National Honorary Advisory Board

The National Honorary Advisory Board is a group of child protection experts in the fields of law and psychology, all of whom share the FDC's mission of advocating justice for families.

Annette Ruth Appell is a William S. Boyd Professor of Law at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, where she is also the Associate Dean for Clinical Studies. Prior to joining the faculty at UNLV, she was a Clinical Professor at Northwestern University Law School's Children and Family Justice Center and worked as a guardian ad litem in the Office of the Public Guardian in Chicago.

Ira Burnim is the Legal Director of the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, D.C. He has represented thousands of adults and children diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities in class action suits around the nation and has litigated precedent-setting cases on mental health and child welfare system reform, managed health care, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Read more...

Marty Beyer is a nationally-recognized juvenile justice and child welfare consultant. She assisted in the implementation of statewide strengths/needs-based child welfare practice in Alabama and Oregon, served as an expert in Dupuy v. Samuels in Illinois concerning family-centered safety planning techniques, and in Rosie D. in Massachusetts concerning the use of Medicaid funds for intensive, home-based services for children.

Michele Landis Dauber is an Associate Professor of Law and (by courtesy) the Bernard D. Bergreen Faculty Scholar in Sociology at Stanford University . Her research centers on the social and legal history of the U.S. welfare state. She is the author of numerous articles and a forthcoming book, The Sympathetic State.

Martin Guggenheim is the Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law. One of the nation's foremost experts on children's rights and family law, Martin Guggenheim has taught at New York University since 1973.

Randy Hertz is the director of New York University Law School's clinical program and has been a clinical professor at NYU since 1985. He teaches the Juvenile Defender Clinic and has worked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia in the juvenile, criminal, appellate, and special litigation divisions.

Carolyn Kubitschek is one of the nation's leading civil rights litigators on behalf of mothers, fathers, and children who are caught up in the child welfare system. Since 1991, she has been a law partner with David Lansner in the law firm of Lansner & Kubitschek, which they founded as a private firm in the public interest, advocating for the constitutional rights of parents and children, using an interdisciplinary approach of attorneys, social workers, legal assistants, law students, and experts.

David Lansner is a partner in the New York law firm of Lansner & Kubitschek. He has been representing parents and children in child welfare cases for 35 years. He defends parents accused of child abuse and neglect and has an active domestic relations practice.

Dorothy Roberts is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, with joint appointments in the Departments of African American Studies and Sociology (by courtesy), and a faculty fellow for the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. She has written and lectured extensively on the interplay of gender, race, and class in legal issues concerning reproduction and child welfare.

Robert Schwartz is the co-founder and, since 1982, the Executive Director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Schwartz has represented dependent and delinquent children in individual and systemic reform cases and has testified in Congress before House and Senate Committees.

Michael Wald is the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law at Stanford University, where he has taught courses dealing with legal and public policy regarding children and families since 1967. Professor Wald has held a number of positions outside the University, including serving as Executive Director of the San Francisco Department of Human Services and Deputy General Counsel of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Anita Weinberg is a Clinical Professor and Director of the ChildLaw Policy Institute at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where she teaches legislative advocacy, domestic violence, and courses related to children's "best interests." She leads state-wide efforts to eliminate lead poisoning in children. She is an attorney (Loyola Law School, 1986) and social worker (Columbia School of Social Work, 1977), and her career has been dedicated to improving the lives of children and families for over 25 years.

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National Honorary Advisory Board