Who
We Are
Board of
Directors
Chairperson
Cristian S.
He/Him
Cristian was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley. He has a lifelong commitment of service to marginalized populations especially the LGBTQ+ and immigrant community. Cristian graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 2017. During law school he worked at the ACLU of Southern California’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. He also led a pro bono program that assisted transgender people in correcting their names and gender markers on their identity documents.
Cristian now works as a supervising attorney at RAICES in San Antonio. He leads the removal defense team, which represents clients in removal proceedings and stops them from being deported. Cristian is dedicated to providing high-quality legal and wraparound services to his immigrant clients. He is also passionate about finding novel ways to advocate for his clients in a changing immigration policy landscape. At RAICES, Cristian defends immigrants who are detained or non-detained from deportation. A focus of his work has been representing LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. He led a project assisting transgender women detained at South Texas Detention Complex with access to counsel and advocacy. Recently, he developed and ran an emergency shelter in Tijuana for a self-formed group of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers that were part of the caravan, as well as a temporary shelter for released trans women in San Antonio. Cristian enjoys horror movies, board games, and time spent with friends.
Vice Chairperson
Rick G., Jr.
He/Him
Rick is the Director of Program Support and Campus Sexual Assault Specialist for the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA). Prior to working at TAASA, Rick served as Deputy Director of Education & Development and Director of Prevention Education for The Rape Crisis Center in San Antonio. Rick started his career in the anti-sexual violence movement 20 years ago as a dedicated hospital advocate and hotline operator.
Understanding the need and the importance of education, Rick eventually started working with neighborhoods, other nonprofits, professionals, and schools by engaging them in dialogue surrounding the prevalence of sexual violence in our community and the ways we can prevent it. In addition to training on issues related to sexual assault, Rick works daily to ensure that communities across Texas understand the impact of sexual violence and its effect on the people of our state.
Secretary
Stephanie M.
She/Her
Stephanie (J.D. ’18) is the staff attorney for the Family Law Clinic at the Center for Legal and Social Justice at St. Mary’s University School of Law. Medellin represents clients in divorce, adoption, name change and probate cases in court. She also co-teaches clinic seminar classes and assists with the supervision of clinic student attorneys.
Before being a staff attorney, Medellin served as the Law School’s Director of Pro Bono Programs, where she oversaw the implementation of the service graduation requirement for J.D. students at St. Mary’s Law and served as the supervising attorney for the Identification Recovery Program, a law student-powered outreach effort at Haven for Hope, San Antonio’s largest homeless services provider.
Prior to joining St. Mary’s, she was a legal aid attorney and the director of the Legal Aid for Survivors of Sexual Assault (LASSA) Project with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she primarily represented survivors of domestic and sexual violence in divorce, custody and protective order cases but also represented clients in education cases from elementary school to college and transgender and nonbinary clients in name and gender marker corrections. She was also the shelter attorney for The Purple Door, the Coastal Bend’s domestic violence shelter, taking direct referrals regarding clients in shelter or receiving shelter services who need legal assistance, and she represented the shelter and staff to quash subpoenas or find alternatives to protect survivor privacy.
Medellin received her law degree from St. Mary’s School of Law, where she was a student coordinator for the Pro Bono Program and a student attorney with the Civil Justice Clinic. She is a first-generation college graduate who received undergraduate degrees in mathematics and biomedical science and a master’s degree in counseling from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi.
Board Member
Eduardo J.
He/Him/His
Eduardo, a San Antonio Westside native, was a Supervisory Trial Attorney (from 2001 to 2021) with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, San Antonio Field Office, where he litigated lawsuits under the federal civil rights statutes prohibiting employment discrimination.
Before the EEOC, Mr. Juarez was a Trial Attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and began his legal career as an Associate with the law firm of Sidley & Austin in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Juarez is currently a sole practitioner focused on legal representation of artists.
Eduardo received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and his law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law. He has served in leadership positions in various professional organizations, including as President of the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association and Chair of the LGBT Law Section for the State Bar of Texas.
Mr. Juarez was Chair of the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program Committee in 2021 and served on the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs for several years.
Board Member
Lisa M.
She/Her
Lisa is a Senior Product Designer at BECU with a passion for designing intuitive, equitable experiences that empower people in their financial lives. As a queer Latina in tech, she leads with empathy, creativity, and a commitment to building more inclusive communities both inside and outside the workplace.
Board Member
Jill N.
She/Her
Jill N., LPC-Associate, supervised by Dr. Bernadette Hassan Solorzano PsyD, LPC-S, is a counselor with a heart for community and a drive to make mental health care more accessible and human. Having earned her master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Jill is now pursuing her PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision—continuing her studies as a proud (and slightly over-caffeinated) doctoral student.
Jill currently practices in a private practice setting in San Antonio, where she provides counseling to adolescents, adults, and families. Her clinical work focuses on supporting survivors of sexual violence, individuals experiencing depression, and those navigating life transitions, identity exploration, and relationship challenges. Guided by a multicultural and trauma-informed framework, Jill integrates evidence-based interventions to meet the unique needs of each client.
Whether she’s supporting clients, mentoring students, or diving into research, Jill brings warmth, curiosity, and a deep belief in the power of people helping people
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This page last updated: 3 / 11 / 25.