Staff
Seema Ahmad
Staff AttorneySeema Ahmad joined Advancement Project in 2010 as a staff attorney in the “Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track” Project where she works against policies that over-criminalize youth and push them out of school. Prior to joining Advancement Project, Ahmad was a Human Rights Fellow at the Open Society Institute in Washington, DC. She focused...
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Chaz Arnett
Staff AttorneyChaz Arnett joined Advancement Project in 2011 as a staff attorney in the “Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track” program. His work is focused on assisting and promoting a national campaign to end the harsh and unfair school disciplinary measures that push children off of an academic track and on to a track to prison. Arnett graduated from...
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Raul Arroyo-Mendoza
ParalegalRaul Arroyo-Mendoza joined Advancement Project shortly after graduating from Tufts University, where he double majored in international relations and philosophy. During college, he spent a semester studying abroad at Kanazawa University in Japan. Although Raul was born in Mexico City
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Judith A. Browne Dianis
Co-DirectorJudith Browne-Dianis has an extensive background in civil rights litigation, which includes fighting to protect the rights of displaced Hurricane Katrina survivors. She was instrumental in securing a victory in Kirk v. City of New Orleans, which barred the city from bulldozing homes without
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Glendale Clarkson
Operations ManagerWith 20 years of office management, administrative, and human resources experience, Glendale Clarkson is a vital member of the Advancement Project team. Prior to joining Advancement Project, Clarkson worked as director of operations at Renaissance West in Detroit, Mich., site director
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Patricia A. Curry
Legal Administrative AssistantWith more than 25 years of legal administrative experience with various law firms throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area, Patricia Curry joined the Advancement Project team in September 2009. Patricia began her career in the Federal Government at the Navy Department. After
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Richael Faithful
Equal Justice Works FellowRichael Faithful joined Advancement Project in September 2011 as an Equal Justice Works Fellow, after serving as a law intern in the summer 2010. Hir EJW fellowship is focused on the development of innovative approaches to transform Virginia’s lifetime voting ban for people convicted of felonies, within AP’s Voter Protection Program. Faithful is a...
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Jim Freeman
Project Director, Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse TrackJim Freeman is Director of the Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track project and works with grassroots organizations from across the country on a variety of education reform efforts. During his time at Advancement Project, Freeman has researched and co-authored a number of
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Alana Greer
Staff AttorneyAlana Greer joined Advancement Project as a staff attorney in 2011. As a member of the “Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track” team, she works with students and community leaders to reform policies that over-criminalize youth and push them out of school.
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Edward A. Hailes, Jr.
General Counsel/Managing DirectorEdward Hailes, Jr. is an experienced civil rights attorney and ordained Baptist minister. A former general counsel for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, directing both the agency's historic investigation into allegations of voting irregularities in Florida during the November 2000 presidential election and
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Penda D. Hair, Esq.
A staunch advocate of civil rights, Penda Hair has spent the last 25 years defending the rights of those unjustly discriminated against. Former director of the Washington, DC, office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Hair co-founded Advancement Project to serve as an innovative racial justice organization that would strengthen...
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Laura Harjo
Research Fellow (GIS)Laura Harjo is a Research Fellow for the Advancement Project’s Washington D.C. office, and provides research and spatial analysis for their Redistricting, Ending Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track, and Inclusive Development projects. With a background in critical race theory, policy, planning, and community participatory methods, her professional and...
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Jasmine E. Harris
Staff AttorneyJasmine E. Harris is an experienced litigator who previously served as a Senior Associate at the prominent international law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP. At the law firm, Harris worked on a wide range of matters, including complex civil litigation, government investigations, and pro bono cases. Harris served as a law...
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Staff AttorneySara Jackson joined Advancement Project in 2011 as a Staff Attorney in the “Quality Education” and “Inclusive Development” programs. Her work focuses on ensuring that low-income communities and communities of color have access to quality schools, safe, healthy and thriving neighborhoods, and have power in school and community decision making...
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Barbara Janifer
Administrative Assistant/ReceptionistBarbara Janifer comes to Advancement Project after working for OBVS Law firm and Fannie Mae. She has 22 years of professional experience as an Administrative Assistant. Janifer is an active community volunteer for her church; has done the Cancer and Aids Walk, volunteered her services in Girl Scouts
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Donita Judge
Project Director, RedistrictingDonita has been a member of Advancement Project's Power and Democracy team since 2004 and is Advancement Project's state lead attorney covering Ohio. Since 2006, Judge has provided extensive testimony in Ohio on the rights of third-party groups to register voters and has engaged in strong
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Amy L. Lambrecht
Managing Director, DevelopmentAmy Lambrecht has been a successful nonprofit executive for over twenty years, effectively developing programs and crafting relationships at a senior level for a variety of national, regional, and local institutions. She has been responsible for setting organizational strategy, creating and developing fundraising strategies, and identifying and...
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Denise Lieberman
Missouri Voter Protection AdvocateDenise Lieberman, a civil rights lawyer, brings a wealth of voting rights advocacy experience to Advancement Project. As the legal director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri from 1997-2005, she litigated several significant voting rights cases and supervised voter protection outreach and advocacy efforts.
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Erika Maye
Communications SpecialistErika Maye came to Advancement Project in October 2009. Graduating with a degree in History, Erika decided to try her hand at entrepreneurship and started her own internet-based company. After experiencing three years of success as a
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Leila McDowell
Managing Director, CommunicationsLeila McDowell is an innovative strategic communications professional with a proven track record of success in developing campaigns to impact the national debate, advance new social change narratives, affect policy change and achieve legislative and legal victories.
Read more Erica McKnight
Staff AttorneyErica L. McKnight is a Staff Attorney with Advancement Project’s Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track Project, where her work is focused on a national campaign to end severe school discipline policies that criminalize youth and unnecessarily push them out of school. Ms. McKnight graduated from Spelman College in 2002 with a B.A. in Sociology...
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Alexi Nunn Freeman
Staff AttorneyAlexi Nunn eagerly joined Advancement Project in 2007 after interning with the organization during law school. Ms. Nunn is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where
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Anita Sinha
Senior AttorneyAnita Sinha, a member of Advancement Project’s Strategic Initiatives Program, advocates for inclusive development on behalf of low-income residents in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast, and in cities across the country where communities are facing displacement in the name of redevelopment. Drawing on her
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Carolyn Thompson
Florida Voter Protection AdvocateCarolyn Thompson, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, has spent the past 20 years as a Miami-based political activist, committed to struggles against war and for equal justice, immigrants’ rights and voting rights. Carolyn is a liaison among various grassroots organizations, civil rights groups,
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Andrew J. Williams
Development AssociateAndrew Williams joined Advancement Project after serving as a Committee member of Dickinson College’s (a liberal-arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania) Senior Class Gift Drive. His experience includes research and analysis of similar liberal-arts colleges’ senior class gift drives, in an effort to
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