At Pro Bono Net, we are a dedicated and diverse team of individuals with the belief that technology is key to bringing the power of the law to all.

Our Staff

Mark O’Brien
Executive Director

Mark O'Brien is the co-founder and Executive Director of Pro Bono Net, a national nonprofit that increases access to justice for the poor and other vulnerable populations through innovative uses of technology, collaboration and volunteer mobilization. Founded in 1998, Pro Bono Net has built web platforms to support public interest lawyers, build broad based justice partnerships, and empower people in need to solve their own legal problems. Prior to starting Pro Bono Net, Mark spent eight years building a nationally recognized pro bono program at Davis Polk. He is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, where he co-teaches the Technology, Innovation, and Law Practice Practicum. Mark was named a 2012 FastCase 50 honoree for his contributions to the legal technology field.

Liz Keith
State and National Programs Director

Liz has played a key role in Pro Bono Net’s program strategy for more than a decade. She joined Pro Bono Net as a LawHelp Circuit Rider, working with legal aid programs in 25 states to build online resources to increase access to legal help for low income communities. As Program Director, Liz now manages strategic initiatives and programs at Pro Bono Net that equip individuals and communities with new tools to tackle civil justice problems. Previously, Liz managed outreach and education efforts at the Maine Women’s Policy Center on legislation impacting women’s health, civil rights, economic security and freedom from violence, and worked to increase the number of women running for office. She holds a master's degree in community informatics from the University of Michigan, and has served as a consultant to digital inclusion initiatives in Haiti and Chile. In 2015, she was selected to participate in the inaugural Legal Empowerment Leadership program at Central European University’s School of Public Policy. Liz hails from South Jersey originally and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rodrigo Camarena
Director, Justicia Lab

Rodrigo Camarena is the Director of the Immigration Advocates Network, the largest network of nonprofit legal advocates committed to defending immigrants. Rodrigo was formerly Strategy Director at Purpose where he developed advocacy campaigns, digital products and brand strategies for global change-makers like the Ford Foundation, UNICEF, and Fwd.us. Prior to Purpose, Rodrigo developed new initiatives to tackle economic inequality as Executive Director of Business Growth Programs for the City of New York. Rodrigo is also the former Executive Director of the Mixteca Organization - an immigrant rights organization based in Sunset Park Brooklyn.

Doug Carlson
Director of Technology & Operations

Doug's background includes leading both technology and operations for a range of companies in the tech, services, and non-profit spaces. He has served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer for a number of firms, with a focus on startups and high growth organizations. Doug founded and built a 100 person Internet technologies firm, running it for eight years before selling it to a publicly traded firm. He recently completed a four-year consulting engagement with Teach For America, revamping their HR, recruiting, and financial operations, implementing new core corporate systems, and helping them build out and mature their technology operations.

Paul Bennett
Director of Finance & Administration

Paul coordinates the financial, human resource, and administrative support functions at Pro Bono Net. Paul has almost two decades of nonprofit finance experience as a financial consultant and manager. His claim to minor fame was to lead the research on the IRS form 990 that resulted in the Financial SCAN product from Guidestar. Prior to Pro Bono Net, Paul served as the Director of Finance and Administration at Hunger Free America and the Chief Financial Officer of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Paul also served as a consultant at the Nonprofit Finance Fund where he served as a Senior Consultant and Director of Analytics, amongst other roles. Paul has taught “Advanced Excel” as an adjunct professor at NYU and is an alumni of the Coro Fellows Program. Paul is a Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional.

Megan Vizzini
Director of Business Development
Tim Baran
Program Director, New York Justice Initiatives

Tim joined Pro Bono Net in June 2018. His two-decade journey in the legal space has taken him from the Federal Courts to Law Firm Library Director to Legal Tech Ambassador to Legal Marketing. He works closely with legal services and community-based organizations and manages initiatives that leverage technology and LawHelpNY’s online resources to expand access to legal assistance for low-income and vulnerable communities and strengthen collaboration within the civil justice sector in New York. His LawHelpNY work with Pro Bono Net engages his passion for access to justice and love of community. He’s an avid podcaster - listening and hosting - but please don’t hold that against him. Tim likes to travel but loves coming back to Manhattan, his home for more than 20 years.

Don Bellamy
Senior Developer

Don joined Pro Bono Net in February 2013 after spending several years working as a subcontractor for the organization. He has led the development of legal technology products that serve more than 8 million people a year and has experience in multiple back and front-end development frameworks, including ColdFusion, Drupal, Next.JS, Bootstrap and Tailwind. Prior to joining Pro Bono Net, he ran his own consulting company and has over 20 years of experience in the web development field. He lives with his wife and four daughters in Dewitt, Michigan.

Ariadne Brazo
Product Manager

Ariadne is a product manager with a background in both tech and the social sciences. After earning her MSW and spending two years doing case management for LGBTQ folx in NYC, she joined an early stage startup called Healthify working to build digital tools for social workers. Since then she has worked on a variety of projects that utilize digital technology for social good. Most recently, Ariadne was a fellow in the pilot cohort of the Compass Fellowship, a program designed to train and transition existing tech talent into the progressive tech space. Ariadne is now the product manager for LawHelp and probono.net, digital platforms that help thousands of people each year solve life-changing legal issues and that strengthen the work of advocates serving them. Ariadne’s passions include the great outdoors and the great indoors as well as reading with a focus on fiction and non-fiction. She also enjoys dancing, biking, and irony.

Jessica Darling
Development & Communications Coordinator

Jessica (Jess) joined Pro Bono Net in June 2018 and plays a key role in driving Pro Bono Net's development and communications strategies, campaigns and events. Jess graduated from Pace University with a B.A. in Communications and with a minor in Marketing. She enjoys volunteering, writing, and exploring the city in her spare time. Originally from New Hampshire, Jess now happily lives in New York City.

Van Emerald
Product Support Specialist

Van joined Pro Bono Net in January 2023 as a Product Support Specialist. Before switching career paths into the legal tech industry three years ago, they were a case manager in various social service programs across Chicago. Van was a 2019 cohort member of the Aids Foundation Chicago Public Health Boot Camp to foster community leaders across Chicago. They have been a certified street medic for activists and community organizers since 2017. Van enjoys analyzing user experience and collaboratively problem solving to improve systems that result in more positive outcomes. They are passionate about community development, mutual aid, disability justice, public health, and all the intersections of those in between.

Kevin Freyne
Quality Engineer

Kevin joined Pro Bono Net full-time in November 2007, and now serves as the QA Engineer. Prior to joining Pro Bono Net, he worked for Plural Inc and Dell Professional Services (DPS). Kevin received an A.S. degree in Business Management from the Borough of Manhattan Community College in December 2007. In his spare time, Kevin is an avid (but not very good) golfer. He lives in Pennsylvania.

Sam Harden
Program Manager

Sam is a lawyer, technologist, and a believer that technology can help bridge the access-to-justice gap. He likes to get his hands dirty and is constantly building and experimenting with ways to apply technology to law. Sam was a Fastcase 50 recipient in 2017 as well as a guest on the Lawyerist Podcast to talk about his work. The ABA Journal profiled his LegalOptics project in October of 2017. He's written a good bit for Lawyerist about legal technology and small firm practice, and is an occasional speaker about the intersection of law and technology. Sam previously worked as the Development Team Leader for the Florida Justice Technology Center as well as the Project Manager for the Florida Criminal Justice Data Pilot Project with Measures for Justice.

Kanchana Hegde
Quality Engineer

Kanchana joined Pro Bono Net in January 2013 after previously working with a start-up pharmaceutical company in India, and in California as a QA tester. Kanchana earned her Bachelor's degree in Science from India, and was a part of the certificate program at Hudson County School of Technology on Inclusive Education. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Amy Hill
Finance and Administration Associate

Amy joined Pro Bono Net in December 2019. As the Finance & Administration Associate, she coordinates the financial, human resource, and administrative support functions at Pro Bono Net. Amy has a background in retail management, operations, and political science. She is an avid reader, a hiker, and a culinary enthusiast. She lives in New York City.

Claudia Johnson
Program Manager, LawHelp Interactive

Claudia is the Program Manager for LawHelp Interactive at Pro Bono Net. Under her stewardship LHI has grown to be the largest and most used online form platform in the US. In this capacity Claudia supports a network of legal nonprofits, Pro Bono Programs, and other groups creating, funding, and using online forms to improve their work and make it better for those without lawyers to create legal documents for free. Claudia practiced public interest law for 15 years in CA and Philadelphia before joining Pro Bono Net, including being a Managing Attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid, and Supervising Attorney at the Bar Association of SF, where she worked to establish the lawyer for the day program in SF Superior Court in 2002/2003. She participates in multiple advisory boards including the ATJ Fellows Program, to Dean Ted Ruger's New Innovation Center, and Penn's Toll Public Interest Center. She also is a member of the tech committee for the ATJ Board in Washington State. She has been recognized throughout her career for her contributions, most recently receiving the Promoter of Justice Award by the WA ATJ Board. She has also received the Fastcase 50, and Women in Law. She has an MPP/MPH from UC Berkeley and a BA from the same university. She graduated from Penn Law and was a Skadden Fellow from 1997-1999. Claudia is bi-coastal spending time both in Eastern WA and Maryland.

Sanam Malik
Project Manager

Sanam joined Pro Bono Net in 2022. She is an experienced advocate for underserved communities, with a background in immigration policy and anti-hate work. She has over 10 years of experience in the field, having worked with leading think tanks in Washington, DC. Sanam authored numerous policy and research columns on the impact of hate speech and hate crimes. One of Sanam's columns, When Public Figures Normalize Hate, was picked up by and written about by Jorge Ramos of Univision. In 2020, Sanam graduated from a Software Development Bootcamp and worked as a Digital Project Manager for tech-for-good startups. Sanam is passionate about the transformative power of technology and is genuinely interested in the way she can leverage technology to positively impact society. She is also committed to creating an inclusive and safe society, and her work is grounded in understanding the needs of underserved communities.

Patricia Malone
Legal Director, New York Justice Initiatives

Pat brings nearly 20 years immigration law and project management experience to her role as Associate Director of the Immigration Advocates Network. She helps manage staff and programs; and, writes legal content for IAN's online resources. Pat previously worked at Catholic Legal Immigration Network. (CLINIC), where she managed local outreach projects, represented immigrants in proceedings, trained and supported immigration practitioners, and recruited pro bono counsel to represent immigrant children. Prior to CLINIC, she worked at Proyecto Libertad in Harlingen, Texas and AYUDA in Washington, D.C. Her interest in the work comes from a strong sense of history, and a passion for social justice.

Joshua Medina
Legal User Experience Designer, Justicia Lab

Joshua Medina is Justicia Lab’s Legal User Experience (UX) Designer working to transform immigrant justice through collaboration, creativity, and technology. Following over a decade of experience running community-based nonprofit legal immigration programs and working with victims’ rights professionals across the country, Joshua brings legal expertise and a proven user experience skillset into the development and management of innovative technological tools that change the way legal help reaches underserved communities.

Ruthe Myers
Finance & Administration Associate

Ruthe joined Pro Bono Net in August 2022. As a Finance & Administration Associate, she helps coordinate the financials, administration support, and human resource functions of Pro Bono Net. Ruthe earned her B.S in Professional Service Communications from Tennessee Technological University in December 2010. In her free time, Ruthe enjoys reading, being outdoors, music, experimenting in the kitchen, and spending time with her family. Ruthe currently resides in northern Alabama.

Yvonne Ngo
Program Associate, New York Justice Initiatives

Yvonne Ngo is the Program Associate for the New York Justice Initiatives. Yvonne supports several projects, including state and national programs. Prior to joining Pro Bono Net, Yvonne volunteered for an organization dedicated to helping low-income communities in New York. She is eager to help expand access to justice by connecting those in need of legal help through Pro Bono Net's digital tools and resources.

Maria Puente
Volunteer Coordinator, New York Justice Initiatives

Maria joined Pro Bono Net in July 2023 as the Volunteer Coordinator for the LawHelpNY program. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in Psychology and comes from a years-long journey in public mental health – from working with adults in hospital wards to working with children with special needs. She is an enthusiastic proponent of community social support systems as well as DEI improvement efforts. Maria is excited about bringing her skills and experience to the legal non-profit sector and creating a positive impact on individuals and our communities. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, exploring new countries and cultures, and spending time with her family.

Simon Rah
Senior Project Manager

Simon joined Pro Bono Net in September 2015 as a Senior Project Manager. He has been working in the IT field for over fifteen years in various capacity from programmer, statistician and systems analyst to project manager and department director. Over the years, he has worked primarily with non-profits, government and community-based organizations, helping them build and implement IT solutions to support their important work. He earned a Bachelor's in Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences from Brown University and a Master's in Experimental Psychology at C.U.N.Y. Before moving into IT, he taught undergraduate psychology courses for about 6 years and fantasizes about going back one day. He is a fan of media, especially video games, that combine his love of technology, art and story. His time working at ESRB fed his addiction and probably did not help his social life any.

Wantee Ramkaran
Program Manager for New York Justice Initiatives

Wantee joined Pro Bono Net in May 2020 as a LiveHelp Program Associate. She received her J.D. from Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, and B.A. in Political Science from Queens College, City University of New York in 2017. As a law student, Wantee began volunteering with LawHelpNY in October 2017. As a LiveHelp volunteer, Wantee found her passion for using her law degree to assist disadvantaged individuals in our community and expanding legal access to justice. She is grateful for the opportunity to begin her law career at Pro Bono Net.

Ken Ramsey
Project Manager, Immigration Advocates Network

Since 2010, Ken has steered projects at Immigration Advocates Network (IAN) from concept to fruition. From website design and development to mobile app creation, he has worked on nearly every program in IAN’s portfolio, with a current emphasis on Citizenshipworks and immi. Prior to that, Ken provided in-the-field resettlement services to newly-arrived refugees and directed program delivery for resettlement at CWS. Ken lives in New Jersey with his son and two cats and spends his spare time at the beach, travelling, and listening to loud music.

Sandra Sandoval Chavarria
Citizenshipworks Program Manager, Immigration Advocates Network

Sandra joined the Immigration Advocates Network in October 2013. As Citizenshipworks Program Manager, Sandra leads strategy implementation and assists in product development of Citizenshipworks – a free online tool that helps individuals apply for citizenship. Prior to joining IAN, Sandra worked with San Antonio Immigrant Youth Movement (SAIYM), a youth-led movement to empower undocumented youth by providing resources, tools, and guidance to help navigate the higher education system. Sandra is a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio and received an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Jessica Stuart
Senior Product Manager, Pro Bono Manager

Jessica joined the Pro Bono Net team in August 2008, working first as LawHelp Program Associate and now as Senior Product Manager for Pro Bono Manager. Prior to joining Pro Bono Net, Jessica lived in Los Angeles and worked for a major motion picture company on the rebuild of a B2B Asset Management application used by a number of different internal and external stakeholders. She now enjoys applying her interest in operations to helping law firms use technology to make their pro bono programs run more efficiently. Jessica earned her B.A. in Communication Processes from the University of Connecticut, and now lives in New York City.

Marissa Wallace
AmeriCorp VISTA, New York Justice Initiatives

Marissa Wallace is the Americorp VISTA member for the New York Justice Initiatives in 2023-2024. She is a recent graduate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and holds a B.S. in Communication Studies with a certification in International Public Relations. Currently pursuing her M.S. in Public Relations and Corporate Communications at New York University, Marissa is passionate about using her expertise to make a positive impact in the legal non-profit sector. With several years of experience in promoting mental health and telehealth services within minority communities in the Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina metropolitan areas, she is eager to expand her skills and contribute to the mission of Pro Bono Net.

Maria Yuquilima
Partnership Associate, Justicia Lab

Maria joined Justicia Lab in January of 2023. As the partnership associate Maria harvests relationships with other organizations, communities and individuals to continue to help bridge the access to justice. Maria comes from an extensive immigrant advocacy background - from working on immigration court proceedings, family based petitions, adjustment of statuses, naturalizations and employment immigration. She enjoys community organizing and helping others fulfill their missions and goals. Maria believes that migrant rights are human rights and that justice should be equitable and accessible to all. In 2020 Maria received her B.S. in Criminal Justice and minored in Psychology. In her free time Maria likes to travel, hike, and spend time with her family.