Robin R. Runge, Esq.
Director

Robin R. Runge, Esq. is the Director of the Commission on Domestic Violence at the American Bar Association. As Director, she manages all aspects of Commission programming with the mission of improving access to justice for domestic violence victims by mobilizing the legal profession, including: fundraising, budget management, staff recruitment and management, program development and policy development. Robin speaks nationally, provides trainings, and writes articles on various aspects of the legal response to domestic violence, including the employment rights of domestic violence victims. The Commission collaborates with other national, statewide, regional and local bar associations, legal aid organizations and violence against women programs to provide technical assistance and training to attorneys representing domestic violence victims, including the development of programming, legal research, and publications.

Robin has been a domestic violence victim advocate for fifteen years. She practiced employment law for five years with a focus on women’s rights in employment, specifically the Family and Medical Leave Act, Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act and employment protections for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Robin is a nationally-recognized expert on the employment rights of victims and speaks and provides trainings regularly on these issues. She has co-authored several articles on employment law and domestic violence, and has worked on state and federal legislation providing job-guaranteed leave from work, unemployment insurance and anti-discrimination in employment for domestic violence and sexual assault victims.

Previously, Robin was Deputy Director and Coordinator of the Program on Women’s Employment Rights (POWER) at the D.C. Employment Justice Center and the coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Employment Project at the Employment Law Center, Legal Aid Society of San Francisco. In these capacities, she was responsible for the development and supervision of the legal, policy, and public education components of each program, including supervising legal clinics, supervising attorneys providing legal representation to low income women, and conducting trainings on these issues for domestic violence victims, advocates, policy-makers, attorneys and human resource managers. In 1997, Robin was the first George Washington University Law School graduate to receive one of fourteen Equal Justice Fellowships from Equal Justice Works (formerly the National Association for Public Interest Law) to create the Domestic Violence and Employment Project at the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco - one of the first programs in the country devoted exclusively to advocating for the employment rights of domestic violence victims. In 2000, Robin was a public policy attorney for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in its Washington, DC office.

Robin currently serves on the advisory boards of the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence (CAEPV) and the Women’s Information Network. In 2006, she was also appointed to the Washington, DC Mayor’s Commission on Women and joined the board of the District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH). From 2001-2005, she was a member of the board of directors of Women Empowered Against Violence (WEAVE), a non-profit agency providing legal, counseling and economic literacy support to domestic violence victims in Washington, DC and co-chair of the board in 2005. She has also served on the board of the California Alliance Against Domestic Violence (1998-2000), and co-chair of its Public Policy and Research Committee (1998-2000). Robin is currently an Associate Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School teaching Public Interest Lawyering and an Adjunct Professor at The American University Washington College of Law where she teaches Domestic Violence Law.

Robin is a member of the California Bar and District of Columbia Bar. She graduated from The George Washington University Law School where she received the West Publishing Award for Clinical Achievement in Family Law and the Baer Award for Individual Excellence. She received her B.A. in History and French, cum laude, from Wellesley College. Robin is from Collinsville, Illinois, outside of St. Louis, Missouri.

Rebecca Henry
Senior Staff Attorney

Rebecca Henry is the Senior Staff Attorney at the Commission, where she is responsible for developing and implementing technical assistance programs for civil attorneys with a domestic violence practice.

Rebecca has been advocating for victims since 1998, first as a legal services fellow representing DV survivors and their children in complex family matters, and then as Staff Attorney and Project Director of the OVW-funded Elder Justice Project. She is a frequent presenter on issues of domestic violence and elder abuse intervention and coordinated community response for civil attorneys and social service providers in both the DV and elder services communities. She served as a consultant for the Penobscot Indian Nation as they drafted their tribal elder abuse statute, and has served on several local and state-wide elder abuse/domestic violence coalitions and boards.

Rebecca is admitted to the New York and Maine bars, and clerked on the Sixth Circuit Court of Federal Appeals in Nashville, TN. She received her law degree from New York University, where she received the New York Bar Association’s Legal Ethics Award and served as a senior editor of the Review of Law and Social Change. Rebecca received her MA in philosophy and feminist theory from the University of Minnesota.

Kelly Behre
Staff Attorney

Kelly Behre has worked or volunteered with domestic violence and sexual assault programs since 1994. Kelly came to the Commission from the Sexual Assault Legal Institute, where she provided civil legal representation to survivors of sexual assault and provided trainings for professionals who work with survivors.

Prior to law school, Kelly researched issues involving the Appalachian region and rural sociology as a graduate student at the University of Kentucky. Kelly also worked as the Outreach Coordinator for the YWCA Spouse Abuse Center, where she worked to increase community support and understanding about domestic violence and provided counseling and support groups for victims of domestic violence.

Kelly is a member of the Maryland bar, and clerked for the Circuit Court of Frederick County, Maryland. She received her JD from Washington and Lee University School of Law, where she was awarded the Virginia Bar Family Section Award. Kelly received a BA in Sociology from Emory University.

Julia Strange
Program Assistant

Julia Strange joined the Commission in May 2007 as a Program Assistant. She has experience providing advocate services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault on a volunteer basis, working at a women’s shelter, and coordinating domestic violence public awareness campaigns. She volunteers for Survivors and Advocates for Empowerment (SAFE) and the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Before moving to DC, Julia served for two years in the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan. She taught English to middle and high school students and coordinated health trainings for nurses at rural health clinics. Julia received her BA in English Literature and Women’s Studies from Bowling Green State University, in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Mayme Donohue
Program Assistant

Mayme joined the Commission in February of 2008 as a Project Assistant, after working on Capitol Hill doing presswork for a Congressmember. A recent graduate of the University of Virginia, Mayme gained valuable experience working with several organizations to eradicate the prevalence of sexual assault on the grounds of the University and also provide direct support to victims of sexual assault. She devoted her extracurricular time to supporting and advocating for women at the University level, as well as in the greater Charlottesville community. She spent time abroad in Spain studying the language and the culture and graduated from UVA in May of 2007 with a B.A. in Spanish.

She is now pursuing a Master’s Degree in Political Management from The George Washington University and plans to graduate from that program in December 2008.

Amanda Kloer
Project Coordinator

Amanda joined the Commission in November 2007 to develop national and international training and educational materials to improve legal services for LGBT domestic violence victims and human trafficking victims. Amanda has been advocating for sexually exploited women and children since 2002, including founding and leading the local grassroots advocacy organization Students Opposing Slavery in 2004 and working with at-risk street youth in Tanzania and Zanzibar in 2005.

Prior to joining the Commission, Amanda conducted research and developed educational outreach materials on international and domestic sex trafficking for Shared Hope International. She has participated in the creation of several documentary films about sex trafficking and gender identity, as well as co-authored several reports on human trafficking.

Amanda received a BA with Honors from Elon University in International Studies and Social Justice Theory.