The Center for Justice & Democracy's professional staff fights to preserve the right to trial by jury and to keep an independent judiciary.

National Staff

Joanne Doroshow, Executive Director

Joanne Doroshow is President and Executive Director of the Center for Justice & Democracy and is also co-founder of Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR). AIR is a coalition of 100 consumer groups from around the country working to strengthen oversight of insurance industry practices.

Joanne is an attorney who has worked on civil justice issues since 1986, when she first directed a project for Ralph Nader on liability and the insurance industry. In that capacity, she developed some of the first educational materials used to fight tort reform around the country. With Nader, she was author of several reports and numerous materials on civil justice issues, including Goliath: Lloyd's Of London In The United States (1988) and Safeguarding Democracy: The Case For The Civil Jury (1992).

Joanne has written or co-authored several major CJ&D studies, including Premium Deceit: The Failure of “Tort Reform” to Cut Insurance Prices, and The CALA Files: The Secret Campaign by Big Tobacco and Other Major Industries to Take Away Your Rights. She also edited Lifesavers: CJ&D’s Guide to Protect Us All, and co-wrote numerous other CJ&D studies and White Papers.

In 1991, Joanne was a member of the Steering Committee of the Brookings Institute/American Bar Association's Advisory Committee on the Future of the Civil Jury, and was an invited participant in the American Judicature Society’s Conference on the Future of the American Jury System in 1999. She was also selected by the Stern Family Fund as the Public Interest Pioneer for 1999, and honor that was accompanied by two $100,000 grants.

Joanne is a nationally-recognized civil justice expert and a frequently requested guest on TV and radio, having appeared on news programs on CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, C-Span, NPR as well as numerous radio programs around the country. She has been quoted in countless newspapers nationwide, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe and the Miami Herald. She has testified before Congress and numerous state legislatures around the country.

Joanne has film and television experience, as well. She was one of the producers of the 1992 Academy Award-winning documentary, The Panama Deception. She has worked on the production and release of this and other films, including most recently as a Coordinating Producer of SiCKO, Michael Moore's film about the health care industry. In 1994 and 1995, she was Coordinating Producer and a segment producer for TV Nation, the Emmy Award-winning humorous political magazine show with Michael Moore.

From 1981 through 1985, Joanne was lead counsel and spokesperson for TMI Alert, a community group working to block the restart of the TMI-1 nuclear reactor following the 1979 accident. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1992, she worked on the successful Supreme Court appeal of the Karen Silkwood case. From 1989 to 1990, Joanne was director of the California-based Bhopal Justice Campaign where she organized a coalition of community groups and leaders in California to win broad statewide support for the plight of the Bhopal, India gas disaster victims.

Emily Gottlieb, Deputy Director

Emily is an attorney who is one the organization's principal writers and analysts. Prior to joining CJ&D in 2000, Emily was a volunteer attorney with the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Community Outreach Law Program, Legal Clinic for the Homeless.  She was a student law clerk for Federal Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis and New York County Civil Court Justice Alice Schlesinger, a Mediator with the Brooklyn Law School Mediation Clinic, and an intern with the New York City Commission on Human Rights. She received her JD degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1998.

Amy Widman, Attorney/Policy Analyst

Amy provides legislative and policy analysis and research, and helps develop policy positions and educational campaigns to preserve the civil justice system. She is an attorney with experience in advocacy, legislative and public policy analysis on issues of environmental and economic rights, especially urban environmental issues and land use planning. Before joining CJ&D, Amy was a post-graduate research fellow at NYU School of Law’s Center for Environmental and Land Use Law. She also taught at the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment. Before that, she clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz (SDNY). Amy is a graduate of NYU School of Law. She published “Replacing Politics with Democracy: A Proposal for Community Planning in New York City and Beyond,” in the Brooklyn Law School Journal of Law and Public Policy, Winter 2002. Amy has also taught legal research and writing at Cardozo Law School.

Emily Denadel, Development and Publications Director

Emily has worked for a number of progressive campaigns and organizations including America Coming Together, National Council of Jewish Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the office of Senator Tom Harkin. Emily received her M.P.A. from New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.

Amanda Melpolder, Senior Field Organizer

Amanda comes to CJ&D from the Innocence Project, where she was organizing in multiple states around criminal justice reforms.  Prior to that, she was a private investigator at an international research and investigation firm where she mainly focused on researching the gun industry's distribution practices.  She got her start in the fight for social justice at the Connecticut Citizen's Action Group (CCAG). Over the years she has worked for legislators in the Connecticut General Assembly, worked on dozens of successful state-level political campaigns as well as done research for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to fight for better access to health care.  She has masters in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from the New School University and has done political campaign training at the Women's Campaign School at Yale .

John P. Guyette, Senior Field Organizer

John comes to CJ&D with a wealth of experience in government and politics. He was the former Chief of Staff and campaign manager for New York City Council Member Tony Avella. Prior to moving to New York, John was a political journeyman working in several states during the 2004 election cycle. John served as the Wisconsin Director for the Human Rights Campaign/ America Votes Coalition 2004. He also worked as the Western Missouri Field Director for the Human Rights Campaign and the Constitution Defense League. During his time in Missouri, John built coalitions and actively campaigned against a draconian amendment to add discrimination to Missouri’s State Constitution. He has also worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in South Dakota, as well as for Emily’s List in Pennsylvania. He is a 2003 graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

Daniel Albanese, Administrative Director

Daniel handles most of the administrative aspects of the Center for Justice & Democracy. He also coordinates the membership program and editor and designer of CJ&D's publications. Daniel most recently worked at Fordham Law School, where he helped plan the Career Planning Center's educational programs and events. He graduated with a BA. in Anthropology from SUNY New Paltz in May 2001.

Illinois

Jason Held, Staff Director

Jason Held is the CJ&D Illinios Staf Director. He grew up in Atlanta, GA and attended American University in Washington, D.C., where he majored in political science and international affairs. After working in various capacities in both politics and marketing in Washington and Los Angeles, he returned to school and received his law degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. Jason has been involved with many non-profits, working on issues ranging from GLBT Rights to labor and employment issues to the arts. In Chicago, he worked on Tammy Duckworth's congressional campaign and for a non-profit professional theater.