Center for Community Problem Solving

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Director

Gerald P. López, author of Rebellious Lawyering, is perhaps the nation’s leading theorist about and on-the-ground practitioner of community problem solving. Over the past three decades, he has played central roles in economic initiatives, civil rights litigation, policy reforms, outreach and education and organizing campaigns, prison and reentry programs, criminal defense and domestic cases, and major quantitative and qualitative empirical studies. He consults on how to design and manage legal and non-legal offices, organizations, coalitions, and networks serving low-income, of color, and immigrant communities. And he provides trainings on racial and cultural diversity, a broad range of lawyering skills, and research and educational programs. At NYU, Mr. López currently teaches a Community Outreach, Education, and Organizing Clinic and a Community Economic Development Clinic at the Law School.

Staff

Michelle Fei, a Flushing, Queens native, graduated from NYU Law School in May 2003. With her Mandarin and Spanish skills, she has served as Project Supervisor and Director for the NLN&RP. Ms. Fei has been awarded an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to help spearhead the Center's Reentry Project, initially centered in East Harlem and now extending to communities all across New York City . Drawing on extensive work she did before law school with client communities living with HIV/AIDS and in law school on the many challenges of gentrification, Ms. Fei also helps direct the Center's intense drive to study, document, and solve the problems (particularly health-related) faced by Mexican, Chinese, and diverse other immigrants and on addressing the needs and enforcing the rights of – and building networks of problem-solving services to better serve – low-wage workers.

AiLun Ku, a Taiwan native, graduated magna cum laude and with honors in sociology from NYU in May 2004. Fluent in both Mandarin and Spanish, Ms. Ku began her work with The Center as an outreach intern for the NLN&RP and later conducted interviews for the Health of Mexican Immigrants in NYC Pilot Study. Ms. Ku recently joined the Center as the Executive Assistant to the Director. With valuable experience at other not-for-profit organizations, she brings considerable management, research, and technological skills to the wide range of programmatic, administrative, and development duties she shoulders. In particular, Ms. Ku spearheads the organizational structuring and staffing of various of The Center's largest and newest campaigns.

Yumari L. Martínez, a native of Brooklyn, graduated from NYU Law School in 2001, where he served as the Co-Chair of the Latino Law Students Association and spearheaded many innovative university and community drives. Before joining the Center, Mr. Martínez worked on the Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund team that initiated litigation to prohibit weapons testing in Vieques, represented death penalty clients in Alabama as a post-graduate fellow at Equal Justice Initiative, and most recently represented juveniles in criminal cases at New York City 's Legal Aid Society. In 2003, Mr. Martínez received an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to implement the Center's innovative and demanding Consumer Survey of Problem-Solving Resources. He also helps direct the Center's ambitious reentry and economic development projects and efforts to address the unmet needs of New York City 's youth.

Stacey Strongarone, a Staten Island native, graduated cum laude in 2003 from NYU Law School and received a Kirkland & Ellis New York City Public Service Fellowship. She addresses a wide range of economic issues that low-income, of color, and immigrant populations (including the formerly incarcerated) face through the Center's imaginative and extensive Streetwise About Money Campaign. Before law school, Ms. Strongarone worked for several years at San Francisco's La Raza Centro Legal, helping low-income and Spanish-speaking families deal with eviction and juvenile cases, conducting diverse community education campaigns, and coordinating efforts of non-legal and legal service providers with whom La Raza Centro Legal collaborated. On top of her responsibilities for the Streetwise About Money Campaign, she works extensively on the NLN&RP, on various reentry initiatives, and on immigrant-focused drives.