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.

Sara K. Beachy

Sara is an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Litigation Unit of the Wisconsin Department of Justice, focusing on constitutional law and eminent domain matters. Prior to joining the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Ms. Beachy was a member of the Litigation Practice Group and Construction and Transportation Focus Group at the law firm of Axley Brynelson, LLP. She is involved in several community causes and has been active in the American Mock Trial Association as a competitor, coach, and judge. She has been named an Up and Coming Lawyer by the Wisconsin Law Journal and a Rising Star by Wisconsin Super Lawyers magazine. Ms. Beachy has been a member of the Community Justice Inc. Board of Directors since 2008 and chair of the Fundraising Committee since 2009.

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.

Kay Zacharias – Secretary

Kay is a laboratory technician for Genencor, a Danisco Division, a food-grade enzyme production facility in Beloit.  She received her degree in Biology from the University of Mary in North Dakota.  Kay has been a member of the CJI Board of Directors since October 2010.  She is currently serving as the Secretary of the board.