Maryland Partners for Justice Conference
May 3, 2007
Speakers, Moderators and Panelists

Keynote Luncheon Speaker - Helaine M. Barnett

Moderators & Panelists

Dr. Lauren Abramson - Dr. Lauren Abramson is the Founder and Director of the Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The mission of the Community Conferencing Center is to provide a highly participatory, community-based process for people to transform their conflicts into cooperation, take collective and personal responsibility for action, and improve their quality of life.

Mary Aquino - Mary Aquino is a staff attorney with the Elder Law Program at the Baltimore County office of the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. She began her legal career in 1987 in the Administrative Law Unit at the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. and since 1991 has worked under the Older Americans Act, Title IIIB program at the Bureau.  Areas of practice include Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, housing and consumer law.  She is a graduate of Loyola College and the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Regan Bailey – Legal Aid Bureau - Regan Bailey has represented low income people for over twelve years.  Most of her work has been in improving access to Medicaid and Medical Assistance for people with disabilities, the elderly and children.  She has been at the Legal Aid Bureau since 2004, after seven years working in the protection and advocacy system.  She has initiated litigation in Maryland on behalf of legal immigrant children who lost Medical Assistance due to budget cuts, and on behalf of elderly Marylanders seeking Medicaid coverage for nursing facility care.

Marjory Bankroft - Marjory Bancroft is the Founder and Director of Cross-Cultural Communications. She has more than 20 years of experience in teaching, interpreting, translating and providing direct services to the foreign born. She has given dozens of trainings in cultural competence, language access laws, service delivery to immigrants, and overcoming language and cultural barriers. Ms. Bancroft speaks five languages, and has directed a language bank of over 200 interpreters and translators.

Henry Bogden - Maryland Association of Non-Profit Organizations, Director of Public Policy and Public Affairs.

Patricia Chiriboga-Roby - Patricia Chiriboga-Roby is a staff attorney with the Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services.  She received her JD from the University of Maryland in 1995 and had a private general practice prior to working with Catholic Charities.  During law school she worked with a variety of non-profit legal service organizations and private law firms committed to pro bono work.  She currently works with clients in all aspects of immigration with the Baltimore District INS Office and the Baltimore Immigration Court such as asylum, defense from deportation, and family-based immigration.  Her office has worked with clients from over 125 countries and their mission is to help low-income clients who would otherwise have little access to legal representation.

Joan Cox - Joan Cox is currently based at Northwestern High School as part of the Department of Juvenile Services, Spotlight on Schools program, Ms. Cox is a 27-year veteran of the juvenile justice system who has dedicated her work life to improving services for youth in trouble.

Ayn H. Crawley - Ayn directs the Maryland Legal Assistance Network (MLAN/LAB), a collaborative series of partnerships among legal services providers, court staff, the bar, law schools and community agencies. MLAN seeks to increase access to justice by low/moderate-income Marylanders to the resources of the legal services providers via an integrated statewide system including:  a centralized intake and referral system; expansion of the People’s Law Library legal information public access website; a password-protected public interest website for advocates; and a Pro Se Support Project. In October 2000 with 11 sponsors, MLAN convened the national October 2000 conference on “Unbundled” Legal Services  - “The Changing Face of Legal Practice”. Ayn has worked in legal services at the local, state and national levels. Previously, she managed the Elder Law Support Projects of the AARP Foundation/Legal Counsel for the Elderly for 11 years in Washington, DC.

She was the 2001 recipient of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association’s annual Innovations in Equal Justice award for her “outstanding vision and leadership in improving the delivery of legal services to low-income people.” MLAN projects were recognized in 2005 by the American Association of Law Libraries and in 2007 by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services.

Mary Joel Davis - Mary Joel Davis is the founder and Executive Director of Alternative Directions, Inc. (ADI). Founded 25 years ago, ADI assists prisoners in filing simple family law matters in the courts, such as uncontested divorce and modification of child support orders. ADI also assists returning prisoners in their re-entry into the communities. Last year ADI assisted over 14,000 clients.

Martha F. Davis - Martha Davis teaches Women and the Law, Immigration, Employment Discrimination, and Professional Responsibility at the Northeastern University School of Law. Prior to joining the law faculty, she was vice president and legal director for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.  She was counsel in a number of cases before the US Supreme Court, including Nguyen v. INS, a challenge to sex-based citizenship laws that Professor Davis argued before the court.  Professor Davis received a Soros Reproductive Rights Fellowship focusing on the potential for subnational activism using international human rights norms and has written widely on women's rights, poverty and human rights.  Her book, Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, received the Reginald Heber Smith Award for distinguished scholarship on the subject of equal access to justice.

Judge Arrie W. Davis - ARRIE W. DAVIS, Judge, Court of Special Appeals, 6th Appellate Circuit (Baltimore City), since 1990. Judge, District Court of Maryland, Baltimore City, 1981 to 1983. Judge, Baltimore City Circuit Court, 1983 to 1990. Board of Directors and Instructor, New Judges' Orientation, Judicial Institute of Maryland, 2000- to date.

Elizabeth (Lisa) Dewey - Elizabeth (Lisa) Dewey became DLA Piper's full-time Pro Bono Partner in 1999.  As such, she advises and represents individuals and public interest organizations on a pro bono basis.  Ms. Dewey cultivates the firm's strategic thinking on pro bono, including the vision for the firm's U.S. pro bono program, including 1,400 lawyers.  Ms. Dewey also supervises associates to ensure widespread participation in the pro bono programs.  Ms. Dewey also develops and spearheads the firm's signature on pro bono partnerships between the firm, corporate clients, and legal service providers.

Daniela Dwyer - Ms. Dwyer is the Supervising Attorney in the Legal Aid Bureau’s Farmworker Division. Her duties include representing farmworkers, who worked in Maryland or Delaware, in lawsuit suits against employers and crew leaders under the Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). She is a recent transplant from Texas, where she was an attorney for Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid (TRLA). Ms. Dwyer is a graduate of the University of Chicago School of Law. She also holds Bachelors Degrees in Liberal Arts, in Government and Sociology, with a Minor in Spanish, all from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ricardo Flores – Public Justice Center - Ricardo Flores graduated from law school at the City University of New York in 1999. He began his legal career as a NAPIL (National Association of Public Interest Law) Fellow at the Public Justice Center, focusing on representing immigrant workers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Flores was hired on as a regular staff attorney after his fellowship ended, and now, in his sixth year at the PJC, he is Director of Public Policy. The PJC works on a broad array of public interest policy issues, including: child welfare, civil rights, education, health care, immigrant rights, prisoner rights and tenant rights.

Karen Forman - Ms. Forman, of Saul Ewing, has extensive experience in Pro Bono and public interest service.  As the firm's first Pro Bono Counsel, she launched "We're All In," a firm-wide Pro Bono project dedicated to donating the collective legal services of all Saul Ewing attorneys to two signature causes.  Saul Ewing adopted the elderly and veterans as its signature causes.  Immediately prior to joining Saul Ewing, Ms. Forman was the founding Director of the Office of Public Interest Law Programs at Temple's Beasley School of Law.  Ms. Forman served as Assistant Director of Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program (VIP).

Maria Foscarinis - Maria Foscarinis is founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, a not-for-profit organization established in 1989 as the legal arm of the nationwide effort to end homelessness.  Ms. Foscarinis has advocated for solutions to homelessness and poverty at the national level since 1985 and is a primary architect of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, the first major federal legislation addressing homelessness. She is a leader of the movement to establish the human right to housing in the United States and has written and spoken extensively on housing and human rights.        

Debra Gardner - Debra Gardner has served as Legal Director of the Public Justice Center since 2000, where she engages in civil rights and poverty law litigation and other advocacy. Before joining the PJC, she worked in poverty law at the Legal Aid Bureau in Maryland for more than 15 years. Among her duties at the PJC, she supervises the Appellate Project and Murnaghan Appellate Fellow and pursues a judicial recognition of a civil right to counsel under the Maryland Declaration of Rights and coordinates the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel.

Sharon E. Goldsmith - Sharon Goldsmith is the first Executive Director of the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, Inc., the statewide coordinator and support center for volunteer civil legal services. Prior to the creation of the PBRC in 1990, Ms. Goldsmith was a litigation associate with Whiteford, Taylor & Preston. Ms. Goldsmith obtained her J.D. from George Washington University’s National Law Center and served as a judicial law clerk upon graduation. She also served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Pro Bono Coordinators for six years, chaired the MSBA Section Council of Delivery of Legal Services, received the 2003 Leadership in Law Award and is a Weinberg Foundation fellow.

Pia Gomez - Pia Gomez is a University of Baltimore School of Law graduate 2002; Law Clerk to the Honorable Carol E. Smith in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City ; Law Clerk to the Honorable Roger Titus in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland (Greenbelt); Assistant Public Defender, Appellate Division since 2004

Judge John R. Gossart, Jr. - United States Immigration Court – Judge Gossart is a United States Immigration Judge with the Department of Justice. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor for the University of Baltimore School of Law. In addition to numerous awards and memberships, he has received the Department of Justice’s Volunteer/Pro Bono Service Award and Volunteer Service Award for the Department of Justice Points of Light National Celebration of Community Service. He has also been appointed Member and Chairman of the Bowie Diversity Task Force and the Bowie Ethics Commission.

Warden Robert Green - Warden Green is a native of Maryland, having spent his entire career in local corrections within the state.  He is responsible for the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, a 1,029 bed Direct Supervision Facility in Boyds, Maryland.  The Montgomery County Correctional Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is one of the fifty largest county correctional systems in the United States. The system is recognized as a national model in the areas of programming and re-entry.  Having just completed 20 years in local corrections, Green is committed to the principles of community collaboration abd a system which engages the full scope of human need as a successful formula for change and return to the community.  Green is a well known instructor in the areas of leadership development and management, a member of the American Jail Association Board of Directors, as well as a consultant for the National Institute of Corrections.

Judge Paul Hackner - Judge Hackner was appointed to the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in May of 2002 after having served five years as a District Court judge.  Before becoming a judge, he practiced law in Prince George's and Anne Arundel Counties for 22 years, concentrating on civil litigation.  Earlier in his career, he served in the State's Attorney's Office and later, in the Office of the Public Defender.  Judge Hackner has been actively involved in initiatives aimed at facilitating access to courts by persons who have limited English language skills.  He is a member of the Maryland Judiciary's Committee on Court Interpretation and Translation Services.

Seabrook Hull, Jr. - Mr. Hull is the Appeals Chief for the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs. He was hired as a service officer in 1979 to work out of our office in Washington, DC, and was immediately introduced to work at the appeals level at both the Board of Veterans Appeals and military discharge review and corrections boards. Before leaving that location Mr. Hull prepared a training manual on representation before the military boards. He was also the Western Maryland Supervisor 1987-1992, at which time he accepted a lateral transfer to be the, then, Appeals Supervisor. For a brief period in the late 1990's he served as the "Claims and Appeals Chief" essentially acting as the Service Program Manager. That job was split into two positions due to the excess work required to cover everything expected without adequate staffing. As an ancillary duty, he is the "Computer Coordinator" for the entire department, essentially the Chief Information Officer, and has been since the middle of the 1990's.

Cheryl Hystad - Ms. Hystad is the Director of Advocacy for the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc., a private non-profit legal services provider. She supervises the appellate and impact litigation of Legal Aid as well as its policy advocacy. Prior to joining Legal Aid, Ms. Hystad was the Executive Director of the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, where she advocated for consumers on a wide variety of issues including predatory lending, privacy and identity theft. Ms. Hystad received her J.D. from the University of Maryland and is a member of the Maryland Bar.

Judith Jacobson -  Judith Jacobson has been an Administrative Law Judge at the Office of Administrative Hearings since 1996. She has presided over the full range of administrative hearings, from brief, informal public benefits hearings to multi-day highly contested licensing cases. Her previous legal experience included work with the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau (administrative law and prisoner assistance specialty units, and Baltimore County office), the Maryland Disability Law Center (federal class action litigation, juvenile court, and administrative hearings), and the Antioch School of Law (teaching immigration law).

Erin Josendale - Erin Josendale is an assistant public defender in Prince George's County, Maryland and an adjunct professor of Legal Writing at George Washington University Law School.  She previously worked as a public defender in Fairfax, Virginia and served as a law clerk to Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge, Graydon S. McKee, III.

Edith Coral Johnson -  In 2006, Edith Coral Johnson joined Community Legal Services as the director of the Worker's Rights Legal Clinic in Langley Park, Maryland.  This clinic offers free legal advice to mostly Hispanic clients in issues dealing with employment rights.  Johnson received a BA from the University of Maryland College Park in criminal justice and criminology, and a  JD from the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law.

Lauren Kallins – Maryland Disability Law Center - Lauren Kallins is a Staff Attorney and Pro Bono Coordinator at the Maryland Disability Law Center.  MDLC is the federally mandated Protection & Advocacy agency for Maryland and as such, serves individuals with disabilities who have legal issues related to their disabilities.  Kallins has worked in the Special Education unit at MDLC since 1999 and is responsible for outreach, training and technical assistance to pro bono attorneys interested in handling special education cases.  Cases involve the representation of students with disabilities whose needs are not being met by the school systems and cover a range of issues including identification of a student’s disability, entitlement to special education services, development and implementation of the IEP, discipline issues, etc.   She is a 1993 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law and has been involved professionally with legal services issues for most of her career.

Kevin Keegan - Kevin Keegan has been the Executive Director of New Pathways Independent Living Program in Baltimore, MD since 1998. He has worked with Foster Care youth since 1982. He received his Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology from Loyola College and a Masters Degree in Health Care Administration from Central Michigan University. Mr. Keegan is the former President of the Board for the Maryland Association of Resources for Families and Youth.

Ann Kehinde -  Ann C. Kehinde has been an Administrative Law Judge with the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) since 1994. All ALJs with the OAH are trained to preside over administrative hearings involving over 20 different State agencies and 200 different programs. ALJ Kehinde is a subject matter specialist in cases involving special education, personnel and appeals to the inclusion in the central registry for child abuse and neglect. Prior to her employment at OAH, ALJ Kehinde was a staff attorney for seven years with the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. in the Harford and Cecil Counties offices.

Amelia Lazarus - Homeless Persons Representation Project - Amelia Lazarus joined HPRP as pro bono coordinator in October, 2000. As pro bono coordinator, Lazarus is responsible for recruiting and training pro bono attorneys, scheduling pro bono outreach at shelters, and placing pro bono cases. In addition to her duties as pro bono coordinator, Ms. Lazarus is the coordinator of Baltimore City Community College’s Paralegal Program where she is also a professor. Ms. Lazarus is on the board of the Pro Bono Resource Center and is a member of the Delivery of Legal Services section of the Maryland State Bar Association. Prior to joining HPRP, Lazarus was employed at the Community Law Center (CLC) and was also in private practice. Lazarus has argued before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals on behalf of CLC and HPRP clients. Lazarus received her Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1987, and her bachelor’s degree in economics from Marietta College in 1981.

Hannah Lieberman - Legal Aid Bureau - Hannah Lieberman is the Deputy Executive Director of the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. (“Legal Aid”), the LSC-funded program that provides legal services to indigent persons from twelve offices throughout the State of Maryland. She oversees Legal Aid’s delivery of services to clients, focusing on the quality, scope and direction of its community education and engagement, individual representation, impact work, appeals and policy advocacy. She is responsible for conducting periodic assessments of the quality of the legal work of Legal Aid’s offices and leading strategic planning efforts regarding service delivery.

Rhonda Lipkin - Rhonda Lipkin joined the Public Justice Center in 2005 as the Child Welfare Advocacy Fellow, a fellowship funded to staff the monitoring and enforcement of a class action consent decree governing the State's care of foster children. Previously she served as staff attorney, then Chief Attorney, then Deputy Director of the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. of Maryland. Rhonda clerked for the U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina.

Brenda Mader - Brenda Taylor Mader is the Client Services attorney of the newly created Related Services Division of the Montgomery County Office of the Public Defender.  Mader started her legal career in 1986 as a prosecutor in Orlando and later Fort Lauderdale, FL. After a period of private practice, she served as an Assistant Public Defender of the Northeast Kansas Conflicts Office in Topeka, KS.  In 1998, she joined the Shawnee County, Kansas an assistant district attorney and the chief of the sex crimes division.  While in Kansas, Mader was an adjunct professor of law at Washburn University, teaching trial advocacy.  She returned to Florida in 2001 and was appointed senior staff attorney for the First Judicial Circuit in Pensacola, FL.  Mader received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her JD from the University of Florida.

Felix Mata -  Félix Mata is the Executive Director for the Governor’s Advisory Council on Offender Employment Coordination. Mr. Mata additionally serves as the Project Director for Baltimore City’s Ex-offender Initiative under the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED). Lastly, Mr. Mata was recently appointed as the Deputy Director for the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice (MOCJ) to coordinate gang and juvenile justice programming for the City of Baltimore.

Robin McKinney - Robin McKinney is Director of the Maryland Asset Building Initiative, a new effort connecting and strengthening existing efforts and creating avenues for policy research and advocacy.  Robin was the Assistant Director at East Harbor CDC for three years where she created and managed the Money WISE Cafe', a one-stop shop for asset development.  In addition, she directed a high volume free tax preparation site, and managed direct service staff.  Prior to East Harbor, Robin worked at the Annie E. Casey Foundation on their Family Economic Success portfolio.  Robin is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Social Work Management and Community Organization Masters Program.

Professor Fernando Nunez - Fernando Nuñez joins the University of Maryland School of Law as an Assistant Clinical Instructor for the Small Firm: Immigration Clinic. Prior to coming to Maryland, Mr. Nuñez was a solo practitioner in Immigration Law for 13 years in Florida, as well as a Draft Decision Writer for the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals in Washington, D.C. He also served as an Adjunct Professor at Stetson University College of Law, where he created the Immigration Law Clinic and supervised students in their legal representation of the clinic's clients before immigration courts, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and the federal courts.

Beth Pepper – Law Office of Beth Pepper – Beth Pepper has a private practice in Baltimore City where she focuses on civil rights of people with disabilities in the areas of housing, employment, mental health and education. Pepper was a staff attorney and the Director of the Elders’ Project at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law from 1989 – 1993, and was a Visiting Professor at the University Of Maryland School Of Law from 1993 – 1994. Pepper frequently lectures on fair housing and other statutes affecting the rights of people with disabilities.

Karren Pope-Onwukwe – Prince George’s County Law Foundation - The Law Office of Karren Pope-Onwukwe concentrates in the area of Elder Law. Pope-Onwukwe is also the Director of Development for the Law Foundation of Prince George’s County. She sits on the Elder Law Section Council of the Maryland State Bar Association and is the Co-chair of the Elder Law Section of the Prince George’s County Bar Association. She is chair of the Prince George’s County Aging Advisory Committee. The Baltimore Daily Record named Ms. Pope-Onwukwe as one of the 100 Top Women in Maryland for 2004. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Eastern Kentucky University; and her Juris Doctorate degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Garrett Power - Throughout his career Professor has maintained an active research interest in the public regulation of water and land resources.  During his early work while concentrating on the environmental law he prepared the first comprehensive legal study of the Chesapeake Bay and the first draft  of the Maryland wetland law.  This effort culminated in his co-authorship of the book Chesapeake Waters in 1983.  As President of Westminster Preservation Trust, Power directs the stewardship of the historic Western Burying Ground (the site of Edgar Allan Poe's grave) and the operation of the restored 19th century Westminster Hall.  Power also works closely with the Maryland State Archivist in its efforts to make legal records (dockets, transcripts, depositions, etc.), accessible for historical study in a digital environment.  He serves on the Executive Council of the Adventure Sports Institute.

Jessica Rae – Legal Aid Bureau – Rae graduated from American University, Washington College of Law in 1999. She has represented hundreds of children in Child in Need of Assistance and Termination of Parental Rights proceedings in Baltimore City, first as a staff attorney and then as a supervising attorney in the Child Advocacy Unit at the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. In the course of her representation, she has advocated on her client’s behalf at treatment team meetings, involuntary hospitalization and commitment hearings, delinquency and educational proceedings. Currently, Rae is the Assistant Director of Advocacy for Children’s Rights at Legal Aid where she supervises the CINA/TPR appellate practice and coordinates statewide efforts aimed at improving the lives of children in Maryland.

Phillip Robinson - Phillip Robinson is the Executive Director of Civil Justice, Inc., a Maryland based public interest legal association which provides services to Maryland consumers.  Mr. Robinson is also a Maryland attorney with admission to the U.S. District Court of Maryland.  He joined Civil Justice in January 2004 and his work concentrates in certain program service areas designed to help at risk homeowners avoid becoming the victim of certain predatory real estate practices.  As such, Mr. Robinson serves as class counsel in several class action lawsuits and project manager for several pro-active public education programs designed to prevent residents from becoming victim of predatory real estate practices.  Prior to joining Civil Justice, Mr. Robinson had a limited private practice concentrating in legislative and educational law.  Previously he also served as the Director of Business and Community Relations for the Maryland Job Corps Program.  He holds a JD and BA in Political Science.

Shantel Potter Randolph - Shantel Potter currently employed by the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, is a former foster youth and leader who was on the National Foster Youth Advisory Council from 2002-2005.  She volunteers to help youth in foster care learn basic life skills.  Her goal is to work full-time with foster youth to help them be good advocates for themselves and other foster youth and to develop the skills needed to become healthy, happy and productive adults.

James Rosner - James RosnerWhiteford, Taylor & Preston L.L.P. - James Rosner is a litigation partner with Whiteford Taylor & Preston where his practice is civil litigation with primary emphasis on medical malpractice defense. He is chair of the firm’s first Pro Bono Coordinator and heads their pro bono committee. He is a member of the Baltimore County Bar Association Pro Bono Committee and the Maryland Bar Foundation. In addition to numerous memberships and awards he is past president of the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland and has been the recipient of the Maryland Association of Community Services for Persons with Developmental Disabilities' Volunteer Award and the Maryland Bar Foundation Professional Legal Excellence Award for the Advancement of the Rights of the Disadvantaged.

Jessica Salsbury - Jessica Salsbury is a staff attorney at CASA of Maryland, where she represents low-wage immigrant workers who have suffered wage payment violations, educates workers about their workplace rights, and advocates to improve working conditions in Maryland. Ms. Salsbury holds a J.D. from the Washington College of Law at American University and a B.A from Duke University.

Patricia Schminke - Patricia Schminke serves as the coordinator of the University of Baltimore School of Law's Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC).  Previously Ms. Schminke served as the director  of the Mercy Southwest Legal Advocacy Program.  She also leads a solo legal practice in Towson specializing in family law, wills, and education.  Ms. Schminke is a graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law.  She also holds a Master's of Library Science degree from the State University of New York in Albany, and a Bachelor's degree in education from Louisiana State University.

Judge Cathy Serrette – Prince George’s County Circuit Court – Judge Serrette is a member of the Court of Appeals’ Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services, President of the Pro Bono Resource Center, Board Member of the Law Foundation of Prince George’s County, Consultant to the Prince George’s County Local Pro Bono Committee, Executive Committee Member of the Board of the Prince George’s County Bar Association, and immediate past President of the Prince George’s County chapter of the Women’s Bar Association. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Serrette was in private practice in a variety of areas including family law and children’s rights.

Kathleen S. Skullney - Kathleen is a native of Northern Illinois and moved to Maryland over 28 years ago.  As a securities broker, fully licensed in stocks, bonds and commodities, Kathleen worked in finance and banking in Illinois and later in Baltimore.  She obtained her JD from the University of Baltimore and has practiced in both the federal and Maryland courts.  She spent 3 years as the Executive Director of Common Cause Maryland and has been a strong community advocate since coming to Maryland.  A number of years ago, Kathleen joined St. Ambrose Legal Services to work on housing fraud, flipping and predatory lending cases.  She now works on these and other legal threats to home ownership  as a staff attorney at Legal Aid Bureau, Inc.

Maureen Sweeney - University of Maryland School of Law - Maureen Sweeney is the Clinical Instructor for the Small Firm Practice: Immigration Clinic at the University of Maryland School of Law. The clinic represents individuals in immigration matters and is engaged in a project to educate local criminal defense practitioners about the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. Sweeney came to the clinic as a practitioner, having represented immigrants and others in the context of a migrant farmworker legal services program (Farmworkers Legal Service of North Carolina), an LSC-funded back-up center and legislative and administrative advocacy organization (Migrant Legal Action Program), and a local immigration legal services office (Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services in Baltimore). Since 1996, she has also served on the board of directors of the Baltimore-based Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma, which provides mental health and social services to individuals from around the world who have suffered torture at the hands of their governments.

Courtney Thomas - Courtney Thomas is currently the Executive Director of the Alleghany County Human Resources Development Commission, Inc. (HRDC) a large non-profit  Community Action Agency serving over 7,000 unduplicated low-income and elderly residents annually.  Ms. Thomas joined HRDC in 2002  as the director of the Department of Housing and Community Resources.  Under her direction, HRDC obtained its designation as a Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) by the State of Maryland.  Through her leadership the initiatives through IDA's community and work-based training programs and the earned income tax credit program.  Thomas also serves as an adjunct professor in the Communication Studies Department at Frostburg State University and authored the City of Cumberland's Analysis of Impediments Plan and 5-year Fair Housing Action Plan.

Judge Jerome Woods, II - Jerome Woods, II, has been an Administrative Law Judge with the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) since 2005.  Prior to joining the OAH, ALJ Woods practiced with the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, California Analysis Centers, Inc. (CACI), The Maryland State Department of Education, and Columbus Community Legal Services.  ALJ Woods is also a barrister in the Thurgood Marshall American Inns of Court.

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Date Last Updated: 2/26/07