direction

Jill E. Adams, J.D. has been the Executive Director of LSRJ since September 2006. Prior to that, she served the organization as President of its Board of Directors, intern in the national office, and trainer, facilitator, and speaker on many occasions throughout law school. As ED, Jill oversees fundraising and development, management and operations, programming, finances, and public relations. She also engages in extensive public speaking and writing. Jill is committed to empowering law students, building coalition with other social justice groups, and fostering LSRJ's long-term sustainability. She further contributes to the reproductive justice movement as a member of the Executive Committee of the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, the Steering Committee for Pharmacy Forward: Pharmacist Leadership for Reproductive Health, the Advisory Boards of Real Reason and Nursing Students for Choice, and the Women’s Health Leadership Network of the Center for American Progress. She graduated with honors from the University of Missouri, Columbia School of Journalism in 2000 and from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2006. Jill is licensed by the State Bar of California.

Liz Kukura, J.D. joins LSRJ as a Legal Fellow from NYU School of Law, having graduated with a J.D. in May 2009. During law school, she interned with National Advocates for Pregnant Women, the Global Justice Center, and the Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Child Rights (CPPCR) in Mae Sot, Thailand. Before law school, she spent two years as a public policy fellow with the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law & Public Policy at the UCLA School of Law. While at NYU, Liz was editor-in-chief of the NYU Review of Law & Social Change and a member of the NYU International Human Rights Clinic. She also served on the boards of NYU LSRJ, Law Students for Human Rights, OUTLaw, and the Coalition for Legal Recruiting. She has published articles in the Human Rights Brief and the Peace Review, and her article about restrictions on VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean section) is forthcoming in the Penn State Law Review. Liz also holds a B.A. in Russian & East European studies from Yale and an MSc in human rights from the London School of Economics & Political Science, where she focused on sexual orientation under human rights law and wrote a thesis entitled Finding Family: Considering the Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships Under the European Convention on Human Rights. In her spare time, she is training as a doula.

Bojana Miljanovic, L.L.M. is a recently graduated LLM student from the University of San Francisco where she completed her degree in International Transactions and Comparative Law with a focus on human rights law. Originally from Serbia, Bojana studied law at the University of Belgrade and then moved to England where she graduated with honors from University of Brighton law school in 2008. Bojana was awarded a number of prizes during her studies, such as the Oxford University Press Prize, the Howlett Clark Solicitors. She would like to specialize in the field of international human rights law and European community law. During her studies Bojana worked as a legal translator for a Paragraf Co, a legal software company and a legal intern at Meis and Associates law firm. Bojana currently volunteers at LSRJ as a part-time Special Projects Coordinator.

Keely Monroe is LSRJ's Legal Intern this fall and very excited to be working on the "Reaching and Recruiting Law Students of Color for RJ Advocacy" Initiative. She is currently a 2L at U.C. Hastings College of the Law and serves as the LSRJ Chapter President. She has been passionate about sexual health issues since her time at Fordham University, where she volunteered for a sex-ed nonprofit and continued that during her two years in Peace Corps as a sexual health coordinator in Belize. Keely hopes to enter the reproductive rights field with her J.D. to ensure and protect an individual's autonomy to make sexual health choices that are right for them.

Tatyana Brenner is a third year undergraduate at UC Berkeley where she studies Philosophy and Russian Language, Literature and Culture. She is currently the President of the European Student Union at UC Berkeley and mentors Berkeley high school students to inspire and guide them to the path of higher education. Originally from Russia, Tatyana studied at Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles for six years where she picked up her third language: French. She plans on going to law school and aspires to practice international human rights law.

Kathryn Beeleyis an independent bookkeeper who works with small businesses and NPOs in San Francisco and Oakland. She began her bookkeeping career in college with a student-run non-profit and has had the pleasure of working with a variety of small businesses and socially conscious groups ever since. She is currently pursuing her CPA license by getting an MBA at San Francisco State University. She started working with LSRJ in July 2005.

board of directors

LSRJ's Board of Directors ensures fulfillment of its mission by holding the vision of the organization, shaping its long-range plans, and monitoring its needs. The 11-person volunteer board meets monthly to discuss the financial health, programming feats, and strategic plans of the organization. True to LSRJ's mission to be student-led and student-driven, the majority of our directors and officers are law students. New directors are selected each spring through an application and interview process to serve one-year renewable terms, beginning in June. We are proud to have an active Board made up of ardent LSRJ supporters who bring diverse experiences, perspectives, and expertise to the noble work of steering the course of this organization and shaping the future for its members.

Current Directors

Ashley Gorski, President, is a 3L at Harvard Law School, where she is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Law and Gender and the outgoing President of HLS for Reproductive Justice. Originally from Indiana, she graduated with honors from Yale University, where she focused on intellectual history and a number of women's issues. After college, Ashley worked at a New York foundation, and she has interned at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project and as a sexual health educator in Peru. She is also the author of The Author of Her Trouble: Abortion in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Judicial Discourses, 32 Harv. J.L. & Gender (forthcoming Summer 2009).

Jina Dhillon, Secretary, is the proud Founder of Carolina LSRJ at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Jina is from Durham, NC and is currently pursuing her joint JD and Master of Public Health concentrating in Health Policy and Administration and Global Health. She has worked with several reproductive health organizations, including as a summer intern with Ipas, USA and as a leader and member on several Planned Parenthood of Central NC community action committees. Jina is also a board member of North Carolina Women United, a state-wide coalition of progressive women's rights organizations. Most recently, Jina spent the Summer of 2008 as an intern in the International Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York City. Jina graduated with honors from UNC-CH in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health.

Jill E. Adams has been the Executive Director of LSRJ since September 2006. Prior to that, she served the organization as President of its Board of Directors, intern in the national office, and trainer, facilitator, and speaker on many occasions throughout law school. As ED, Jill oversees fundraising and development, management and operations, programming, finances, and public relations. She also engages in extensive public speaking and writing. Jill is committed to empowering law students, building coalition with other social justice groups, and fostering LSRJ's long-term sustainability. She further contributes to the reproductive justice movement as a member of the Executive Committee of the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, the Steering Committee for Pharmacy Forward: Pharmacist Leadership for Reproductive Health, the Advisory Board of Real Reason, and the Women’s Health Leadership Network of the Center for American Progress. She graduated with honors from the University of Missouri, Columbia School of Journalism in 2000 and from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2006. Jill is licensed by the State Bar of California.

Erin Armstrong is a rising 2L at University of California, Berkeley School of Law where she serves on the board of its LSRJ chapter. Before coming to law school, Erin worked for the Society of Family Planning, a national membership and grants organization composed of leading medical and social researchers in the areas of contraception and abortion. She has also worked in drug policy reform and extensively with the HIV/ADIS community, both in the US and abroad, providing further familiarity with issues of sexual health and the struggle to prioritize science, social justice, and human rights in health policy. Erin has also volunteered as a patient escort at a local abortion clinic to help ensure safe access to reproductive services. She is working with UCSF's Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health this summer.

Caleb Arring is a 3L at Golden Gate University, specializing in litigation and tax law. Caleb has done extensive work in the queer community fighting for equal rights. He has been an active member of his school’s LSRJ since his first year, and moved on to chair his chapter during his 2L year. Caleb also interned for the national LSRJ office during his 2L year. Prior to law school, Caleb earned his Bachelors degree in Political Science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he was heavily involved in student life, and led many diversity events on campus, including the schools first ever transgender week of awareness. Caleb went on to receive his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Kim Buchanan, J.D., LL.M. worked as a civil litigator at Sack Goldblatt Mitchell in Toronto and as a senior fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York City, where she authored Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States, a shadow report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee on US noncompliance with its international law obligations to protect reproductive rights. Her publications include Impunity: Sexual Abuse in Women's Prisons (Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 2007) and Lawrence v. Geduldig: Regulating Women's Sexuality (Emory Law Journal, 2007). Professor Buchanan earned her bachelor's degree at Queen's University and her law degree at the University of Toronto. She clerked for Chief Justice Isaac of the Federal Court of Canada (Appeal Division). She earned her LL.M. at Columbia University, and is currently completing her J.S.D.

Dante Costa is a rising 2L at Cardozo School of Law where she is co-founder and co-coordinator of Cardozo LSRJ. She graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in international relations in 2006. Her interests include ensuring access to low-intervention childbirth for healthier moms and babies, advocating for midwives, and protecting women from gendered forms of violence. Her background in reproductive justice and human rights includes research and activism at Amnesty International and Equality Now; advocating for political asylum seekers; writing grants for a domestic violence shelter, and helping low-income women locate emergency funding for reproductive health care. She has lived and traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, and is involved in childbirth advocacy projects in India and at home in New York. She will spend the summer of 2009 interning with the HIV Law Project in New York.

Louise Melling, J.D. is the Director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. In that capacity, she oversees nationwide litigation, communications and advocacy programs. She has appeared in federal and state courts around the country to challenge laws that restrict reproductive rights, including abortion bans, restrictions on Medicaid coverage for abortions, and laws restricting teenagers' access to abortion. Louise became Director of the Project in 2003, after working at the Project for over a decade. She graduated with high honors from Oberlin College in 1982 and received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1987.

Lauren R.S. Mendonsa is a rising 2L at the University of San Diego School of Law where she is the proud founder and chair of the school’s LSRJ chapter. Prior to entering law school, Lauren worked to advance global access to female condoms at the Center for Health and Gender Equity and as a speechwriter on women’s issues for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY- 14). Lauren has degrees in English and Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan. Lauren is the happy recipient of her school’s 2009 Community Service Grant, which will support her summer internship at the Center for HIV Law and Policy in New York.

Cari E. Sietstra, J.D. is LSRJ's part-time Special Projects Coordinator, in addition to being its founder and former executive director. Prior to founding the organization, Cari worked as the Legal Fellow at CARAL, drafting and successfully lobbying for new local legislation to protect patients entering reproductive healthcare clinics. She now works as a freelance social justice advocate specializing in creating and incubating new projects in reproductive health and justice, voting rights, and women's empowerment. Cari received an honors B.A. from Harvard University in 1998 and earned her J.D. from Stanford in 2002.

Aimée Thorne-Thomsen, M.P.A. serves as Executive Director of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project, where she focuses on creating spaces for and elevating the voices of young women in the reproductive justice movement. As part of her commitment to social justice, Ms. Thorne-Thomsen serves on the Center for American Progress Women's Health Leadership Network, the Board of Directors for Law Students for Reproductive Justice, the Editorial Board of Our Truths/Nuestras Verdades, and the National Advisory Council of Exhale. Ms. Thorne-Thomsen earned her B.A. degree from Yale University and a M.P.A. from the City University of New York.

Directors Emeriti

• Claire Abernathy, J.D. (Former President)
  Stanford Law School, Class of 2005
• Sabrina Andrus, J.D.
  Seattle University School of Law, Class of 2008
• Sheila Bapat, J.D. (Former President)
  University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Class of 2007
• Madison Burnett, J.D. (Former President)
  Georgia State University School of Law, Class of 2009
• Heather Busby, J.D. (Former Secretary)
  South Texas College of Law, Class of 2007
• Caitlin G. Coslett, J.D.
  New York University School of Law, Class of 2009
• Julie Ehrlich, J.D. (Former Secretary)
  New York University School of Law, Class of 2008
• Julia Ernst, J.D.
  University of Michigan, Class of 1994
• Kate Hannaher, J.D. (Former Secretary)
  Hamline University School of Law, Class of 2009
• Priscilla Huang, J.D.
  Washington College of the Law at American University, Class of 2006
• Kara Loewentheil, J.D. (Former President)
  Harvard Law School, Class of 2008
• Nancy Millar, J.D.
  University of Miami School of Law, Class of 2008
• Katherine Minarik, J.D. (Former Secretary)
  University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Class of 2006
• Jennifer Smith, J.D.
  University of California Davis, Class of 2007
• Melissa Thelemaque, J.D. (Former Secretary)
  Georgetown University Law Center, Class of 2006
• Melissa Upreti, J.D.
  Columbia University School of Law
• Joy Welan, J.D.
  Georgetown University Law Center, Class of 2008

advisory board

The Advisory Board is comprised of esteemed advocates, academics, and other key allies who help to guide LSRJ toward its goals. These distinguished individuals represent various facets of the reproductive health, rights, and justice movement, offering keen direction from a comprehensive compass. Advisory Board members have neither meeting nor fiduciary obligations to LSRJ.

• Maggie Crosby
  ACLU Northern California
• Walter Dellinger
  O'Melveny & Myers
• Kim Gandy
  National Organization for Women
• Marcia Greenberger
  National Women's Law Center
• Angela Hooton
  Institute for Reproductive Health Access
• Priscilla Huang
  National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum
• Nancy Keenan
  NARAL Pro-Choice America
• Louise Melling
  ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project
• Debra Ness
  National Partnership for Women and Families
• Nancy Northup
  Center for Reproductive Rights
• Kim Parker
  WilmerHale
• Loretta Ross
  SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective
• Vicki Saporta
  National Abortion Federation
• Reva Siegel
  Yale Law School
• Louise Slaughter
  United States House of Representatives
• Eleanor Smeal
  Feminist Majority Foundation
• Jody Steinhauer
  Medical Students for Choice
• Ann Stone
  Republicans for Choice
• Melissa Upreti
  International Legal Program of the Center for Reproductive Rights
• Carlton Veazey
  Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

regional coordinators

Regional Coordinators (RCs) are outstanding student organizers who facilitate communication and activism at many schools within a geographic region. RCs act as liaisons between the national office and chapters. They connect regularly with the chapters in their regions, checking in about their progress, needs, and goals. They are also the lead organizers for annual Regional Conferences designed to unite students with professors, practitioners, and policymakers who help them expand their reproductive justice work on campus and in their communities.

West

• Emily Chaloner
  University of California, Los Angeles

Midwest

• Joe Austen
  University of Iowa
• Cara Finnegan
  Case Western Reserve University

South

• Maha Amircani
  Georgia State University
• Carmela Orsini
  Georgia State University

Mid-Atlantic

• Tori Rivapalacio
  Georgia Washington University

Northeast

• Leigh Campbell
  Boston University
• Courtney Patterson
  New York Law School

alumni network committee

• Diana Aguilar, J.D.
  University of Wisconsin School of Law, Class of 2006
• Jina Dhillon
  3L, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law, J.D. anticipated 2009
• Jael Humphrey, J.D.
  Yale Law School, Class of 2008
• Kimberly K. Irish, J.D.
  University of San Francisco School of Law, Class of 2006
• Zoe Siegel-Reichlin, J.D.
  Harvard Law School, Class of 2006
• Jennifer Smith, J.D.
  UC Davis School of Law, Class of 2007
• Melissa Thelemaque, J.D.
  Georgetown University Law Center, Class of 2006
• Joy Welan, J.D.
  Georgetown University Law Center, Class of 2008