October 2021 Sexual Harassment in Education Program

Alissa Ackerman has dedicated her career to studying sex crimes policy and practice, the etiology of sexual offending, the effects of sexual victimization, and, more recently, restorative justice options for those impacted by sexual harm. She is a “survivor scholar”, in that she integrates her personal experience with sexual violence with her professional expertise as a sex crimes researcher. She facilitates restorative justice cases and trains future restorative justice practitioners. She has worked with over 500 men and women who have perpetrated acts of sexual harm using vicarious restorative justice.

Brenda Star Adams (she/her) is Senior Counsel for Education Equity and Litigation at Equal Rights Advocates, a national nonprofit organization that fights gender discrimination at school and in the workplace. Brenda leads ERA’s impact litigation, oversees its direct legal services programs (including its ENOUGH network of pro bono attorneys which provides free representation to students in campus sexual misconduct cases), and directs its education equity work. Brenda is widely respected as an expert in sexual violence, LGBTQI+ issues, litigation, and resiliency. Prior to joining ERA in 2018, Brenda spent seven years working with survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and child abuse, and prior to that, spent four years defending low-income tenants from eviction in the East Bay. Brenda is a native San Franciscan, mother to a daughter and 3-legged pup, wife of a public school teacher, and proud daughter of lesbian parents.

Zulaikha Aziz is Co-Director of the Berkeley Law Afghanistan Project. Her work focuses on human rights law, women’s legal empowerment, access to justice, and rule of law internationally with a particular focus on Afghanistan, where she has worked for nearly two decades with international and local organizations. Zulaikha’s research and scholarship focuses on the intersection of human rights, international development and the law. She recently co-authored “Combating Corruption to Counter Conflict: Proposals for In-country Reform and International Community Intervention” with Hana Ivanhoe for the Berkeley Journal of International Law, examining the impacts of corruption on conflict in the contexts of Afghanistan and Myanmar. Other recent publications focus on women’s rights in Afghanistan and Islamophobia in U.S. higher education and she has taught on Gender and Global Issues at the University of Southern California. Zulaikha is a 2008 graduate of Berkeley Law and holds a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and International Development from McGill University. Zulaikha is fluent in Dari and English.

A practicing barrister with extensive in-house experience in the UK and the US, Georgina’s areas of expertise include employment and media law, multi-party contract negotiation/litigation, and dispute resolution. Georgina represents clients in contentious and non-contentious matters, with a client base drawn from the City and industry, as well as the educational sector.

Nancy Chi Cantalupo is a law professor and nationally-recognized expert and scholar on gender-based violence in education. Her scholarship draws from her over 20 years of anti-campus sexual violence work as a researcher, campus administrator, victims’ advocate, attorney, and policymaker and focuses on the use of law to combat discriminatory violence, particularly gender-based violence. Her articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal Forum, Maryland Law Review, Utah Law Review, the peer-reviewed social science journal Trauma, Violence & Abuse, and her most recent research is forthcoming in the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender.

Sunu P. Chandy is the Legal Director of the National Women’s Law Center. She leads many of the Center’s litigation efforts, and also provides guidance for the Center’s policy work regarding workplace justice and LGBTQ rights. Until August 2017, Sunu served as the Deputy Director for the Civil Rights Division with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Before that, Sunu was the General Counsel of the DC Office of Human Rights and oversaw the agency’s legal decisions following civil rights investigations of discrimination in employment, education, housing and public accommodation matters. Previously, Sunu was a federal attorney with the U.S. Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for 15 years and litigated cases including ones based on sexual harassment and other forms of sex discrimination, as well as race, national origin, disability, age and religion-based discrimination. Sunu serves on the board of directors for the Transgender Law Center and is a former board member of Split This Rock, a national social justice poetry organization. Sunu is also a poet and her collection of poems, My Dear Comrades, was selected for the Terry J. Fox Poetry Prize in 2021 and will be published by Regal House in March, 2023.

Hailyn Chen is the Co-Managing Partner and a litigation partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson, one of the nation’s most elite law firms. She focuses her practice on complex business litigation, white collar criminal defense and government investigations. Ms. Chen frequently represents higher education institutions in a range of litigation matters and investigations.

Deborah Eerkes is the Director of Student Conduct and Accountability at the University of Alberta, and is one of the University’s two Discipline Officers making decisions under the Code of Student Behaviour. In that role, she makes findings and issues written decisions with sanctions up to and including expulsion from the institution. As a decision-maker, she is responsible for ensuring procedural and substantive fairness throughout the process. In addition, she develops non-disciplinary accountability mechanisms that are proportionate and appropriate to the conduct at issue. In 2011, she designed and implemented a Restorative Justice program to address behaviour in the University Residence community. In addition to her work at the University, she is a member of the Response, Investigation & Adjudication Working Group for Courage to Act – a framework for preventing and addressing gender-based violence at post-secondary institutions, funded by the department of Women and Gender Equality, Government of Canada.

Ms. Fitzsimmons is a partner in the San Francisco Office of Gordon & Rees. She represents both private and public entities in employment matters, focusing her practice on defending employers against discrimination, retaliation, and harassment claims. Ms. Fitzsimmons also litigates cases concerning alleged violations of wage and hour laws, Title IX, family medical leave laws, violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and ERISA.

Lauren Groth is a Title IX litigator and partner at Hutchinson, Black and Cook LLC in Boulder, Colorado. She represents survivors in civil Title IX matters against K-12 school districts and higher education institutions throughout the country and also assists families navigating Title IX administrative processes at their schools. Prior to joining HBC, Lauren clerked with Judge Richard Paez on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and graduated from University of California-Berkeley School of Law.

Ben Hermalin is a noted expert on corporate governance, leadership, and the economics of organization. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, including in top journals such as the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the RAND Journal, and the Journal of Finance. He holds professorships in both the Economics Department and in Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he is the Thomas & Alison Schneider Distinguished Professor of Finance. He served as the Economics Department Chair from 2005 – 2008, Chair of the Academic Senate from 2015-20016, and is currently serving as the Vice Provost for the Faculty. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the NBER. Professor Hermalin received his PhD from MIT in 1988, the same year he joined UC Berkeley as assistant professor in the Department of Economics and the School of Business. He became a full professor in 1998.

Clarissa J. Humphreys is the co-author of Addressing Student Sexual Violence in Higher Education: A Good Practice Guide. She is a practitioner and leading authority on addressing gender-based violence in Higher Education and was the first person to hold a dedicated role in this area in the United Kingdom. She is an experienced trainer and has developed and delivered courses covering topics such as understanding sexual violence in Higher Education, responding to disclosures, and conducting trauma-informed investigations, adjudication and disciplinary processes.

Anne Isaac is the Manager and Legal Officer for the UCT Special Tribunal for Sexual Misconduct and Discrimination. She created a new set of procedures for UCT’s disciplinary processes for sexual misconduct. She is an experienced Legal counsellor with a demonstrated history of working at criminal courts and in the higher education industry, skilled in policy analysis, policy and procedure drafting, criminal law, government workings, arbitration, mediation and prosecution. She has a demonstrable record of strategic leadership and risk management especially in times of crisis. Ms. Isaac has contributed to legal arguments on jurisdiction of sexual offences that take place off campus. She has extensive expertise in training facilitation and authored a training manual for university residence systems. She has contributed to the Anti-Racism Policy at UCT and drafted the Anti-Racism procedures. Ms Isaac drafted the Anti-Racism Policy at a university in the Eastern Cape. She is often engaged with external organizations in reviewing sexual harassment cases. She facilitates yearly training to the Black Lawyers’ Association Student Chapter (UCT Branch). Ms Isaac acts also acts as a legal consultant in cases of racism and sexual misconduct at schools. She is a member of AESHI (Africa End Sexual Harassment Initiative) and the BCCE-Working group on sexual and gender based violence.

Zainab Jafri is a Gender-Based Violence and DEI specialist working in Toronto, ON. Zainab specializes in building interventions for mitigating, addressing and preventing sexual violence as a consultant for Courage to Act: the National Framework to end GBV on Canadian campuses. In this capacity Zainab has co-authored the “Comprehensive Guide to Campus Gender-Based Violence Complaints: Strategies for Procedurally Fair, Trauma Informed Processes to Reduce Harm,” and will be releasing 2 more manuals for developing academic considerations, and multi-disciplinary response teams to support student survivors. As the founder of Bettering.ca and Bettering.us, Zainab develops custom diversity, equity and inclusion solutions for institutions, businesses and organizations to protect, uplift and prioritize employees and members from equity-seeking groups. Zainab will be launching the Bettering Podcast later this month where she’ll be dissecting workplace human rights cases, anti-oppression strategies and interviewing leaders spearheading this work in their fields.

Celeste Kidd is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, where her lab investigates learning and belief formation. The Kidd Lab is one of few in the world that combine technologically sophisticated behavioral experiments with computational models in order to broadly understand knowledge acquisition, including the psychology of discrimination. She is a recipient of the American Psychological Science Rising Star designation, the Glushko Dissertation Prize in Cognitive Science, and the Cognitive Science Society Computational Modeling Prize in Perception/Action. Kidd was named as one of TIME Magazines 2017 Persons of the Year as one of the “Silence Breakers” for her advocacy for greater equality, diversity, and inclusion in higher education.

William (Bill) Kidder serves as an ethics, compliance and civil rights professional at UC Riverside and has more than a dozen years of management experience in central administration at public universities in California, including handling non-discrimination and compliance efforts in several areas (Title IX, race/ethnicity, ADA, whistleblower, faculty discipline). Much of Mr. Kidder’s scholarship focuses on racial and gender equality in higher education – and connects social science, law and policy.

Mary Kiio is the founder and lead consultant of Roshani Consultancy Services. She has worked with various media development organizations as a facilitator, moderator, and mentor for the past eight years. Mary has experience in developing training material and facilitating trainings on democracy and governance, online safety for women, conflict sensitive reporting, and humanitarian disaster management (Lifeline Programming , Refugees and Migration). The trainings are aimed at targeted media, civil society, county government officials and agencies.

Carrie Landrum, M.A., serves as Assistant Director for Adaptable Resolution, Educational Outreach, Training, and Strategic Partnerships at the University of Michigan Office of Student Conflict Resolution, where she has been facilitating restorative practices for over a dozen years. When the 2013 U-M Policy On Sexual Misconduct by Students permitted restorative practices to be implemented (in limited circumstances) under the Informal Resolution Options section of the policy, Carrie was the facilitator who led these out. She currently serves as the Adaptable Resolution Coordinator who facilitates restorative adaptable resolutions under the U-M Sexual and Gender-based Misconduct Policy for cases involving students as well as employees. Carrie has deep expertise in conflict transformation, restorative justice, facilitation, and cultural competence; she is a frequent trainer nationally on these and related topics. She also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer in the U-M School of Social Work, teaching Community Conflict Transformation, Peacebuilding & Social Change.

Leslie F. Levy brings a lifelong passion for social justice to her law practice at Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams LLP, a preeminent firm of women trial attorneys located in Oakland, California. In addition to representing employees, her record includes pioneering lawsuits against sexually harassing landlords, representing students in sexual harassment in education cases, and suing perpetrators of violence against women and children. Leslie believes in empowering her clients to be an active part in the decision-making process of their cases.

Jacqueline M. Litra is a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office and is a leader of the Labor & Employment Practice Group. With extensive experience in labor negotiations and personnel matters, she assists clients with employee discipline and dismissal, employee leaves, disability accommodations, hiring practices, investigations, and various other personnel issues. She regularly works with clients in labor relations matters including negotiating collective bargaining agreements using both traditional and interest based bargaining models, representing clients in grievance arbitrations and defending clients against unfair labor practice charges. Ms. Litra leads the firm’s Title IX team and provides extensive support and resources to clients dealing with Title IX matters. Ms. Litra is an experienced investigator. She investigates a diverse range of matters including financial misconduct, pupil fees, Title IX complaints, employee misconduct, discrimination, and bullying.

As a program specialist on the Public Education Campaigns and Programs team, Jesse advances national violence prevention campaigns that engage youth, men and boys, educators, and athletic coaches. His passion for creating sustainable structures for cultural change around gender and racial justice have led him to specialize in program strategy, community organizing, group facilitation and youth leadership development. Prior to FUTURES, Jesse organized with young activists at The Center for Teen Empowerment in Boston and led healing spaces for men in the Jewish community. He earned his BA from Tufts University where he majored in American Studies, with a focus on anti-oppression education.

A partner in LCHB’s New York office, Annika has extensive litigation experience in cutting-edge environmental, mass tort, product defect, and consumer protection cases and a demonstrated facility for explaining complex legal matters in simple terms. She has served as a resource for journalists on these and other matters, both on television and for print media.

Joshua Meltzer serves as Principal Counsel for Education Affairs for the University of California, Office of the President. Mr. Meltzer advises the Academic Senate on matters relating to faculty discipline and faculty grievances, including on matters relating to sexual violence and sexual harassment, as well as advising campuses and the Office of the President on a variety of issues related to Education Affairs. Mr. Meltzer previously practiced law at Munger, Tolles & Olson in San Francisco, where he handled complex civil litigation, government investigations, and was co-chair of the firm’s pro bono immigration practice.

Leila Rassekh Milani, JD, MA leads FUTURES work on global violence prevention, with a focus on women and children. In this capacity, she is instrumental in developing innovative policy solutions, driving advocacy efforts, and influencing the agendas of national coalitions such as Girls Not Brides; Coalition for Adolescent Girls; the US Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace, and Security; Alliance To End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST); the End Violence Against Children Task Force; and the Coalition to End Violence Against Women and Girls Globally, for which she serves on the executive committee. Milani also serves on the board of directors of Soccer Without Borders, which aims to use soccer as a vehicle for positive change, providing underserved youth in the U.S. and overseas with the tools to overcome obstacles to growth, inclusion, and personal success. Milani is an attorney and human rights advocate with special expertise in women’s rights, religious freedom, and conditions in Iran. She earned her JD from Wake Forest University, an MA from the University of Virginia Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and a BS from Auburn University.

Mikiba W. Morehead, Ed.D. is a Consultant with TNG and has extensive experience in Student Affairs as a Student Conduct practitioner specialized in the areas of Title IX, crisis management, and student advocacy. Dr. Morehead provides effective and sustainable solutions for colleges, universities, and schools to care for the needs of students and campus communities with an eye towards social justice.
Dr. Morehead has expertise in cyber sexual abuse, informal resolution processes, specifically mediation and restorative justice, policy revision, and ADA/504 compliance. She has developed and delivered numerous trainings for investigators, decision-makers, hearing boards, appeal officers, and support persons across public, private, and health science/medical education institutions.

Dr Karen O’Connell is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). She is an expert in discrimination law, gender equality and sexual harassment. She is on the advisory board of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law and a member of the Australian Discrimination Law Experts Group. She advises public and private organisations on equality and discrimination issues and actively contributes to law refrom in her fields. Prior to entering academia, she worked on national inquiries on human rights and gender equality and wrote Guidelines on Pregnancy Discrimination and Sexual Harassment for the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Shiwali Patel is the Director of Justice for Students Survivors at the National Women’s Law Center and leads the Center’s advocacy addressing sexual harassment in schools. Previously, she was at the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), where she worked on civil rights policy and legal guidance interpreting Title IX’s anti-discrimination protections, including schools’ responsibilities in responding to sexual harassment, protections for transgender students, and the rights of girls of color. Before joining OCR, Shiwali was an Administrative Judge and investigator at the U.S. Department of Energy, a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia in the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Unit, and a law clerk to the Honorable Laura A. Cordero at the Superior Court for the District of Columbia. She also served as the Board President of the Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project (DVRP). Prior to law school, Shiwali was a community educator at the District of Columbia Rape Crisis Center.

Catharine leads the Respect. Now. Always. program at UTS, responsible for addressing the prevalence of sexual assault and sexual harassment. She has more than 20 years experience working across the public and private sectors, as well as not-for-profit think tanks and community organisations. Catharine has particular expertise in curating conversations amongst complex
stakeholder groups and inspiring transformative culture change. In 2020 the UTS RNA Program won Best in Class (Social Impact) at the international Good Design Australia awards for its whole of community campaign for sexual violence prevention. She holds a Bachelor of Social Science (UNSW), a Master of Economics (USyd) and a Graduate Certificate in Social Impact (UNSW). Catharine is currently enrolled at UTS as a PhD student investigating what one university can teach us about eliminating and preventing sexual violence on campus.

Alexa D. Sardina, PhD is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Sacramento in the Division of Criminal Justice. Her scholarship focuses on female-perpetrated sexual violence, and how restorative processes can be used to address acts of sexual harm. Dr. Sardina has written and presented on research that combines her experience as an expert on sexual violence and rape survivor to encourage the perspective of “survivor scholars”. This brings an important perspective to sex crimes policy, treatment and healing, and aid in communal sexual violence prevention efforts. Dr. Sardina is also a co-founder of Ampersands Restorative Justice, a non-profit organization dedicated to using restorative processes to address sexual harm.

Erin Scott is FVLC’s Executive Director. She has extensive experience as a domestic violence and sexual assault advocate, a family law attorney, and a nonprofit manager. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of UnCommon Law and previously served on the Board of Director of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence and the Family Violence Appellate Project Prior to joining FVLC, she was the Directing Attorney of Legal Advocates for Children & Youth, a program of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, and the Director of Foundation Support at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California. She has a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. from Swarthmore College.

Furaha Joy Sekai Saungweme is a lawyer and the founder of Africa End Sexual Harassment Initiative (AESHI). She is a former Company Secretary as well as a 2019 fellow of Women Leaders for the World, (a project of How Women Lead based in the USA, California) which is a champion for promoting women in leadership globally. She sits on the Editorial Board of the Berkeley University Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law and is part of the Berkeley COVID-19 Equality Law Working Group. Furaha has written widely on democracy, gender and socio-economic rights in Africa, presenting research papers and discussions at academic institutions in Africa, Europe and the USA.

Experienced senior administrator, leader, and civil rights attorney with a demonstrated history of working in private practice, government, and private and public institutions of higher education. Skilled in Policy Analysis, Internal Investigations, Administrative Law, Public Speaking, Discrimination and Harassment Law, Community Engagement, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Extensive supervisory and management experience building, transforming and leading diverse teams and talent.

Suzanne Taylor is the Systemwide Title IX Director for the University of California. Before coming to UC, she was a Civil Rights Attorney for over a decade with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, where she investigated complex civil rights allegations, including institution-wide sexual violence complaints. She first joined UC in November 2016 as a Title IX Principal Investigator in the Office of the President where, among other responsibilities, she conducted Title IX investigations on campuses throughout the system. As Systemwide Title IX Director, Suzanne provides direction and support for the Title IX offices on UC’s campuses. Among other roles, her office assists in implementing systemwide initiatives and best practices in harassment prevention and response.

Alezah Trigueros is an attorney at Oppenheimer Investigations Group LLP, formerly the Law Offices of Amy Oppenheimer. Ms. Trigueros is a member of the State Bar of California, Board Secretary for the North California Employment Roundtable (NCERT), a member of the State Bar Labor and Employment Law Section, and a member of the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI).

Stephanie White is a Partner in Lozano Smith’s Walnut Creek office. She is chair of the firm’s Community College practice area and co-chair of the firm’s Title IX practice area. Ms. White represents California public school districts, county offices of education, and community college districts in all aspects of education law. She specializes in Title IX compliance, as well as conducting complex investigations into claims of sexual misconduct and harassment (including Title IX), discrimination, bullying, retaliation, and other issues that may arise in an educational setting.

Shafia Zaloom is a health educator, parent, consultant and author whose work centers on human development, community building, ethics, and social justice. Her approach involves creating opportunities for students and teachers to discuss the complexities of teen culture and decision-making with straight-forward, open and honest dialogue. Shafia has worked with thousands of children and their families in her role as teacher, coach, administrator, board member, and outdoor educator.