Mitch – President

Mitch is the clinical faculty leader of the Neighborhood Law Project at the UW-Law School. After graduating from law school a semester early in December 2003, Mitch immediately founded Community Justice Inc. His practice has focused primarily on housing and employment law, as well as Guardian ad litem work. As a clinical faculty member his pedagogical focus centers on creating a challenging but balanced experiential learning environment for students. Mitch is the 2009-2010 Chair of the State Bar’s Public Interest Law Section Board and past Chair of its CLE committee.

Lissa Koop

Lissa is an attorney in the Madison office of Perkins Coie LLP, where she focuses her practice on patent litigation and political law counseling. Lissa also devotes substantial time to pro bono matters, particularly in the areas of campaign finance reform and election law. Lissa has been a member of the Community Justice Inc. Board of Directors since June 2007 and has served as Secretary of the Board since February 2008 and has held various positions on the Board, including Secretary and member of the Personnel and Fundraising Committees.

Kate Scoptur

Kate Scoptur is the Director of Client Relations for Axley Brynelson, LLP. She oversees all client relations and marketing initiatives for the 50-plus attorney law firm in Madison, Wisconsin.

Kate’s responsibilities include strategic planning for the law firm, practice groups and individual attorneys’ client relations and marketing efforts, developing and implementing Axley Brynelson’s communications campaigns, planning special events, and providing business development training. She also manages Axley Brynelson’s Web site, and administers the firm’s social media and other web communications initiatives.

Kate graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications, and English. Kate also is the Secretary, Treasurer and Webmaster of Ad 2 Madison, and member of the Public Relations Society of America – Madison, Legal Marketing Association and Madison MAGNET.

David Sparer – Treasurer

David R. Sparer has been an attorney in private practice in Dane County since 1979. He is currently a partner with the law firm Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP.

He has focused his practice upon representation of tenants in all types of housing matters. This has ranged from eviction defense, to security deposit claims, to claims seeking damages from the landlord for retaliatory eviction, to personal injury claims by tenants. His representation has also included asserting fair housing claims, for those suffering housing discrimination. He has been a cooperating attorney with the local Fair Housing Councils since 1985. Since that time he has been one of the more active attorneys in the representation of complainants in housing discrimination cases in south central Wisconsin. He received an award for his work from the MEOC in 1993. He was recognized by the Dane County Fair Housing Council as the Cooperating Attorney of the Year in 1991.

He has argued tenant cases before various circuit courts throughout southern Wisconsin and the Courts of Appeals and the State Supreme Court, including the somewhat recent tenant victories in Baierl vs. McTaggart, and Dawson vs. Goldammer.

He serves on numerous Boards and committees related to housing issues, and has been a presenter and trainer in programs regarding Fair Housing claims and Landlord Tenant claims. These trainings have included such programs as Legal Education seminars for new cooperating attorneys with the local Fair Housing Council, and training of staff at Access to Independence and related agencies regarding the rights of the disabled under the various fair housing acts. He has also been a trainer for many years for the Volunteer Lawyers Project for attorneys taking housing cases through our local Legal Services office, Legal Action of Wisconsin. He has given presentations as part of several seminars at the annual convention of the State Bar of Wisconsin as well.

Over the last ten years he has expanded this area of practice to include representation of both commercial landlords and tenants in all types of matters related to commercial landlord tenant relations, including lease negotiation and litigation.

His areas of practice also include a significant focus upon work for cooperatives of all types, from housing coops to grocery coops to farmer coops; helping non-profit organizations, including obtaining tax exempt status. He has worked with housing cooperatives all over the country helping them obtain tax exempt status. He has for several years presented workshops at NASCO’s annual convention for cooperatives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, called the NASCO Institute.

In addition to these areas of practice he regularly represent buyers and sellers in residential real estate transactions. In relation to this subject area he has frquently represented property owners in litigation matters related to real estate transactions. (updated June 2008)

Dr. Whitney P. Witt

Dr. Whitney P. Witt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the School of Medicine and Public Health at University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Co-Director of BioPop: Integrative Biopsychosocial Research in Population Health. She holds a PhD in health services research and a MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a BA in women’s studies and law from Hampshire College. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the Pediatric Health Services Research Program at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children. Prior to her current position, Dr. Witt served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the Acting Director of the Section on Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Buehler Center on Aging.

Dr. Witt brings an interdisciplinary approach to studying the social, behavioral, and psychological factors that contribute to human development and disparities in family health and well-being across the lifespan. Her research addresses how familial relationships influence health behaviors, health and mental health status, and healthcare services use of individuals over time. Moreover, the goal of her research is to understand the physiological, behavioral, and social pathways by which health perceptions affect the health and healthcare use of family members and individuals living with illness.

She is currently exploring three primary lines of research: 1) the impact of childhood illness on the family; 2) maternal mental health and the impact on long-term health behaviors, health, and economic outcomes of mothers and children; 3) psychobiology of family caregiving across the lifespan. Dr. Witt is building a research program to examine mind-body interactions and how such interactions may help explain health disparities within and between families. Together, this information will help in constructing effective interventions for these families to improve patient health outcomes, reduce health inequalities, and address family burden.

Erika Monroe-Kane

Erika Monroe-Kane helps non-profit organizations be stronger and more relevant to their community. Using her expertise in branding, communications, public relations, development and community engagement, Erika enjoys working with non-profits to improve life for local residents.

Prior to establishing Firecracker Consulting, LLC, Erika worked for United Way of Dane County, the National Center for Media Engagement and the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Erika is a city girl who moved to Madison ten years ago from Chicago and proudly reps her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.

Erika is proud to serve on the Community Justice Inc Board and to help increase access to quality legal representation for low-income individuals and families seeking fairness and justice.

Dara Kobylarz

Dara Kobylarz is the Compliance Officer at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), which manages the assets of the Wisconsin Retirement System, the State Investment Fund, and other trust funds. She holds both a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  Prior to joining SWIB, Dara was a personal financial planner for six years at a small private firm in Madison.  Prior to that position, she practiced law at a small public interest law firm in Madison where she spent most of her time representing prisoners.  Dara previously served on CJI’s Board of Directors from 2006 to 2009 and is thrilled to once again offer her time and energy to the organization

Amber Swenor

Amber Swenor is originally from the small north-central Wisconsin town of Bowler where she grew up with all things rural and is a 2007 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Political Science Degree. Her background includes serving as the 2003 WI Fairest of the Fairs, as a WI State FFA Officer, volunteering in Turkmenistan and living for a year in Kenya, opportunities that afforded her early experience in communications and exposure to both local and a global community.  Professionally she’s worked as an Independent Travel Consultant, Marketing/Promotional Coordinator for Team Enterprises, Legacy Marketing Partners and Trilogy Marketing coordinating numerous campaigns to educate and connect consumers with products and for the past year and a half as a Digital Sales Specialist and Account Executive at WKOW Channel 27.  She enjoys singing and writing music, coordinating the Shawano County Fairest of the Fair Program and being involved in community initiatives.

Dan O’Callaghan

Dan O’Callaghan is an attorney with the Madison office of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP.  As a member of the firm’s Land & Resources team, Dan’s practice focuses in the areas of commercial real estate and real estate development.  He also advises municipal governments on various aspects of planning and zoning law and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.  Dan is an active member of the Dane County Bar Association’s Delivery of Legal Services Committee and believes strongly in its mission of ensuring that all members of our community, especially those with limited resources, have access to the legal system.