Christine Stoneman is the former chief of the Federal Coordination and Compliance Section of the Civil Rights Division, USDOJ, where she worked for 25 years. She is currently a Law and Policy Fellow with the Northeastern Schools of Law and Public Policy. She is a longtime collaborator with NLADA and supporter of Legal Aid, and began her career at Legal Action of Wisconsin. During her time in government, Christine led a nationwide program designed to address and prevent discrimination by recipients of federal funds. This effort included Title VI and Equal Protection actions involving race, national origin, and sex discrimination in a range of contexts, including law enforcement, environmental justice, language access, health and social services, and more.

Shaheena Simons is Senior Advisor for Strategy & Programs at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Before joining the Lawyers’ Committee in 2025, she served for nearly 18 years in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. For nine years (2016-2025), she was Chief of the Educational Opportunities Section, leading DOJ’s enforcement to protect students from discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, religion, and disability. Under her leadership, DOJ worked to fulfill the promise of Brown v. Board by combating segregation, harassment, and discriminatory discipline, among other practices that deny students equal dignity and opportunity. Before joining EOS, Shaheena led police accountability and juvenile justice cases as an attorney in DOJ’s Special Litigation Section. Before DOJ, Shaheena worked at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, first as a litigator and then as Acting Regional Counsel of MALDEF’s National Policy Office. She began her career as a Civil Rights Fellow at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School.

Ms. Hagler spent 25 years at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforcing federal laws protecting the right to vote and prohibiting discrimination in housing, land use and zoning, public accommodations, and
lending. Until May, she was Chief of the Division’s Voting Section, and before that was a Deputy Chief in the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section. Ms. Hagler graduated from the George Washington University Law School and received her B.A. in Law and Society, Criminal Justice, from the University of California at Santa Barbara.