Faculty and Staff

Charisma X. Howell, Visiting Associate Professor and Street Law Director

Professor Howell recently returned to Georgetown as a Visiting Associate Professor and Director of the Georgetown Street Law program. She has an extensive history with Street Law, serving as the clinical teaching fellow, adjunct professor, visiting professor, and clinic co-director over her first four-year tenure. She researched the areas of education policy, accountability, assessment, and best practices. During her time away from Street Law, Professor Howell was the deputy director and legal counsel of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council in the District of Columbia, Executive Office of the Mayor, where she collaborated with local juvenile and adult justice agencies to create policies at the intersections of justice and education to improve outcomes for justice-involved citizens. Professor Howell also served as legislative counsel and general counsel for an education advocacy organization that promoted access to high-quality education for all students.

Professor Howell has taught student-centered teaching methodologies domestically and internationally for over a decade at the graduate and undergraduate levels and diverse stakeholders, including legal professionals, laypeople, and policymakers.

Professor Howell started her advocacy career by amassing numerous academic and trial skills related awards. She participated in the Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy’s Trial Skills Academy. Although the only student among 75 trial attorneys, Mrs. Howell was named “Best Advocate.” She excelled in the courtroom and won a not guilty verdict in her first criminal jury trial with the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office. Professor Howell worked for the Honorable Judge John A. Houston of the United States District Court, Southern District of California. Also, she interned at the California Innocence Project, which seeks to release wrongfully convicted prisoners in California.

Professor Howell attended Arizona State University, achieving a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with an emphasis in Small Business and Entrepreneurship. She obtained her law degree from California Western School of Law in 2.5 years and her Master of Laws in Advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center.

Sara Wanous, Teaching Fellow

Sara Wanous (she/her) is a Street Law clinical teaching fellow. She earned her JD from American University Washington College of Law. Following law school, Sara completed two judicial clerkships. First, she was a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Rosalyn Tang at the Appellate Court of Maryland. Then, she was a judicial law clerk to the Honorable J. Michael Ryan at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

During law school, Sara interned for three different public defender offices on both the state and federal levels. Sara also spent her third year of law school in the Criminal Justice Clinic, preparing a motion for relief for her client under the Juvenile Restoration Act in Maryland. She served as a classroom fellow for the Legal Rhetoric Program and a teaching fellow in the Marshall Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. She was the Senior Note and Comment Editor for Volume 30 of the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy, and the Law.

Before law school, Sara taught third grade in Minnesota and worked in student development in higher education. She earned a BA in Elementary Education from Bethel University.

Myriam Allen, Teaching Fellow

Myriam Allen is a Supervising Attorney and Clinical Teaching Fellow in Georgetown’s Street Law Clinic. She holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she is also pursuing an LL.M. in Advocacy.

During law school, Myriam dedicated every opportunity she had to develop her passion for education and disability law even while becoming a mother of two children. She was a Law Clerk at the U.S. Department of Education in the Office of Civil Rights, the Children’s Law Center in the Healthy Together Program, and the Public Defenders Service of D.C. in the Special Education Division. Myriam also served as a Student Attorney in Georgetown’s Health Justice Alliance Clinic, where she successfully represented her clients in IEP meetings, coordinated essential testing, and provided counsel on public assistance programs. Most recently, Myriam served as a Fellow with the Urban Institute-Georgetown Law Project on Health Equity and the Law.

Before law school, Myriam served in the White House, U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate. She also taught elementary and early childhood education in the District of Columbia Public Schools. Myriam earned her B.A. in Political Science from Florida International University.

Rayna Zhou, Office Manager

Rayna serves as the Office Manager for three of Georgetown Law’s experiential programs. She manages the day-to-day operations of the Health Justice Alliance Clinic, the Racial Equity in Education Law and Policy Clinic and Georgetown’s DC Street Law Program. Previously, she worked on Georgetown’s main campus after graduating from the School of Foreign Service.