Sara Nelson is the executive director and co-founder of the Romero
Institute and former national executive director and co-founder of the
Christic Institute.
A former TV reporter and news anchor, Sara
was educated at Cornell University and U.C. Berkeley. She served as the
National Labor Secretary for the National Organization for Women (NOW)
in Washington D.C. in the mid to late 1970s. Responding to the concerns
of NOW women, she assembled the Karen Silkwood Fund and launched the
national campaign to find out who killed Silkwood, a young union leader
working at a plutonium factory in Oklahoma who was run off the road
while delivering proof of irregularities and safety violations to a New
York Times reporter. The ensuing investigation and jury trial, on behalf
of Silkwood’s children, won a record-setting $10.5 million judgment,
and prevented the construction of new nuclear plants for more than 30
years.
Encouraged by their victory in the Silkwood case, Sara, lead counsel
Daniel Sheehan, and Father William Davis formed the Christic Institute
to combine their efforts as champions of social justice. At its height,
it became a national organization with 50 staff members in five offices
supporting hundreds of action teams. From 1980 to 1992, Christic
litigated several landmark cases, including:
Defending Catholic workers who provided sanctuary to Salvadoran refugees in the American Sanctuary Movement (U.S. v. Stacey Lynn Merkt, et al.)
Seeking
damages from the KKK and American Nazi Party members for the murder of
civil rights demonstrators in the Greensboro Massacre (Waller v. Butkovich)
Bringing charges against 29 people involved in the civil case associated with the Iran-Contra Affair (Avirgan v. Hull, et al)
In
1999, Sara served as the executive director of former Russian President
Mikhail Gorbachev’s & former United States Secretary of State James
Baker III’s State of the World Forum in San Francisco. The annual event
brought together 1,000 former world leaders to meet with dignitaries,
the world’s most prominent business executives, scientists and Nobel
Laureates, activists and national public interest organization chiefs,
religious leaders, and agency heads of the United Nations in an effort
to collectively discuss global problems and solutions.
Sara formed the Romero Institute in 1980 with Christic Institute co-founder Daniel Sheehan.
A law and policy center based in Santa Cruz, CA, the Institute exposes
and implements solutions to serious threats to the environment,
structural injustice, and human and constitutional rights violations.
Chief Counsel, President & Co-Founder
Daniel Sheehan
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Chief Counsel, President & Co-Founder
Daniel Sheehan
Daniel Sheehan is president and co-founder of the Romero Institute
and former president and co-founder of the Christic Institute.
Carrying
degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Danny has helped
lead multiple lawsuits of historic importance, including three Supreme
Court cases. Prior to forming the Christic Institute, he litigated a
number of high-profile social justice cases.
These included:
Defending First Amendment rights in the “Pentagon Papers Case” (New York Times Co. v. United States)
Defending reproductive freedom (Eisenstadt v. Baird)
Defending First Amendment rights of press protection (In re Pappas: Branzburg v. Hayes)
The Watergate burglary case (United States v. George Gordon Liddy, et al.)
Defending
the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs interpretation of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Act, and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, in
hiring and promotion practices (Morton v. Mancari)
Serving as amicus curiae in the eight-month long Wounded Knee Trials against American Indian Movement leaders
As
General Counsel to the United States Jesuit Order's National Office of
Social Ministry in Washington, D.C., Danny partnered with Father William
Davis, met leaders of the country's religious and progressive
movements, and developed a reputation as a fierce advocate for the
rights of political and peace activists.
In 1977, Danny was contacted by Sara Nelson,
the National Organization of Women’s (NOW) National Labor Secretary,
and partnering with her and a coalition of activists, won a
record-setting $10.5 million judgment on behalf of nuclear worker and
whistleblower Karen Silkwood. The case effectively ended construction of
all new nuclear power plants in the United States.
Following the success of the Silkwood case,
Danny, Sara, and Father Davis formed the Christic Institute. They
prevailed in several celebrated cases opposing the structural sources of
injustice in the United States and around the world, including:
Defending Catholic workers who provided sanctuary to Salvadoran refugees in the American Sanctuary Movement (U.S. v. Stacey Lynn Merkt, et al.)
Seeking
damages from the KKK and American Nazi Party members for the murder of
civil rights demonstrators in the Greensboro Massacre (Waller v. Butkovich)
Bringing charges against 29 people involved in the civil case associated with the Iran-Contra Affair (Avirgan v. Hull, et al)
Danny
formed the Romero Institute in 1992 with Christic Institute co-founder
Sara Nelson. A law and policy center based in Santa Cruz, CA, the
Institute exposes and implements solutions to serious threats to the
environment, structural injustice, and human and constitutional rights
violations.
Lakota Law Co-Director & Lead Counsel
Chase Iron Eyes, Esq.
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Lakota Law Co-Director & Lead Counsel
Chase Iron Eyes, Esq.
Chase's distinguished career fighting for the civil rights of Native Americans includes serving as co-director and lead counsel in the Dakotas for the Lakota People’s Law Project, co-founding the Native news website LastRealIndians.com, and work in the Native Lives Matter movement. In 2016, he was the Democratic congressional nominee for North Dakota.
From the beginning of the movement, Chase was involved on the front lines of the fight against the Dakota Access pipeline, hosting tribal leadership, providing legal services, and joining the water protectors in their prayerful and peaceful protest. Born on Standing Rock Nation, today Chase lives at Pine Ridge as an enrolled member of the Oglala Nation.
Chase holds bachelor's degrees in political science and American Indian studies from the University of North Dakota, and a Juris Doctor of Law degree with an emphasis in Federal Indian Law from the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law. He is the father of three Lakota children.
Program Director, Lakota People's Law Project
Daniel Paul Nelson
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Program Director, Lakota People's Law Project
Daniel Paul Nelson
Daniel oversees all Romero Institute
departments and helps decide strategic direction for the organization.
He has over 15 years of experience as a deputy director, organizer,
researcher, and writer. He holds a BA in Political Theory from Harvard
College and an MA in Social Science from the University of Chicago.
Program Director, Let's Green CA!
Benjamin Eichert
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Program Director, Let's Green CA!
Benjamin Eichert
Benjamin leads our Let's Green CA! initiative, which implements environmental and legislative solutions to help
California take its place as climate leader. He is passionate about social
justice organized, and co-founded Big Noise Films—with whom he directed
the award-winning documentary Zapatista. He has worked as an organizer
and contract negotiator with the New York State Nurses Association and
was the field director for US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's successful
reelection campaign in 2012. He studied political science at Brown
University.
Cheyenne River Organizer
Madonna Thunderhawk
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Cheyenne River Organizer
Madonna Thunderhawk
Madonna Thunder Hawk, a member of the Oohenumpa band of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, has a long history of grassroots activism prior to her formative work for LPLP as a Tribal Liaison. She is co-founder of Women of All Red Nations (WARN), as well as the Black Hills Alliance—which prevented corporate uranium mining in the Black Hills and proved the high level of radiation in Pine Ridge reservation's water supply.
She was a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and occupied Alcatraz and Wounded Knee in protest of the federal government's genocidal policies against Native Americans. She spent months camped in Standing Rock to oppose the Dakota Access pipeline and protect clean water and treaty rights. Her work with LPLP builds alliances and support for Indian child welfare among South Dakota's tribal leaders and communities. She is a grandmother to a generation of Native American activists.
Standing Rock Organizer
Phyllis Young
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Standing Rock Organizer
Phyllis Young
An enrolled member of the tribe, Phyllis Young leads our #GreenTheRez campaign to bring renewable energy to the people of Standing Rock. Serving as a tribal council member from 2012 to 2015, Phyllis was hired by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to address the NoDAPL struggle in the fall of 2015 and acted as an official “tribal liaison” to the Oceti Sakowin Camp. Her presence was felt daily by the tens of thousands who traveled to the resistance camps protesting the Dakota Access pipeline.
Phyllis is a long-time member of the American Indian Movement, and co-founded Women of All Red Nations with Madonna Thunder Hawk in 1978. She also served as a board member of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian for 15 years.
Senior Public Affairs Director
Heidi Harmon
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Senior Public Affairs Director
Heidi Harmon
Heidi is a social, environmental, and gender justice leader committed to creating an equitable and regenerative world. She has been a climate activist for two decades. As its mayor, she recently led the City of San Luis Obispo CA to one of the most ambitious carbon neutrality goal in the United States. The climate crisis has revealed that everything and everyone is interconnected and that the world thrives when people, planet, and prosperity for all is central. Heidi holds a degree in Liberal Studies from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Let's Green CA! Communications Director
Andra Belknap
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Let's Green CA! Communications Director
Andra Belknap
Andra directs the writing and PR/comms for the critical work of greening California. She began her career in political communications as a junior staffer on the 2008 Obama campaign. She has held communications positions in the U.S. House of Representatives and as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Andra served as communications director to Congresswoman Lauren Underwood. She holds a degree in political studies and Spanish language from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA.
Lakota Law Communications Director
Jesse Phelps
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Lakota Law Communications Director
Jesse Phelps
Jesse contributes written content
and guides our content strategy. An award-winning journalist, PR pro,
and business development specialist, he has decades of experience
writing, editing, and developing relationships between people and
organizations. He loves working with people of heart and intelligence on
meaningful projects. Jesse holds a BA in film from the University of
California, Santa Barbara.
Social Media Coordinator
Earth Hadjo
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Social Media Coordinator
Earth Hadjo
Earth Hadjo is an enrolled member of Yamassee Indian Tribe of Seminoles, serving as their Cultural and Government Liaison. She’s also a Software Engineer, DJ, and Indigenous Peoples Movement coalition member. Earth is embedded in the movement for Indigenous Sovereignty and Black Liberation, but more than that she wants to see all people be free from the systems of capitalism, exploitation, and colonization.
Senior Research Analyst
Jon Conway, Ph. D.
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Senior Research Analyst
Jon Conway, Ph. D.
Jon leads our research efforts, and
verifies the scientific validity of the issues we expose and the
solutions we support. He is an environmental scientist and educator with
experience in climatology, Earth science, botany, pedology, marine
biology, toxicology, and pollution studies. He earned a B.S. in Ecology
& Evolution from UC Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. in Environmental
Science & Management from the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara.
Special Projects Director in Strategic Partnerships and Donor Development
Lorrie King
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Special Projects Director in Strategic Partnerships and Donor Development
Lorrie King
For 25 years, Lorrie has traversed applied, academic, and philanthropic settings across the global nonprofit sector, concentrating her expertise in sustainable community development, social justice, and humanitarian response. Before joining the team at the Romero Institute, Lorrie’s career took her across 30 countries and 15 Native American/Indigenous nations, where she served with distinguished organizations such as CARE International, American Red Cross, and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).
Her formal education includes a bachelor’s degree from Oglethorpe University, post-graduate certificates from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Liverpool, with additional pursuit of Master of Indigenous Peoples Law studies at the University of Oklahoma. Her academic foray continues, as an Instructor in the Master of Development Practice and Global Health and Development PhD programs at Emory University.
In 2014, Lorrie was recognized as one of CNN’s Top 10 Inspiring Women, and she received a resolution of honor from the Georgia State House of Representatives for her commitment to gender justice and community service. In 2012, she received a Rotary International “Peace through Service” award from the Rotary Club of Stone Mountain, GA. She is an active volunteer with the Rothschild Social Justice Institute and the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. In her spare time, she is a voracious reader, loud laugher, and doer of New York Times crossword puzzles.
Development Associate
Anna Mason
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Development Associate
Anna Mason
Anna oversees fundraising efforts
and donor relations for the Institute. With a background in marketing,
sales, and entertainment, she is happy to now funnel her energy toward
the protection of our planet and the rights of its people. Anna holds a
BA in American Literature & Culture from the University of
California, Los Angeles.
Climate Action Organizer
Leslie Austin
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Climate Action Organizer
Leslie Austin
Making a difference in an interconnected world matters to Leslie. Leveraging her professional experience in publishing and marketing —coupled with her passions for collaboration and sustainability — Leslie works with public institutions, nonprofits, businesses, and communities to conceive and implement environmental initiatives. She aims to inspire equitable action while fostering the adoption of sustainability policies and practices that effectively address our most pressing environmental challenges.
Director of Special Projects for the Executive Director
Lanny Sinkin
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Director of Special Projects for the Executive Director
Lanny Sinkin
Lanny is providing our E.D. with policy and administrative support for all the Institute's projects. Lanny is a return staffer having previously worked with Daniel Sheehan and Sara Nelson at the Christic Institute, where he litigated a RICO suit against the main players in the Iran-Contra scandal. Lanny’s deep well of legal and leadership work spans many issues and communities including as E.D. of the Urban Coalition of Metropolitan San Antonio addressing excessive use of force by police; anti-nuclear power; and aquifer protection.
Lanny also served as E.D. of Solar San Antonio promoting the use of solar energy. While living in Hawaii, Lanny’s work was devoted to legal and community support to protect rights of Hawaiian sovereignty, a traditional faith, animal rights and challenging the U.S. Navy’s use of sonar. Lanny is the author of The Conscious Bible under the pen name Lanikukini'elele. https://theconsciousbible.net/. Lanny is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Texas School of Law. He received a Fulbright Scholarship.
Editor and Videographer
Chris Sherertz
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Editor and Videographer
Chris Sherertz
Chris edits our videos, manages our YouTube channels, contributes to graphic design, and helps lead our video and
audio production. He also runs a small music studio. He holds a BS in
astrophysics and a minor in electronic music from the University of
California, Santa Cruz
Digital Media
Chuck Banner
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Digital Media
Chuck Banner
Chuck leads the increasingly
important production of our video content. A producer, director,
cinematographer, editor, and livestreamer with over 30 years of
production experience in the industry, Chuck has done extensive work in
Indian Country, beginning with documenting AIM’s Yellow Thunder Camp in
the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1981. Since then, he has created a
number of films about Native American rights and the environment. His
latest “deployment” was to Standing Rock in November of 2016.
Archives and Facilities
Patrick Sheehan
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Archives and Facilities
Patrick Sheehan
Paddy oversees the Christic
Institute Archive and supports all the Romero projects with his
experience in security, equipment, shipping, the online store, and
maintenance. His work in social justice began in 1988 when he joined the
Christic Institute as a computer technician and security officer.
Administrative Assistant
Lesley-Reid Harrison
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Administrative Assistant
Lesley-Reid Harrison
Lesley-Reid, raised during apartheid era South Africa, has a lifelong commitment to social justice. After living undocumented in the U.S. for ten years and raising a family, they graduated Magna Cum Laude from UCSC in 2014 with BAs in Feminist Studies and Sociology. They are a founding member of Pajaro Valley Pride in Watsonville, CA. Lesley-Reid disrupts discrimination and advocates for intersectionality to ensure that folks who have historically been at the margins of queer movements are centered in our work and personal spaces. Lesley-Reid facilitates spaces for LGBTQ2+ folks of all ages and backgrounds to develop and share their stories, actively seeking ways to amplify the voices of marginalized communities. Their passion is shining a light and bringing change to the challenges BIPOC, transgender, and gender non-conforming members face, both within and beyond the Queer community.
Board of Directors
Dr. Paul Lee (Chair)
Daniel Sheehan
Sara Nelson
Daniel Paul Nelson
Chase Iron Eyes
Pearl Means
Markell Brooks
Wendy Grace
Eric Thiermann
Faye Crosby
Alliances
We work hand-in-hand with the interfaith community, social justice organizations, and environmental activist groups.