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Williams Institute Staff

	R. Bradley Sears, Executive Director Brad Sears is the Executive Director of the Williams Institute and a lecturer in courses on disability law and sexual orientation law at UCLA School of Law. Sears graduated summa cum laude from Yale University and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. During college and law school, he completed internships with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Jamaica Plain Legal Services Center's AIDS Unit, the ACLU's National Gay and Lesbian and AIDS Project, and the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. After law school, Sears moved to Los Angeles and clerked for the Hon J. Spencer Letts of the Central District of California. In 1996, he created the HIV Legal Checkup Project, a legal services program dedicated to empowering people living with HIV to address and prevent legal problems. The HIV Legal Checkup Project provided preventive legal services to over 800 clients per year and over 100 UCLA School of Law students received training through volunteering with the Project. In 1997, Sears also became the Discrimination & Confidentiality Attorney for the HIV/AIDS Legal Services Alliance of Los Angeles (HALSA). In this capacity, he litigated and settled HIV-discrimination cases, ending the discriminatory practices of a number of medical practices, schools, and residential care facilities. His work also included settlements that resulted in mandated HIV-training for 22,000 Los Angeles County employees, the overturning of the City of Los Angeles' discriminatory denial of licenses to HIV-positive massage therapists, and the end of a major credit reporting company's policy of disclosing consumers' HIV-status on credit reports. He has also served on the board of directors or advisory boards for Being Alive Los Angeles, HALSA, USC's AIDS Education Training Center, and CorrectHelp, an organization dedicated to the needs of incarcerated persons living with HIV/AIDS.
	Christine Littleton, Faculty Chair Christine Littleton regularly teaches courses on women and the law, sexual harassment and feminist legal theory in the Law School and the Women’s Studies Programs. She has also taught Contracts, Remedies, Employment Discrimination, Disability Rights and Sexual Orientation and Law. From 1993 to 1996, she served as Director of the undergraduate Women's Studies Program and since 1999 has chaired the expanded Women's Studies Programs, overseeing the undergraduate and graduate programs at UCLA. Littleton was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the California Women's Law Center, and still participates as a volunteer attorney and consultant there. An active member of the California Bar since 1982, she has assisted numerous public interest organizations and attorneys in cases involving discrimination on the basis of sex, race, pregnancy, sexual orientation, and HIV status, and has received awards for public interest legal work and feminist education. Since moving to Orange County in 1997 she has replaced some of her pro bono legal work with volunteer work in other areas, including establishing a monitoring site for Monarch larva, and with memorizing freeway exits. Before law school, Littleton enjoyed a series of brief and ill-paid careers as a high school teacher, legal secretary, and part-time actor. While in law school, she was a member of the Harvard Law Review and managing editor of the Harvard Women's Law Journal. She clerked for the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Current research interests include equality theory in feminism, law and public discourse.
	Lee Badgett, Research Director M. V. Lee Badgett is the research director at the Williams Institute. She is also the director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration and associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has a BA in economics from the University of Chicago (1982) and a PhD in economics from UC Berkeley (1990). Her book, Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men (University of Chicago Press) presents her ground-breaking work on sexual orientation discrimination and family policy. She’s currently working on a new book asking whether same-sex marriage will change marriage or change GLB people, drawing on the U.S. and European experiences with same-sex marriage.
	Nan D. Hunter, Legal Scholarship Director Nan Hunter is a professor of law at Brooklyn Law School. She will be begin teaching at the Georgetown University Law Center in Fall 2008. She teaches and writes in three areas: health law; state regulation of sexuality and gender; and procedure. Three of her recent articles focused on health law have ranged in topic from a critical analysis of new arbitration-style systems that allow patients to challenge denials of treatment, to an application of new governance theory to current trends in the public health field, to a re-interpretation of the role of deference to medical authority in the Supreme Court’s opinion in Roe v. Wade. In addition to scholarship, Professor Hunter’s experience in health law includes service as Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1993 to 1996, and appointment to the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry. Professor Hunter’s work in the area of sexuality and gender law has been published in the Michigan Law Review, the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Minnesota Law Review, the Ohio State Law Journal, and several anthologies. With William Eskridge, she wrote first casebook to conceptualize the field as embodying a dynamic relationship between state regulation, sexual practices, and gender norms. In the field of procedure, Professor Hunter is the author of The Power of Procedure, which has been widely adopted for law school use throughout the United States.



	Gary Gates, Senior Research Fellow A Senior Research Fellow at the Williams Institute, Gary Gates co-authored The Gay and Lesbian Atlas. His doctoral dissertation included the first significant research study of the demography of the gay and lesbian population using US Census data. His work on that subject has been featured in many national and international media outlets. He is also co-author of a study examining the interplay of diversity and the location and growth of the technology sector. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University along with a Master of Divinity degree from St. Vincent College and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.




	Brondi Borer, Judicial Education Director After graduating from Cardozo Law School in Manhattan, Brondi opened a family law and mediation practice. The focus of the practice was on gay family law issues such as donor insemination agreements, child support and co-parenting agreements, domestic partnership and dissolution agreements, and second parent adoptions. She represented many gay clients in litigated and mediated divorce actions. During this period in her professional life, Brondi came to understand some of the enormous challenges individuals and families face when a family member comes out and others are not financially and emotionally supportive. In 2001, Brondi shifted direction in her professional life and served as Vice President of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the self-regulatory body for the interactive software industry, until 2006. Since 1997, Brondi has also taught Family Law and Public Speaking in the Critical Thinking Department of Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. Brondi joined the Williams Institute as Director of Judicial Education in 2007.

	Matt Strieker, Development Director Matt Strieker joins the Williams Institute from Thurlow/Associates, where he served as lead fund development consultant on five capital and general operating campaigns for regional and national nonprofit organizations, including think tanks, healthcare providers and youth development agencies. Formerly, he served as development director for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). In addition to raising funds for the agency’s national litigation and policy work, Matt also supported development of new programs and infrastructure improvement projects related to communications, new technologies and human resources. While at MALDEF, Matt also served as a staff attorney, representing immigrant and Latino clients in voting rights and school reform litigation, as well as before various local and state legislative bodies. Earlier, Matt was a research associate at the Institute on Race & Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School. Focusing primarily on state and federal housing reform, he drafted various policy reports and briefs, which informed active litigation and proposed legislation in Minnesota and other parts of the country. A graduate of the Georgia State University College of Law, Matt begun his legal career as a judicial clerk and is admitted to practice in California, Georgia and Minnesota. In addition to his work at the Williams Institute, Matt also supports the efforts of various LGBT organizations. He is a board member for the Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, as well as a member of the Young Professional's Council, which promotes the work of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
	D. Louise Lee, Development Associate D. Louise Lee earned a B.A. in psychology from Pomona College in 2007, focusing her senior research on emotional attachment in single-father families. While at Pomona, she was a founding member of SOCA (Student of Color Alliance) which worked to make the campus a safer place for students of color through programming and creating a resource center. She studied in the Dominican Republic, teaching, researching, and counseling emotionally abused children. A Fulbright Grant sent her to South Korea where she acted as a cultural ambassador, taught English, and conducted independent research comparing American and Korean perceptions of creativity. She plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology, focusing on the complexities of counseling individuals in marginalized communities.
	Randy M. Bunnao, Education Coordinator Randy Bunnao completed a Master of Science in Public Policy & Management at Carnegie Mellon University in 2003. Prior to graduate school, he was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in New York City. During the program he interned for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Bloomberg Radio, and the Working Families Party. He received his B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1998. During college, he did a summer internship with Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. He is also a recipient of the Public Policy & International Affairs Fellowship Program where he completed a summer institute at the University of Maryland, College Park, School of Public Policy. Before the Williams Institute, Randy served as a program coordinator at The Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA.
	Deseree Fontenot, Administrative Assistant Deseree graduated with Honors from the University of Southern California with a degree in English and minor in Cinematic Arts. While at USC, Deseree was the Executive Director of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Assembly, a division of student government that focused on advocating for the rights of queer students on campus through academic, political, and cultural programming. Deseree also served as the Communications Director for USC’s LGBT Resource Center. Deseree plans to pursue a graduate degree in Gender Studies.
	Michael D. Steinberger, Public Policy Fellow Michael Steinberger is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Pomona College. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with degrees in Economics, Political Science and Statistics in 1999. He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005. Michael’s research is in the area of empirical labor economics, with an emphasis on wage inequality. His current projects explore causes for gay and lesbian differences in wages, labor force participation, unemployment, occupational choice and work hours. Michael is the recipient of Pomona’s Wig Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching, an MIT Economics Fellowship and a Sloan Dissertation Fellowship.
	Naomi Goldberg, 2008-2009 Peter J. Cooper Public Policy Fellow Naomi Goldberg received a Master of Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. While at the Ford School, Naomi focused on quantitative policy analysis and domestic social welfare policy. Her article “Welfare-to-Work Undermines National Breastfeeding Goals” was published in PolicyMatters, the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy journal. Naomi received the Rosalie Ginsberg Award for Outstanding Campus Impact in recognition of her efforts to start a GLBT policy organization and to advocate for GLBT students and staff on campus. Naomi received her A.B. from Mount Holyoke College, where she graduated magna cum laude and majored in Critical Social Thought. Her honors thesis, entitled “The Israel Question: The Emergence and Impact of Revisionist History in Israel,” was awarded the Mary Lyons Scholar award for high honors. As a Peter J. Cooper Public Policy Fellow, Naomi’s research will focus on the unique challenges facing older gay and lesbian Americans.
	Kim Pearson, 2008-2010 Law Teaching Fellow Kim Pearson's research and writing interests are post-colonialism and sexuality, lesbians in patriarchal systems, the imputation of sexuality on minors, and sexualized violence in custody disputes. Kim completed her B.A. in English at the University of Utah. She also earned her M.A. in British and American Literature from the University of Utah. During her M.A. program, Kim studied critical theory with Professor Kathryn Bond Stockton, worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Asian-American Studies Department, and ran a collaborative workshop for book artists and creative writers. Kim graduated from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University where she was a senior editor of the BYU Law Review and worked as a research assistant for Professor Fred Gedicks. Kim practiced law in Las Vegas from 2005 to 2008 in a family law firm. In 2006, Kim published an article called "Patriotic Homosocial Discourse" which appeared in the William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law.
	Doug NeJaime, 2007-2009 Law Teaching Fellow Douglas NeJaime researches and writes on antidiscrimination law and social movement lawyering, with a focus on gay rights and women’s rights. He also teaches Law & Sexuality at the UCLA School of Law. Before joining the Williams Institute, Doug was an associate at the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella, where he focused on intellectual property litigation. At Irell, Doug also represented women’s rights organizations in same-sex marriage litigation around the country. Doug received his A.B. with Honors in American Civilization from Brown University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude and served as a Senior Editor on the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Review. Doug also served as a Teaching Fellow to Professor Lani Guinier. He is the author of “Marriage, Cruising, and Life in Between: Clarifying Organizational Positionalities in Pursuit of Polyvocal Gay-Based Advocacy,” which appeared in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and co-author of “Sex Stereotypes in Same-Sex Marriage Jurisprudence,” which appeared in the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender.
	Christopher Ramos, Research Assistant Christopher Ramos received his B.A. from Pomona College in 2008 with a degree in Sociology - Public Policy Analysis. His undergraduate research focused on communities of color and racial inequalities; culminating in his honors thesis, The Latino/a Home Owning Class: Navigating Wealth, Securing Property, & Utilizing Social capital. Professionally, Christopher has interned with such organizations as Equality California, El Colegio Público San Cristóbal, in Madrid, Spain, and the Housing Rights Center of Los Angeles. As a 2007 Public Policy & International Affairs Fellow, Christopher plans to obtain an advanced degree in public policy.
	Stephanie Plotin, Williams Institute Librarian Stephanie Plotin is a reference librarian at the UCLA Law Library and manages the Williams Institute Reading Room and Collection on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy. Stephanie received both her law degree and her library & information science degree from UCLA, and received her B.A. from Smith College. She is an instructor for the Advanced Legal Research course offered at the Law School. Prior to joining the Law Library, Stephanie practiced law at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, focusing on workers’ rights issues. She has also worked as an immigration attorney in a private immigration firm.
	Todd Brower, Judicial Training Consultant A professor of Constitutional Law at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, California, Todd Brower has an LL.M from Yale Law School, a J.D. from Stanford Law School, his A.B. from Princeton University, and was a Fulbright scholar in France. Professor Brower serves on the California Judicial Council - Access and Fairness Advisory Committee and is the author of various publications on the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in the courts of the United Kingdom and California.


	Click here to view bios of our Former Fellows

Faculty Advisory Committee
	Stuart Biegel	Cheryl Harris	Seana Shiffrin
	Devon Carbado	Gia Lee	Jonathan Varat
	Kimberlé Crenshaw	Gary Rowe
	David Cruz	Russell Robinson
	Sharon Dolovich	William B. Rubenstein

Williams Institute Staff

Faculty Advisory Committee