Faculty Director
Vincent M. Southerland, assistant professor of clinical law and director of the Criminal Defense and Re-entry Clinic at NYU Law, joined the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law as its inaugural Executive Director in February 2017. He has dedicated his career to advancing racial justice and civil rights. Vincent comes to NYU Law after serving as an Assistant Federal Public Defender with the Federal Defenders for the Southern District of New York since 2015. Prior to his time at the Federal Defenders, Vincent spent seven years at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), where he was a Senior Counsel. While at LDF, he engaged in litigation and advocacy at the intersection of race and criminal justice, including the successful representation of people sentenced to death across the American South and children sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. He also led LDF’s advocacy efforts around race and policing, and was lead counsel in school desegregation and employment discrimination matters. Vincent previously served as a staff attorney at The Bronx Defenders, and an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. He began his career as a law clerk to the Honorable Theodore McKee, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Honorable Louis H. Pollak, of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Vincent holds an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center, received his JD from Temple University School of Law and his BA from the University of Connecticut. He serves on the boards of The Bail Project, the Federal Defenders of New York, and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Faculty Directors Emeriti
Anthony Thompson, Professor of Clinical Law Emeritus, was the Center’s founding faculty director. Professor Thompson retired from the NYU Law faculty, of which he was a member for 25 years and taught courses in criminal justice, civil litigation and leadership. Thompson is part of the Duke Corporate Education Global Educator Network and has provided executive education to a number of global companies focusing on leadership and strategy execution. He received numerous prizes for his teaching, including the NYU Distinguished Teaching Award; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Award, which recognizes teaching excellence, leadership, social justice activism, and community building; and the Law School’s Podell Distinguished Teaching Award. Thompson was recognized by El Diario in 2011 with “The EL” award, as one of the “outstanding Latinos in the Tri-State area,” for his community service. He earned his JD at Harvard Law School and his BS Ed from Northwestern University.
Deborah N. Archer, professor of clinical law and director of the Civil Rights Clinic at NYU Law, joined the Center as its faculty co-director in February 2019. Archer joined the NYU Law faculty in 2018, following a distinguished career as a professor of law at New York Law School (NYLS). While at NYLS, Professor Archer served as the school’s inaugural dean of diversity and inclusion and as associate dean for academic affairs and student engagement. She also led NYLS’s Racial Justice Project, a legal advocacy initiative that worked to advance racial justice and civil rights. Archer is president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and serves on the board of the Legal Aid Society. For many years, she also served on the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board and the board of the New York Civil Liberties Union. In recognition of her work, the New York Law Journal named her one of its 2016 Top Women in Law. Before beginning her career in law teaching, Archer was assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and a Marvin M. Karpatkin Fellow at the ACLU.
Executive Director
Jason D. Williamson joined the Center as its Executive Director in June 2021. He previously served as the deputy director of the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, where he began working as a staff attorney in January 2011. At the ACLU, he focused primarily on Fourth Amendment, police practices, and public defense reform litigation. Prior to joining the ACLU, Jason worked as a litigation associate at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York, and served as a law clerk for Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. in the Eastern District of New York from 2007-2008. He began his legal career in New Orleans in the months following Hurricane Katrina, first as a staff attorney for the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, and later as a staff attorney and founding member of Juvenile Regional Services (now called the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights), which provides legal representation for indigent youth in Orleans Parish Juvenile Court. Jason also serves as an adjunct clinical professor at New York University School of Law. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard University in 1998, and his JD from NYU Law in 2006. Jason is a devout Rastafarian, committed husband, and proud father of twin daughters.
Director of the Initiative for Community Power
Andrew Friedman is founding director of the Initiative for Community Power at NYU School of Law. The Initiative is an ambitious, multi-faceted effort to combine the weight and assets of a global academic institution with the nimble, community-grounded tools of advocacy and organizing. Its goal is to catalyze understanding, innovation, and high-impact work in order to accelerate social change towards a more equitable, democratic, and racially just society. The Initiative combines scholarship, field-building, experiential education, academic convenings, internships and fellowships to examine inequality and anti-democracy, and the links between the two. The Initiative works to challenge and disrupt both. Andrew comes to the Initiative after decades of work founding and leading some of the highest impact base-building organizations in the United States, such as Make the Road New York and the Center for Popular Democracy.
Distinguished Scholar in Residence
Justine Olderman holds a joint appointment as Distinguished Scholar in Residence with the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU School of Law and Senior Research Scholar in the Litmus program of the NYU Marron Institute. Justine joined NYU in 2024 after serving as the Executive Director of The Bronx Defenders (BxD) since 2018. As Executive Director, Justine led the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic; embraced unionization and negotiated one of the most progressive bargaining agreements in the field; oversaw the development and implementation of major DEI initiatives; expanded BxD's Early Defense program, creating an off ramp to the legal system; deepened the organization's community engagement work through the creation of the Bronx Cannabis Hub and the Bronx Leadership & Organizing Center; grew BxD's policy and organizing work, which helped secure bail and discovery reform as well as the decriminalization of marijuana and driving with a suspended license; and supported several high-profile impact litigation cases brought by BxD that radically reduced ICE's power to detain immigrants, held NYPD's use of sealed records unconstitutional, ensured due process for people facing the loss of their home through the issuance of orders of protection, and secured a first-of-its-kind, pre-litigation settlement with the City for violating the right of protestors. Justine joined BxD in 2000 as a staff attorney. During her 23 years at BxD, she also held the roles of Supervisor, Team Leader, Managing Attorney of the Criminal Defense Practice, and Managing Director of BxD before succeeding Robin Steinberg as the Executive Director. Justine graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from New York University School of Law. She spent two years clerking for Judge Robert J. Ward in the Southern District of New York. She also holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Senior Research and Advocacy Fellow
Terrance Pitts joined the Center as a Senior Research and Advocacy Fellow in 2021. Terrance's professional and creative work has focused on disrupting mass criminalization and racial bias in the criminal legal system- and transforming the conditions which allow violence to cause harm in communities of color.
Terrance began his advocacy career addressing racial bias in the criminal legal system as a Project Director at the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Since graduating from law school in 2008, he has worked at Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Vera Institute of Justice, and in consulting roles to support transformation of the U.S. criminal legal system. As a senior advisor at the Ford Foundation, Terrance managed a grantmaking portfolio focused on substantially reducing U.S. jail and prison populations. As a program officer at Open Society Foundations (OSF), Terrance crafted grantmaking strategies and managed a criminal justice reform portfolio focused on abolishing the death penalty, ending the practice of juvenile life without parole, and transforming U.S. policing practices to make them more transparent and accountable.
Terrance believes strongly in multi-pronged tactics to shift narratives, build community power, and disrupt systemic racism. His nonfiction film, Heaven: Can You Hear Me?- which premiered nationally on the WORLD Channel and local PBS affiliates in 2022- addresses the impact of gun violence on families in Philadelphia. Terrance is also a Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow. Terrance received an undergraduate degree in political science with distinction from Stanford University, a Master of Arts in Law & Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. He also has studied film production, photography, and video editing.
Practitioner In Residence
Lorén Cox is an education practitioner and advocate committed to civil rights, with a specific focus on educational equity. She currently serves as the Senior Director of Policy, Advocacy and Community Engagement for the KIPP Foundation. Prior to joining KIPP she led the education policy team at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization. In this role, she managed the federal education policy portfolio, and supported over 30 states in the development and implementation of state ESSA plans, particularly as they related to Latino students and English Learners. Additionally, she developed and managed UnidosUS’ education state policy agendas and served as the primary liaison between UnidosUS leadership and the US Department of Education. Prior to joining UnidosUS, Lorén worked for the Obama Administration in two separate capacities: first as a member of the community solutions team and then as a program examiner in the education branch at the Office of Management and Budget. As a member of the community solutions team, she assisted in developing a training for more than 400 federal employees, across a number of federal agencies, on how to effectively execute place-based work with local communities. As a program examiner, she managed a five-billion-dollar portfolio of federal education programs. Her passion for educational equity stems from her own experiences as a first-generation, low-income college graduate. Lorén was previously a practicing attorney and holds a JD from the University of North Carolina and a PhD in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Operations Coordinator
Layla Al (she/her) is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she majored in Global Studies and minored in Human Rights. On campus, she served as Co-President of the African and Caribbean Student Association, Co-Chair of the Student Advisory Board at the Institute of Politics, and a Student Advisor for the Center for Identity + Inclusion. During her undergraduate summers, she explored her policy and legal research interests through internships with Urban Labs, the Chicago Community Trust, and the House on Foreign Affairs Committee. Prior to joining the Center, Layla worked as a Paralegal at the ACLU's National Security Project, an Operations Associate at KHIRY, and a Research Assistant at the Zomia Center. She served as Co-Shop Steward for the ACLU support staff shop of Local 2110.
Staff Attorney
Tolu Lawal (she/her) joined the Center in September 2022. Prior to joining the Center, she was a Racial Justice Legal Fellow with the New York City Commission on Human Rights, working on legislative and policy analysis, public education and community collaboration, legal research and restorative/transformative justice through a race-specific focus. While a student at NYU Law, she served as the Co-Chair of the Black Allied Law Student Association (BALSA) and one of the lead organizers of the Racism Lives Here Too campaign. She worked at the Center as an intern in 2017, as well as an intern at the ACLU Racial Justice Project in 2018, and with NYU's Juvenile Defenders Clinic from 2018 to 2019. She also engages in advocacy, supporting Black and Brown-led groups committed to charting the road to liberation for all people, particularly those who are formerly incarcerated. She currently provides legal support to the Justice Impact Alliance. She is also a co-founder and co-lead organizer of Unlock the Bar (UTB), a New York-based campaign and coalition of allied and systems-impacted law students and lawyers who are advocating for a just and equitable legal profession. She received her J.D. from New York University Law School in the Class of 2019 and received her B.A. from Duke University in 2014.
Legal Fellow
Djuna Schamus (she/her) is a recent graduate of NYU Law, where she focused on confronting the injustices of the criminal punishment system. In the Racial Justice Clinic, Djuna provided support to individuals incarcerated in NY state as they prepared for parole hearings, and in the Civil Rights in the Criminal Legal System Clinic, she represented incarcerated clients in disciplinary hearings and appeals of their unlawful disciplinary sentences. During her law school summers, Djuna interned at the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law. Prior to law school, Djuna provided research and archival support to documentary filmmakers and photographers, where she came to understand the power of storytelling and the role that narrative plays in social movements. She also spent many years volunteering as an abortion doula and remains committed to centering empathy, care, and relationship-building in all of her work. Djuna received her J.D. from New York University Law School in 2024 and her B.A. in American Studies from Wesleyan University in 2018.
Paul Weiss Fellows 2024-25
Sunzida Ahmed (she/her) is a 2L and Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar from Fair Lawn, New Jersey. During her 1L summer, she interned with Communities Resist (CORE) in Brooklyn, where she worked closely with clients to advocate for fair housing and prevent displacement in low-income neighborhoods. By working closely with those affected by housing injustice, she strengthened her commitment to confronting racial inequities within the legal system and gained a deeper appreciation for advocacy through collective mobilization. As a research assistant for Professor Brittany Farr, she further explored how legal discourse in Contract Law can perpetuate cultural narratives about urban poverty and Black motherhood. Beyond her fellowship at the Center, she is a student advocate with NYU's Parole Advocacy Project and a member of the Federal Defenders Clinic. Before attending law school, Sunzida taught elementary school students, an experience that ingrained in her the value of optimism and kindness—qualities she hopes to bring into her future work as a public defender.
Ernesto Casillas (he/him) was born and raised in Bakersfield, California. Living in Bakersfield exposed Ernesto to the plight and struggles of impoverished minority communities living under racist police practices and an overzealous district attorney’s office. This experience inspired him to become an attorney focused on working against systemic racism in the criminal justice system. Ernesto graduated cum laude from UC Berkeley in 2022 with a degree in Philosophy. While at Berkeley, he worked in several organizations dedicated to public interest. In his second year, Ernesto was the fundraising director for Central Valley Scholars, a non profit organization committed to providing scholarships to underprivileged high school students in Central California. In his third and fourth year, he was a research assistant for the Berkeley Center for Comparative Equality, a Berkeley Law organization. In this capacity, he researched global systemic racism and criminal justice, and discussed these issues with law professors from around the world. After college he worked with a Bakersfield criminal defense firm, Paine Criminal Defense. Ernesto was the Client Services Coordinator, where he was in daily contact with clients both in and out of custody. He developed a genuine connection to these individuals, persecuted members of his Central California community. Following his time at Paine Criminal Defense, Ernesto became a teacher and wrestling coach for North High School developing his roots and love for his community. At NYU Ernesto has taken roles in the Suspension Representation Project, Parole Advocacy, and as a student advocate for the Family Defense Clinic. He spent his 1L summer working with the Federal Defenders of New York, Eastern District. He hopes to return to his hometown to assist as a public defender.
Caitlyn Fernandes (she/her) is a 3L from Dayton, Maryland. She earned her bachelor's degree in Marketing with a minor in Business Analytics from the University of Delaware. During her undergraduate studies, Caitlyn served as treasurer for the Black Student Union and held two terms as treasurer for the Lambda Gamma chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Before starting law school, Caitlyn was an analyst in the Chase Leadership Development Program at JPMorgan Chase & Co. At Chase, she devoted much of her time to the Advancing Black Pathways program, where she mentored incoming analysts of color. In her 2L year, Caitlyn participated in the Racial Justice and Abolition Clinic at NYU, collaborating with the Abolitionist Law Center to provide legal support for incarcerated clients experiencing violence and for those seeking commutation. She also worked with the CRIL to host an event at the Law School, bringing formerly incarcerated individuals to share their experiences with over-policing, community organizing, and protest, and to showcase independent films they had written and directed.Over the summer, Caitlyn was a summer associate at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, where she prepared a client’s application for U-Nonimmigrant status and conducted legal research for an incarcerated client seeking clemency. This year, Caitlyn serves as a Senior Editor for NYU's Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law and is an active member of the Black Allied Law Students Association. As a student fellow, Caitlyn aims to foster a more equitable and compassionate world through community organizing, client service, and innovative legal strategies.
Mugdha Gurram (she/her) is a second year law school student from Brattleboro, Vermont. She graduated from Boston University in 2021 with a degree in International Relations and a minor in Philosophy. During college, she worked in and conducted research on a variety of areas, including pretrial incarceration, women's economic justice, and racial justice for Black small-business owners. After graduating, she worked at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence for two years, tracking and analyzing gun safety regulations. In addition to being a fellow at the Center, Mugdha is the Public Interest Co-Chair for the South Asian Law Students Association and the Women of Color Collective, as well as a member of the End the Contract Coalition, Students Advocating For Empowerment Through Harm Reduction, the Technology Policy and Law Clinic, and the NYU Law Review. She spent the past summer working on religious and ethnic discrimination at the SIkh Coalition and doing research on surveillance in the education system at the Surveillance Resistance Lab. As a CRIL fellow, she hopes to continue learning how to use the law to resist systems of mass surveillance, particularly in the way they disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities.
Mahalia Mathelier (she/her) is a 2L from East Meadow, NY. In 2021, Mahalia graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. in Government with a focus on Public Policy, and a minor in Economics. Outside of class she was an Administrative Fellow for the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice, a Byrd Center Intern for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and investigated racial profiling by police as a research assistant. After college, Mahalia spent two years as a paralegal with the Federal Defenders of New York, SDNY. Through this work, she saw first hand the many ways in which the law is inhumane to people of color. Mahalia also provided litigation support in the capital case defense for United States v. Sayfullo Saipov, which was ultimately successful in avoiding a death verdict. As a law student, Mahalia is interested in exploring how the law can perpetuate and potentially be used to challenge racial inequities in the criminal legal system. For her 1L summer, she worked with the ACLU of D.C. and investigated possible constitutional challenges to the conditions placed on individuals on supervised release. In addition to her role as a CRIL fellow, Mahalia is a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar, a staff editor for the Review of Law & Social Change, the Public Interest Chair for NYU's Black Allied Law Students Association (BALSA), and a student advocate in the Civil Rights in the Criminal Legal System Clinic. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her loved ones, reading contemporary fiction, and soaking up sunshine whenever it’s warm.
Makena Mugambi (she/her) is a Kenyan American who is passionate about reimagining systems that perpetuate injustice in marginalized communities. She graduated from NYU in 2020 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Politics and a minor in Spanish. Before law school, Makena worked at Children’s Rights on both federal class actions as a Paralegal and initiatives addressing racial injustice in the family regulation system as an Advocacy & Policy Fellow. She spent her 1L summer at EarthRights International, researching legal and policy avenues to advance Indigenous land rights and hold corporate actors accountable for environmental and human rights violations in communities of color. In addition to her fellowship at the Center, Makena is a student advocate for the Global Justice Clinic and the Parole Advocacy Project, a staff editor for the Review of Law and Social Change, a Research Coordinator for REACH (Research, Education, and Advocacy to Combat Homelessness), and a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar.