Staff
Jane Aiken, Dean of Clinical Education, Public Interest and Community Service and Co-Director of The Community Justice Project, joined the Georgetown faculty in the Fall 2007 after ten years at Washington University School of Law where she was the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law. She was a Root-Tilden Scholar and graduated from New York University School of Law. She received her LLM from Georgetown Law Center as a fellow in the Center for Applied Legal Studies.
She is well-known for her work in clinical legal education and evidence. Her work in clinics has involved a wide array of legal issues focusing on abuse of power. These cases included domestic violence against women and children, clemency and parole, police brutality, municipal violations involving resisting arrest , appeals of benefit denials, and habeas and Section 1983 complex litigation. Professor Aiken has taught evidence for 20 years. She is a member of the ABA Council on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. She is an American Bar Foundation Fellow and a member of the American Law Institute. She was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Tribhuvan Law Campus in Kathmandu, Nepal and continues her work there, particularly in the area of women’s rights. In 2000 and 2001, Professor Aiken was a Carnegie Scholar in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Her research and writing include many articles about character evidence, domestic violence, and clinical pedagogy.
Colleen F. Shanahan is Director of The Community Justice Project and a Visiting Associate Professor of Law. Her scholarly work includes the areas of clinical education, the intersection of civil and criminal law, and access to justice. She has been named a Bellow Scholar for her current research into access to justice and clinical legal representation. She received her law degree from Columbia and her undergraduate degree from Princeton. She previously taught as an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School and from 2010-2012 was a fellow in The Community Justice Project, where she received her LL.M from Georgetown Law Center. Professor Shanahan serves as a hearing officer in police misconduct cases for the District of Columbia Office of Police Complaints.
Prior to her arrival at the Law Center, Professor Shanahan was in private practice at Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC and Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin in Philadelphia. In private practice, Professor Shanahan litigated a wide variety of matters at the trial and appellate levels, including complex commercial disputes, criminal defense, professional malpractice and misconduct, and civil rights, and had an active pro bono practice that included post-conviction capital representation, criminal defense, asylum representation, landlord-tenant matters, and assistance to non-profit organizations. She was a law clerk for Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jane Roth and Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Michael Baylson.
Anna Carpenter is a second year clinical teaching fellow and supervising attorney at The Community Justice Project. She is also a Women's Law and Public Policy Fellow. Previously, Anna provided direct representation to low-income clients as an attorney with the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program where she worked in the HIV/AIDS Legal Services Project and Immigration Law Project. She helped low-income immigrant victims of violence obtain economic security and legal status in the United States and represented people living with HIV and AIDS in a range of civil law matters, including public benefits, landlord/tenant, estate planning and debt relief. In San Diego, Anna served as co-chair of the Women's Resource Fair, an event that provides legal, medical, and social services to hundreds of low-income and homeless women.
Anna received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. During law school, Anna participated in the Domestic Violence Clinic where she represented victims of violence in protection order cases. She interned with the Clark County Public Defender and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights.
Before becoming an attorney, Anna worked in public policy and public relations, primarily as a policy associate at Futures Without Violence, where she advocated for federal policies to prevent violence against women and children. Anna has also served as a press spokesperson for a domestic violence agency and as a fundraiser on a Congressional campaign.
Marisa González is a clinical teaching fellow and supervising attorney at The Community Justice Project. Prior to working at Georgetown, Marisa was a staff attorney at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children where she managed the California Habeas Project, a statewide collaborative effort to secure justice for incarcerated survivors of domestic violence. Marisa recruited, trained, and supported pro bono attorneys from law firms across California to represent incarcerated survivors with habeas petitions and parole hearings. Marisa also worked on legislative efforts to increase justice for survivors convicted of crimes related to their histories of being abused.
Marisa received her law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University. Before attending law school, Marisa worked as an AmeriCorps member at a San Francisco-based non-profit committed to partnering with public elementary and middle schools to achieve the schools’ education reform goals.
Lisa Pollan is the program coordinator at The Community Justice Project. Lisa previously served as a Site Coordinator at LIFT-DC, where she trained college student volunteers to work one-on-one with low-income community members in the areas of employment, housing, and public benefits. In addition to supervising students, Lisa created partnerships with community organizations, evaluated LIFT-DC's impact, and strategized to improve program delivery and quality. Throughout college, Lisa volunteered as an advocate in the local LIFT office in Somerville, Massachusetts. As a Student Advocate, she met with clients on a weekly basis to help them achieve economic security and learned how to provide high quality service to clients with complex needs. Lisa now sits on the Alumni Host Committee for LIFT-DC's annual benefit. Lisa graduated with a Bachelors of Arts from Tufts University, where she studied Community Health and Spanish.
