Digital Marketing Social Media Megaphone Concept

Our Voices

Bailey Henderson

Bailey Henderson joined NCLR as a legal assistant in June 2023. He is a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley where he earned a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and Global Studies. Prior to coming to NCLR, Bailey worked as a social work intern for the Federal Defenders Office for the Eastern District of California and spent his last year at UC Berkeley as the External Affairs Vice President of the university’s student government, advocating for students at the...

More

KJ Popkin

KJ Popkin has joined the NCLR litigation team as a Staff Attorney to challenge transgender medical bans across the country. Prior to joining NCLR, they worked as a civil rights litigator targeting the worst abuses of the criminal legal system and acted as appellate counsel in eight high-impact appeals in federal circuit courts. They filed and argued a case in the Third Circuit that reversed the dismissal of a case filed by a transgender woman who, despite having been beaten and raped at an...

More

Janine Grgurina

Janine joined NCLR as a legal assistant in April of 2023. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Legal Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz, where she also competed on the Division III diving team. Since graduating Janine has worked on a ballot measure campaign in San Francisco and a voter registration campaign in Michigan, and more recently she worked as a counselor at a non-profit organization. Janine lives in San Francisco with her housemate and their two cats, Mia...

More

Rachel H. Berg, Esq.

Rachel Berg works on NCLR’s nationwide impact litigation. She litigates the full range of NCLR’s civil practice. Before joining NCLR, Rachel spent her career in private practice at large law firms, where she focused on class action litigation. While there, she also developed a substantial pro bono practice related to various social justice issues. Rachel clerked for the Honorable Eli J. Richardson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee and the Honorable Alan C. Kay of...

More

Noemi Calonje

Noemi was born and raised in Managua, Nicaragua. At the age of 14, her family immigrated to the United States due to the unstable political climate in her country of origin. Her family applied for political asylum in 1982, and it was granted ten years later. After earning her B.A. in Spanish and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of California at Davis in 1991, Noemi worked as a counselor at FamiliesFirst, a non-profit organization serving troubled youth in the Bay Area.  In 1994...

More

Shannon Minter, Esq.

Over his more than 30 years at NCLR, Shannon Minter has led impact litigation, legislative, and public policy efforts. He has filed multiple lawsuits challenging a range of Trump administration anti-transgender executive orders. He is one of the nation’s foremost experts on conversion therapy, helping to draft and pass legislation in states to protect LGBTQ youth and support survivors. He served as lead counsel in the landmark California marriage equality case, and he led NCLR’s contributions...

More

Chris Stoll, Esq.

Christopher F. Stoll, formerly of the law firm Heller Ehrman LLP, joins the staff as senior staff attorney with a focus on litigation and policy work. Over the past five years, Chris has assisted NCLR as co-counsel on several major cases, including serving as a valuable member of NCLR’s “Marriage Team” of attorneys. He also assisted NCLR in representing Sharon Smith in the wrongful death case brought on behalf of her partner Diane Alexis Whipple. Chris attended Harvard Law School and lives in...

More

Amy Whelan, Esq.

Amy Whelan has been a Senior Staff Attorney at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR) since 2011 and works on NCLR’s full range of litigation, policy, and public education work. Amy litigates complex civil cases around the country regarding marriage equality, employment discrimination, Title IX, family law, access to healthcare, prisoners’ civil rights, the First Amendment, and other constitutional matters. Amy represented the mother of a transgender teenager who was subjected to severe...

More

Ming Wong, Esq.

Shin-Ming Wong graduated with a BA from Stanford University in 2003, where he majored in Philosophy. He was awarded his JD from U.C. Hastings in 2007, with a focus on Public Interest law. As an undergraduate he was active in student organizing around LGBTQ and people of color issues and was on staff at the Stanford LGBTQ Community Resources Center. While in law school he did clinical work at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies and volunteered at the General Assistance Advocacy Project....

More

TyrONE Hanley

TyrONE Hanley was born and raised with his two brothers by his Black lesbian mother in a low-income community in the ‘burbs of Chicago. She taught him how to be authentic, loving, curious, and non-judgmental. He brings his upbringing into his work by focusing on those most marginalized in the LGBTQ community. Prior to coming to NCLR, TyrONE worked as the HIV Prevention Manager at SMYAL, a DC-area LGBTQ youth organization. He has also previously served as the Gender Public Advocacy Center’s...

More