ACLU OF MICHIGAN BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2013-2014

Gary Boren, Vice President (2013-2014) received a B.S. degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan and a J.D. in 1979 from the University of Michigan Law School. He is in private practice specializing in bankruptcy law. He is a member of the Michigan Bar Association and admitted to practice in Michigan state courts, as well as the Federal District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Eastern District of Michigan and the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Gary is a former member of the board of directors of the Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Association. He is currently on the board of the Minerva Project, Inc., the Washtenaw Area Housing Coalition and the Packard Community Clinic.

Laura J. Champagne, Vice President (2013-2016) is an attorney and journalist who served in the Milliken administration as the Director of the Office of Nutrition and in the Granholm administration as Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Human Services. Previously she was with the International Union, UAW where she was involved in contract negotiations, including auto, aerospace and the public sector, and policy development, primarily related to health care. Laura has also been involved in advocacy for long-term-care consumers at the state and local levels having served as the Managing Director for Citizens for Better Care. She currently serves as Board Chair for Gay Elders of Southeast Michigan and is active in the LGBT Older Adult Coalition, both projects of the ACLU LGBT Project.

William Fleener (2012-2014) is a staff attorney with the Cooley Law School Innocence Project and is an adjunct professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He is also the Chancellor for the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University and Thomas M. Cooley Law School and lives in Grand Ledge, Michigan.

Peter Hammer (2013-2014) is the director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School which is dedicated to promoting the educational, economic and political empowerment of under-represented communities in urban areas and to ensuring that the phrase equal justice under law applies to all members of society. Professor Hammer was instrumental in editing and compiling Judge Damon J. Keith’s new biography, Crusader for Justice: Federal Judge Damon J. Keith (2013). Professor Hammer has become a leading voice on the economic and social issues impacting the city of Detroit, and has added new courses to the law school curriculum on Race, Law and Social Change in Southeast Michigan and Re-Imagining Development in Detroit: Institutions, Law & Society. Professor Hammer has expertise in the fields of domestic health law and policy, as well as international public health and economic development. He is a recipient of an Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and served as lead editor for Uncertain Times: Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care, a book published by Duke University Press (2003). His most recent book, Change and Continuity at the World Bank: Reforming Paradoxes of Economic Development (2013), combines his training as an economist and a lawyer to takes on questions of international economic growth and development. His scholarship also has examined the role of global health initiatives in health system development and how international law might further the objectives of global child health. Professor Hammer has spent more than 20 years engaging issues of human rights, law and development in Cambodia. He was a founding board member and past president of Legal Aid of Cambodia, an organization providing free legal services to Cambodia's poor. He is presently a board member of the Life & Hope Association, an organization in Siem Reap, Cambodia, founded and run by Buddhists monks to address the needs of orphans, vulnerable children and at-risk young women. Professor Hammer received his undergraduate education at Gonzaga University and completed his professional and graduate education at the University of Michigan, where he received a J.D. and a Ph.D. (economics). Before entering private practice, he clerked for the Hon. Alfred T. Goodwin, former chief judge of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Ponsella Hardaway (2013-2016) is the Executive Director of MOSES (Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength) and a native Detroiter. MOSES, a group of diverse congregations, organizes communities, develops leaders and builds relationships to advocate for social justice. Ponsella is also a National Trainer with the Gamaliel Foundation. She has trained congregation members in South Africa, Swaziland and in the United Kingdom. Ponsella has traveled to Brazil and Mali to study NGO’s work on political and social issues. She lives in Wayne County.

Loren Khogali, President (2013-2014) is an attorney with the Federal Defender Office in Detroit where she represents indigent clients charged in federal court in all phases of criminal cases. She is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and Western Michigan University where she received a B.S. in Psychology and B.A. in French. Following law school, Khogali worked as a law clerk in the Superior Court of Massachusetts where she assisted Justices in all phases of civil and criminal state court litigation.

Gilda Jacobs (2012-2015) is CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy. From 2003-2010 she was a Democratic member of the Michigan Senate representing the 14th District. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan where she received her bachelors in science with a distinction in education and a master’s degree in behavioral sciences in education and worked as a special education teacher. She was the first woman elected to the Huntington Woods City Commission (1981-1994) and then served as Mayor Pro Tem of Huntington Woods (1993-94), Oakland County Commissioner (1995-1998), and was elected to the Michigan State House of Representatives in 1998 where she served for two terms. She made history as the first female floor leader in either chamber of the legislature and was Chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, vice-chair of the Economic Development, Small Business & Regulatory Reform Committee and the Families and Human Services Committee, and served on Government Operations and Health Policy Committees.

Jessica Lieberman, Vice President (2013-2014) is a 2003 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School where she served on the Michigan Journal of Race and Law where her primary academic interests were in race and gender discrimination, civil rights and poverty law. Upon completing her J.D., she stayed at home to raise her children.

Dr. Ali M. Metwali (2012-2014) teaches at Western Michigan University’s graduate business program and consults. He is a founding board member (Shora Committee) of the Islamic Mosque and Religious Institute in Grand Rapids. He was born in Egypt and received his Bachelor degree in Commerce from Cairo University. He has a M.B.A. degree from Siena Collage in New York State and earned his Ph.D. in Business Administration from St. Louis University in Missouri. He served in the health care industry in various executive, research, and consulting positions since 1965. In 1980 he moved to Grand Rapids to teach at Western Michigan University and served as the Director of the MBA program in Grand Rapids campus. He is a co-founder of MW Stone Importers, LTD. He served for six years as member of the Board of Director of the West Central Michigan American Red Cross and the advisory council for the American College of Health Care Executives. He has a long list of publications in a number of academic journals focusing on global business mergers and acquisitions. He published his first book in 2006 in the area of global business with a focus on Mergers and Acquisition in Asia.

Kay Perry (2013-2014) has served, since 1989, as volunteer Executive Director of the Michigan Chapter of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (MI-CURE), a grassroots criminal justice reform organization. The majority of its 3,000+ members are incarcerated; the remainder are largely family members and friends of persons who are incarcerated. She has co-authored self-help literature and regularly provides advice and assistance by answering mail and phone calls. She also served as the Chair of National CURE for twelve years and designed a leadership training program for CURE, which she continues to present from time to time. She has been very active with the League of Women Voters, serving for five years as President of the Kalamazoo Area League. She is the primary author of the LWVMI's biennial Citizen Access to Government Report Card, which was published for the sixth time in 2009. She has served as a board member and volunteer mediator with the Kalamazoo and Barry Counties Dispute Resolution Center.

Jim Phillips (2013-2015)

Jim Rodbard (2013-2016) is an attorney in private practice in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He served as President of the ACLU of Michigan Board from 2004-2008. From 2008 to 2011, he was elected by the State Board as is representative to the national ACLU Board of Directors, and continues to serve on its Governance Committee. He lives in Kalamazoo County.

Noel J. Saleh (2013-2016) is an attorney in private practice specializing in civil liberties and immigration law. He is recognized nationally as a leading immigrant advocate. He has successfully challenged “secret evidence” and “special interest” cases. Noel is the immediate past president of the ACCESS and has served on the ACCESS Board since 1989. From January 2002 until October of 2005, Noel was the Post 9/11, Safe and Free Project Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Michigan. Noel took a sabbatical from his private law practice to help the ACLU outreach to the Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities and coordinate legal work in the wake of 9/11. He has served on the Boards of the National Immigration Forum (NIF); the Rights Working Group; Palestine Aid Society of America; American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; National Lawyers Guild; the Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit and as a member of the Michigan Advisory Committee to the U. S. Civil Rights Commission. He lives in Washtenaw County.

Lisa J. Schmidt, Secretary (2013-2014) is an attorney in private practice in Southfield, Michigan. She has operated her practice, Schmidt Law Services, PLLC, since 2011. Before that time she practiced in Berrien County, Michigan. She attended Michigan State University where she graduated with Highest Honors from the College of Arts and Letters, and Thomas M. Cooley Law School where she graduated magna cum laude. Lisa is also happy to serve on the Affirmations Faith Alliance in Ferndale, Michigan, which helps to unite members of the LGBT community with accepting and supportive congregations of faith, and to volunteer providing pro bono legal services through the Family Law Assistant Project.

Joseph Tuchinsky, Treasurer (2013-2014) has an undergraduate degree in accounting from the City College of New York and Master’s in English from Columbia University. He taught writing at Roosevelt University in Chicago, leaving in 1968 to found and lead the Midwest Committee for Draft Counseling; he was also co-author of Guide to the Draft, the standard Vietnam-War-era book on the rights of potential draftees. At the end of the war and the draft, he moved to Michigan to become the first executive director of PIRGIM (Public Interest Research Group in Michigan), which among other projects researched, drafted, and persuaded the legislature to pass Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act. In 1978 he succeeded Doug Ross as executive director of the Michigan Citizens Lobby, advocating and lobbying for consumer rights in such areas as health care, utility rates, and other economic issues. Since 1989, he has provided consulting services to nonprofit organizations, primarily helping new and small organizations create nonprofit corporate structures, set up financial management systems, gain tax exemption, and stay in compliance with IRS rules.

Daniel Varner (2013-2015) has served as Chief Executive Officer of Excellent Schools Detroit since 2011, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that every child in Detroit has an excellent education. Prior to that time, Dan was a program officer with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In this role, he worked with the Education and Learning team to develop programming priorities, identifying and nurturing opportunities to affect positive change within communities. His responsibilities included reviewing and recommending proposals for funding, conducting site visits and maintaining strong relationships with grant seekers and external partners. He has also served as chief executive officer for the youth development organization Think Detroit Police Athletic League (Think Detroit PAL), which he co-founded as Think Detroit in 1996. Earlier in his career, he worked as an attorney in Detroit, Michigan, at the Federal Defender Office and with Sachs, Waldman, O'Hare, Helveston, Bogas & McIntosh, PC. He earned both a bachelor's degree in history and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan. Dan has won numerous awards for public service, and currently serves on the board of directors at Think Detroit PAL and the Michigan Fitness Foundation. He has three children, and lives in Wayne County.

Carrie Welton, Vice President (2013-2014) Carrie Welton is a currently a program specialist at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich. As part of the Education & Learning Family Economic Security team, she assists leadership by carrying out a broad range of responsibilities including program operational support, grant development advisement, technical assistance, and administrative services including information and financial data analysis, program liaison to staff and external contacts, grant and contract portfolio management, as well as participation on special projects. Previously, Welton served as a project manager at Vantage Pointe Benefit Solutions where she developed a government relations strategy and monitored health and financial legislative activities on both the federal and state levels. She also spent six years at the Kellogg Company, four in which she managed the organization’s political action committee including the development of employee engagement and grassroots advocacy campaigns. Welton earned her bachelor’s degree in public law from Western Michigan University, where she graduated cum laude and received the D.C. Shilling Award for Academic Excellence.