client list that included Massachusetts General Hospital, Old Mother Hubbard Dog Food, the Essex National Heritage Commission/National Park Service and the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy-Andover. She was a member of the board of directors of the YWCA in Newburyport, MA, where she served two years as President. Sally received her B.A. in Communication Studies from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

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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.

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HEATHER JARVIS

Heather is a national expert on educational debt and the financial barriers facing law graduates. She has been a leading player nationally in advocating for and now interpreting the new federal student loan forgiveness law, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. She has contributed to legislative proposals for the House Education Committee and others in Congress, made several presentations to law school faculty, administrators and students, and has given numerous media interviews on educational debt and the new law. Heather currently serves as Vice Chair of the ABA Section of Legal Education’s Committee on Government Relations and Student Financial Aid. As Senior Program Manager for Law School Advocacy at Equal Justice Works, Heather authored the 2006 study Financing the Future, Responses to the Rising Debt of Law Students. Heather earned her J.D. cum laude from Duke University School of Law in 1998 and has eight years’ experience as a capital defense attorney.

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