Board of Trustees

Kevin Welner, Ph.D., Professor (Board Chair)
University of Colorado, School of Education Director
Director, National Education Policy Center

Janel George, Esq.
Associate Professor of Law
Director, Racial Equity in Education Law and Policy Clinic
Georgetown Law

Lindsay Heck, Esq.
U.S. Government

Jacqueline Jones, Ph.D.
Former President & CEO
Foundation for Child Development

Kevin Kelleher, Executive Director
New Jersey Education Association

David Long
Retired Attorney

Janelle Scott, Ph.D., Professor
School of Education
Distinguished Chair in Educational Disparities
University of CA, Berkeley

Rebecca Spar, Esq.
Special Education Attorney

Honorable Gary Stein (Ret.)
Pashman Stein Walder Hayden

Clifford G. Stewart, Esq.
The Law Office of C. Gregory Stewart

Jamal Watson, Ph.D., Associate Dean
Trinity Washington University
School of Professional and Graduate Studies

Staff

Robert Kim, Esq.
Executive Director

Robert (Bob) Kim oversees and directs ELC programs and activities. He has been engaged in civil and education rights law and policy for his entire 25+ year career.

Robert Kim, Esq. is the executive director of Education Law Center, a legal advocacy organization dedicated to advancing and protecting public education and the rights of public school students nationwide. In 2020, he served as a member of the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition Team. From 2011 through 2016, he served in the Obama Administration as deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, which enforces federal civil rights laws in K-12 and postsecondary institutions nationwide. Earlier in his career, Kim served as a senior policy analyst at the National Education Association and as a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. His most recent publications include Education and the Law, 6th ed. (West Academic Publishing, 2024) and Elevating Equity and Justice: Ten U.S. Supreme Court Cases Every Teacher Should Know (Heinemann, 2020).

Elizabeth Athos, Esq.
Senior Attorney, Educational Equity

Elizabeth Athos’ law practice focuses on issues related to special education, residency, school discipline, bullying, and New Jersey school funding.

Elizabeth joined ELC in 1997, after working as a Legal Services attorney in New Jersey. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. In 1990, she was awarded the Ronald B. Atlas Outstanding Attorney Award by Legal Services of New Jersey, and in 2014, she received the CAP Legal Advocate Award from New Jersey Child Assault Prevention.

Nicole Ciullo
Associate Director of Policy & Development

Nicole Ciullo tracks legislative, policy, and research developments impacting K-12 public schools nationwide, gathers and analyzes data and assists in the writing and production of reports and publications.

Prior to joining ELC, Nicole served as the Fundraising & Events Intern at One Simple Wish and as the Communication & Development Intern at Habitat for Humanity of Trenton. Nicole received a B.A., cum laude, in Spanish and Sociology from The College of New Jersey, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Rutgers University-Newark.

Kaitlyn Comesañas
Program Assistant

Kaitlyn Comesañas provides program and administrative support to ELC staff, assists with external communications and manages fundraising efforts and annual events.

Before joining ELC, Kaitlyn worked as a contractor for Customs and Border Protection in their Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures Division. She also served as Senior Intern for a Newark-based non-profit, SHE Wins Inc., that is dedicated to creating a pipeline of college, career, and community-ready young women leaders from the city of Newark. In 2020, Kaitlyn received her B.A., cum laude, in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice from Montclair State University.

Josh Cowen, Ph.D.
Visiting Senior Fellow

Josh Cowen is a Visiting Senior Fellow playing a key role in ELC’s ongoing work to oppose private education vouchers and support public schools through the Public Funds Public Schools campaign.  While at ELC, Josh is taking a one-year distinguished leave from his position as Professor of Education Policy at Michigan State University’s College of Education.  He is a nationally recognized expert and writer on topics related to school choice, teachers and teaching, policy analysis, and education politics.

Josh has studied school vouchers, school accountability, charter schools, and parental decision-making as part of major research teams in several states, served as a director of the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, and held editorial positions for major academic journals. He is frequently quoted and published in state and national media outlets and he speaks and testifies across the country on the dangers of school privatization. Josh holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a B.A. in history from the University of Michigan.

Jennifer Doeren
Director, Partnership for Equity & Education Rights (PEER)

Jennifer Doeren directs PEER, a state-driven network fighting for education equity, an end to the ongoing divestment of public education and racially-just public schools.

Prior to PEER, Jennifer was a senior program officer with Elev8, a national community schools initiative. She has worked in human rights with the Anti-Defamation League and has advocated on behalf of marginalized communities both in the United States and internationally with UJA-Federation and other partners. Jennifer has also been involved in electoral politics, including as a staff member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C.

Danielle Farrie, Ph.D.
Research Director

Danielle Farrie maintains an extensive education database and conducts analysis to support litigation and public policy for ELC and partner organizations.

Before joining ELC, Danielle conducted research in the field of urban education on such topics as school choice, racial and economic segregation, and reactions to racial integration, and coauthored peer reviewed articles on parental involvement among low-income families. Danielle has a Ph.D. in Sociology from Temple University.

Sharon Krengel
Director of Policy, Strategic Partnerships and Communications

Sharon Krengel oversees communications and legislative, press and community outreach for ELC. She also coordinates the statewide education advocacy network, Our Children/Our Schools.

Prior to joining ELC, Sharon served as Director of the Coalition to Preserve Public Education, an organization of NJ public school districts seeking to change the state’s charter school funding law. She also worked as a freelance journalist and an editorial and communications consultant to non-profit organizations and for-profit firms.

Wendy Lecker, Esq.
Senior Attorney, School Finance and Resource Equity

Wendy Lecker is responsible for developing, engaging, and managing ELC’s legal and litigation work to ensure fairness and adequacy in school funding and the equitable provision of resources essential to effectuate students’ constitutional and legal rights to public education.

She also assists on legal work and litigation for Public Funds, Public Schools, a national campaign to ensure that all public funds are used to support public schools.

Before joining ELC, Wendy was a staff attorney at the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) in New York. She has also worked as a consultant in education finance and policy for The Rural School and Community Trust and Connecticut Voices for Children. Wendy has a B.A. from Cornell University and a J.D. from New York University. She is the former president of the Stamford Parent Teacher Council, and a former education columnist for Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

Jessica Levin, Esq.
Litigation Director/ Director, Public Funds Public Schools

Jessica Levin directs ELC’s litigation efforts in state and federal courts. She also directs Public Funds Public Schools, a national campaign to ensure that public funds for education are used to support and strengthen public schools.

Prior to joining ELC as a Skadden Fellow in 2014, Jessica served as a law clerk to the Honorable Carlos F. Lucero of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Cornell University, an M.Phil. in Comparative Government from the University of Oxford, and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Theresa Luhm, Esq.
Director of Finance, Operations & Development

Theresa Luhm is an Attorney and the Managing Director of the Education Law Center. Her work is focused on school funding equity, safe and adequate school facilities and accountability, and she is part of the ELC legal team responsible for representing the interests of the 300,000 plaintiff school children in the Abbott v. Burke litigation.

Theresa has a B.A. with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from Rutgers-Newark School of Law. Prior to joining ELC, she worked as a research analyst at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mary McKillip, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher

Mary McKillip leads ELC’s research examining the fairness of state funding systems through analyses of resource equity within states.

Prior to joining the Education Law Center in 2018, Dr. McKillip managed school discipline and health survey data collection and analyses at the New Jersey Department of Education and conducted research on the high school to college transition at the College Board. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Illinois and a M.Ed from Harvard University.

Katrina Reichert
UC Davis Public Service Legal Fellow

Katrina Reichert provides litigation and advocacy support for ELC’s school funding, equity and student rights work.

She is a recent graduate of UC Davis School of Law where she participated in the Civil Rights Clinic and Aoki Conviction and Sentence Integrity Clinic serving incarcerated people across California. She also worked as co-director of the student-run Gender and Name Change Project. Prior to law school, Katrina worked in the education field holding leadership roles in nonprofits, school systems, and state government. Katrina has a B.A. from Mills College, an Ed.M. from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and a J.D. from UC Davis School of Law.

Aimee Roche
Intake Coordinator

Aimee Roche works directly with parents and guardians who contact ELC for legal assistance.

Prior to joining ELC, Aimee worked as a Community Organizer at La Casa de Don Pedro, where she was also responsible for implementing outreach and recruitment for the Abbott preschool program. Her efforts resulted in the enrollment of 2,182 preschoolers into Abbott Preschool programs in Essex County in 2002-2003.

Ann Romero
Finance & Operations Manager

Ann Romero is responsible for overseeing ELC’s financial processes including payables, payroll, month-end close, grant reporting and the annual audit.  She also works with senior management on fiscal planning and forecasting.

Prior to joining ELC, she worked in finance at several other nonprofits including a special education school for children with developmental and intellectual disabilities.  She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from James Madison University in Virginia and is a Certified Public Accountant.