Meet the staff of the Sustainable Economies Law Center, working across more than ten program areas to bridge the gap in legal education, research, advice, and advocacy to transition from destructive economic systems to innovative and cooperative solutions.
Looking to connect with us? Try looking below at each staff member's program areas or come to one of our upcoming events.
Janelle Orsi - Executive Director & Co-Founder
Janelle is Sustainable Economies Law Center's chief visionary, continually developing ideas and strategies for stronger, more resilient economies. She provides guidance and support to each program circle and leads the Legal Profession in the New Economy program. She is also the Cartoonist-in-Chief, and her works can be found here and all over our website. And check out her book: Practicing Law in the Sharing Economy (ABA Books 2012).
Program Areas:
|
|
|
|
Operations Areas:
|
.
More about Janelle: theselc.org/janelle_orsi
Neil Thapar - Food & Farm Attorney
Neil leads Sustainable Economies Law Center’s Food and Farm Program. He is passionate about building collective power within communities of color to recreate a healthy, just, and resilient food system. Neil’s definition of happiness is his dog, Sutro.
Program Areas:
|
|
|
Operations Areas:
|
.
Contact Neil at neil@theselc.org
More about Neil: theselc.org/neil_thapar
Cameron Rhudy - Staff Attorney
Cameron leads Sustainable Economies Law Center’s Fellowship Program, which supports lawyers building resilient local economies. She also provides legal support to the Grassroots Finance Program and the Resilient Communities Legal Cafe Program.
Program Areas:
|
|
|
Operations Areas:
|
.
Contact Cameron at cameron@theselc.org
More about Cameron: theselc.org/cameron_rhudy
Yassi Eskandari - Policy Director
Yassi leads the Law Center’s local and regional policy work and co-manages the groundbreaking Transformative Policymakers project. She primarily focuses on worker cooperatives, direct legal services, food systems, and renewable energy, and serves as President of the center's Board of Directors. In 2017, Yassi passed the California bar exam without going to law school, and is honored to join a movement of lawyers who are making our economy work for the planet and the 99 percent.
Program Areas:
|
|
Operations Areas:
|
.
Contact Yassi at yassi@theselc.org
More about Yassi: theselc.org/yassi_eskandari
Ricardo Samir Nuñez - Director of Economic Democracy
Ricardo co-coordinates the Law Center’s education, research, advocacy, and advice for equitable, democratic enterprises. Programs and projects include the Worker Coop Academy, Co-opLaw.org, policy advocacy at the local and state level, building a cooperative support ecosystem, and much more! He endeavor to co-create policies, structures, and institutions that empower communities to liberate themselves from systems of economic and social oppression. He is currently on the board of the California Center for Cooperative Development and the Board President of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives. He's also becoming a lawyer without going to law school through the California Law Office Study Program (likelincoln.org).
Program Areas:
|
|
|
Operations Areas:
|
.
Contact Ricardo at ricardo@theselc.org
More about Ricardo: theselc.org/ricardo_nunez
Chris Tittle - Director of Organizational Resilience
Chris focuses on participatory governance for community-controlled economies, and co-leads or contributes to the Law Center’s Housing, Worker Self-Directed Nonprofits, Farmland, and Money & Finance Programs. He also helps coordinate much of the Law Center's internal governance, grant writing, and grassroots fundraising. Chris practices Aikido, is committed to collective liberation, and once traveled from Japan to West Africa by land and sea.
Program Areas:
|
Operations Areas:
|
Contact Chris at chris@theselc.org
More about Chris: theselc.org/chris_tittle
Sara Stephens - Housing & Cooperatives Attorney
Sara leads Sustainable Economies Law Center’s Housing Program and contributes legal support to the Cooperatives and City Policies programs. She is committed to supporting community-led solutions to housing and economic inequity. She also likes running and gluten-free baking.
Program Areas:
|
Operations Areas:
|
Contact Sara at sara@theselc.org
More about Sara at: theselc.org/sara_stephens
Subin DeVar - Community Renewable Energy Program Director
Subin (formerly Subin Varghese) leads the Community Renewable Energy Program, working to ensure that it is primarily communities, nonprofits, cooperatives, and households -- not large utilities -- that will own and control energy infrastructure as society transitions to renewable energy.
Program Areas:
|
Operations Areas:
|
Contact Subin at subin@theselc.org
More about Subin at: theselc.org/Subin_DeVar
Elizabeth Burnett - Staff Attorney
Elizabeth focuses on funding development and strategic partnership outreach for Sustainable Economies Law Center in order to expand the breadth and types of community support for the Law Center as it grows and expands programs for community resilience and grassroots economic empowerment. Elizabeth also provides legal support to the Resilient Communities Legal Cafe Program.
Program Areas:
|
Operations Areas:
|
Contact Elizabeth at elizabeth@theselc.org
More about Elizabeth:theselc.org/elizabeth_burnett
Sue Bennett - Director of Operations & Miscellaneous Stuff
Sue ensures the organization's office space and internal operations contribute to the wellbeing of staff and the effectiveness of the Sustainable Economies Law Center’s programs.
Sue has spent 25 years working in the nonprofit sector in a variety of program and administrative roles. When not reading a book, she is searching for a camping spot near the ocean or in a forest.
Program Areas:
|
|
|
Operations Areas:
|
Contact Sue at sue@theselc.org
More about Sue: theselc.org/sue_bennett
Charlotte Tsui - Skadden Fellow
Charlotte is a Skadden Fellow with the Center's Cooperatives programs. Her fellowship work is focused on supporting immigrant worker-owned businesses, particularly those from the domestic work sector and Asian Pacific Islander communities. Charlotte also provides support to the Resilient Communities Legal Cafe Program.
Program Areas:
|
|
Contact Charlotte at charlotte@theselc.org
More about Charlotte: theselc.org/charlotte_tsui
Jay Cumberland - Legal Research and Policy Specialist
Jay supports the Policy Circle and Cooperatives Circle. He assists with Policy Cafes, which allow community members to obtainlegal advice on forming and implementing policies at the state and local levels. He assists in identifying policy opportunities related to worker cooperatives, and he works with the Worker Coop Brigade, a group of worker coop worker-owners, to pursue those opportunities. He also performs research on miscellaneous topics, like the possibility of allowing self-directed solo 401(k)s to invest in local economies.
Jay attends the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where he is in his second year. Jay is from Jackson, Mississippi, but had left the South to become a lawyer focused on alleviating poverty.
Program Areas:
|
|
Contact Jay at jay@theselc.org
More about Jay: theselc.org/jay_cumberland
Tia Katrina Taruc-Myers - Director of Legal Education
Tia Katrina Taruc-Myers is the Sustainable Economies Law Center’s new Legal Cafe Director! She joined the Law Center excited to recruit volunteer attorneys to help folks create and control their own economies.
Passionate about redistributing power and wealth, Tia spends her time promoting participatory budgeting, worker-owned cooperatives, and economic justice for domestic violence survivors.
|
Program Areas:
|
|
|
Operations Areas:
|
Contact Tia at tia@theselc.org
More about Tia: theselc.org/tia
Gregory Jackson- Equal Justice Works Fellow
Sponsored by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Greg is an Equal Justice Works Fellow within the Center's Housing and Cooperatives programs. Greg assists the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative as Partnership Director. His fellowship work is focused on educating Black residents in East Oakland through a book club and workshop series, laying the groundwork for sovereign grassroots economic development rooted in community ownership, resource sharing, and collective decision making.
Program Areas:
|
Operations Areas:
|
Contact Greg at greg@theselc.org
More about Greg: theselc.org/greg
Saki Bailey - Scholar-in-Residence 
Saki is an activist, researcher, and writer on the Commons. At Sustainable Economies Law Center, Saki will be documenting and writing articles about the development of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative and supporting its communications needs. She will also be providing feedback on and contributing to the Law Center’s policy analysis and advocacy, particularly on policies that support and encourage the commons and economic democracy.
More about Saki: http://www.theselc.org/saki
Adam Stocker - Transportation Consultant
Adam is a transportation engineer and shared mobility researcher. In addition to serving as a consultant to the Sustainable Economies Law Center, he holds a research and project management position at the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at UC Berkeley. In partnership with the Law Center, Adam will be leading the design and implementation of a research project focusing on the potential of platform cooperatives in transportation and shared mobility applications.
More about Adam: http://www.theselc.org/adam_stocker