Mr. Faust is special counsel to the education law firm of Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams. He has represented public school entities throughout Pennsylvania in special education and civil rights litigation since 1986, appearing at every level of the state and federal judiciary and in hundreds of administrative due process proceedings. He has spoken widely on special education, student services, and civil rights to audiences of educators, attorneys, college students, and parents and has appeared as an expert witness on special education. Mr. Faust received his law degree from the Dickinson School of Law a very long time ago.

Kristina Moon (she/her) is a Senior Attorney in the Philadelphia office of the Education Law Center. She supports ELC’s litigation and policy advocacy across all issue areas. Kristina’s current and recent work includes ELC’s lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a more adequate and equitable school funding system and a federal class action on behalf of former students abused and denied education at Glen Mills Schools, ELC’s campaign for Inclusive Schools and Honest Education, and advocacy on behalf of English Learners, LGBTQ youth and students in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. Previously, Kristina worked as a staff attorney with Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, where she used litigation and administrative advocacy to advance the rights of incarcerated individuals and specialized in young adult advocacy. Prior to that, as a litigation associate at Dechert LLP she coordinated the firm’s efforts in a federal civil rights action challenging the excessive use of solitary confinement for youth with mental health needs in delinquency placement. Kristina also worked as an attorney with Juvenile Law Center where she was a member of the Luzerne County “kids-for-cash” litigation team and employed legislative and litigation strategies to combat the criminalization of consensual teen technology use. Kristina is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College and Temple University Beasley School of Law. Prior to law school, Kristina worked in direct service with underserved youth and families through an AmeriCorps violence-prevention position in Seattle, WA and an after-school program in Ithaca, NY.

Maura McInerney (she/her) is Legal Director at the Education Law Center, a non-profit legal advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring all children in Pennsylvania have access to quality public education. Maura has been a litigator in the private and public sectors for over thirty years. Since arriving at the Education Law Center in 2007, Maura has litigated precedent-setting state and federal cases on behalf of underserved children, including a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of children in foster care which resulted in the dismantling of an inferior, segregated school and the awarding of compensatory education services to hundreds of children in foster care, and a federal case that established several important educational rights of homeless children. She was also ELC’s lead litigator in a fair school funding case which resulted in Pennsylvania’s current school funding system being declared unconstitutional in February 2023.  In addition to leading ELC’s litigation efforts, Maura engages in legislative and policy work at the national and state level and is recognized as a national expert on laws involving the education rights of children who are homeless and those in foster care. She helped found and represents ELC as a member of the national Legal Center for Foster Care and Education. In 2012, Maura was named Child Advocate of the Year by the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Children’s Rights Committee for her work on behalf of children in foster care. She has also received the Unsung Hero Award from the Legal Intelligencer for her litigation on behalf of students experiencing homelessness. Before joining ELC, Maura served as Special Counsel in the Trial Department at the international law firm Duane Morris for twelve years, where she co-counseled over sixty cases, including numerous trials and appeals at the federal, state and administrative level. As an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Maryland, she handled dozens of administrative hearings and appeals. She also served as a law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In 1990, Maura co-founded a transitional housing program in Columbia, M.D., which continues to provide housing, legal support and social services for families. Maura graduated from Fordham Law School in 1988.

Ms. Sang is a partner with Berney & Sang, where she is focusing her practice primarily in the area of education law. She has represented hundreds of families in special education cases. In 2015, The Legal Intelligencer named Jennifer a Lawyer on the Fast Track. And in 2017, the Philadelphia Magazine named her one of the best attorneys under the age of 40 in Pennsylvania practicing special education law. Prior to joining Berney & Sang, she served as a fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, where she participated in constitutional litigation. Ms. Sang earned her J.D. degree from Temple University Beasley School of Law and her B.A. degree from New York University.

Ashli Giles-Perkins (she/her) joined the Philadelphia office of the Education Law Center in October 2020 as an Independence Foundation Public Interest Law Fellow. Ashli’s work centers on addressing the significant educational injustices for youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in the Philadelphia area who enter, reside in, and leave residential facilities. Ashli provides representation of students and families, trainings for families and communities, and significant outreach to stakeholders to ensure oversight, accountability, and access to quality education for system-involved youth. Ashli graduated with a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law with a certificate in child and family law, as well as with an M.Ed. in cultural educational policy studies from Loyola Chicago’s School of Education. While at Loyola, Ashli interned with Advocates for Children of New York and the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and she served as a research assistant to the law school dean. Ashli was a Civitas Child Law Fellow, a member of the National Black Law Students’ Association at the local chapter and Midwest region and also served on its national Board of Directors. Ashli was a staff writer for the Public Interest Law Reporter and also served as president of the Education Law & Policy Society. Originally from Bridgeport, Conn., Ashli attended the University of New Haven, where she obtained a dual degree in criminal justice and psychology. During her gap years, Ashli was an avid community organizer and education equity activist and lobbyist. Ashli’s community-centered background and her focus on both education and juvenile justice have positioned her, with the guidance of the Education Law Center, to begin breaking down systemic barriers that face system-involved youth.

Carrie Evans Wilson is a partner at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, where she is the Co-Chair of the Higher Education Group. She works with educational institutions in an array of matters – consulting on policy development and review, conducting audits and investigations, and serving as external hearing officer and adjudicator. Ms. Evans Wilson is an experienced investigator and litigator and has worked with institutions from small public school districts to large healthcare corporations. Before entering private practice, she was an Assistant Public Defender. She earned her B.A. from Middlebury College and her J.D. from Cornell Law School.

Mr. Conn is a partner with Sweet, Stevens Katz & Williams LLP in New Britain. He has represented public entities of almost every kind, including county agencies, townships, boroughs, school districts and municipal authorities. In that capacity, he has appeared in everything from administrative hearings to appeals before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Pennsylvania School Board Solicitors Association. Mr. Conn is admitted to practice before the United States District Court, Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Temple University School of Law (JD) and Macalester College.

Princess is a dedicated civil rights attorney and 2023 graduate of Northeastern Law School. With a strong commitment to advocacy, she brings a unique background that combines legal expertise with a passion for social justice. Prior to law school, Princess served in Peace Corps in Moldova, where she gained invaluable insights into community dynamics and human rights issues. During her time in law school, Princess gained practical experience through internships with notable organizations including the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Juvenile Law Center, the Innocence Project, and the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. Currently, she practices at Berney & Sang, focusing on special education law. Princess has an interest in work within the intersection of juvenile law and special education, striving to deconstruct the cradle-to-prison pipeline and dismantle barriers to education.

Dr. Cathi Fuhrman is a high school librarian in Pennsylvania. She has been a librarian for 31 years and was a Library Department Supervisor for 21 years in her formal school district. She is an instructor at Antioch University/Seattle and previously an Adjunct Professor at Kutztown University and Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. Cathi is currently a Director-at-Large on the ALA Council and formerly on the AASL Board of Directors. She is a past president of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association and a past chair of the AASL Chapter Assembly. Cathi was awarded the AASL Intellectual Freedom award for 2024. She is co-chair of the PSLA Intellectual Freedom Task Group and also a member of the PSLA Advocacy Committee. She received her undergraduate degree from Millersville University, Millersville, PA, her MSLIS from Drexel University, Philadelphia and her Ed.D from the University of Delaware.

Sarah Lamdan is the Deputy Director at the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. She is responsible for providing legal information and assistance to librarians and others seeking help in addressing censorship of library resources, user privacy concerns, and other intellectual freedom issues. She also oversees the Office’s Lawyers for Libraries and Law for Librarians initiative.
Before working at the ALA, Sarah was a Professor of Law at City University of New York School of Law, where her research focused on information access, privacy, and other legal issues related to librarianship. Her most recent work focused on privacy and access issues related to data analytics companies and platforms. Her book on the topic, Data Cartels (Stanford University Press), was published in 2022.
She is originally from Kansas, where she earned her J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law and her M.L.I.S. (with a specialty in legal information) from Emporia State University’s School of Librarian and Information Management. She has lived in New York since 2005, where she worked as a law librarian in several international law firms and as a developer of Bloomberg Law’s Help Desk.

Jenny Lowman serves on the board of school directors for the Cheltenham School District in Elkins Park, PA. She currently works as a grant writer at Eastern University. Prior to her time at Eastern, she was the Executive Director of the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC), which reopens elementary school libraries in the School District of Philadelphia using volunteers. She co-founded and is the Coordinator for the Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Librarians (PARSL). For 12 years, Jenny worked as a Senior Staff Attorney at the Education Law Center in Philadelphia. She graduated from Lehigh University and Harvard Law School.

Richard T. Ting is a Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the ACLU of Pennsylvania in 2021, he spent most of his career in private practice with a focus on intellectual property law. He left private practice in 2019 to pursue public interest civil rights work. He spent a year as a volunteer attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, then was a staff attorney for Disability Rights Pennsylvania before returning to the ACLU of Pennsylvania in 2021. He also clerked for U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon of the Western District of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the ACLU of Pennsylvania as a staff attorney, Rich had long been an active volunteer for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, serving on the Greater Pittsburgh Chapter board, as cooperating counsel in student free speech cases, and on various volunteer committees. He earned his law degree from Harvard Law School, a master’s degree in toxicology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Brown University.

Emily Robb, Esq., MSW, is the Director of Advocacy at the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP), which is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that partners with attorneys who represent youth charged as adults. YSRP provides mitigation and reentry services with the goal of presenting the court with humanizing narratives of their client-partners. Emily is responsible for integrating, planning, and supervising the case advocacy team and the day-to-day operations of YSRP’s client-partner-facing work. Prior to joining the YSRP team, Emily was a public defender for 13 years at the Defender Association of Philadelphia. She graduated from law school at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she worked with the Innocence Project. Prior to law school Emily was a social worker in New York City; she earned her Master of Science in Social Work (MSW) from Columbia University School of Social Work and her Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Cornell University.