UAW Local 2320
Officers & Staff
President
Pam Smith


Pam joined the staff of NOLSW in February 2008 as the mid-Atlantic organizer.  Previously, Pam worked as a staff attorney at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau (MDLAB).  While she was at MDLAB, Pam served on the healthcare committee and bargaining committee and also processed grievances.

As an attorney with MDLAB, Pam represented clients in federal and state public benefits cases.  Her involvement with NOLSW at MDLAB led her to an interest in labor law.  She left MDLAB in 2006 to take a position as National Negotiator for the National Treasury Employees Union where she negotiated contracts with federal agencies and prosecuted national grievances.

In October, 2012, Pam was appointed to serve as Financial Secretary/Treasurer by the National Executive Board, and was elected to that position in 2013 and 2016. Pam became President in July 2018.




Financial Secretary-Treasurer
Rachel Thomas


Rachel began her career as a public interest attorney with Legal Aid Chicago, specializing in Family Law. While at Legal Aid Chicago, Rachel became an active member of NOLSW/UAW local 2320, serving as the local unit’s President and bargaining team member. 

Rachel joined the staff of NOLSW/UAW Local 2320 in January 2016, representing members in the Southwest and Southeast regions. She was elected Financial Secretary/Treasurer in December 2022.




National Vice-President (Legal Services)
Matt Vogel


Matthew Vogel (he/him) has been an attorney with the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG) since 2019.  At NIPNLG, Matt focuses on litigation and legal support concerning immigrant rights, immigration enforcement and detention, the immigration consequences of criminal legal system involvement, and due process in immigration proceedings.  He is the NLG Staff Union’s steward and an active member of the bargaining committee, currently on track to win their first contract since the original was signed in 1990.  As steward, he has successfully worked to prevent layoffs, obtained tens of thousands of dollars in back pay and severance pay for members, satisfactorily resolved several potential grievances, and shored up the unit’s recordkeeping and dues collections, in addition to everyday contract administration work.  Prior to NIPNLG, Matt was a public defender in New Orleans for several years, where he provided immigration consequences advising and training, was a member of the capital and juvenile life without parole defense teams, and defended felony and misdemeanor cases.  Matt lives in New Orleans with his spouse, Tanya (a family nurse practitioner at a community clinic), their two kids, Luke and Xavier, and his mother-in-law, Bev. He became National Vice President in December 2022.




Human Services VP
Tara Maguire


Tara is a social worker at Heartland Alliance in Chicago, where she is a vice chair of her 500-member unit and a member of the workplace safety committee. Tara has served on her unit’s bargaining committee and led internal organizing and external communications supporting contract negotiations. Tara became NOLSW’s Human Services Vice President in December 2022.


Recording Secretary
Joe Veehoff


Joseph is a former legal services attorney who spent three years working at Northeast New Jersey Legal Services (NNJLS).  While a staff attorney at NNJLS and its predecessor program, Joseph was active in the bargaining unit and held the role of chairperson in 2002 and vice-chairperson from 2003 through 2004.

In 2002, he helped assure that all bargaining unit members retained their jobs when his program merged with two others to form NNJLS.  Joseph has also been active in New Jersey United, an ad hoc group of organized legal services workers in New Jersey.

Joseph was appointed to the Financial Secretary-Treasurer position in July 2018, retiring from that position in 2023. In December 2022 he became Recording Secretary.


 



Northeast Region VP
Natalie James


Natalie James (she/her) is a tenant attorney at Legal Services of New York City (LSNYC) of Colombian heritage.  She serves on the executive committee as the political representative of her 650-member unit, Legal Services Staff Association (LSSA).  Natalie previously worked for a nonprofit legal services organization that was not unionized, but in 2018 she changed her area of practice in order to join a union workplace.  She quickly went on to serve as a delegate and later a strike captain in LSSA’s Brooklyn Shop, and organized direct actions leading into LSSA’s bargaining cycle and through their contract vote in 2021.  Natalie supported the successful passage of One Member, One Vote, and proudly represented LSSA and NOLSW as a delegate to the 2022 UAW Constitutional Convention.  Natalie has deep organizing experience within the LGBTQ+ community that includes co-founding the Queer Liberation March, a people’s protest march without corporate funding or the presence of a police contingent, to serve as an alternative to the corporatized NYC Pride Parade. The Queer Liberation March mobilized 45,000 attendees in its first year. Natalie became the NE Region Vice President in December 2022.




Midwest Region VP
Colleen Connolly


Colleen is a Senior Staff Attorney at Chicago Legal Aid where she serves as Unit Chair. 




Southwest Vice-President
Nicole Bucheri


Nicole is a staff attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Since starting in 2016, her work has focused on representing workers in employment cases. She serves as Grievance Officer and a member of the Bargaining Team for her unit, and signed on as the Southwest VP for NOLSW in 2023.


Southeast Region VP
Victoria Robinson


Victoria Robinson, a graduate of the University of Baltimore has been an attorney in Maryland since 1985. As an attorney with Mary.land Legal Aid, Victoria has been a member of Maryland Legal Aid Workers Union (MdLaw) since 2002. An active member of her Union’s unit, she has held the office of Unit Treasurer and  is currently the MdLaw Unit President.


West Coast Vice-President
Veronica Digman





Trustee
Jacob Bolton

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Jacob works at Lakeshore Legal Aid based in metro Detroit, Michigan as a hotline attorney. Jacob began his Union organizing work with NOLSW as a Bargaining Team member in November 2020. In July 2021, Jacob was elected as the unit's first Chair, and he continues to serve fellow workers in that capacity. As chair, Jacob has led the team to great victories including 10-20% raises mid-contract, winning grievances, enactment of a four-day workweek policy, and more. 

 

On the NEB, Jacob serves on the new Member Communications Committee. Jacob is working on NOLSW’s website and is working with the Board to create a resource bank for our members and our unit’s executive teams. Jacob attended the UAW Financial Officers Conference earlier this year and is looking forward to bringing back what he learned to our local and our members.




Trustee
Vicki Roebuck


Vicki served as a Senior Case Manager in the Homeless Prevention program at Heartland Alliance.  Heartland Alliance is a social service agency that provides assistance to low and moderate income people in such areas as housing, medical services, supportive services to seniors and children, job training and financial assistance.  Vicki began to work for the agency in 1982 and has worked in most of the programs at Heartland Alliance.  She retired from Heartland in 2012 but continues to serve as Grievance Coordinator.

Vicki was one of the original workers that organized the program in 1984.  Since that time Vicki has served her unit as chairperson, union representative, grievance handler and on the bargaining team.  Formerly the VP for Human Resources, she is now one of the three trustees that make sure our NOLSW finances and records are in order.  Vicki is enjoying retirement and spending more time with her four grandsons and one granddaughter.




Trustee
Brett Cattani


Brett Cattani (he/him) is a pro bono coordinator and staff attorney with Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO), Portland Regional Office. Brett has been a member of NOLSW since 2008 and previously served as a member of LASOWU’s bargaining committee. From 2016-2018, Brett was a tenant rights attorney in the Bronx office of Legal Aid Services of New York city and an active member of the Legal Services Staff Association (LSSA). He became a Trustee in December 2022.


West Coast Organizer
Donis Borks


Donis joined the NOLSW staff as an the West Coast Organizer in January 2008.  Donis had been a staff attorney at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau (MDLAB) for five years.  While at MDLAB, Donis was the unit chairperson, on the bargaining committee, handled grievances, testified and lobbied for increased legal services and worked with the Community Action Program (CAP), the political action committee of the UAW.  Donis also worked as a community organizer for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).




Northeast Organizer
Lily Defriend

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Lily joined the staff of NOLSW in October 2018, after working on several UAW higher education organizing campaigns.  She represents members in the Northeast region, primarily New York City.




West Organizer
Katelyn Randall


Katelyn joined the NOLSW staff in February 2020. She started her legal career at Metropolitan Public Defenders in Portland where she tried over 50 jury trials with an acquittal rate of 60 percent. 

Prior to joining NOLSW, Katelyn was a staff attorney at Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO) just shy of 10 years. She joined her first bargaining team her second month on the job at LASO and was on every subsequent bargaining team during her time there. While at LASO she was a general practitioner with a focus on Family Law. A New Hampshire native, she has lived in Oregon for over 20 years.




Northeast Organizer
Cristian Avila

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Cristian has a rich background advocating for workers' rights, having previously served as both a Workers' Rights Advocate and as a Labor and Employment Paralegal at the Worker Justice Center of New York (WJCNY). He developed a passion for leveraging various tools — including organizing, administrative complaints, legislative advocacy, and supporting litigation — to address wage and hour law violations, occupational safety issues, and other human rights violations in workplaces across NYC.

These experiences forged his approach as unit chairperson of the bargaining unit at WJCNY. In this leadership role, Cristian worked in community with his fellow bargaining unit members on internal organizing, serving on the union’s bargaining committee, and contract enforcement.Through these experiences he deepened his love for cultivating an ethos of member engagement that facilitates concerted actions, while building solidarity and materializing the collective strength of the union. Cristian joined the staff of NOLSW/UAW Local 2320 in May 2021.




Northeast Organizer
Michelle Browne


Michelle developed her interest in labor law as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York (LASNNY).  While at LASNNY, Michelle was active in the bargaining unit Consolidated Legal Aid Workers, NOLSW/UAW Local 2320 (CLAW) and served a term as unit chairperson and bargaining committee member during intense contract negotiations.  Michelle also was a member of the labor-management and hiring committees, handled grievances, and worked to get members more involved.  

Before joining NOLSW, Michelle was Associate Counsel for CSEA Local 1000 where she assisted members challenging notices of discipline, facing administrative investigations, appealing investigation findings, and helped correct CBA violations by filing improper practice charges against State employers with New York’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). 

Missing negotiating contracts, helping with grievances, and working with NOLSW to help legal services workers, Michelle joined the staff in October 2021. 




Northeast Regional Organizer
Richard Goff


Richard worked for 9 years for SEIU Healthcare PA (originally District 1199P) doing new organizing as well as negotiating and enforcing contracts for nursing home workers and was a staff representative for 4 years with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, negotiating contracts for nurses and lab technicians, before joining the NOLSW staff in May 2021.   Richard is a Cincinnati native but currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his partner and three children. In his free time, he volunteers for local social justice initiatives, is an avid concert-goer, reads history and politics, and follows professional baseball and football.


Midwest Organizer
Lance Rhines


Greetings NOLSW Local 2320 members! My name is Lance A. Rhines and I started my position as your Midwest Regional Organizer on July 3, 2023. I am extremely happy and excited to join you and to be part of the amazing, unselfish work that you all do on behalf of those who need your help. 

I bring with me over three (3) decades worth of knowledge and experience in every aspect of Union side Labor Relations. I decided that I wanted to be part of this movement while still in high school. I then started my lifelong adventure in 1989 when I took a job as a Mailroom Clerk at the International UAW-GM Center for Human Resources, which was a joint benefits program for GM hourly employees. Because we were employees of the UAW and GM, we formed our own Union under the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). I became the Bargaining Chair and Chief Steward for that 150 person Unit in 1992 and continued in those roles until I began working as a full-time Service Representative for OPEIU in 2001. I was the Senior Rep for the largest amalgamated Local Union in Lansing, Michigan for over 20 years. I have worked in manufacturing, health care, financial institutions, non-profits, the department of corrections supervisors, and many more industries over my lengthy career, in both public and private employment. Now I am just in the beginnings of learning about representing the interests of Legal Services Workers. I very much like new opportunities and challenges. Even after all these years I still jump out of bed every morning full of energy and ready to make things happen for the membership. I truly LOVE what I do.




West Organizer
Peter Gaughan

Email:

Phone:
(415) 602-9947

Peter (they/he) is the West Coast Regional Organizer on the NOLSW staff. They have been connected to the labor movement and union organizing since they were a teenager, starting as a volunteer field organizer for United Farm Workers. While at college on the East Coast, Peter organized undergraduates, factory workers, transportation workers, artists, and tenants into unions while also studying economic and environmental justice. Prior to joining the NOLSW staff, Peter was a paralegal at the Eviction Defence Collaborative (EDC), an NOLSW unit based in San Francisco. At the EDC, Peter was a member of the bargaining team, handled grievances, and organized solidarity actions in support of EDC’s bargaining unit and their comrades in surrounding unions. As a paralegal, Peter supported attorneys and social workers providing free legal representation and advocacy to tenants facing eviction. Peter is originally from the East Bay and now lives in the Tenderloin of San Francisco.

 



Union Adminstrator
Ellen Craig Schulman

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Ellen joined the staff of NOLSW/UAW Local 2320 as an Administrative Assistant in August 2006. Prior to that time, she worked for Local 15 of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) as an Administrative Assistant in the Pension and Welfare Funds.   Ellen was promoted to Union Administrator in 2014.  She, along with Maura, carries out the Administrative functions of the Union.




Dues & Membership Administrator
Maura Schulman

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Maura joined the staff of NOLSW/UAW Local 2320 as an Administrative Assistant in April 2016 after working part-time for the union since June 2010.  Maura maintains the membership files and records and deposits dues for our Union.  She also assists Ellen with the day-to-day running of the office. 




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