LIFT STAFF
Melissa M. Beck, Esq., Chief Executive Officer, joined LIFT in 2003. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Beck served in leadership roles at CASES (the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services) and the Vera Institute of Justice. Prior to entering the non-profit field, Ms. Beck practiced law for nearly a decade as a criminal defense attorney and as an Assistant District Attorney in the Appeals and Sex Crimes Bureaus of the Kings County District Attorney's Office. Ms. Beck is the author of numerous articles on non-profit administration, programming, and legal issues. She received her B.A. from Hampshire College, and her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Angel L. Agesta, Program Associate, joined LIFT in February 2009 as a volunteer and became a part-time employee in August 2009. Prior to joining LIFT, Mr. Agesta was a Formatter for an IT staffing agency, where he reviewed client contracts. Before that he was a Recreation Assistant in the dementia ward of an Assisted Living Facility. Mr. Agesta received his B.A., cum laude, in Philosophy from the City College of New York and J.D. from New York Law School.
Sandra Cabrera, Program Associate, joined LIFT in August 2009. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Cabrera was a Case Manager at Inwood House Teen Family Services in the Bronx, where she provided a comprehensive array of services to pregnant and parenting teens. Ms. Cabrera received her B.A. in Deviant Behavior and Social Control and M.A. in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Juliane Corman, Development & Communications Associate, joined LIFT in January 2010. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Corman worked as a Policy and Communications Associate at the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation. Before that, she was a Children’s Rights Intern at Human Rights Watch. Ms. Corman received her B.A. in Political Science and Human Rights, cum laude, from Barnard College – Columbia University.
Graig Craver, Esq., Senior Site Coordinator – Brooklyn Family Court, joined LIFT in June 2008 as a volunteer and became a full-time employee in August 2009. Prior to joining LIFT, Mr. Craver was a Court Assistant in Orange County (NY) Family Court, where he assisted litigants filing paperwork in person and over the phone, as well as reviewed and gave court dates to petitions, motions and Order’s to Show Cause. Mr. Craver received his B.A., cum laude, from SUNY New Paltz and his J.D. from New York Law School.
Ferdous Dualeh, Program Associate, joined LIFT in September 2008. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Dualeh was a counselor and employment coordinator for the Mental Health Association of New York City where she provided counseling, advocacy, and job placements to a diverse population with various psychiatric disabilities. Ms. Dualeh received a B.A. in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Joy Fasanya, Esq., Site Coordinator – Manhattan Family Court, joined LIFT in August 2010. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Fasanya was an Associate at a small civil litigation firm and served as a Volunteer Attorney with the Urban Justice Center’s Domestic Violence Project. She interned with the New York State Division of Human Rights and was a member of New York Law School’s Urban Law Clinic. Ms. Fasanya also worked as a Paralegal with New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services. She received her B.A. from Lehigh University and her J.D. from New York Law School.
Jameelah J. Hayes, Esq., Legal Director, joined LIFT in February 2011. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Hayes served as the Court Attorney to the Honorable Jeanette Ruiz, New York City Family Court – Bronx County. Before that, Ms. Hayes was an attorney for children with the Legal Aid Society – Juvenile Rights Practice in Brooklyn, NY. Ms. Hayes also served as an Equal Justice Fellow and Charles H. Revson Public Interest Fellow with the Legal Aid Society and Children’s Rights. Ms. Hayes received her B.S. from Spelman College, J.D. from Touro Law Center, and M.S. from New York University – Heyman Center.
Melanie F. Hart, Esq., Chief Program Officer, joined LIFT in February 2010. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Hart served as the Chief Operating Officer at Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy, Inc. Before that she was the Director of New Initiatives at KIPP NYC. Ms. Hart has also served as a Program Officer at the Victoria Foundation, a Policy Analyst/Project Manager at the New York State Urban Development Corporation, and an adjunct professor at Rutgers University. Ms. Hart also practiced law as a transactional attorney at Streich Lang, PA, and Steptoe & Johnson, LLP, and served as in-house counsel at Avnet, Inc. She received her B.S. from Cornell University, her M.S. from the Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School for Social Research, and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Radia Husain, Program Associate – Queens Family Court, joined LIFT in January 2010. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Husain was a legal intern at The Legal Aid Society in Queens, the Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation, and the Legal Aid Bureau in Baltimore, MD. Ms. Husain has dual B.A. degrees in Political Science and Law, Criminology, and Society from University of California, Irvine, and is currently pursuing her law degree.
Kyle H. Marquis Ishmael, Esq., Legal Program Associate – Bronx Family Court, joined LIFT in October 2011. Prior to joining LIFT, Mr. Ishmael served as the Judicial Law Clerk to Administrative Law Judge Ziedah F. Giovanni, New York State Department of State, where he developed policies to increase access to justice for a diverse and under-represented population. Mr. Ishmael received his B.S. from St. John's University and his J.D. from Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
Liv Johanson, Director of External Affairs, joined LIFT in April 2008. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Johanson worked as a paralegal in the law firm of Abraham, Fruchter & Twersky. Before that, she was as an English teacher for university students in Shandong, China. Ms. Johanson received her B.A. in Government from Skidmore College.
Vallery Lomas, Esq., Legal Program Associate – Brooklyn Family Court, joined LIFT in October 2011. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Lomas served as an attorney with New York County Defender Services assisting in the representation of indigent criminal defendants. Before that, she was a summer associate at Nixon Peabody LLP in Los Angeles, and an intern with Juvenile Regional Services in New Orleans. Ms. Lomas received her B.A., cum laude, in Psychology from the University of Southern California and her J.D. from the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law.
Caitlin Prior, Site Coordinator – Queens Family Court, joined LIFT in October 2011. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Prior was a legal intern at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and The Door. Before that, she was an Employment Advocate at the HEBCAC Youth Opportunity Center in Baltimore, MD. Ms. Prior received her B.A. in Political Science from The Johns Hopkins University and her J.D., cum laude, from New York Law School.
Michelle Rodriguez, Office Manager, joined LIFT in September 2009. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Rodriguez interned at Dewitt Head Start as a Class Aid. Prior to that, she interned at Fort Washington Houses and University Settlement. Ms. Rodriquez received her Associate’s degree in Human Services and her B.P.S in Human Services in Education from Metropolitan College of New York.
Nadia R. Rollins, Esq., Family Legal Center Coordinator, joined LIFT in September 2010. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Rollins was law clerk to the Honorable Roberto Alcazar, J.S.C., in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Union County, Chancery Division – Family Part. She also served as a summer Equal Justice Works Fellow at Farmworker Legal Services of New York, as a summer legal associate at UBS Financial Services, Inc., and as a student attorney at her law school’s Constitutional Litigation Clinic where she was a Kinoy-Stavis Public Interest Fellow. Ms. Rollins received a dual B.A. in Political Science and History of Art and Architecture from Brown University and received a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law – Newark.
Richard Salatiello, Grant Writer, joined LIFT in April 2011. Prior to joining LIFT, Mr. Salatiello was the Director of Institutional Giving at the Innocence Project, where he secured major private support for the organization’s work to exonerate wrongfully convicted prisoners through DNA testing. Before that, he organized professional development programs for two associations in Washington, DC. At CASE: Council for Advancement and Support of Education, Mr. Salatiello managed conferences and online seminars for fundraising professionals. At the Council on Foundations, he coordinated conferences for grant makers. Mr. Salatiello was also a grant writer at the Vantage Consulting Group. He earned his B.A. and M.B.A. from Rutgers University.
Shamika Vargas, LMSW, Women’s Program Coordinator, joined LIFT in October 2011. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Vargas was a Social Work Supervisor at the Jewish Childcare Association within the organization’s Family Foster Care Unit. She has also provided in-home clinical counseling and case management services as an Aftercare Social Worker. Ms. Vargas has worked with children, adolescents, adults, and families through jobs and internships with the Center for Court Innovation (Youth Justice Board), the Bronx Defenders (Criminal Defense Division), Poughkeepsie Middle School, and Dutchess County Healthy Families. Ms. Vargas received her B.S.W. from Marist College and her M.S.W from Columbia University.
Mirenda Watkins, Esq., Hotline Program Coordinator, joined LIFT in June 2010. Prior to joining LIFT, Ms. Watkins was a staff attorney at the Bronx Defenders within the organization’s Family Defense Practice. She has also held internships with the Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General, the Supreme Court of Justice in Costa Rica, and the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas-Family Court Division. Ms. Watkins received her B.A. in History from University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
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