Nikole Nelson is the founding CEO of Frontline Justice. Prior to joining Frontline Justice Nikole was the Executive Director of Alaska Legal Services Corporation, Alaska’s only statewide provider of free civil aid. During her 25 years in the field, she worked to build community-led, people-centered justice models and to expand the scope of who can provide legal help including a groundbreaking launch of Partnering for Native Health, a Medical-Legal Partnership involving non-lawyer justice workers that won the 2019 World Justice Challenge. She also spearheaded reforming restrictions on unauthorized practice of law for justice workers in Alaska; these reforms were approved in 2022 by both the Alaska Supreme Court and State Bar Board of Governors. Nikole is a member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense (SCLAID) and is a member of the Legal Services Corporation’s Rural Justice Task Force.

Dr. Rebecca Sandefur is Professor in the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics and (by courtesy) the Sandra Day O'Conner College of Law at Arizona State University and a Faculty Fellow at the American Bar Foundation, where she founded the Access to Justice Research Initiative. In 2018 she was named a MacArthur Fellow for her work on access to justice and inequality. She was born in Oklahoma and is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. With Matthew Burnett, she is co-founder of Frontline Justice.

Bethany Carson is an Equal Justice Works Fellow and the Community Justice Worker Coordinator at the Texas Immigration Law Council, where she supports a statewide cohort of non-attorney fellows expanding access to justice for noncitizen communities. With over a decade of experience in grassroots organizing, legal empowerment, and movement-building, Bethany has led legal accompaniment programs, developed political education curricula, and coordinated campaigns to close detention centers and shift public resources toward community care. Her work centers on training community members, mobilizing impacted people to influence policy, and challenging the criminalization of migration. 

First Name: Avery Last Name: Shivers Email: ashivers@mdlab.org Role: Equal Justice Works Community Organizer Fellow Biography: Avery Shivers is an Equal Justice Works Community Organizing Fellow at Maryland Legal Aid, where he works alongside low-income tenants to combat involuntary displacement and expand access to eviction defense services. Drawing on his background in housing justice and community organizing, Avery collaborates with attorneys and tenant groups across Maryland to strengthen legal partnerships and support collective tenant action. His work includes Know Your Rights trainings, canvassing, and consulting with staff across twelve offices to empower renters with legal knowledge. Avery’s advocacy is rooted in lived experience and a commitment to building tenant power among Black and Brown communities.