California Civil Rights Coalition

The Equal Justice Society is delighted to announce that Estela Lopez Gilliam will serve as Coalitions Manager for the Good Ally Collaborative and the California Civil Rights Coalition.

As Coalitions Manager, Ms. Lopez Gilliam will be responsible for facilitating the 600-member Good Ally Collaborative and developing the Collaborative’s leadership and coalition planning. The position will also assist EJS in realigning and reactivating the California Civil Rights Coalition.

The Good Ally Collaborative is a network of attorneys and activists that grew out of the January 2017 “How to Be a Good Ally Strategic Engagement Conference” organized by Kelly Dermody, Yolanda Jackson, and others in San Francisco. The conference brought together more than 1,000 participants in response to the climate of rising hate, intimidation, and discrimination.

Founded in 1985, the California Civil Rights Coalition is a statewide community of civil rights organizations, activists, educators, lawyers, and advocates representing a wide range of issues and working as one to create a just and healthy society.

Estela has worked with civil rights organizations serving low-income communities, immigrants and refugees and marginalized communities for over twenty years. Most recently she has been working as a Staff Attorney with the Unified Family Court at the San Francisco Superior Court.

She has also served as the Associate Director of California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, as a Staff Attorney with the San Francisco Superior Court Family Law Self-Help Center, where she assisted self-represented individuals access the court and supervised the Self-Help Center’s volunteer program and with the Public Defenders’ Office in Santa Clara County.

Estela received double degrees in Chicano Studies and Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and her law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law. After graduating from law school, Estela was named the Earl Johnson Community Lawyer Fellow, an honor given to one graduating law student in the state of California pursuing a career in public law. During her fellowship, she worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area representing immigrant clients impacted by the 1996 Welfare Reform Law.

EJS expresses our deep appreciation to the Rosenberg Foundation (rosenbergfound.org) for providing us with a grant to support the coalition management of the Good Ally Collaborative.

We would also like to thank the following Good Ally Collaborative members for serving on an ad hoc advisory committee that provided feedback on the consultant selection: Angelica Jongco, Jody Nunez, Kelly Dermody, and Leslie Cunningham.

For more information on the Good Ally Collaborative, visit http://goodally.us.