Center Staff
Mary Louise Frampton, Faculty Director
785 Simon Hall
510-642-4474
510-642-3728 (fax)
mlframpton@law.berkeley.edu
Mary Louise Frampton, director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, has a long record of involvement in social justice issues. She recently retired from a Central Valley civil rights practice that focused on issues of discrimination in employment. Prior to the establishment of that firm in 1974, Frampton was the directing attorney of the Madera office of California Rural Legal Services. She was on the first board of directors of the California Women Lawyers Association, was the founder of the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and helped establish the first local chapter of the federal Inns of Court.
Frampton has been involved in a number of important social justice causes over the course of her career. In the 1970s she was instrumental in establishing National Land for People, an organization of small farmers and farm workers. As the group's lawyer, she won a series of landmark federal cases that forced the federal government and large agribusiness corporations to comply with the 160 acre limitation law and end the diversion of federally subsidized water away from small family farmers. Such victories enabled small farmers and farm workers to purchase desirable agricultural land and become economically independent. Frampton authored an article on that legal struggle for the UC Davis Law Review .
Frampton has represented several community coalitions, including a group of Latino, African-American and women's groups that increased diversity in hiring and programming in network and local television stations. The second-largest school district in the state was the target of several of Frampton's Title VII cases to enhance promotional opportunities for African-American educators. In the 1980s she obtained the largest economic damages figure in an employment case awarded by the Fair Employment and Housing Commission, and in the early 1990s she won the biggest verdict in a sex discrimination action in the Central Valley. She also represented women in their efforts to compel enforcement of Title IX at state universities and obtain slander damages against a prominent radio personality for his homophobic and misogynist attacks on women athletes. On appointment by the federal court in Sacramento, Frampton continues to represent two death row inmates in their federal habeas corpus actions.
In 2003 Frampton was named a National Bellow Scholar by the Public Interest Committee of the American Association of Law Schools. The award honors projects that involve law students and faculty in anti-poverty or access to justice work.
Education:
B.A., Brown University
J.D., Harvard University
Wilda L. White, Executive Director
439 North Addition
510-643-5402 (office)
510-642-3728 (fax)
wwhite@law.berkeley.edu
Wilda L. White joined the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice in December, 2008, as the Center's Executive Director. She brings a broad base of experience to the position in both law and management. White began her career as a Staff Attorney at The Legal Aid Society in the South Bronx, primarily representing Spanish-speaking clients in unemployment, SSI, and general assistance appeals, and landlord-tenant law. After returning to California, she joined Sterns & Walker, first as an associate handling insurance bad faith, civil rights, and personal injury cases, and later becoming the firm's managing attorney. There she successfully resolved what was considered at the time to be the first disability insurance AIDS cases. She was also instrumental in persuading the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to end its practice of incarcerating mentally ill prisoners in the general prison population.
Immediately before joining the Henderson Center, White was a partner with Walker, Hamilton & White, where she handled personal injury, wrongful death, civil rights, and employment discrimination cases. She has tried over 30 cases before administrative law judges, trial courts, and juries.
She was also an Assistant City Editor at The Miami Herald during the time that the newspaper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. In addition, a story she investigated and wrote resulted in the release of a wrongfully incarcerated prisoner. White was also an international management consultant with McKinsey & Company, where she specialized in strategic planning.
From 2004 until she joined the Henderson Center, she was a Board Member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. She also served as a Director of the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education from 2000 to 2002.
In 2007, she was recognized as a Northern California Super Lawyer.
She is licensed to practice law in the States of California and New York, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Education:
B.A., University of Vermont
J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)
M.B.A., Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration
Michael D. Sumner, Research Manager
2850 Telegraph Ave, Suite 500 # 7220 (Room 329)
510-642-6395 (office)
510-643-4533 (fax)
msumner@law.berkeley.edu
Michael Sumner joined the Henderson Center in 2007 as a Research Fellow. He has over 10 years experience studying sex and race utilizing a multidisciplinary, social science approach. He graduated from Rutgers College in 1997 with Honors in Psychology and received his PhD in Social and Personality Psychology from New York University in 2003. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute and was the Research Manager at the Discrimination Research Center. He has co-authored several peer-reviewed articles and other reports and presented his research findings at scientific meetings, governmental hearings, and to the general public. He has been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, received the Dean's Outstanding Student Teaching Award at NYU, and was a finalist for the New Investigator Award from the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation.
Education:
B.A., Rutgers College
M.A., New York University
Ph.D., New York University
Mary Elliott, Program Administrator
897 Simon Hall
510-642-6969 (office)
510-642-3728 (fax)
melliott@law.berkeley.edu
Mary Elliott joined the Boalt staff in 2004, first as administrator of the Environmental Law Program and then of the California Center for Environmental Law and Policy. She now serves as the Henderson Center's Program Administrator. Before coming to Boalt, Elliott was a paralegal in the land use and environmental law sections of a San Francisco-based international law firm, served as a development director for a local nonprofit agency, and taught literature and composition at the University of Wisconsin and Sonoma State University.
Education:
B.A., University of Oregon
M.A., Stanford University
M.A., University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Ariana Ceja, Program Assistant
897 Simon Hall
510-643-5723 (office)
510-642-3728 (fax)
aceja@law.berkeley.edu
Ariana Ceja joined the Henderson Center in 2008. Before joining the Henderson Center she worked for both the Vice President for Student Services and the Director of Judicial Affairs at California State University, Long Beach.
Education:
B.A., Humboldt State University
M.S., California State University, Long Beach