Our effectiveness has several key pieces: a dedicated staff, a committed and knowledgeable Steering Committee, and most of all, a wide network of passionate and powerful advocates getting right to counsel work done on the ground!
Our Staff
John Pollock | Coordinator
John (he/him) has been the NCCRC Coordinator since 2009. He is the author of several law review articles, including Appointment of Counsel for Civil Litigants: A Judicial Path to Ensuring the Fair and Ethical Administration of Justice, Court Review, Vol. 56 Issue 1 (2020), The Case Against Case-By-Case: Courts Identifying Categorical Rights to Counsel in Basic Human Needs Civil Cases, 61 Drake L.J. 763 (Spring 2013), and It’s Not Triage if the Patient Bleeds Out, 161 U. Penn. L.R. 40 (2012). He was the recipient of NLADA’s 2018 Innovations in Civil Justice Award. Previously, he was the Enforcement Director at the Central Alabama Fair Housing Center, and before that was a fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. He graduated from Northeastern University School of Law and Wesleyan University.
Maria Roumiantseva | Associate Coordinator
Maria (she/her) is the NCCRC’s Associate Coordinator. Before joining the NCCRC in February 2020, Maria was a Staff Attorney at Legal Services of Central New York, Inc., primarily representing tenants facing eviction. Maria began her legal career at the Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Practice in Brooklyn, New York, representing children in child welfare cases. Maria graduated from Montclair State University and the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law. She is the author of A Nationwide Movement: The Right to Counsel for Tenants Facing Eviction Proceedings, Seton Hall Law Review, Vol.52, Iss.5 (2022), and Patching the Patchwork: Moving the Civil Right to Counsel Forward With Key Data, Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development, Vol. 36, Iss. 2 (2022). Maria is licensed to practice law in NY and MD.
Amanda Insalaco | Legal Research and Legislative Specialist
Amanda is the NCCRC’s Legal Research and Legislative Specialist. Before joining the NCCRC in February 2022, Amanda was an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Center for Disability & Elder Law in Chicago, implementing the Housing Preservation Project and handling a variety of civil matters. As a Fellow, Amanda provided outreach presentations to hundreds of senior homeowners and trained and supervised pro bono volunteers who provided almost 400 legal services for estate planning, title searches, and property tax exemptions, with the goal of increasing housing stability, affordability, and the intergenerational transfer of wealth. Amanda graduated cum laude from DePaul University College of Law in May of 2019 and summa cum laude from Northern Illinois University in May of 2014 with a degree in Community Leadership and Civic Engagement. Amanda enjoys cooking for loved ones, and sewing.
Shuron Danielle Jones | Tenant Right to Counsel Enactment Advisor
Shuron (she/her) is the NCCRC’s Eviction RTC Enactment Specialist. After living under and being evicted by a slumlord, Shuron began organizing around housing with Homes for All – St. Louis in 2019. Her work focuses on the research, passage, implementation, and evaluation of legislation and policies that forward renter-worker protections. Shuron assisted in crafting the campaign around the right to counsel in St. Louis City to the eventual passage of an ordinance around the policy in 2023. Shuron is also a public researcher, historian, and analyst, focusing on the work, lives, and organizing/advocacy/writings of radical and Queer Black Women in the Midwest from the 1970s. Shuron enjoys messing after her house plants, eating at her favorite vegan restaurants, shopping at thrift stores, and live music.
Andrew Ashbrook | Eviction Right to Counsel Implementation Specialist
Andrew (he/him) is the NCCRC’s Eviction RTC Implementation Specialist. Before joining the NCCRC in January 2024, Andrew was a Supervising Attorney on the Bronx Defenders’ Right to Counsel team. In that role, he supervised a team of attorneys representing tenants facing eviction in the Bronx through New York City’s Right to Counsel program. Before that position, Andrew represented tenants facing eviction in Manhattan at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House from 2018 through 2021 and in Ohio at the Legal Aid Society of Columbus from 2015 through 2018. Andrew graduated from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 2014, the John Glenn College of Public Affairs with an MA in Public Policy in 2014, and the Ohio State University in 2011. Andrew enjoys reading, playing board games, and going on walks with his dog.
Our Steering Committee
Zoe Brennan-Krohn
American Civil Liberties Union
Russell Engler
New England Law | Boston
Pablo Estupiñan
Strategic Actions for a Just Economy
Debra Gardner
Public Justice Center
Danny Greenberg
Experience Justice
Alan Houseman
National Equal Justice Library
Earl Johnson
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Ainat Margalit
American Bar Association, SCLAID
Clare Pastore
USC Gould School of Law
Rasheedah Phillips
PolicyLink
Hazel Remesch
Enterprise Community Partners
Anjana Samant
American Civil Liberties Union
Andrew Scherer
New York Law School
Radhika Singh
Nat’l Legal Aid and Defender Ass’n
David Udell
Nat’l Center for Access to Justice at Fordham Univ. School of Law
Natalece Washington
Nat’l Ass’n of Counsel for Children
The NCCRC’s network
The NCCRC brings together more than 600 participants and partners from across 45 states. Our network includes lawyers, community organizers, professors, people from community-based and national organizations, bar associations and foundations, access to justice groups, and more. Our participants are dedicated to advancing and protecting the right to counsel in their jurisdictions for specific civil areas of law. The NCCRC has gathered a wealth of information about the prospects for success in advancing the civil right to counsel around the country. We share such information and help develop a strategic approach. We also make connections between advocates in different jurisdictions working on the same issues.
Contact us if you’re interested in becoming a participant!