Leadership Symposium
The Center for Social Justice and Public Service at Santa Clara Law invites you to attend
2011 Social Justice Leadership Symposium
Cultivating Social Justice Leadership: An Intergenerational Conversation Examining the Social Justice Sector Leadership Challenge
April 15, 2011 – 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Santa Clara University
Bannan Hall 142
Symposium Agenda
Participant Bios
Articles about Intergenerational Leadership and Intergenerational Challenges – MCLE Materials
One of the biggest challenges facing nonprofits today is their dearth of strong leaders – a problem that’s only going to get worse as the sector expands and baby boom executives retire. Over the next decade nonprofits will need to find some 640,000 new executives, nearly two and a half times the number currently employed. – Thomas J. Tierney, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2006
Addressing the needs and concerns of marginalized, subordinated, or underrepresented clients and causes has long required the resourcefulness of individuals working in concert. What tools have been successful in cultivating, training and retaining leaders, from within these communities and among other concerned people? What characteristics define social justice leaders? Does the answer vary for leaders from different generations? What leadership style or styles will prove effective for the future? What role will new technologies play in movements for social change and how might leaders tap into these technologies?
This 1/2 day Symposium will gather several generations of social justice leaders and innovators to consider questions related to the social justice sector leadership challenge, and to inform and inspire leaders of tomorrow.
For more information, contact the Center for Social Justice and Public Service at socialjustice@scu.edu or 408.551.1720.
Speaker Bios
The Honorable Sidney Espinosa
Mayor, City of Palo Alto and Director of Corporate Citizenship, Microsoft
Sidney Espinosa is the Mayor of Palo Alto, CA, where he has been a leader in establishing public-private partnerships and fostering economic development. He is also the Director of Corporate Citizenship at Microsoft, where he is building philanthropic, public policy and community programs in the Silicon Valley. Mr. Espinosa has had a unique career with extensive experience in business, government and non-profits. He served in the Clinton White House, the U.S. Justice Department as an advisor to Attorney General Janet Reno, in a U.S. Ambassadors office, and for nearly a decade at Hewlett-Packard, where as the Director of Global Philanthropy, he launched strategic programs that invested hundreds of millions of dollars in non-profits, schools and universities around the world. Mr. Espinosa serves on numerous nonprofit, business, and industry association boards, and holds degrees from Wesleyan University (where he is on the board of trustees) and Harvard University.
Marina Hsieh
Assistant Dean, Academic and Professional Development and Senior Fellow, Santa Clara Law
Marina Hsieh has directed the APD Department since its creation in 2005. She co-plans Orientation, teaches Skills Workshops, provides individual counseling, and oversees Bar preparation services.
Prior to joining the Santa Clara law faculty, Hsieh taught at the law schools of the University of Maryland, U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Davis, USF, Columbia, and New York University. Before joining the world of academia, she was a civil rights lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. in New York City. Hsieh has also clerked for Hon. Louis Pollak, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Hon. John Paul Stevens, Supreme Court of the United States.
Dean Hsieh obtained a J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley and an A.B., Harvard University.
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Sarah Olivia Mercer ’11
Santa Clara Law
Sarah Olivia Mercer is a third year law student at Santa Clara. Prior to studying law, Ms. Mercer dedicated her career to public interest work. She engaged in public policy and advocacy as a legislative analyst and paralegal at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She then managed the Health Program at the Latino Issues Forum advocating for health care initiatives for Latinos and other people of color. She has advocated on women’s health and reproductive justice, language access, immigrants’ rights, and expanding health care to communities of color through legislative, budgetary and regulatory processes. She was also the project director for the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, where she coordinated over 40 organizations to advocate for communities of health as the national health care reform debate began and raised almost a half million dollars in grants to support the network’s mission.
Ms. Mercer recently completed a summer internship with the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center and interned last fall at the Office of County Counsel for Santa Clara County. She is Co-Chair of the Public Interest and Social Justice Coalition, a Law Student Coordinator for Public Interest Law Career Services, and on the board of the Pilipino American Law Society. In 2010, Ms. Mercer received the Herman Wildman Social Justice Writing Award for her article examining how language affects women’s ability to obtain reproductive healthcare. In 2010 Ms. Mercer also received the Social Justice Service Award for her significant contributions to the social justice and public interest community through work and volunteer efforts.
Joan Messing Graff
President, Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center
Joan Messing Graff is the President of the Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center (the Society), which was established in 1916 by the San Francisco Bar Association along with local immigrant services and religious leaders; today, it is the oldest legal services organization west of the Mississippi.
Ms. Graff was appointed Executive Director of the Society in 1981, the first woman in the organization’s history to be chosen for that position. In 2001, the Board of Directors changed her title to President in view of the fact that the organization had grown to the point that it required a more defined structure. During Ms. Graff’s tenure, the Society significantly expanded the organization’s docket of cases and projects.
Ms. Graff began her legal career working in the General Counsel’s office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., from 1968 to 1970. She then moved to San Francisco, where she joined Mary Dunlap, Wendy Williams, and Nancy Davis in launching Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), one of the very first nonprofit feminist law offices in the nation devoted to securing equality for women through the advancement and enforcement of law.
Ms. Graff received her J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1967 and her B.S. from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1964. She is a long-time board member and past board president of the Public Interest Clearinghouse. She also served a term on the board of the Bar Association of San Francisco, co-chairing its equality committee and a task force addressing part time and flex time work in the profession. In 2006, she was awarded the Loren Miller Legal Services Award by the State Bar of California, one of the state’s most prestigious legal services honors.
Paula Nailon
Assistant Dean for Professional Development, University of Arizona
Paula Nailon, J.D., is Assistant Dean for Professional Development at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law, in Tucson, Arizona. She is co-author of “Excellence in the Workplace: Legal and Life Skills in a Nutshell” (Thomson West), the “Government Honors & Internship Handbook” and “Public Policy Handbook” (both from University of Arizona), co-creator of the IMPACT Career Fair for Law Students and Recent Graduates with Disabilities, and teaches courses on professionalism in the workplace and judicial clerking. She has spoken at national conferences, CLE programs, and law firms about such topics as generational differences, social networking, emotional intelligence, public interest law, and professionalism and ethics. She currently serves on the State Bar of Arizona’s Mentoring Committee, Legal Services Committee, and Committee on Persons in the Legal Profession with Disabilities.
Donald J. Polden
Dean and Professor of Law, Santa Clara Law
Dean Polden is a well-known scholar in the areas of employment law and legal education. He has practiced law, principally in the areas of federal antitrust law and employment law, in the federal and state courts. Dean Polden has participated in antitrust cases in the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court, and has argued cases involving claims of price-fixing, monopolization, and attempts to monopolize before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. He is co-author (with U.S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett) of Employment Relationships: Law and Practice, published by Aspen Publishing Company. He also is the author of several law review articles on topics of federal antitrust and securities law and legal education. His 1989 article on standing to sue in private antitrust litigation was cited by the United States Supreme Court.
Previous to being appointed Dean in 2003, Polden served as Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Memphis (1993-2003) where he taught courses in corporate law, antitrust law, federal securities regulation and employment law. In addition, he served as Associate Dean (1991-1993) and Professor of Law (1976-1993) at Drake University School of Law.
At Santa Clara Law, Dean Polden has been instrumental in developing the curriculum for leadership education, a movement that is growing in significance in American legal education. He also serves as chair of the American Bar Association’s Standards Review Committee that is charged with revising the accreditation policies for American legal education. Areas of specialization include: Corporations Law, Employment Law, Antitrust Law, and Securities Regulation. Courses taught include Advanced Corporations, Corporate Governance Seminar and Law of Nonprofit Organizations.
Jennifer L. Tse
Attorney Fellow, Immigrant Justice Project, Southern Poverty Law Center
Atlanta, GA
Since 2009, Ms. Tse has worked at the Atlanta-based Immigrant Justice Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a civil rights and immigrant justice attorney. The Immigrant Justice Project of SPLC services nine states of the south on issues surrounding civil rights, labor and employment rights, worker exploitation, labor trafficking, and other human rights violations.
Prior to joining SPLC, Ms. Tse previously served as a law clerk at the U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review at the San Francisco Immigration Court, interned at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in its Anti-Trafficking Initiative in New York City, represented an asylum-seeking client as a law student at the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center, and served as a refugee caseworker for Amnesty International in Sydney, Australia. In law school, Ms. Tse served on the Executive Board of the Santa Clara Law Review as Senior Comments Editor and she was the co-president of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. Prior to law school, she trained for two years to be a feature literary agent in Beverly Hills, CA. Ms. Tse is a 2008 graduate of Santa Clara University School of Law and she received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Thank you to the Santa Clara Law Alumni whose featured images and life’s work represent generations of public interest and social justice leaders.
Asa Pittman ’09
Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
Asa Pittman is a 2009 graduate of Santa Clara Law. During law school, Ms. Pittman was an active participant in the Real Estate Law Society and was vice president of the Black Law Students Association. She was also a law clerk for PG&E and the cities of Santa Clara and Milpitas. Ms. Pittman is committed to public interest and social justice and currently works as an investigator at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley where she advocates for the civil rights of Santa Clara County Jail inmates, monitors property owners for housing law compliance and supports the development of inclusionary housing through litigation and policy work.
David Tsai ’06
Perkins Coie
David J. Tsai is an associate in Perkin Coie’s Litigation practice and focuses on trade secret and patent litigation involving the Internet, software, semiconductors, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), pharmaceuticals, biotechnologies, and medical devices. Mr. Tsai was named 2010 Barrister of the Year by the Santa Clara County Bar Association and a “Rising Star” in intellectual property litigation by Super Lawyers magazine in 2009 and 2010.
In addition to his busy intellectual property practice, Mr. Tsai is committed to serving pro bono clients. He has successfully represented pro bono clients at settlement conferences through the Northern District Court Assisted Settlement Conference Program. He has worked on civil rights and immigration pro bono matters with the Asian Law Caucus, API Legal Outreach, and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, including successfully representing an HIV+ transgender Mexican client in immigration court. He has also represented amici before the California Supreme Court in support of the petitioners against Proposition 8.
Mr. Tsai co-chairs Bay Area Lawyers For Individual Freedom (BALIF), the nation’s oldest and largest LGBT bar organization, and is the recipient of the Minority Bar Coalition’s Rising Star Award and the ABA Section of Litigation’s Outstanding Subcommittee Chair Award.
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Edison A. Jensen ’89
Law Office of Edison A. Jensen
Edison A. Jensen is a civil litigator with a particular interest in healthcare law as it affects the Latino/Farm worker population. He recently resigned as Chairman of the Board of Salud Para la Gente, Inc. (www.splg.org) a federally qualified health center after serving in that capacity for 14 years. In addition, he was recently appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dominican Hospital (Catholic Healthcare West) (www.dominicanhospital.org). Mr. Jensen was the founding Chairman of the Pajaro Valley Health Trust which is a conversion foundation serving the needs of the poor in the Pajaro Valley. Mr. Jensen is the recipient of numerous awards for his pro bono work with the farm worker community. While a student at SCU Law he served as President of La Raza Law Students Association. He is currently President of La Raza Lawyers of Santa Cruz County. Mr. Jensen is a 2010 recipient of Santa Clara Law’s Social Justice Service Award. Learn more about Edison Jensen.
Mary B. Emery ’63
Santa Clara Law
Mary Emery is a prominent figure in the local law community, both on campus and in the public sector. She stays involved in the community through participation in many organizations and activities, including as a board member for many non-profit organizations, including the Legal Aid Society, a youth shelter, and the United Way. Since 1985, she has served as associate dean and director for library and administration. Prior to joining the Santa Clara Law faculty in 1963, she served as counsel with Chargin & Parker, a general practice firm in San Jose, for eight years. She has also served on the Santa Clara County Board of Parole Commissioners for six years and as foreman of the Santa Clara County Grand Jury. Emery graduated from Santa Clara Law in 1963 as part of the first law class that graduated women.
