Staff

Robert Siegel, Legal Director
Robert Siegel has been an attorney for 16 years and an activist for 25 years on issues including homelessness, anti-nuclear efforts and the various wars. He is a key advisor to many social justice causes in Seattle and is also the current President of the Seattle chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild.

Past Intern Bios

Elissa Brine, Juvenile Justice Project, 2004
Elissa is a second year student at the University of Washington School of Law. Elissa volunteers with Street Youth and works for progressive causes including police harassment, GLBT rights, and environmental justice. She is currently the communications coordinator for the University of Washington SYLAW chapter(Street Youth Advocates of Washington) and is finishing an M.S. in Science Studies,Concentrating on Environmental Philosophy). Elissa plans to practice family law with an emphasis on child advocacy and hopes to do pro bono legal representation for homeless youth. Elissa plans to run the Seattle Marathon in December with the Lukemia Foundation's Team in Training program and spends as much time as possible with her husband, Tam, and dog, Brody.

Aline Carton, Human Rights Campaign, 2004
Aline's has worked for the past ten years as a community organizer and human rights worker in New York, Olympia, Seattle, and Paris, France. She has worked on various issues such as economic justice for public education students, violence against women, universal health care, development of anti-oppression curricula and popular education trainings, labor rights for workers in non-profit organizations, domestic violence and civil rights for lesbian, bi, trans communities, and tenants rights/housing justice.

Since entering law school, she has worked on access to justice and legal services in White Center, co-founded/directed the Center for Human Rights & Justice at Seattle University, and is currently doing community outreach for the Seattle Journal for Social Justice, and consulting for the Center for Corporations, Law & Society at Seattle University. Aline has been working for the International Federation for Human Rights in the Globalization and Human Rights and International Justice Programs.

Marissa Chavez, Development Coordinator, 2003
Marissa Chávez has extensive experience working in low-income, diverse communities and with non profit agencies. Currently she is working with several organizations in South Seattle/White Center, the most diverse community in Washington State. Prior to coming to Washington Marissa Chavez worked with several organizations that aimed to serve women along the United States-Mexico border. She was also a primary organizer for a campaign that was intended to highlight, and call for an end, to a string of serial murders affecting women in Juarez, Mexico. Marissa recently finished her Master’s in Public Administration, with an emphasis on nonprofit management, at the University of Washington.

Diana Erickson, Juvenile Justice Project, 2003
Diana is a third year law student at Seattle University Law School. As part of her participation in the school.s law clinic she is currently representing teenage clients in the King County Juvenile Court. She also serves as a board member of the Public Interest Law Foundation. Prior to attending law school she was a Presbyterian minister in California and Ohio. While in Cleveland she was involved with creating programs and organizing workshops on both restorative justice and racial reconciliation for non-profit organizations. She also worked with the local court, police departments, clergy and service providers to create a coordinated response to victims of domestic violence. She hopes to become a public defender or work in public interest law upon graduation.

Adrienne Harmon NW Social Forum, 2004
Adrienne Harmon recently graduated from the Evergreen State College, where she studied international human rights, contemporary social movement theory and queer politics and law. As an intern at the Center for Social Justice, she is organizing the Northwest Social Forum. The NWSF aspires to create a stronger social justice network in the Northwest by providing open political space for dialogue on local social justice issues. Adrienne lives in Olympia trying to make it on minimum wage and the itty-bitty money selling her photography brings in. Please click here to go a resource for queers in WA regarding law developed by Adrienne.

Kristina Johnson, Northwest Social Forum, 2004
Krissy Johnson is a recent graduate of The Evergreen State College. She is a Palestine Solidarity activist and works primarily with the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project. Krissy interns with the Center for Social Justice as an organizer for the Northwest Social Forum.

Jessica Marden, Criminal Justice Project, 2003
Jessica is graduating from UW law school and has earned a certificate from the Oxford/GW joint programme in International Human Rights Law. She has researched corporate criminal liability and universal jurisdiction in her work for Professor Anita Ramasastry. She is a board member of Village Design Institute, permaculture non-profit, and a former board member of Homestead Community Land Trust. She has mentored several first-generation college students from rural communities. Somehow, she still manages to make time for the most important thing in her life: her 11-year-old son Cedar. For the record, she has made it to every one of his little league games (Go Sylvan!).

Cindy Peterson, Juvenile Justice Project
Cindy Peterson's community organizing background is rooted in popular education, anti-oppression work, and arts and cultural activism. She was a founding board member of the Vera Project and former board member of the Seattle Young People's Project. She directed the music program at Ground Zero where she co-founded the Anti-Beauty Pageant, a music and arts festival by and for young women. Cindy earned her law degree at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Laura Ostenso, Juvenile Justice Project, 2002 - 2003
Laura Ostenso is a recent grad from the Evergreen State College where she studied International Development and Criminal Justice issues. While at CSJ, she has been active with issues regarding the criminal justice system, particularly juvenile justice issues, and launched and co-directs the Juvenile Justice Project. Laura has also studied and worked in the Netherlands, Taiwan, Uganda, and most recently traveled to Brazil with CSJ. She enjoys eating really good Thai food.

Grace (Jea-Hyun) Park, Prisoner Human Rights Project, 2003
Grace is a second year law student at University of Washington Law School. Grace's motivation to study and practice law is to uphold the human rights for all people on a local and international level. Her pursuit of a human rights focus begain with her dissatisfaction concerning gender discrimination as she grew up in Korea. Her exposure to and knowledge of human rights issues were enhanced while at the Libray of Congress where she researched and co-authored a publication involving the international trafficking of women and children. The exposure to human rights abuses inspired Grace to work for the abused and led her to start to delve into the issues of prisoner's rights with the Center for Social Justice. Specifically, Grace is researching the status of sexual harassment in prisons among prisoners, the medical conditions in prison, and the disciplinary system in prison and its abusive status.