Graduate Programs: Civitas ChildLaw Center Faculty
Faculty and Staff
The Staff and Faculty at the Civitas ChildLaw Center combine professionalism and years of experience in the fields of pediatric and family law with a commitment to helping students at the Law School attain a deeper understanding of the issues students will face once they start working in this field of law. Both staff and faculty are always available to answer any questions you might have about the Civitas ChildLaw Center and its different programs.
Full-Time Faculty Members
- Bruce A. Boyer
Clinical Professor and Director, Loyola Civitas ChildLaw Clinic - Sacha M. Coupet
Assistant Professor and Director of Research, Civitas ChildLaw Center - Diane C. Geraghty
Professor of Law and Director, Child and Family Law Programs - Michael J. Kaufman
Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs - Stacey E. Platt
Clinical Professor and Associate Director, Loyola Civitas ChildLaw Clinic - Anita Weinberg
Clinical Professor and Director, ChildLaw Policy Institute
Staff Attorney/Faculty
- Mary Burns
Director of Community Projects, Lead Safe Housing Initiative, Civitas ChildLaw Center - Hillary Coustan
Associate Director of the ChildLaw and Education Institute - Lisa Jacobs
Program Manager for the Illinois Models for Change Initiative
Part-Time Faculty Members
- Victoria L. Bush-Joseph
Partner at Bush-Joseph & Horwich
Attorney of Law (Teaches Adoption Law Seminar) - Carol Casey
Cook County Office of the Public Guardian
Training Attorney (Teaches M.J. Introduction to ChildLaw I & II) - Corinne Levitz
Circuit Court of Cook County
Mediator (Teaches Child and Family Law Mediation and Mediation Seminar) - Douglas A. Miller
Miller Law Group
Attorney at Law (Teaches M.J. ChildLaw Torts/Civil Procedure) - Michael Nathanson
(Teaches Child and Family Law Mediation and Mediation Seminar) - Helen L. Thornton
Office of the Inspector General, Department of Children & Family Services,
Investigator (Teaches M.J. Constitutional/Administrative Law) - Cheryl A. Warzynski
Warzynski Law
(Teaches M.J. Introduction to the Law and M.J. Legal Research and Writing)Staff
- Catherine Columbus
Program Coordinator - Griselda Sanchez
Administrative Clinic Coordinator
Fellowships
Soledad McGrath- ChildLaw Policy and Legislation Fellow
Soleded McGrath joined the Civitas ChildLaw Center on August 3, 2009. She is a graduate of Emory School of Law and worked in the Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic at Emory. Following graduation Soledad worked briefly in private practice at a large law firm. She later served as the primary reporter in charge of drafting a model juvenile code for Georgia, which was the first attempt in the country to craft a model children's law code. Since moving to Chicago with her family last year, Soledad has continued working with advocates in Georgia on issues related to the model juvenile code, including drafting legislation, and concerns related to potential legislation.
The two-year post-graduate Fellowship provides an opportunity for a recent law school graduate to gain clinical teaching experience in the field legislation and policy development. In her role as a Fellow, Mrs. McGrath works on a broad range of projects designed to improve the lives of children and their families through policy and practice reform efforts, legislative advocacy, research, and training.Miranda Johnson - Salisbury Clinical Teaching Fellow in Child and Family Law
Miranda Johnson began working as a post-graduate fellow in the Civitas ChildLaw Clinic in July 2010. The ChildLaw Clinic is a pediatric law office where Loyola J.D. and LL.M. students learn the lawyering skills needed to represent children while effectively advocating for the clients they serve. Miranda supervises law students in the representation of children in child protection and child custody cases and in the representation of parents and students in school discipline and special education cases. She also participates in teaching a clinic seminar on child representation, focusing on substantive knowledge, skills development, and ethical concerns in child advocacy.
Miranda completed a joint degree program between New York University School of Law and Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2006. While a student, she interned for Human Rights Watch, UNICEF, and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative. Upon graduation, Miranda served as a law clerk for the Hon. Allyne Ross in the Eastern District of New York. She then worked as a Staff Attorney at Advocates for Children of New York, an organization promoting access to better educational services for New York school children. In that capacity, Miranda represented parents of students with disabilities in administrative proceedings to obtain appropriate educational services. She also represented parents and students in systemic reform litigation seeking to enhance educational equity in New York City.
Prior to law school, Miranda spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Tanzania, researching small-scale women's income generating projects in Tanzania. Upon completion of her research, she worked for two more years for a Tanzanian non-profit organization, the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme in Dar es Salaam, where she coordinated information sharing, advocacy, capacity building, and networking of a national civil society coalition and conducted policy and gender analysis of macro-economic policies and development issues in Tanzania. Before working in Tanzania, Miranda taught high school social studies at the Eagle Rock School in Estes Park, Colorado. Miranda has an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and in 2002 she was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Alumni Award from Dartmouth in the category of "emerging leader for social justice."
- Catherine Columbus
