Board and Staff

National Office Staff

JML Santiago (she/they), Interim Executive Director

Joelle (they/she) is based out of unceded Lenape land aka Jersey City, NJ. They have been involved in the NLG since 2014 as a law student and has previously served as Treasurer, a Student National Vice President, and a National Vice President of the NLG. Their political work has focused on intersectional immigrant justice, international solidarity work, and liberation-rooted shadow work and child-rearing.

Director of Communications

The NLG Director of Communications fields media requests from the press and organizational partners. Please reach out by email with any questions relating to social media, press, statements, and blogs.

Daniel McGee (he/him), Managing Director, National Lawyers Guild Foundation

Before coming to the NLG Foundation, Daniel was Director of Finance and Development at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP), a legal project organized by-and-for low income transgender people and transgender people of color. Prior to SRLP, Daniel worked as a Legal Program Associate at the Center for Reproductive Rights. He is a Certified Not-for-Profit Accounting Professional, a Rockwood Leadership Institute Alumni and a 2011-12 21st Century Pipeline Project Fellow.

Lisa Drapkin (she/her), Director of Membership

Prior to joining the National Office full time, Lisa worked for several other nonprofits in member support roles, including the National Police Accountability Project of the NLG. She has been a collective member of NYC Books Through Bars for over a decade, volunteers through the Parole Preparation Project with individuals facing the parole board to better their chances of being released, and volunteers in a clinic which assists LGBTQIA asylum seekers in navigating through the asylum process. As an ethical vegan, Lisa also dedicates her resources to animal rights/food justice efforts. A lifelong New Yorker, she lives in Brooklyn with her partner and two furbaby cats, and has a B.A. in English from CUNY Queens College.

Director of Mass Defense

The Director of Mass Defense supports the NLG Legal Observer program.

Traci Yoder (she/her), Director of Research and Education

Traci Yoder is the NLG Director of  Research and Education. Before coming to the National Office, she was the Coordinator for the NLG Philadelphia Chapter and the Legal Worker Vice-President of the NLG National Executive Committee. Traci is the former Executive Editor of the NLG Review and has published articles and reports on NLG history, mass surveillance, drug policy, legal education, environmental activism, the far right, and policing of protests. In addition to her NLG work, she has volunteered with projects such as the Radical Archives of Philadelphia, the Wooden Shoe Book Collective, and Interference Archive of Brooklyn. Traci organizes NLG's law school chapters and works on educational programming such as webinars, publications, and the NLG national convention.

National Executive Committee (Board)

Suzanne Adely (she/her), President: Suzanne is the first Arab-American president of the National Lawyers Guild, co-chair of the International Committee and member of the bureau of the IADL. She has worked as an organizer & human rights and labor advocate in New York, Chicago, Egypt, India and elsewhere.

Jilisa Milton (she/her), Vice President: Jilisa is an Alabama-based civil rights attorney, policy analyst, social worker, and relational strategist. She is Vice Chair of NLG’s Disability Rights Committee. She is a survivor of police violence and a founder of Black Lives Matter Birmingham.

Joelle Eliza Lingat (she/they), Treasurer and TUPOCC Co-Chair

Ría Thompson-Washington (she/her), Senior TUPOCC Co-Chair

Nate Fox (he/him), Secretary

Mumia Abu-Jamal (he/him), Jailhouse Lawyer VP Emeritus

Chase Moery, National Student Co-Vice President

Sarah David Heydemann (she/her), NLG Labor and Employee Committee Representative: She is a labor and workers' center organizer turned lawyer. She is co-chair of the NLG Labor and Employment Committee and works as Senior Counsel at the National Women's Law Center, working to ​advance the Center’s workplace justice agenda.

Maggie Ellinger-Locke (she/her), Mass Defense Committee Chair: She is a movement lawyer based in the Washington DC area.

Lydia X.Z. Brown, Disability Justice Committee Chair: is an organizer and lawyer addressing violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. They teach at Georgetown and founded the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival & Empowerment.

Anthony Prince, Housing Committee Co-Chair

Emma Stahl, Housing Committee Co-Chair

Jackelyn Mariano, International Committee Co-Chair

Jeanne Mirer, International Committee Co-Chair

Sirine Shebaya, National Immigration Project Executive Director and N.E.C. Representative: A longtime immigrant rights advocate, she focuses on combining litigation and public campaign strategies to defend and advance the rights of immigrant communities of color.

National Police Accountability Project N.E.C. Representative

Justice Gatson (she/her), Midwest co-RVP: Justice is a Community Organizer with the ACLU of Missouri and works on the policy team, helping to advance rights for communities that face racism and systemic inequities. Justice was recognized by The Pitch KC in their "Best of Kansas City" series.

Kathleen Garbacz, Midwest Co-RVP

Scott Kampas, Midwest Co-RVP

Raymundo Rojas, Texoma Co-RVP: Ray Rojas practices criminal, worker-side employment, and immigration in Southern New Mexico and West Texas. From El Paso, Texas, Rojas received his degrees from UT El Paso and his law degree from the University of Kansas.

Megan Rue, Texoma Co-RVP

Liliya Oliferuk, Southern Co-RVP

Delia Metoyer, Far West Co-RVP

Andi Pla, Northwest Co-RVP

Junga Cha (she/they), Northwest Co-RVP

Shoshanna Silverberg, Southwest Co-RVP: Shoshanna's work as a civil liberties & restorative justice advocate serves as the basis for her work with companies concerned with unwinding the failed War on Drugs. She assists management teams in problem-solving within the intersection of compliance & the alignment of corporate activity with social movements.

Z Williams, Southwest Co-RVP

Marquel Ramirez, Labor and Employment Committee Co-Chair

Olivia Cappello, Mid-Atlantic Co-RVP

Monica Beard, Mid-Atlantic Co-RVP

NLG National Office and National Executive Committee

The NLG National Office is the administrative hub of the organization, connecting our members, chapters, committees, and projects. National Office staff are responsible for administering membership, handling media and other communications, creating and distributing Guild publications, coordinating the annual convention, organizing national campaigns, producing educational resources, fundraising, and providing support to Guild members and entities.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) is the governing body for the NLG. Generally, it meets four times a year and includes:

  • National President
  • National Vice-President
  • National Treasurer
  • National Secretary
  • National Office Executive Director
  • 2 Student Vice-Presidents
  • 1 Legal Worker Vice-President
  • 1 Jailhouse Lawyer Vice-President
  • 9 Regional Vice-Presidents
  • 2 TUPOCC Chairs
  • 2 National Office Representatives
  • 10 Committee, Project, and Task Force Representatives

Between NEC meetings, important and emergency decisions are made by the Executive Council (EC) of the NLG. This is made up of the executive-level NEC members: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Executive Director, Senior Student VP, and Legal Worker VP.

NEC meetings are open to any current Guild members and we welcome your input. We ask that any requests for an item to be added to the agenda be sent to the National Office or the President at least 30 days before the next meeting. NEC meetings are usually held in January, April, August, and October.

All current Guild members are eligible to run for a position on the NEC. Executive-level elections are held at the annual convention, and other seats are decided by the regions, committees, and caucuses. For more information on the NEC, please contact traci@nlg.org.