CLC’s Board of Director’s provides essential support, guidance, and oversight to the organization. Our dedicated Directors represent a variety of experiences, industries and professions. Their commitment to CLC and to children and families impacted by abuse and neglect makes them the outstanding ambassadors for the organization – helping to educate others about our mission and about the many ways we can work together to improve outcomes for California’s vulnerable children and families.

Jennifer Perry, Chair

Children’s Action Network

Jennifer Perry has been Executive Director of the Children’s Action Network since its inception. The organization is now involved in a campaign devoted to raising awareness about the 119,000 children in this country waiting for adoptive homes, and has been honored by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption. Ms. Perry currently serves on the Board of Directors of the North American Council on Adoptable Children and is the mother of two adopted children.

Richard E. Drooyan

Partner, Scheper, Kim & Harris LLP

Mr. Drooyan focuses his practice at Scheper, Kim & Harris LLP on civil litigation, white collar criminal defense and securities enforcement matters. He was formerly a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Prior to his work in private practice, Mr. Drooyan was the Chief Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California, responsible for oversight and management of over 200 government lawyers and support staff in the Criminal, Civil and Tax Divisions. Mr. Drooyan has served as President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, General Counsel of the Rampart Independent Review Panel, and Deputy Counsel of the Christopher Commission. A former member of the Boards of Ronald McDonald House Charities, the Inner City Law Center and the Lawyer’s Counsel of CRF, Mr. Drooyan is currently on the Board of the Western Center on Law and Poverty and previously served on the Board of Trustees of Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times.

Rusty Areias

California Strategies, LLC, Principal; California State Assembly Member, Retired

In a career that has spanned positions in both private enterprise and public service, Rusty Areias is widely recognized as an effective leader and public servant.  From 1982 – 1994 he served in the California State Assembly, working tirelessly to strengthen our state’s agricultural economy and enhance consumer rights, among other key issues. He was respected for his ability to find bipartisan solutions to complex issues. During his twelve year tenure, Mr. Areias authored 100 pieces of legislation that were signed into law.  He also serves as Director of the California Department of Parks and Recreation and California’s Coastal Commissioner, including two years as the Commission’s chairman.  

Dara Barker

Attorney

Ms. Barker is an attorney specializing in the area of juvenile law, both dependency and delinquency, and in family law. Ms. Barker developed, implemented and administered court policies and programs designed to improve the functioning of the juvenile court and the lives of dependents and wards under juvenile court jurisdiction. As an attorney for the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles, and as a minor’s counsel in family court, she represented numerous foster children and children in the middle of highly contested custody and visitation proceedings. She also served as a parenting plan coordinator and represented foster-adopt parents. Ms. Barker earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She taught juvenile law in the Children’s Rights Fellow program at Whittier Law School and taught at the UCLA School of Law. She co-authored a law review article, published in the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, entitled “A Child-Centered Response to the Elkins Family Law Task Force.” She has been a foster parent herself and adopted a child from the foster care system.

Dario Frommer

Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Dario Frommer is a leader in Akin Gumps’s California public law and policy practice. He provides strategic legal and political advice to key clients and represents clients in high-stakes matters before state and local government entities, including rulemaking, enforcement actions, procurements and investigations. Mr. Frommer also assists clients in the development of public policy. His broad experience includes energy, climate change, health care, tribal gaming, tax policy, transportation, government procurement and campaign and election law. Mr. Frommer has represented many of California’s most prominent companies and government agencies in his practice. He is a former majority leader of the California State Assembly and has held a variety of high-level state government positions. Prior to his return to private practice in 2006, Mr. Frommer, in addition to serving as the Assembly’s majority leader, chaired that body’s Health Committee. He also occupied a number of high-level state government posts, including serving as appointments secretary to Gov. Gray Davis. Mr. Frommer served as chair of the California Transportation Commission, helping to oversee billions of dollars in funding for highway, road and transit projects. He is Mayor Eric Garcetti’s appointee to the Oversight Board for the dissolution of the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency. In 2016, he was named to the national advisory board of the Moore School of Nursing at the University of California, Davis. He received a J.D. degree from the University of California, Davis, School of Law and a B.A. degree, cum laude, from Colgate University.

Leslie Starr Heimov

Executive Director, JD, CWLS, Children’s Law Center of California

Leslie Starr Heimov, Executive Director, has been with the Children’s Law Center of California (CLC) since 1992.  She began her legal career at CLC as a staff attorney, providing direct representation to parents and children in the dependency system, and later moved to a supervising attorney position. In 2004, Ms. Heimov became CLC’s first Policy Director, responsible for CLC’s legislative and policy agendas. In 2007, Ms. Heimov was named Executive Director and under her leadership, CLC expanded its programs to include representation of children in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Placer counties utilizing a multidisciplinary model of representation. She has worked tirelessly to promote best practices for multidisciplinary legal representation and improve outcomes for children and their families in the child welfare system.

Rex S. Heinke

California Appellate Law Group Appellate Counsel

Mr. Heinke is an appellate litigator with the California Appellate Law Group, LLP and has argued over 150 appeals in federal and state courts through the country. He is a member of Bet Tzedek’s and the Children’s Law Center’s Boards of Directors. He has previously served as President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, Chancery Club, the L.A. Copyright Society, Public Counsel, and the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation. He has also been a member of the State Bar Board of Governors, the California Judicial Council, the Board of Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the California State Bar’s Advisory Committee on the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, and the California Supreme Court’s Task Force on Multi-Jurisdictional Practice. He is a fellow of the American and California Academies of Appellate Lawyers, and has received several awards, including a First Amendment Lifetime Achievement Award, a Best Appellate Lawyer of the Year award, and the Beacon of Justice award. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Southern California Super Lawyers for over two decades. He has also received two ‘California Lawyer of the Year’ (CLAY) awards from The California Lawyer magazine.

Barbara Yanow Johnson

Johnson Law/Workplace Consulting

Ms. Johnson conducts workplace Investigations. She also serves as an Administrator of the Project Labor Agreement between organized labor and LAX covering over a billion dollars of new construction. Ms. Johnson also serves as a Hearing Officer for the County of Los Angeles Civil Service Commission, and serves on the Los Angeles Police Department Board of Rights. She has served as President of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Chair of the National Senior Citizens Law Center, and immediate past Chair of the State Bar IOLTA Program. Ms. Johnson served for eight years as Chief Assistant Attorney General at the California Department of Justice, and prior to that was for six years Special Assistant to the LA County District Attorney.

Neal Kaufman, MD, MPH

Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Canary Health

Neal Kaufman, MD, MPH, is Co-Founder of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and former Commissioner on the First 5 LA Commission. Dr. Kaufman, an experienced clinician and educator, has also been a leader in local, state and national efforts to improve the health of vulnerable populations. He is an expert in a range of areas including developing methods of educating patients and healthcare providers and delivering healthcare in a variety of settings. His 27 year career in academic Pediatrics included being the medical director of programs serving vulnerable children and their families, providing school-linked health and developmental services, developing a variety of programs for underserved children, and creating county-wide systems of healthcare for children in foster care. In 2004, Dr. Kaufman founded DPS Health to enhance the capacity of healthcare providers to improve the health of their patients through research-proven, online self-management support interventions.

Roland T. Kelly

General Counsel, Velocity Financial, Inc.

Mr. Kelly is a corporate, regulatory, governance and finance professional with a career spanning more than 20 years on Wall Street. Currently, Mr. Kelly is the General Counsel of Velocity Financial, Inc., an NYSE-listed real estate finance company.  Prior to taking on the executive position at Velocity, he served as a Managing Director and Associate General Counsel for Jefferies Financial Group Inc., a Fortune 500 company focused on investment and merchant banking. Mr. Kelly previously worked for the international law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and worked as a regulator with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As an attorney licensed in California, New York, and Washington D.C., Mr. Kelly has many years of experience dealing with public, private, and non-profit boards – both as a trusted advisor and board member. He previously was a member of the Board of Directors of Jefferies Family Scholarship and served on its Accounting and Audit Committee. Mr. Kelly earned his BS in Business Administration/Finance, Summa Cum Laude, from the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and his JD, Summa Cum Laude, from Pepperdine University School of Law. 

Sally K. Kelly

Principal, Apollo Insurance Solutions Group

Ms. Kelly is a finance executive with thirty plus years of finance, accounting and capital markets experience in the financial services industry.  Currently, she is a Principal with Apollo Insurance Solutions Group.  Apollo is one the largest alternative investment managers serving many of the world’s most prominent institutional investors.  Prior to Apollo, Ms. Kelly was the Chief Financial Officer of The Palisades Group, LLC, an investment adviser specializing in control-based mortgage credit investment strategies.  Previously, Ms. Kelly held senior positions at Bank of America and Bear Stearns.  Ms. Kelly started her career at KPMG where she provided audit and consulting services to public and private companies. Ms. Kelly earned her BS in Business Administration from California State University, Los Angeles and is a Certified Public Accountant in California.

Scott Langley

President of Scott Langley Insurance Agency, Inc

Mr. Langley has served as President of Scott Langley Insurance Agency, Inc., an independently owned State Farm Insurance Agency, providing insurance and financial services in California since 2002. Before opening the Agency, Mr. Langley practiced law with Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP, in their complex litigation group, focusing on employment, business and securities matters. Mr. Langley has extensive law and motion, and discovery experience in both State and Federal courts. Mr. Langley has always believed in contributing to the community in which he lives and has given his time to various volunteer, community-based and non-profit organizations focused on children. For over 27 years, he has volunteered as a youth sports coach for basketball, soccer, flag football, volleyball, and baseball leagues in the greater Los Angeles area. @CoachScottLangley is affectionately known as the “kid whisperer” for his tireless support, motivation, and encouragement of children from diverse backgrounds and skillsets to reach for success. Most recently, through his work with the Children’s Law Center, Mr. Langley served as an attorney for children impacted by the Department of Children and Family Services due to parental abuse, abandonment, and/or neglect. He assisted children clients with the securing of services, including, but not limited to, regional center services, tutoring, transportation, and financial assistance.

Carol Lifland

AMD Technologies, Inc., Principal

Ms. Lifland frequently serves as a mediator. Prior to becoming general counsel to a number of businesses in the medical device industry over the past 20 years, Ms. Lifland was a litigation partner at Cox, Castle and Nicholson, heading the firm’s in-house legal education program and co-editing its annual review of California law relating to the real estate and financial services industries. From 1980-81, Ms. Lifland worked at the U.S Department of Education in Chicago in the Office of Civil Rights Enforcement, where she co-authored a brief in a major school desegregation suit, analyzed census data and prepared an initial desegregation plan in the same case. From 1977-78, Ms. Lifland served as the Coordinator of a Child Advocacy Project for the Legal Aid Foundation of Chicago, Juvenile Impact Litigation Division. As the ombudsperson for juvenile wards of the state housed in mental health facilities, Ms. Lifland represented clients in administrative hearings regarding placement in “least restrictive alternative” housing and other services, wrote a self-help manual for consumers facing the denial or termination of mental health or social services, prepared materials for press conferences and legislative hearings and conducted community education seminars on administrative advocacy.

Samson Mengistu

Principal, The Mengistu Advisors LLC

Samson Mengistu has held various management roles with the City of Los Angeles in a successful public service career that spans more than three decades. He has regularly leveraged strategic relationships across public and private sectors to address complex business needs, and now leads a consulting practice based on those principles. Mr. Mengistu spent 25+ years specializing in airport management. As COO of Los Angeles World Airports, Mr. Mengistu spearheaded operational and technical innovations and supported a team of several thousand colleagues to lead Operations and Emergency Management, Finance and Budget, Administration, Information Technology, Facilities and Maintenance, and Air Service Development at LAX, the fourth largest airport in the world. His capital development and financial planning efforts for LAX guided the construction and acquisition of over $14.8 billion in improvements. Prior to his public sector tenure, he worked extensively in the property management field. He has served on numerous boards and committees in the Los Angeles area. Mr. Mengistu earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Master of Science in Public Administration from California State University, Los Angeles.

Patricia Phillips

Phillips Jessner LLP

Patricia Phillips is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and is certified by the State Bar of California as a Family Law Specialist, handling issues relating to the dissolution of marriage, including child custody and support issues. Ms Phillips frequently serves as a mediator and arbitrator for business, employment, and family matters. She is a member of various boards, including the Board of Maternal and Child Health Access and Loyola Law School Board of Visitors. She is a frequent lecturer and writer on family law issues, methods of dispute resolution, and professionalism. Ms. Phillips was the first woman to be elected President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and received its highest award, the Shattuck-Price Award. She has received numerous awards, including the ACLU Pro Bono Advocacy Award and most recently was honored for her community service by Maternal and Child Health Access and the Levitt & Quinn Family Law Center.

Terrie L. Robinson

Law Office of Terrie L. Robinson

Terrie L. Robinson is the principal of the Law Office of Terrie L. Robinson, LLP, which represents tribes in tribal cultural resources protection matters.  A fifth-generation Californian, Ms. Robinson has been licensed to practice law in California for thirty-two years and retired from service with the State of California in 2021.  During her sixteen years with the State of California, she served as the Legal Ethics and Accountability Attorney for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System; General Counsel for the California Native American Heritage Commission; Senior Board Counsel to the Chair of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board; and staff counsel to the Chancellor’s Office of the California Community College System and the California Earthquake Authority. Ms. Robinson most recently served as the Directing Attorney of the Sacramento Office of California Indian Legal Services.  

Ms. Robinson holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Stanford University; a Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton University; and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review.  In her spare time, Ms. Robinson enjoys mentoring youth with the Florin High School Law Academy, helping single mothers and military spouses secure employment with the State of California, cooking, reading, and writing. 

Milagros Saxon, PhD

Licensed Psychologist

Milagros Saxon, PhD is a licensed psychologist and former CEO and owner of New Day Psychotherapy Group, a mental health treatment clinic with several locations to support the Southern California community. Dr. Saxon specializes in working with patients experiencing trauma, eating disorders, addiction, and postpartum concerns. She earned her PhD from Pacifica Graduate Institute and combines her deep knowledge of evidence-based practices with psychoanalytic thought and interventions, which includes the value of creativity in the treatment room. She has advanced training from the Jung Institute of Los Angeles in Jungian Sandplay therapy, which is an effective modality for children, teens, adults, and even teams. From an organizational and operations perspective, Dr. Saxon’s leadership expertise as a Naval Officer has offered her special skills that she uses to develop good teams into great teams. She was trained at Cornell University in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and is an expert in culture cultivation and employee engagement.  

Individuals interested in learning about the role of the Board and how you can get involved in supporting CLC’s work should contact Board Chair, Jennifer Perry, or CLC Executive Director, Leslie Heimov