Staff
Public Health Law & Policy is staffed by a team of attorneys and other professionals skilled in a wide range of focus areas.
Marice Ashe, JD, MPH
Director
 As founder and director of Public Health Law & Policy (PHLP), Marice
Ashe manages long-term strategic planning for all of its projects and
guides their day-to-day activities. She has been with the Public Health
Institute for nearly 15 years, establishing and directing pioneering
efforts that leverage legal and policy tools to promote public health.
She teaches public health law at the University of California at
Berkeley School of Public Health, and serves on the board of the
California Center for Public Health Advocacy. She has also worked with
the UC Office of the President and the Contra Costa County Health
Services Department, and as a consultant with numerous private
philanthropies and state and federal health agencies. She is a graduate
of the University of Notre Dame, the UC Berkeley School of Public
Health, and the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Mary Dalsin, MS
Program Administrator, Public Health Trust
 Mary Dalsin is the program administrator for the Public Health Trust. Prior to this role, she lived in Russia and Uzbekistan for several years, working on environmental and health issues with nongovernmental organizations and activists. She also worked in Kazakhstan with a research team from the University of California at Davis, looking at agricultural development after privatization in the Central Asian countries of the former Soviet Union. She is a graduate of the University of the Pacific and UC Davis.
Andrea Craig Dodge, MPH, MSW
Project Director, Buck Tobacco Sponsorship Project
 Since 2002, Andrea Craig Dodge has directed tobacco control programs
aimed at restricting tobacco sponsorship at rodeos and related events,
including the National Tobacco-Free Rodeo Project and the California
Statewide Buck Tobacco Sponsorship Project. For the past 19 years, her
work has involved a variety of public health issues including mental
health, partner abuse, youth violence, and alcohol-related injuries. She
is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and its
Schools of Public Health and Social Welfare.
Brenda Jackson Drake, JD
Program Director, Public Health Trust
 As director of the Public Health Trust, Brenda Jackson Drake oversees the distribution of funds generated in litigation about public health issues, ensuring that the funds are used in accordance with a settlement agreement. She practiced corporate law for 16 years before becoming a foundation executive with the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund, where she developed and implemented grantmaking programs in population, reproductive health and rights, services for the elderly, low-income community organizing activities, and social justice for incarcerated men, women, and youth. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Kathryn Saenz Duke, JD, MPH
Program Director, Medicine for People in Need
 Kathryn Saenz Duke is the program director of Medicine for People in Need, which works to develop pharmaceutical access and management for health care organizations serving uninsured and underinsured patients. Prior to helping launch this program, she served as senior staff consultant for health policy at the California Senate Office of Research, as staff to the Senate Select Committee on AIDS, as a research faculty member of the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine's Institute for Health Policy Studies, and as manager of scientific affairs at the California Medical Association. She graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas at Austin, and is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Samantha Graff, JD
Senior Staff Attorney
 Samantha Graff is a staff attorney focusing on legal research issues relating to childhood obesity and tobacco control. Prior to joining PHLP, she worked as a fellow with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; an associate at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati; a federal law clerk for Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the Northern District of California; and a case writer for Harvard Business School. She is a graduate of Harvard University (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and Yale Law School.
Adam Grauer
Operations & Finance Manager
 Adam Grauer oversees PHLP's finances and administrative operations. Prior to joining PHLP, he worked as a community organizer and program coordinator for a variety of nonprofit projects, including a public health campaign in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University.
Manel Kappagoda, JD, MPH
Deputy Director, National Policy & Legal
Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity
 Manel Kappagoda is the deputy director of PHLP's work on obesity prevention. Prior to joining PHLP, she worked at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), where she served first as a staff attorney in the health law practice and later as director of administration and policy. While at EBCLC she provided legal services to low-income clients living HIV/AIDS in the areas of housing, access to health insurance, disability benefits and estate planning, and she founded AIDS Lanka, a multidisciplinary project that effectively advocated for increased access to HIV medications in Sri Lanka. She also conducted program planning for EBCLC's successful medical-legal partnership with Children's Hospital Oakland. In addition, she has worked with the UC Office of the President and the San Francisco Department of Public Health. She graduated with high honors from UC Davis, and received her law degree from the UC Hastings College of the Law and her master's in public health from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
Randolph "Randy" Kline, JD
Senior Staff Attorney
 Randy Kline is a staff attorney specializing in product regulation, land use/zoning, enforcement, and First Amendment and marketing issues around public health. Prior to joining PHLP, Randy practiced litigation as an associate at Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro in the life sciences and technology group, and was a legal research attorney for the Honorable David A. Garcia in San Francisco's Law & Motion Department. He graduated with high honors from UC Berkeley and is a graduate of the UC Hastings College of the Law.
Elisa Laird, JD
Staff Attorney, Technical Assistance Legal Center
 Elisa Laird is a staff attorney specializing in legal issues involving
exposure to secondhand smoke. Prior to joining PHLP, Elisa was an
associate at Schneider & Wallace, where she litigated class actions on
behalf of plaintiffs in the areas of disability rights and employment
law. She has also served as deaf services coordinator and sign language
interpreter at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Elisa is
a graduate of East Carolina University and Golden Gate University School
of Law.
Hannah Burton Laurison, MA
Senior Associate — Economic Development, Planning for Health Places
 Hannah Burton Laurison is a policy analyst with PHLP's Planning for Healthy Places project, where she specializes in community and economic development. Prior to joining PHLP, she staffed an $80 million public-private initiative that worked to develop new grocery stores in Pennsylvania's low-income communities. She has also served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, coordinated a hunger relief program, and organized community gardens in low-income communities. She is the author of Stimulating Supermarket Development; a contributor to The Price Is Wrong: Getting the Market Right for Working Families in Philadelphia, published by the Brookings Institution; and a co-author of What's Cooking in Your Food System: A Guide to Community Food Assessment. She is a graduate of Brown University (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and Tufts University's Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning.
Naika McDonald, MPA/HSA
Contracts Administrator
 Naika McDonald is PHLP's contracts administrator. Prior to joining PHLP, she worked in public health and behavioral health care services at the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and received a master's of public administration from the University of San Francisco.
Ian McLaughlin, JD
Staff Attorney, Technical Assistance Legal Center
 Ian is a staff attorney specializing in land use and zoning, tobacco retailer licensing, and code enforcement issues in public health. Prior to joining PHLP, he practiced municipal law with Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson. He has also served as legislative counsel to the Hawaii State Senate and the National Legislature of the Republic of Palau. Ian is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Robert S. Ogilvie, PhD
Program Director, Planning for Healthy Places
 Robert Ogilvie directs PHLP's Planning for Healthy Places program. Over the past 15 years he has worked extensively in community development and planning to help improve low- and middle-income neighborhoods. Prior to joining PHLP, he served as a faculty member in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley, as a consultant to city and county governments, nonprofit organizations, and neighborhood activists, and as Director of Volunteers at the Partnership for the Homeless in New York City. He is the author of Voluntarism, Community Life, and the American Ethic (Indiana University Press, 2004), an examination of why people volunteer and how local organizations create community. Robert holds a PhD in political science from Columbia University and is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of South Carolina.
Debora Pinkas, JD
Staff Attorney
 Debora Pinkas is a staff attorney currently focused on improving access to physical activity and nutritious foods/beverages in California public schools, and reducing or eliminating the advertising of nonnutritious foods and beverages on school campuses. Since her admission to the California Bar in 1986, she has worked almost exclusively in the not-for-profit sector, with a primary emphasis on the formation, negotiation, and implementation of contracts and related corporate transactions. She also has many years of experience providing legal technical assistance to a wide variety of clients, including community-based organizations and public/private collaborations in such areas as workforce development, sustainable agriculture, and more recently in public health. She is a graduate of Mills College and Golden Gate University School of Law.
Robin Salsburg, JD
Senior Staff Attorney, Technical Assistance Legal Center
 Robin Salsburg is a staff attorney specializing in current and emerging legal issues involving exposure to secondhand smoke. Prior to joining PHLP, Robin was an environmental law fellow with Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, where she represented community groups and government agencies in land use and environmental litigation. Robin also served as a legal research attorney in the Law and Motion Department of the San Francisco Superior Court. Robin is a graduate of Stanford University and graduated summa cum laude from Golden Gate University School of Law, where she received a certificate of distinction in public interest law.
Carrie Spector
Communications Director
 As PHLP's communications director, Carrie Spector oversees efforts to deliver and promote PHLP products and services to a wide variety of audiences. She has 15 years' experience in journalism and nonprofit communications, with an emphasis on health care issues. Prior to joining PHLP, she managed the communications department at a cancer advocacy organization. She has also worked on the editorial staff at a variety of national and regional magazines, including Health, California Lawyer, and Mother Jones. She graduated magna cum laude from Boston University's College of Communication.
Tashena Ward
Administrative Assistant
 Tashena Ward joined PHLP in September 2007 as an administrative assistant. Before joining PHLP, she served as operations director for Horizons Unlimited of San Francisco, a nonprofit youth development organization. Her areas of expertise are accounting, human resource operations, and office management.
Kim Arroyo Williamson
Program Assistant
 Kim Williamson is a program assistant at PHLP, where her work is focused on publications production as well as database and website development. Prior to this role, she managed the High Value Medications Project for Medicine for People in Need (Medpin), a program supporting pharmaceutical access and management for health care organizations serving uninsured and underinsured patients. She has also worked in free and community clinics. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz.
Heather Wooten, MCP
Associate — Planning & Policy, Planning for Healthy Places
 Heather Wooten is a planning and policy associate working on land use, economic development, and health. Prior to joining PHLP's Planning for Healthy Places team, she worked with the Oakland Mayor's Office of Sustainability to coauthor the Oakland Food System Assessment, a study focused on systems-oriented policy change to increase social, economic, and environmental sustainability. She has also worked with the Sierra Club North Star Chapter (Minnesota), where she developed A Citizen's Guide to Local Land Use Planning, and with the Institute for Urban and Regional Development at the University of California at Berkeley, where she researched sustainable urban-rural edge development patterns and policy. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and the University of California at Berkeley's Department of City and Regional Planning.
Leslie Zellers, JD
Legal Director, Technical Assistance Legal Center
 Leslie Zellers is the legal director of the Technical Assistance Legal Center (TALC), where she oversees all aspects of the program's work. Prior to joining PHLP, she conducted legal and policy work on tobacco prevention and childhood lead poisoning prevention for Contra Costa County and several nonprofit organizations. She has also practiced employment law. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and a graduate of the UC Hastings College of the Law.
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