 Ann Hilton Fisher
Email: ann@aidslegal.com
Ann joined AIDS Legal Council of Chicago as the Executive Director in 1997, after serving three-years as supervisor of the HIV/AIDS Law Project of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University Law School, Ann completed a clerkship with the Hon. Judge Fairchild of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit before joining the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, when she worked as a neighborhood attorney and as a senior attorney with the Disability Law Project before assuming the HIV position. In addition to client representation and counseling, outreach and training to community groups, and impact litigation and advocacy, Ann is responsible for the overall administration of ALCC's annual budget and staff. Ann has concentrated in representing people with disabilities for the last 20 years. She is a member of the American Bar Association AIDS Coordinating Committee and in 2001 received the Lawyers Trust Fund's Ester R. Rothstein Award for her leadership, integrity and commitment to ensuring access to justice. Most recently she was honored by the Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Bar Foundation with the 2007 Thomas H. Morsch Public Service Award, which honors exemplary lawyers who choose public service work as a career.
 Linella Lim Gavin
Email: linella@aidslegal.com
A native of Chicago’s Chinatown, Linella was only in high school when the ostracism and discrimination suffered by the young Ryan White caused her to commit to a career helping people impacted by HIV. A 1998 graduate of DePaul University College of Law, Linella has a broad range of experience delivering legal services to economically disadvantaged individuals. At ALCC, in addition to a regular caseload of discrimination and government benefits issues, she heads the Council’s Family Options Project. The Family Options project includes a team of attorneys and social workers who work together to help families affected by HIV/AIDS access quality health care, achieve financial stability, and make thoughtful future plans for their children.. She has advocated for change in the Illinois welfare system by serving as a member of the Illinois Department of Human Services' Family Self Sufficiency Advisory Council and Governor Rod Blagojevich's Welfare Transition Team. Prior to joining the Council in 1999, Linella was staff attorney with Georgia Legal Services in Savannah. Her law school activities included internships with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, the Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
 Ruth Edwards
Email:ruth@aidslegal.com
Ruth came to the Council in mid-2006 with 11 years experience in legal services, including with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, the legal clinic at the DePaul University College of Law, and Life-Span Center for Legal Services and Advocacy. In her prior positions, she developed substantial expertise in the representation of immigrants and victims of domestic violence and is the Council’s resident authority on immigration law. Ruth, who is fluent in Spanish, received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her law degree from Northeastern University in Boston.
 Justin Hayford
Email: justin@aidslegal.com
Since 1991, Justin has been the case manager at the AIDS Legal Council, where he volunteered for a year before joining the staff. In addition to handling hundreds of client matters every year, ranging from simple wills to complicated discrimination matters, he has written a series of nine booklets outlining Illinois AIDS Law for the Council. He has also trained groups of other professionals in HIV law, testified before legislative bodies, and taken on various state and local bureaucracies. A graduate of Northwestern University, Justin has written numerous articles focusing on various political and legal aspects of the AIDS crisis for The Chicago Reader, The Progressive, The Public Interest Law Reporter, and Positively Aware. Justin is also an award-winning cabaret performer, who has released several CDs of “forgotten gems” from the 30’s and 40’s on the national LML Music label. He regularly writes theater reviews for The Chicago Reader.
 Dale Green
Email: dale@aidslegal.com
Dale joined the staff as our Community Outreach Advocate and paralegal in October, 2001. He came to us from the Minority Outreach Intervention Project in Chicago where he coordinated activities in prevention case management, medical care, and HIV/AIDS counseling and testing predominantly with African-American gay men. Dale has spent most of his career in community service, including as a child welfare worker, where he gained extensive courtroom experience. Like many on the ALCC staff, he has the personal experience of friends and family being affected by the illness. He feels that “working at the AIDS Legal Council enables me to further assist the community one person at a time in curbing the continuation of discrimination, under-representation and misunderstanding.” Dale received his Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Master of Arts in Community Counseling from Northeastern Illinois University.
 Kate Miller
Email:
After receiving her M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, Kate became part of the Council’s legal team in 2002, inspired by its strong ethical commitment to care for individuals with HIV. Before she moved to Chicago for graduate school, Kate served in the Peace Corps in Ghana as a secondary school teacher and worked in Seattle as an on-the-street case manager aiding chronically homeless adults with substance abuse and mental health issues. During graduate school, she worked on a study identifying barriers that prevent HIV positive women from seeking appropriate health care and subsequently presented the research at the 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona. The research was published in 2005 in the journal Social Science and Medicine. Always an activist, Kate put together a coalition that saved a low income building in Seattle and currently serves on the Community Advisory Board for Project Wish, a University of Illinois research group focusing on vaccines for S.T.D.s; and the Global Community Advisory Board for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. At the Council, Kate is an aggressive and successful advocate for all of our clients, but especially for people with mental impairments. Since coming to the Council, Kate has earned certificates from the Cervantes Institute establishing her fluency in Spanish and was recently accredited by the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services to represent clients in adjustment interviews.
 Carey Nachtigall
Email: carey@aidslegal.com
Carey became a staff paralegal at the AIDS Legal Council in June 2000 after volunteering with us as a client advocate for eighteen months, taking on some of our toughest insurance cases and getting excellent results for our clients. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in psychology and has completed his Masters Coursework in Counseling through the University of Illinois at Springfield.. In addition to his posts as a student counselor and intern coordinator, Carey worked with the Gay Community AIDS Project, where he served as an openly HIV-positive speaker to school and professional groups.
 Steven Barrera
Email: steve@aidslegal.com
Steve joined ALCC as its administrative assistant in October, 2005. When a paralegal position opened up less than a year later, he applied and was quickly promoted. He is part of the Council’s Spanish-speaking legal staff and frequently assists clients at the CORE Center’s bi-lingual clinic, trains service providers, and performs outreach to audiences in the Latino community. In 2007 he joined the Chicago Area HIV Services Planning Council, which has the primary task of planning for HIV services and funding in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. For more than a year he has made regular appearances on Chicago’s CAN-TV, explaining HIV/AIDS legal issues and answering viewers’ calls. Steve earned his B.A. degree in English Literature with a minor in Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
Pete Subkoviak
Kevin Beaney