Leigh Goodmark

Professor of Law and Co-Director, Clinical Law Program at Maryland Carey Law

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Leigh Goodmark (pronouns: she/her/hers) is the Marjorie Cook Professor of Law and director of the Clinical Law Program at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, where she directs the Gender Violence Clinic. She is he author of Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism; Decriminalizing Domestic Violence: A Balanced Policy Approach to Intimate Partner Violence and A Troubled Marriage: Domestic Violence and the Legal System and the co-editor of Comparative Perspectives on Gender Violence: Lessons from Efforts Worldwide.

 

Charisa Kiyô Smith

Associate Professor, CUNY School of Law

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Charisa Kiyô Smith is an Associate Professor at CUNY School of Law. She directs the interdisciplinary, intersectional Family Law Practice Clinic and teaches doctrinal courses on torts, youth law, and contemplative lawyering. Under Charisa’s leadership, the Family Law Practice Clinic facilitates 3L externships with legal service organizations and public interest law offices. Students engage in live legal work, then have robust weekly seminars and clinical case rounds on campus. Charisa represents CUNY Law’s other externship programs in Health Law and Equality & Justice in regional and national fora. A graduate of Yale Law School and Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges with an LL.M. from Wisconsin Law, Charisa focuses her scholarship on themes including personal capacity for decision-making and care-giving, moral and legal responsibility, and harm and remedy.  She emphasizes three broad areas—the over-criminalization of youth behavior, the overreach of the family policing system, and non-carceral approaches to gender-based harms.  Charisa’s scholarship has been cited by courts, government agencies, and advocates.  She has represented children and families in criminal and civil matters, with expertise in Alternative Dispute Resolution and special education advocacy. Charisa has also worked for women's rights organizations in Latin America and with sexually exploited youth in the U.S. and abroad.

 

Donna Coker

Professor, University of Miami School of Law

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Professor Coker’s research examines the use of restorative justice responses to intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual harm; the connection between economic vulnerability and IPV; and the intersections of gender and race subordination in criminal law doctrine and policy.  She is a leading critic of the carceral-focused response that has historically characterized U.S. IPV policy. She is currently serving as the 2022-2023 International Fellow for The Restorative Research, Innovation, and Education Lab, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University.

 

Kayla Bennett

Social Services Manager

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Kayla holds a BA in Sociology from Wesleyan University and an MSW from the University of Chicago. Kayla was trained in the neuroscience and treatment of post-traumatic stress at NYC's Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy. She has previously worked as a Horticultural Therapist on Rikers Island, where she and her students designed, built, and maintained gardens while studying curriculum in gardening, botany, food justice, and landscape design. Prior to this, Kayla worked as a Criminal Defense Social Worker at the Bronx Defenders. In 2019 she started her own mitigation practice to assist federal defense attorneys advocate for better sentencing outcomes for their clients. Kayla is currently the head of the social work practice at the Travis County Public Defender's Office.

 

Arielle Lewis-Zavala

Administrative Investigator

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Arielle is the investigations supervisor at the Travis County Public Defender’s Office. She was born and raised in Austin and received a B.A. in Psychology and Gender Studies from Oberlin College. Prior to joining the public defender’s office, she worked as a private defense investigator assisting court-appointed attorneys though the Capital Area Private Defender Service. Prior to that, Arielle worked as a manager and crisis advocate at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. She has volunteered in multiple local community organizing campaigns for immigrant rights and is a co-founding member and board member of the Austin Sanctuary Network.