| Anita Earls Executive Director  |
Anita Earls is a civil rights attorney with over 23 years’ experience. Prior to founding the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, she was Director of Advocacy at the UNC Center for Civil Rights and Director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In the Clinton Administration Ms. Earls was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she had responsibility for the Division's Voting, Educational Opportunities, Disability Rights and Coordination and Review sections. For the first ten years of her career, Anita litigated civil rights cases as a partner with Ferguson, Stein, Wallas, Adkins, Gresham & Sumter in Charlotte, North Carolina. In private practice, her work involved voting rights, police misconduct, school desegregation, employment discrimination, public accommodations, disability rights and first amendment cases. Currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences at Duke University, Anita has previously taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and the UNC School of Law. She has also taught several undergraduate courses in the African and African-American Studies Department at Duke University. Anita was appointed by the Governor to the North Carolina State Board of Elections in 2009 and serves on the North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission. |
| Clare Barnett Staff Attorney  |
Clare grew up in Raleigh and received her Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She headed down Tobacco Road for law school and received her law degree from Duke University School of Law. At Duke, Clare was a member of the Duke Law Innocence Project and a staff editor of the Duke Forum for Law & Social Change. She became involved in social justice in the Triangle community as an intern with North Carolina Innocence Commission, Legal Aid of North Carolina, and Disability Rights NC. She also worked as a research assistant for the Duke Center for Criminal Justice & Professional Responsibility and the UNC School of Government. |
| Chris Brook Staff Attorney  |
Chris Brook grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Wanting to branch out and see the rest of the world, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his undergraduate and law degrees. During these years, he was active in the social justice movement, including serving a legal intern at the UNC Center for Civil Rights. After graduating from Carolina Law in 2005, he worked in private practice for three years at the Raleigh civil litigation law firm of Cranfill, Sumner and Hartzog. He has served as an adjunct professor at Carolina Law since 2007, teaching Researching, Reasoning, Writing and Advocacy. Recently, he contributed a chapter on community lawyering in Moore County, North Carolina, entitled Case Study: Municipal Underbounding and Communities of Color to the book Building Healthy Communities: A Guide to Community Economic Development for Advocates, Lawyers & Policymakers. |
| Rebecca Fontaine Immigrant Rights Organizer  |
Rebecca is SCSJ’s lead organizer and coordinates SCSJ’s immigrant’s rights organizing. She grew up in southeastern Massachusetts but considers Durham her new home. She brings a long history of organizing, in particular Latin America Solidarity work including trade justice campaigns, equitable development, demilitarization, and immigrants’ rights activism. Before coming to SCSJ she worked in Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast, coordinating community-based development with rural families and experiential education for international brigades. Most recently she worked in a resource office at an immigrant-led community center in Durham and with the National Farmworker Ministry. Rebecca graduated from Bowdoin College in 2005 with a degree in Gender and Women’s Studies and Sociology. |
| Chris Ketchie Policy Analyst & Community Organizer  |
Chris Ketchie is originally from Lexington, North Carolina. After completing his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002, he pursued his sense of adventure by moving out west to become a wildland firefighter for the United States Forest Service. In 2007, he returned home to study at North Carolina State University, where he received his master's degree in Forestry and Environmental Resources with a concentration in Geographic Information Systems. At SCSJ, Chris specializes in spatial visualization and analysis of demographic and political data for advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, and economic issues. He is also a founding partner of the political consulting firm DemoGeoGraphics, which provides strategic planning advice and election campaign management services. |
| Carolyn Rhodes Office Manager  |
Carolyn, a native of Durham, enters SCSJ with over fifteen years of experience in the financial sector. During the last five years of her career, she has used her financial background and administrative skills to manage nonprofits in the Triangle area. Carolyn is the Founder and Executive Director of a 501c3 nonprofit organization entitled Overcoming Obstacles where she helps single mothers in need become self sufficient through job training, financial management, parental education, and self esteem building. She has been involved in the Durham community, where she was an active member of the Citizens Advisory Committee, volunteer for the Adolescent Parenting Program, and InStepp, Inc. She continues to do advocacy work with local non profits and faith based organizations. |
| Allison Riggs Staff Attorney, Voting Rights  |
Allison Riggs grew up in West Virginia, and then made her way down to the University of Florida for college. She liked Gainesville so much that she decided to stick around for a decade. She also received her Master's Degree and J.D. from the University of Florida. During law school, she was the student coordinator for the Restoration of Civil Rights Project--a student organization that provided assistance to applicants seeking to have the state of Florida restore to them their civil rights following a felony conviction. She is happy to once again be living in a state with seasons! |
Board of Directors
- Farad Ali Senior VP of Business Development, NC Institute of Minority Economic Development, Durham, NC
- Jeremy Collins North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium, Durham, N.C.
- Daniella Cook, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK.
- Anita Earls, Esq. Director, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Durham, N.C.
- James Ferguson, Esq. Partner, Ferguson, Stein, Chambers, Greshama & Sumter, Charlotte, N.C.
- Jim Grant, Ph.D. Organizer, Black Workers for Justice, Wilson, N.C.
- Maurice Holland Past President, Midway Community Association, Aberdeen, N.C.
- Trina Jones, Esq. Professor, Duke Law School, Durham, NC
- Geeta Kapur, Esq. Attorney, Solo practitioner, Durham, N.C.
- Shannah Sayers, Esq. Grants Compliance Officer, Orange County Housing and Community Development, Durham, N.C.
- Diane Standaert, Esq. Legislative Counsel, Center for Responsible Lending, Durham, N.C.
- Barry Williams, Esq. Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Social Security Administration, Fayetteville, N.C.
- Jerry Wilson, Esq. Attorney, Solo Practitioner, Redan, GA.
- Dani Martinez-Moore Coordinator, Network of Immigrant Advocates, NC Justice Center, Raleigh, N.C.
- Luz Matias Community Advocate, Elon, N.C.
- Alicia Young, Esq. Right to Vote Interim Coordinator, The Advancement Project, Fayetteville, N.C.
