FVLC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Special Advisor at the U.S. Department of Transportation
Charlene Wang is currently a Special Advisor at the U.S. Department of Transportation for the Biden Administration, where she was a founding member of the agency's Gender Justice Council. Her career has been dedicated to working on social justice and social policy, including gender-based violence, environmental justice, healthcare, education, and homelessness. Charlene is a native of the East Bay and a survivor of family violence. She received her Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and her B.S. from Columbia University.
Christina Hamilton is FVLC's Board Secretary. She is a partner in Shartsis Friese LLP's Corporate Department. She specializes in representing investment advisers, including advisers to hedge funds and other private investment funds, and traditional advisers to separately-managed accounts. Christina also provides advice on general business matters. She has a J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a B.A. in History from Dartmouth College.
David Wallach is FVLC's Board Chair. He is a partner at King & Spalding, where his practice focuses on construction disputes, international commercial arbitration, international civil litigation and complex civil litigation. Dave has represented clients in many pro bono matters, including cases involving domestic violence and federal civil right violations. He has a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, and a B.A. from Colorado College.
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.
Evelyn Soria is FVLC's Youth Programs Manager. Evelyn has extensive experience as an educator and organizer working with young people at the intersections of anti-violence and transformative justice movements. A graduate of the SFSU Women & Gender studies graduate program, she oversees both gender-based violence programming at OUSD high schools, as well as the Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (RAPP), which develops youth as peer educators and organizers building healthy relationships and challenging interconnected forms of violence. A proponent of transterritorial organizing, dialogue, and relationship building, she is also connected with the Universidad de la Tierra (Oaxaca and California) and the Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy (CCRA), through which she explores questions of land, autonomy, and communal resistance. Ultimately, Evelyn seeks to anchor herself in deep commitments to transformative justice, reclaiming relations with land/community and dreaming of a world free from all forms of violence.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Finance Committee
- Member of the Board
Janelle M. Smith is FVLC's Finance Committee Chair and has served on the board since 2015. She is an attorney in the Natural Resources Law Section of the California Attorney General's Office. Before joining the Office of the Attorney General, Ms. Smith worked in private practice and assisted pro bono clients with obtaining asylum on domestic violence grounds. Ms. Smith has a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Job Titles:
- Finance Director
- Member of the FVLC Management Team
Juliet Crosby is the Finance Director of Family Violence Law Center. She oversees and does numbers of all types, organizationally and from a grant compliance perspective. She has twenty-seven years of nonprofit finance experience in Social Justice, Education and the Arts.
Koren Stevenson focuses her practice on managed care payor operations and contracting. She has been a member of the senior leadership team at a health plan based in the East Bay, Managed Care Counsel at a northern California health system and is currently Senior Counsel with Delta Dental of California. Ms. Stevenson received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. While at Georgetown she served as President of the Black Law Students Association and received the Dean's Certificate of Service for her commitment to the law center community.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Marketing, Communications
L. Autumn King currently serves as Senior Director of Marketing, Communications and Visitor Experience at Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) where she leads a dynamic, multifaceted team to effectively tell the many stories of OMCA through marketing, communications, visitor experience and retail efforts. King focuses on forging strategic relationships to generate earned and contributed revenue and develop key community partnerships. She is a member of the Senior Directors Council where she collaborates with colleagues on organizational goals, budgeting, and strategic planning for the organization. King received her BA from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and her Masters in Art in Museums Studies from JFK University. Autumn is a native New Yorker who is equally proud to call Oakland home for over 15 years.
Marissa Seko is FVLC's Family Violence Intervention Unit Manager. Marissa has more than ten years of experience providing nonprofit program coordination and direct services to a diverse client base, with a dedicated focus on providing high quality, trauma informed crisis intervention services to domestic violence and sexual assault survivors for the past 6 years. She has a BA Degree with a Concentration in Gender/Women's Studies from Grinnell College and is also a recent graduate of the Women's Foundation of California's Women's Policy Institute Fellowship Program. Marissa joined FVLC in 2012.
Job Titles:
- Vice President - Associate General Counsel at the Clorox Company
Mark Danis is Vice President - Associate General Counsel at The Clorox Company. His responsibilities include the oversight of U.S. litigation, regulatory, marketing, privacy, and cyber security. Prior to joining Clorox, Mark practiced for 25 years as a civil litigator with Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he also worked on pro bono cases involving foster care, tenants' rights, and sexual orientation discrimination. Mark received his J.D. from Hastings College of the Law, and his undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Counsel in the San Francisco Office of Crowell & Moring
Molly A. Jones is a counsel in the San Francisco office of Crowell & Moring. She has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in complex commercial and intellectual property litigation spanning across various industries, including internet and networking technology, software, biotechnology, higher education and academic research, health care, and real estate. In addition, Molly has an active pro bono practice with special emphasis on immigration issues. A long-time resident of Oakland, Molly received her J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law and her undergraduate degree from Duke University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the FVLC Management Team
Nicole Britton-Snyder is FVLC's Managing Attorney. In 2012, Nicole served as a legal intern as part of FVLC's Legal Internship Program. She subsequently joined FVLC in 2016 as a Staff Attorney, and had been promoted to Senior Staff Attorney before leaving FVLC in 2019. Nicole returned to FVLC in 2021. In her current role Nicole supervises the legal team and represents clients in court on restraining order and related family law matters. Nicole has approximately seven years of experience providing family law and direct support services to domestic violence survivors in Alameda County. Nicole received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and received her Bachelor of Arts with a degree in Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies from Cornell University.
Stephanie Penrod is FVLC's Grants & Contracts Manager. Stephanie joined the Family Violence Law Center as a Staff Attorney in 2010 and served as the Managing Attorney until 2023. Stephanie has over fourteen years of experience providing and administering family law and direct support services to domestic violence survivors. Stephanie holds a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and a B.S. in Organizational Development and Women's Studies from Vanderbilt University.
Stephen Knight brings three decades of experience as an advocate for social justice, both in law and policy advocacy. Stephen currently is the Policy & Partnerships Director with Alameda County Community Food Bank. His professional career includes work on the intersection of women's rights, refugee law and immigration law as Deputy Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies. He has also worked in affordable housing and the environment with the National Housing Law Project and Save the Bay, A native San Franciscan, Stephen is a graduate of Yale University and U.C. Hastings College of the Law
Tunisia M. Owens currently serves as the Housing and Gender Justice Project Coordinator for the Family Violence Law Center. She is a passionate advocate on issues of Black Economic Empowerment, Diversity and Inclusion, Criminal Justice Reform, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Youth, and Education Equity. Tunisia is originally from Oakland, California and has served the public at non-profit organizations and government agencies in the Bay Area. She returned to Oakland after a career as a diplomat proudly representing the US in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South America. When she is not raising her daughter or working to repair systems, Tunisia finds time to publish her poetry, write fiction stories, and non-fiction articles. She graduated from Spelman College in Political Science and Economics, holds a joint Master's degree from Princeton University in Public Policy and Urban/Regional Planning, and obtained her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Job Titles:
- Member of the FVLC Management Team
Undrea Barnes is the Crisis Services Manager at FVLC. She has been providing services to domestic violence and sexual assault survivors at FVLC since 2005. Undrea oversees the 24 hour crisis line and has a wealth of knowledge on resources for the survivors.