Kathleen Russell, Executive Director

Kathleen is the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Judicial Excellence (CJE) in Marin County, California. Kathleen advocates on behalf of CJE for legislative and administrative changes that will promote judicial accountability and better protect children’s and vulnerable populations rights in the courts. She works extensively with the news media to expose the national family court crisis that is devastating millions of families.

On the national policy front, Kathleen organized the first White House Briefing on the “Family Court Crisis” in May 2010, and she addressed the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women about the crisis in March 2011. She also led the national advocacy effort to pass H.Con.Res.72 through the U.S. House of Representatives in September 2018.

In California, Kathleen has been in the forefront of numerous successful legislative campaigns, including:

• State Sen. Mark Leno’s 2009 request to audit the Marin and Sacramento County Family Courts, which showed significant accountability problems in nearly every area measured.
• Then-Assemblywoman Fiona Ma’s AB 1050, which grants children 14 and older the right to testify about their wishes in California family courts, 2012 (Sec 3042).
• State Sen. Bob Wieckowski’s SB 594, which requires that a child custody evaluation, investigation, assessment, or report conducted pursuant to a contested hearing involving child custody, may only be considered by the court if the evaluation, investigation, or assessment is conducted in accordance with the minimum requirements provided under existing law (2015).
• The first audit of the California Commission on Judicial Performance in it’s 56 year history, in August 2016, which was requested by Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson, Asm. Catharine Baker, Asm. Mark Stone and Asm. Cristina Baker.

Kathleen founded and has managed her own public affairs firm, Kathleen Russell Consulting, since 2002. Given recent inroads with investigative news teams around California and the country, she  recently decided to turn her full attention to her position with CJE, to ensure maximum progress in the battle to better protect children in the U.S. family court system.

Kathleen co-directed and produced the 2008 award-winning documentary Family Court Crisis: Our Children At Risk and served as the creative director and writer for the companion photo exhibit entitled Family Court Crisis: Surviving A Broken System. She also produced the CJE video project, Kids of Divorce Speak Out. She currently manages all of the organization’s media and legislative advocacy work.

 

Taylor Jackson, Policy & Advocacy Director

Taylor Jackson is the Policy & Advocacy Director at the Center for Judicial Excellence. Taylor has worked in California politics and policy for almost a decade, where she has fought tirelessly to protect California’s most vulnerable populations. She brings a breadth of experience and political acumen to CJE from her years in the Legislature, and as a lobbyist. She harnesses all of her experience and creativity to accomplish the policy and advocacy goals of CJE, and affect meaningful and lasting change. Taylor studied Theology and Religious Studies with a concentration in Ethics and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco, where she was mentored by Civil Rights leader and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal attorney Clarence Jones.

 

Anya Kaplan, Executive Assistant

Anya is a mother of four that has focused most of her time raising her children. As a survivor of domestic violence and a mother, she has witnessed how her own family has been negatively impacted by the unconstitutional and unjust family court policies and decisions. Anya manages all of CJE’s administrative affairs and handles our crisis outreach to protective parents in need.

 

 

Barry Goldstein, Pro-Bono Consulting Expert

Barry is a domestic violence author, speaker, advocate and expert witness. He was an attorney representing victims of domestic violence for 30 years. He is the author of six books concerning domestic violence and child custody. Barry is the author of the Safe Child Act which is a comprehensive plan based on current scientific research that can fix the broken court system and make family courts safe for children.  He now provides workshops, judicial and other trainings regarding domestic violence particularly related to custody issues.

 

Ally Cable, Youth Initiative Founder

Ally is a second year at New York University, studying Neural Science on a pre-med track. She hopes to use her personal experience with Family Bridges to advocate for other survivors of reunification camps and to bring reform to family courts through CJE Youth Speak.

 

 

Veronica York, Advocacy Coordinator

After her own experience with a “high conflict” custody battle that started in 2018, Veronica York realized that the safety of children was not the priority in the family court system. Veronica completed the High Conflict Divorce Coach Certification Program founded by Tina Swithin in March 2021 and immediately started her coaching practice. In addition, she is advocating to change the family court laws and works to educate court professionals on current scientific research such as the ACE and Saunders studies.

 

Anjli Tantod, Bookkeeper

Anjli is a goal-oriented finance professional with over 20 years of financial expertise, primarily focused on formulating strategic initiatives for organizations. Through positive action and dedication to worthy causes, she is grateful to be a part of CJE’s stellar team that is doing essential work to serve and protect children’s rights.

 

 

CJE Volunteers

Rebecca Coble

Rebecca is a rising senior at George Washington University, pursuing a double major in Criminal Justice and Psychology. Rebecca hopes to use these two perspectives to inform a career in family law. First and foremost, Rebecca hopes to advocate for victims of abuse, as well as victims of the family court system- however, in this work she hopes to work towards changing the family court system so that it better supports and serves victims in an equitable manner. “I decided to volunteer at CJE because the work they do strongly resonates with me and I wanted to be able to contribute to this important and meaningful work to hopefully continue to expose and change the family court system in order to protect children.”