EXPERIENCE
As an attorney and expert in civil rights law, metropolitan planning, K-12 education policy, and subsidized housing policy, my life's work has been at the intersection of policy, advocacy, politics, and law. Noteworthy experiences include:
Serving as a key advisor in the first major statewide K-12 school desegregation case in the US in two decades (Cruz-Guzman v. State of Minnesota)
Serving as an expert in two Department of Housing and Urban Development fair housing complaints against the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the Met Council, and the State of Minnesota, targeting concentration of subsidized housing
Offering analysis of civil rights law and problems, political representation, and the politics of far-right extremism in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Atlantic Monthly, as well as on NPR, NBC news, and in many local Minnesota outlets
Working with White House officials and twenty Metropolitan Planning Organizations from the nation’s 25 largest cities to develop strategies to make regional governance stronger and more accountable
Analyzing teacher compensation statewide in collaboration with Education Minnesota, and independently developing policy proposals to eliminate early-career pay gaps and other barriers to teacher recruitment
Working closely with elected officials, city managers, and mayors in highly diverse suburbs to collect data and develop solutions for growing poverty concentration within their municipalities
Designing and authoring comprehensive nationwide analysis of neighborhood economic growth and decline
Writing successful amicus briefs to the Minnesota Supreme Court, representing some of the state’s top civil rights lawyers, urging the state’s fundamental constitutional right to an education be applied to forbid school segregation
Designing and authoring a study of Twin Cities regional subsidized housing construction costs
Collaborating with the North New Jersey MPO to develop policy proposals stabilizing rapidly resegregating New York suburbs
Conducting studies of K-12 school performance and integration
Uncovering major misuse of government funding in the construction of extreme high-cost subsidized housing, resulting in national news coverage
Working with national civil rights scholars to analyze racial disciplinary gaps in K-12 education
Partnering with Illinois Association of Realtors to develop policy proposals responding to growing poverty and gentrification fears in the Chicago region
Coordinating a successful intervention by civil rights scholars to oppose state Department of Education efforts to strengthen Minnesota statewide school integration rule
Serving as member of the Minnesota Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Serving as member of Lowry Hill Neighborhood Association
Serving as advisor in ongoing litigation against the State of Minnesota and Metropolitan Council for civil rights and fair housing violations (Stairstep Foundation v. State of Minnesota)
Collecting and studying nationwide data on racial patterns in police shootings
Developing alternative formulas for Met Council “housing need” allocations, to better credit high-performing municipalities, and developing proposals to better reward housing performance by municipalities with increased transit funding
Organizing the Summit for Civil Rights, an ongoing project bringing local and federal elected leaders, attorneys and scholars, and labor leaders together to develop legislative and advocacy agendas to promote stable regions and protect Senator Walter Mondale’s original vision of the Fair Housing Act
Collaborating with the nation’s top civil rights experts to develop a range of federal proposals to improve K-12 school integration
Creating and publishing strategies for coordinating magnet school development with housing planning