Staff & Board

Board Members

Elizabeth S. Bluestein

Board Member

Elizabeth Bluestein joined PILP’s Board in 2013.

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Maeve Elise Brown

Treasurer/Secretary

Maeve Elise Brown joined PILP’s Board in 2018 and is the Executive Director and a founder of Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (HERA).

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Miye Goishi

Board Member

Miye Goishi is a founding PILP Board Member and is a Sullivan Clinical Professor of Law at UC College of the Law, San Francisco.

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William N. Hebert

President

Bill joined PILP’s Board in 2009 and was elected as Board President in 2020

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Irma Herrera

Vice-Chair

Irma Herrera joined PILP’s Board in 2010 and has been a Bay Area civil rights lawyer for more than three decades.

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Tim Iglesias

Board Member

Tim Iglesias joined PILP’s Board in 2015. Now retired, he was a tenured Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco School of Law from 2002 - 2022.

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Armen Nercessian

Board Member

Armen Nercessian joined PILP’s Board in 2019 and is a senior litigation associate at Fenwick & West LLP.

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Dan Pearlman

Board Member

Dan Pearlman is one of the original PILP Board Members and served as Board Chair from 2011 until 2016.

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Staff

Ugochi Anaebere-Nicholson

Staff Attorney

Ugochi joined PILP in July 2022 and focuses her work on homelessness prevention and protecting the rights of unhoused people.

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Palmer Buchholz

Staff Attorney

Palmer joined PILP in 2023 and focuses on the intersection of public benefits and houselessness.

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Craig Castellanet

Staff Attorney

Craig joined the California Affordable Housing Law Project of PILP in 2003 to enforce housing laws in local land use and redevelopment practices around the state.

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Valerie Feldman

Staff Attorney

Valerie joined PILP’s staff in 2016 and has pursued advocacy and litigation in multiple areas of land use and housing.

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Charles Garzón

Administrative Director

Charles joined PILP in 2020 as our Administrative Director after years working with public policy and advocacy organizations.

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Lauren Hansen

Staff Attorney

Lauren is a staff attorney at PILP who works on public benefits and homelessness.

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Shashi Hanuman

Executive Director

Shashi joined PILP in May of 2022 after more than 20 years advancing inclusive community development at Public Counsel.

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Linda Hill

Office Manager

Linda joined PILP in 2013 as its Office Manager, bringing an extensive accounting and tax background having worked with various organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

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Noah Kirshbaum-Ray

Paralegal

Noah (he/him) joned PILP in 2013 and is a paralegal who provides litigation, advocacy, and grant reporting support to staff.

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Melissa A. Morris

Staff Attorney

Melissa Morris (she/her/hers) joined PILP in 2018 and splits her time between PILP’s housing and public benefits practices.

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Melody Osuna

Staff Attorney

Melody Osuna joined PILP in May 2023 and focuses on PILP’s work with local legal services programs with a focus on equitable land use and housing justice.

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Michael Rawson

Director Litigation and Advocacy

Mike co-founded PILP in 1996 with colleague Steve Ronfeldt to provide impact litigation and advocacy support for California legal services offices

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Staff Emeritus

Deborah Collins

Retired

Deborah retired from PILP in 2017 after serving as Managing Attorney for 15 years.

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Judy Gold

(1952 – 2016)

After practicing law for nearly 30 years, Judy joined PILP in 2008 where her work centered on improving public benefits programs for indigent people.

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Steve Ronfeldt

PILP Co-Founder (1942 – 2018)

Steve co-founded PILP in 1996 with colleague Mike Rawson to provide impact litigation and advocacy support for California legal services offices after Congress prohibited federally funded services programs from bringing class actions, representing undocumented people and engaging in legislative advocacy.

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