PRESIDENT

Christina Cheung is a partner with Allred, Maroko & Goldberg. Ms. Cheung graduated from Georgetown University where she received her Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. She later studied at the UCLA School of Law under Professor Vicki Schultz, a renowned scholar in employment discrimination and sexual harassment law. Ms. Cheung joined Allred, Maroko & Goldberg in September of 2011 and left in 2015 to work at the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section in Washington, D.C. Since returning to Allred, Maroko & Goldberg in January of 2016, Ms. Cheung, who is licensed to practice in California and New York, splits her time working between Allred, Maroko & Goldberg’s Los Angeles and New York offices. Her practice focuses on representing childhood victims of sexual assault as well as representing employees for harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination.

VICE PRESIDENT

Mr. Alexander is a partner at Alexander, Morrison + Fehr in Los Angeles. He prosecutes civil rights claims focusing on employment law in both State and Federal Court and has tried over forty cases to verdict. Mr. Alexander has won six- and seven-figure judgments for claims of discrimination, harassment and retaliation based on gender, race, age, sex, sexual orientation and disability. He has been consistently recognized as a Top 75 in California Labor and Employment Lawyers, Super Lawyers, ABOTA and Los Angeles’ Best Lawyers. He is a former Board member of the California Employment Lawyers Association, and served as CELA's chair from 2013-2015. Mr. Alexander holds degrees from Southwestern University School of Law and the University of California, Los Angeles, in English and Political Science.

TREASURER

Navruz Avloni is the founder of Avloni Law. She is a committed attorney and advocate who fights vigorously for the rights of workers. She brings her innovative problem-solving skills, work ethic, and strong ability to advocate to every matter she handles. She has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Northern California Rising Star, National Advocates: 40 Under 40 and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch. She has served on the California Employment Lawyers Association’s Diversity Committee since 2014, and is an active Advisor at Empower Work. Mrs. Avloni received a Juris Doctorate Degree from University of California, Davis School of Law (King Hall), and a Bachelors in Rhetoric, Peace-Conflict Studies and Political Economy from University of California, Berkeley.

Ms. Alvarenga Scalia is a civil rights attorney at Legal Aid at Work. She has dedicated her career to defending and promoting the rights of immigrant workers, language minorities, and others who face discrimination based on their national origin. Her work also includes community training and legislative advocacy to advance the rights of workers. Ms. Alvarenga Scalia first joined Legal Aid at Work as the Foundation for Advocacy, Inclusion and Resources (FAIR) Fellow and litigated national origin and disability cases. She continued her fellowship at Hennig Kramer Ruiz & Sigh, LLP. While there, she represented employees in disputes involving discrimination, failure to accommodate, harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour violations. Ms. Alvarenga Scalia received her B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her J.D., pro bono honors, from the University of California Irvine, School of Law.

Ms. Dai is a partner at Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP, a plaintiff-side law firm located in the Greater Los Angeles area, where she specializes in employment, wage and hour, and civil rights law, with a focus on class actions and complex litigation. She has fought to protect and vindicate the rights of individuals her entire career, in both state and federal court, and in all stages of litigation. For the years 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2023, Ms. Dai has been selected as Lawyer of the Year in Southern California by Best Lawyers for Litigation - Labor and Employment (Pasadena). In 2018, she was also selected as Lawyer of the Year in Southern California by Best Lawyers for Employment Law – Individuals (Pasadena). In addition, Ms. Dai has been named to the Top 50: 2023 Women Southern California Super Lawyers List. In 2022, she was again selected as one of the Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers and one of The National Trial Lawyer’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers. Ms. Dai has been named to the Southern California Super Lawyers® list as a Rising Star or Super Lawyer each year since 2005, and she has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America every year since 2012. Ms. Dai oversees the Employment Rights Clinic at Loyola Law School, a joint retaliation complaint investigation program with the State of California Labor Commissioner’s Office. She also serves on the Board of the California Employment Lawyers Association, as Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section, and on the Executive Advisory Council of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Southern California. Ms. Dai is a graduate of UC Berkeley, and she received her law degree from USC Gould School of Law in 1999.

Adrianne De Castro is a Senior Associate at https://desai-law.com/Desai Law Firm, P.C. in Orange County. She has devoted her legal career to advocating for workers and consumers. For the last two decades, she has built an expertise in litigating employment and consumer class actions on behalf of workers and consumers. Prior to joining the Desai Law Firm, P.C., Ms. De Castro was an associate at the law firm of Mower, Carreon, and Desai LLP where she litigated wage and hour and consumer class actions on behalf of restaurant workers, home health care workers, and California consumers. Ms. De Castro has also worked as an associate at the law firm of Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff, & Lowe LLP in San Francisco where she focused on individual employment discrimination cases and wage and hour class actions. Ms. De Castro began her career as the Ruth Chance Law Fellow at Equal Rights Advocates where she spent two years representing low-wage women workers in sexual harassment and discrimination cases. Ms. De Castro is also a devoted leader in the legal community with her work focused on ensuring diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, and organizing high quality continuing legal education. She is a Board member of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA), the premier organization in California of employee rights advocates, where she also serves on the Diversity Committee and Education Committee, which she chaired for two years. Ms. De Castro is also a Board Member of Legal Aid at Work where she dedicates her time and resources to raising funds for Legal Aid’s service to low-income workers in the Bay Area. She is also a member of the California Lawyers Association – Executive Committee, Labor & Employment Section where she works with plaintiff and defense-side members of the bar to provide professional services and education to California’s employment practitioners. Ms. De Castro has also been a long-time lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law where she has taught Employment Discrimination for several years. She is also an attorney volunteer at the Workers’ Rights Clinic at Legal Aid Society – Orange County. Ms. De Castro is a 2005 graduate of U.C. Berkeley School of Law, and a 2002 graduate of U.C.L.A.

David Duchrow has represented employees and unions for over 40 years. He served on the CELA Board from 2002–2013, including a term as Chair from 2007–2009 and Treasurer from 2009–2013. While Chair of CELA he and CELA Administrator Christina Krasomil created FAIR, and he served as its Chair from 2011–2013. As a member, and later Chair, of CELA’s Amicus Committee, he briefed and argued cases before the California Supreme Court for over 20 years, and oversaw other amicus activities for CELA. He was appointed to the State Bar of California Labor & Employment Law Section Executive Committee from 2002–2008. His practice includes individual and class actions and appeals in state and federal courts. He has been appointed as lead counsel in several wage and hour class actions. He is known for his expertise in public sector employment matters. He also serves as a mediator, and as an expert witness in employment matters. He is a frequent speaker and writer on various legal subjects. He has been selected as a California "SuperLawyer" in Plaintiff's Employment Litigation since 2007. His firm is Law Office of David J. Duchrow, in Los Angeles, California.

Hugo Gamez has been practicing law since 2011, primarily in the areas of employment Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation, individual Wage and Hour Disputes, Wage and Hour Class Actions, and PAGA representative actions. In July 2012, he worked as an associate for Shegerian & Associates, Inc., in Santa Monica California, where he focused his practice in employment law. In that capacity, he was the primary attorney for numerous individual Fair Employment and Housing Act matters. In October 2012, he became an associate at Orshansky and Yeremian, LLP., where he handled a great deal of employment class actions and individual discrimination claims. In 2014, he opened his solo practice and has litigated hundreds of cases of discrimination, sex assault and sexual harassment, wrongful termination, disability discrimination, failure to accommodations, leave law violations, retaliation/whistleblower, and wage and hour claims resulting in multi-millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts. For almost a decade, Hugo has been predominately serving the Latino immigrant community, secured a seven figure verdict in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2019, and has gone to trial in the USDC Central District of California. Hugo is a graduate of Valparaiso University School of Law and prior to that obtained a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and an M.A. in Education Policy from Columbia University in the City of New York. He is fully bilingual, bi-literate, and was born and raised in Guatemala until the age of 9 when he immigrated with his family to Inglewood California. He is passionate about providing a voice to disenfranchised immigrant workers and providing them an opportunity to be seen and heard through enforcement of their rights. He is grateful to serve his community and advocate for employee rights and equal justice.

Toni Jaramilla believes in creating positive social change through dedicated and compassionate advocacy for the rights of workers. Her firm is Toni Jaramilla, APLC in Los Angeles, California. Since 1994, she has been practicing exclusively employment law, and has litigated hundreds of cases of discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, and unpaid wages resulting in millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts. She has taken numerous cases to trial in both state and federal courts as well as in arbitration. She has successfully argued before the California Court of Appeals. Her employment law civil rights practice has expanded to 1983 Civil Rights litigation on behalf of victims of racial profiling, police excessive force and shootings. Ms. Jaramilla was selected to join the Executive Board of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) in 2000 and later served as CELA Chair. Under her leadership, she inspired ethnic and gender diversity initiatives, including forming CELA’s Diversity Outreach Committee in which she served as Chair, establishing an annual Diversity Luncheon and diversity speaker at CELA’s annual conferences, Diversity Leadership Summits and Employee Justice Fellowships. She served as President of FAIR from 2011-2013 and remains on its Executive Board. She also served as Chair of the California State Bar, Labor and Employment Law Section (2004-2005) after serving numerous years on its Executive Board. She served as President of the Philippine American Bar Association (1998) and is currently a lifetime member. ​She was inducted as a Fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers in 2021. She has been selected as a Top 75 Labor and Employment Lawyers, by the Los Angeles Daily Journal since 2017 to the present, and recognized as a Super Lawyer (since 2005 to present) and honored as the Distinguished Advocate of the Year by the Philippine American Bar Association (2021).

Felicia Medina is a civil rights and employment law litigator focused on individual and class action employment discrimination, equal pay, sexual harassment and wage and hour cases.  She has settled numerous gender and race equal pay class actions, obtained public apologies from institutions forced to remediate anti-Black cultures, and has set precedents in state and federal appellate courts.  Felicia started her legal career at Morrison Foerster LLP in 2006 and then joined a plaintiff side firm, where she became the Managing Partner of an office she opened in the Bay Area; thereby, becoming one of the few queer women of color in a leadership position at a national law firm.  She earned her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from USC and her JD from Yale Law School.  She is passionate about racial and gender equity work, mentorship, and leading with integrity.   Felicia is proud to be originally from Fresno, California in the Central Valley - the heart of the farmworker movement.

Afshin Mozaffari is the founder and principal of Mozaffari Law, a plaintiff-side employment law firm based in Santa Monica, California. Mr. Mozaffari’s practice focuses on employee rights litigation throughout California, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower and wrongful termination actions. Mr. Mozaffari is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. He has also received the prestigious “AV” Rating from Martindale Hubbell and been recognized as a Super Lawyer by the Super Lawyers Magazine every year from 2020 to 2024; The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Employment Law by U.S. News from 2022 to 2024; Top 40 Under 40 Attorneys in the area of employment law by the National Advocates from 2015 to 2020; and a Rising Star from 2015 to 2019. He is an active member of the California Employment Lawyers Association and the Labor & Employment Sections of the California State Bar and Los Angeles County Bar Association, and has served on multiple boards and committees. Mr. Mozaffari currently serves on CELA’s Legislative Committee and LACBA’s Labor & Employment Law Executive Committee, as well as the Saturday Seminar Committee. Mr. Mozaffari graduated magna cum laude from Whittier Law School, where he served as Articles Editor on the Whittier Law Review, as an extern to the Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew of the United States District Court and as a certified law clerk in the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

Andrea (Drea) Núñez is an attorney at Hunter Pyle Law, a workers' rights law firm in Oakland that represents clients in individual and class action cases in wage and hour, retaliation, discrimination, and other disputes. As the daughter of Nicaraguan immigrants, Drea appreciates both how lucky she has been and how easily someone’s life can change due to unlucky circumstances outside of their control. She believes the law is a tool to minimize the role of luck in people’s lives. Drea chose to pursue a career in workers’ rights to secure just outcomes for clients and create systemic change by holding employers accountable, curbing workplace exploitation, and empowering workers to advocate for themselves. Drea received her J.D. from U.C. Berkeley School of Law in 2020, where she served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, Co-Director of the Workers’ Rights Clinic, Co-Founder of Catholics at Berkeley Law, and Secretary of La Alianza (formerly La Raza Law Students Association). She also served clients in the Wage Justice Clinic and the Berkeley Immigration Group Detention Outreach Project. During law school, Drea externed for the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Administrative Law Judges; Legal Aid at Work; and a Bay Area workers’ rights law firm. She graduated with Pro Bono Honors with Highest Distinction and with a Public Interest and Social Justice Certificate. Prior to joining Hunter Pyle Law, Drea was a Law Fellow at the Impact Fund, where she worked on impact litigation, research, training, and amicus briefs in support of social justice.

Supreeta Sampath is passionate about cultivating the next generation of public interest attorneys and ensuring diversity and equity within the profession. For over two decades, Ms. Sampath has devoted her legal career to serving the needs of those who have been denied justice. In 2011, Ms. Sampath founded The Sampath Law Firm where she exclusively represents employees in employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation cases. She has been named a Rising Star and Southern and Northern California Super Lawyer in the field of Labor and Employment every year since 2011 to present. Ms. Sampath is a former board member of the California Employment Lawyers (CELA) Association and has been a member of CELA’s Diversity Outreach Committee for several years, including serving as former Co-Chair of the Committee. Ms. Sampath has also served on the board of the South Asian Bar Association's Public Interest Foundation in Southern California and is a board member of Legal Aid at Work, a San Francisco based nonprofit organization dedicated to representing low wage workers throughout California. Ms. Sampath is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and the University of California, Berkeley.

Mr. Schwartz is a civil rights attorney with his own firm, Bryan Schwartz Law, in Oakland, California. Mr. Schwartz's firm focuses on vindicating workers' rights in discrimination, whistleblower, wage and hour, and federal and public employee cases. Mr. Schwartz has helped tens of thousands of grateful clients get their careers back on track after employer wrongdoing derailed them, obtaining tens of millions in recovery for employees across the country in individual, collective, and class actions. A graduate of Berkeley Law, and of Cornell University, magna cum laude, Mr. Schwartz is a co-founder and past President of FAIR and a former member of the Executive Board of the California Employment Lawyers Association, whose members are more than 1300 employee-side advocates around the state. Mr. Schwartz, who is recognized annually by the Daily Journal, Super Lawyers, and other organizations as one of the top employment attorneys in California, is also the past Chair of the 7500-plus member Labor & Employment Section of the State Bar of California (now called the California Lawyers Association). He is a member of the Board of Directors of Legal Aid at Work and the Alameda Boys & Girls Club, among other organizations. Before founding his own firm in 2009, Mr. Schwartz led the San Francisco, California, office of Nichols Kaster, LLP. Previously, Mr. Schwartz practiced with the Washington, DC-based firm of Passman & Kaplan, PC, and clerked for the late Hon. Franklin Van Antwerpen, who served in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennyslvania and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT

Caity Moseman Wadler is a consultant offering strategy, management, and operations services in the food and nonprofit sectors. Caity was the Executive Director of Heritage Radio Network (HRN) from 2016-2023, where she oversaw 35 weekly podcasts and special programs on agriculture, beverages, dining, and culture; an educational arm that trained 117 interns and fellows for careers in food media and audio storytelling; and live events.

Caity holds an M.A. in Food Studies from New York University and a B.A. in Molecular Biology / Biochemistry from Middlebury College. Prior to her graduate studies, Caity worked in antibody engineering for Adimab, a New Hampshire-based biotech startup. She received the Julia Child Foundation Food Writing Fellowship at Heritage Radio Network in 2015 and was recognized as one of the New York City Food Policy Center's 40 Under 40 in 2018. She was inducted into Les Dames d'Escoffier in 2023. Caity currently serves as Treasurer on the National Board of Directors of Slow Food USA.