Jenn Dye, JD and PhD
Director
Email: rendalj@ucmail.uc.edu
Phone: 513-556-7467
Community advocate and scholar Jenn Dye is the Theodore M. Berry Director of the Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice. Dye is a 2009 graduate of Cincinnati Law and also earned a PhD in Political Science in 2015 from the University of Cincinnati. She most recently served as Research Associate and Director of the Human Services Research & Innovation Center for the University of Cincinnati, where she was responsible for cultivating relationships to advance research in ways that increased community impact.
Alex Brogaard (he/him)
Program Manager
Email: alex.brogaard@uc.edu
Phone: 513-556-0076
Alex has an extensive background in higher education, spanning areas such as marketing, student support, international education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. As the Program Manager, his role includes planning and promoting Jones Center programming and events, supporting students affiliated with the center, and finding innovative ways to further scholarly activities and community building.
Dayna Mathew (she/her)
Program Assistant
Dayna graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2019 with a B.S. in both Forensic Science and Criminal Justice. She is currently pursuing both her J.D. and M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at UC, as part of the dual degree program offered through the Jones Center. In college, Dayna focused on post-conviction work, reintegrating ex-offenders into society and reuniting them with their families. This ignited her passion for family justice, specifically on legal recognition and intervention for nontraditional families, which is what her Master’s Project entails. Upon graduation, she plans to practice as a family law attorney and ultimately to effectuate policy change in the field. In the interim, Dayna is working as program assistant for the Jones Center, a legal intern for UC’s DVCPO Clinic, a law clerk for a local family law firm, and a Social Justice Fellow with the Memorial Foundation.
Tori Delaney
Program Assistant
Tori graduated from Dickinson College in 2017 with a B.A. in English and Spanish Literature. Their senior thesis used a cross-national lens to examine the changing representations of masculinity in literature at the end of the nineteenth century. Tori spent three years as a family law and guardianship paralegal in Boston before pursuing their J.D. at the University of Cincinnati. Tori is an associate member on the Law Review, a program assistant for the Jones Center, and a student executive member for the Board Game Society, National Lawyers Guild, and Out and Allies. Upon graduation, Tori hopes to start an interdisciplinary legal career with a focus towards gender, race, and international issues.
Sherry Y. English
Director of College Relations
Sherry is responsible for directing marketing communications for the law school. Sherry has more than 15 years experience in the Cincinnati/Dayton (OH) markets, working for for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.
Founders
Emily M.S. Houh
Jones Center Research Faculty, Co-Founder
Email: emily.houh@ucmail.uc.edu
Phone: 513-556-0108
Emily Houh is the Gustavus Henry Wald Professor of Law and Contracts at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and co-director for the Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice. She teaches in the areas of contracts, commercial law, and critical race theory. Her scholarship focuses on the interaction between contract law, critical race theory, and socioeconomic (in)equality.
Kristin Kalsem
Jones Center Research Faculty, Co-Founder
Email: kristin.kalsem@ucmail.uc.edu
Phone: 513-556-1220
Kristin Kalsem is the Charles Hartsock Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and co-director for the Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice. She teaches in the areas of commercial law, bankruptcy, feminist legal theory, and law and literature. Her research focuses on intimate partner abuse, commercial law, bankruptcy, feminist legal theory, and law and literature.
Verna Williams
Co-Founder
Email: verna.williams@ucmail.uc.edu
Phone: 513-556-0121
Verna Williams joined the College of Law in 2001 after practicing many years in the areas of civil and women’s rights. Verna taught in the areas of family law, gender discrimination, and constitutional law. In addition, she co-directed the College’s Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice with Professors Kristin Kalsem and Emily Houh. Verna served as interim Dean of the College of Law from 2017 to 2019, before being appointed as Dean of the College of Law in 2019. Dean Williams led the College of Law until 2022 before leaving to lead Equal Justice Works as CEO. To honor the legacy of Dean Williams work and contributions to the UC community the Dean Verna Williams Student Scholarship Endowment Fund has been established to provide scholarships for students in the College of Law.
Social Justice Fellows
Ashley Nkadi (she/her) graduated from the University of Cincinnati (UC) in 2016 with a B.S. in Neuroscience. Ashley’s interest in social justice catalyzed when she co-founded The Irate 8, a student-activist movement, on UC’s campus in response to the fatal police shooting of Samuel Dubose. After graduation, Ashley worked and organized at BYP100 as a Communications Manager and at the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) as a Digital Organizer & Strategist. During this time, she proudly served as the digital lead on the BREATHE Act, a visionary, modern-day Civil Rights Act. After graduation, Ashley’s writing career also blossomed. She has written about social justice, identity, race, and politics for publications such as GQ, Playboy, Teen Vogue, The Root, and Essence Magazine — she also covers the State of the Union addresses annually as a part of Rep. Maxine Waters’ Millennial Media Row. Ashley pursued a Social Justice Fellowship in order to ensure that her law study would include a grounding education in the way that law intersects with race, class, and gender. Ashley is currently the Student Bar Association President and is an incoming Intellectual Property Associate at Frost Brown Todd.
Inma Sumaita (she/her/they/them) graduated cum laude from Miami University in 2018 with a double major in International Studies and English Literature and a double minor in Economics and French. After graduating, she spent two years working as a paralegal in Immigration and Corporate Acquisitions and Transactions. As an immigrant herself, Inma has seen firsthand how resolving language barriers and acknowledging how a person’s nationality can impact how they are perceived in matters of immigration. Her professional experience and volunteer in immigration has equipped her to recognize and respond to the importance of familiarity and understanding. Inma is a board member of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center(IJPC), which is a grassroots organization based in Cincinnati that works on matters of peace and equity. As a Social Justice Fellow Inma will explore the ways in which she can use her legal education to be an advocate in her community specially with immigrants and incarcerated people. She is committed to ensuring her work in social justice is intersectional and equitable. Inma believes that social justice measures the success of a society, in terms of how it treats ins most vulnerable citizens, rather than by its gross domestic product. Inma is currently working in the Entrepreneurship and Development Clinic which provides free legal services to non-profits and small businesses.
Aqdas Khudadad (she/her) graduated from Centre College with a B.A. in Political Science. As a member of the Bonner Program, she was a volunteer at Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) which is when her interest in pursuing law school began. During her undergraduate studies, she was a research fellow with the American Pakistan Foundation and focused her research on reproductive health access in rural Pakistan. During the fellowship, she was also involved in a project regarding access to legal resources in low-income, rural communities. This fellowship solidified her interest in women’s rights and increasing access to legal resources in marginalized communities. After graduation, she was an AmeriCorps VISTA at an environmental nonprofit called Louisville Grows. She also worked with a nonprofit in Pakistan to develop a menstrual health management curriculum based on her fellowship research to be taught to students in a village in Northern Pakistan. She is passionate about addressing issues related to gender-based violence, racial injustice, and Islamophobia. Aqdas pursued the Social Justice Fellowship to shape her career in public interest work through the lenses of race and gender.
Kassius “Kash” Brodus (he/his) is a native of Albany, New York and completed his Bachelor of Arts in History at SUNY Buffalo State College in May 2022. In his final semester of undergraduate studies, he received a commendation for the History and Social Studies Education Department from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Buffalo State and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence, the highest academic honor in New York State’s public university system. Kash’s only real goal is to leave the world better than how he found it and The Nathaniel R. Jones Center will help him make that dream a reality.
Elizabeth “Libby” Beach (she/her) is originally from Akron, Ohio and completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science at Denison University. Libby’s “call” to social justice work is primary in the area of family law, with a special interest in foster, adoption, and the ways different identies experience the child welfare system. Outside of school Libby loves to practice yoga, play with her dog, and explore local coffee shops around Cincinnati.
Nicholas “Nick” Anderson (he/his) grew up in Morehead, Kentucky, and pursued his undergraduate degrees at Morehead State University. At MSU, Nick majored in Political Science and Legal Studies, graduating in 2021 with honors and was named Outstanding Student of Political Science. In Nick’s interim year between college and starting at UC College of Law, he served as a legal assistant for a rural county attorney’s office, gaining real life perspective on a host of legal procedures outside of the classroom. While Nick is open to various practices of law, his current aim is to one day serve in his home state of Kentucky in a governmental policy and legislative role, preferably in relation to how the law shapes curriculum and funding for the sphere of public education. Nick believes a good, quality education can serve as a means to break generational cycles of inequity, a trend which has long strained the rural landscape of Appalachia.