Current Board Members

Co-Chair: Clare Kruger (3L)

Clare grew up in Berkeley, California and graduated from UCLA in 2009 with a degree in Political Science.  As an undergraduate at UCLA, Clare participated in Project BRITE (Bruins Reforming Incarceration Through Education), where she tutored young inmates at Juvenile Probation Camp Vernon Kilpatrick. Before coming to law school, Clare spent time working at a juvenile detention facility in Cusco, Peru, worked as a waitress in the Bay Area, and volunteered with young inmates in Oakland, leading creative writing workshops and preparing weekly publications that circulated throughout California juvenile halls. As a Public Interest Law Scholar and Fellow, Clare has spent her time at Georgetown deeply engrossed in the public interest and pro bono communities. During her 1L summer, Clare worked in the Juvenile Division of the San Francisco Public Defender and during her second year, she interned with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, in the Juvenile Services Program. During her 2L summer, she worked at the National Center for Youth Law, and will participate in the Juvenile Justice Clinic during her 3L year. Clare's passion for juvenile defense and her desire to affect systemic changes in juvenile justice brought her to Georgetown Law, and she is eager to continue fighting to reduce recidivism among young offenders. Clare is very excited to encourage students to do pro bono work during their time at the Law Center, and ultimately, hopes students will make this work an important component of their legal careers.

Co-Chair: Amanda Shelton (3L)

A native of Missouri, Amanda Shelton has participated in short-term service trips to New York, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and Alabama. Shelton served as the Spring Break and Special Trips Coordinator during the 2012-2013 school year, helping to organize opportunities for 34 students to provide over 1200 hours of legal-related service over spring break. She is thrilled to serve as Co-Chair of the Pro Bono Board this school year.

In 2009, Shelton was appointed by Governor Jay Nixon to the Missouri Community Service Commission, which promotes and recognizes service and volunteerism and administers AmeriCorps programs for the state of Missouri. As a commissioner, she served as Vice-Chair of the Legislative Education Committee, developing efforts to educate lawmakers about the importance of maintaining funding for national service opportunities. After interning with the Center for American Progress, Shelton worked briefly in government relations before coming to Georgetown. Shelton holds a BA in International Studies from the University of Missouri. 

Board Members

Jeffers Boggs (3L)

Jeffers Boggs is originally from South Carolina but has lived in the DC area for the last four years. Before attending Georgetown she worked in the development of foreign policy concerning the Middle East and she still holds a particular interest in international humanitarian rights though her current focus is in domestic criminal law. In addition to her involvement with the Pro Bono Board, Jeffers has been involved with the OPICS Fellows Program, Everybody Wins! Power Lunch, the Community Justice Project, and is a Senior Articles Editor for the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. She also worked with the New Orleans Public Defenders, the South Carolina Attorney General Office, and the Philadelphia Office of the District Attorney.

Lydia Chan (3L)

Lydia grew up in Long Island, New York. She studied English at Boston College, where she also minored in Faith, Peace and Justice Studies. While in undergrad, Lydia interned for the Honorable Adam Glassman, an administrative law judge in the Office of Child and Family Services in New York. She also interned at the Protection Project, a human rights research institute with a focus on human trafficking; the Protection Project is located in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, D.C. After college Lydia worked as a paralegal in the toxic tort practice of a Boston law firm. During that time she, with friends in New York, organized documentary viewings to educate colleagues and community members about child sex trafficking. In addition to the Pro Bono Board, Lydia is on the board of the Anti-trafficking committee at Georgetown Law, and is a member of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. Lydia spent her 1L summer working at Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, a mid-sized, regional law firm in Boston, MA, and will spend her 2L summer in the New York office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP.

Chayla Jackson (2L)

Chayla is a Maryland native and a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park. Before attending law school, she volunteered to coordinate a Saturday Freedom School Program for local 7th grade students and coordinated a weekly girls mentoring program in her hometown of Temple Hills, Maryland. She has interned for the National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc. conducting policy research on marijuana laws. She has participated in the spring break service trip to New Orleans and volunteered at the Orleans Public Defender. This summer she is working in the Youth Defender Clinic at East Bay Community Law Center. Chayla is a  Public Interest Law Scholar and is interested in criminal defense and criminal justice policy reform. In addition to serving on the Pro Bono Board, Chayla will serve as the Public Interest Specialist for Georgetown's Black Law Students Association, participate in Barrister's Council Alternative Dispute Resolution division, and will teach in the Street Law Clinic.

Richard Kelley (2E)

Originally, from a small town in California, Richard grew up seeing service as a mindset.  While at Harvard, he became heavily involved in the Phillips Brooks House Association, a student-led non-profit. While working with PBHA, Richard directed summer camps, founded an after school program, acted as a resource advocate for a homeless shelter, and worked with teen mentoring programs. He served as the organization's President in 2010. After graduating, Richard moved to South Africa and began work on the Mamelodi Initiative, starting with computer courses and sports programming and growing to include holiday and after-school programming. He continues his work with the organization as the Board's chair. Beyond the Pro Bono Board, Richard is involved in the East of the River Youth Court, serving as the organization's co-coordinator and is an OPICS Public Interest Fellow. Richard currently works at the School for Ethics and Global Leadership in Washington, D.C., a semester program for high-school juniors from across the United States.  

Michelle Nguyen (2L)

Michelle attended Brown University, earning her bachelors in International Development Studies. While studying abroad in Thailand, she was exposed to alternative education models including student-led education, community-based research, and service learning. She became passionate about these education models and the ways in which education and community service can promote social justice. After piloting her own alternative summer study program to expose undergraduates to social justice issues in America in 2011, Michelle moved back to her hometown of Miami, Florida. There, she served as an Americorps volunteer with City Year Miami's Young Heroes program, a community service and leadership program for middle school students. Through her work with education and community organizing, Michelle realized the importance of law in shaping American society. She has now joined Georgetown Law Center's community and is excited to begin supporting and increasing the public service opportunities available. Her favorite TV shows are Breaking Bad, Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, Doctor Who and admittedly, Revenge. Her favorite comic book series is Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

Devin Prater (3L)

Devin grew up in Virginia Beach, VA and completed her undergraduate studies at Howard University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. While at Howard, Devin worked with at-risk youth in Southeast DC through U.S Dream Academy, a diversion program designed to help young people circumvent the cradle to prison pipeline. She also mentored teenagers through JumpStart/AmeriCorps and coordinated campus-wide community service projects as the as the Community Service Chair of the Howard University Student Association (HUSA) and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

Since being at Georgetown, Devin has volunteered with the East of the River Youth Court and has interned with with the DC Public Defender Service, the Orleans Public Defenders, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Southeastern Virginia Capital Defender, and the Southern Center for Human Rights. Devin has a longstanding interest in criminal justice and is committed to using her legal training to invest in the most vulnerable segments of society after graduation.

Tara Straw (3E)

As a volunteer, Tara manages a low-income tax clinic in Washington, DC, through the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program. Every spring 100+ volunteers at the site provide free tax preparation for more than 1,300 families in the local area, helping residents claim $1.5 million in federal and state tax refunds. Tara also co-leads the training of approximately 300 new volunteers annually for the DC Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign, a network of VITA sites in the DC metro area. Tara represents her law school class as a member of the Student Bar Association and is a senior staff member of The Tax Lawyer, a law journal published by the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association.

Tara is a Senior Health Policy Analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where she focuses on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the expansion of health insurance among working families. Prior to joining the Center, she worked for more than a decade on health care issues for non-profits representing physicians, women and children. Every summer, Tara also volunteers at a professional tennis tournament run by and benefiting the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation. Tara received her master's in public policy from American University, where she also received her undergraduate degree.

Samantha Wiggins (2L)

Phil Young (3L)

Phil was born and raised in Rhode Island, where he divided his time between Boy Scouts and music. For his Eagle Scout project, he planned and executed a clothing drive that collected over 1,500 articles of business clothing for low income individuals returning to the workforce. As a music major at Brown University, Phil was an active violist in the Rhode Island area and also played several concerts with the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra. Following his time at Brown, Phil moved to New York City, where he worked for Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler in the Bloomberg administration. When he's not busy with law school, Phil enjoys running and skiing.