CLE Staff Bios

Choose the name on the left to view that individual's biography.

Kathleen Boundy - Co-Director

Kathleen Boundy co-director with Paul Weckstein of the Center for Law and Education, has an extensive background in education law based on providing legal support and technical assistance to attorneys and advocates representing low-income children and youth. An attorney with CLE for more than 20 years, Ms. Boundy has, in particular, played a significant role through legislation, policy development and litigation in implementing and enforcing the rights of students with disabilities, including to improved educational outcomes under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as amended, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Ms. Boundy has an M.A.T. degree in history, which she taught at a large urban public high school prior to earning her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law.

Duane Calhoun - IT Manager

Duane Calhoun, Information Technology Manager for the Center for Law and Education, has been with the company since summer 2000 on a part-time basis. His responsibilities include network and database administration and overall design, configuration, and maintenance of the technology department. Duane also maintains the CLE website and serves as webmaster. He regularly updates, enhances and maintains the site to reflect current information as well as facilitate navigation. He obtained a BS in Computer Science from Howard University in 1988. Duane's professional history includes integrating technology advantageously into the business of other organizations including the non- profit, Save the Children, HMOs and hospitals, technology companies, and several law offices in the Washington area.

Marko Fong - Staff Attorney

Marko Fong is a staff attorney in the Center's VOCED Project. Marko comes to us from Northern California. He has been involved in the educational reform movement as a teacher at the elementary and secondary level, as a researcher with the George Lucas Educational Foundation in charge of identifying exemplary school-to-work and school-community programs around the nation, as an active participant in the Coalition of Essential Schools, and as an English as a Second Language consultant. He considers CLE a rare opportunity to bring together these experiences with his legal background. Marko received an undergraduate degree in History and a Masters degreed in Education from Stanford University, and a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall School of Law).

Anne Henderson - Education Policy Consultant

Anne Henderson is an Education Policy Consultant and an expert in parent and family engagement. Anne consults to school districts, state and national organizations, and research associations on projects and studies relating to federal, state, and local education policy, especially in parent and community involvement. Anne has written numerous articles, reports and books, including A New Generation of Evidence: The Family is Critical to Student Achievement (1994) and, with various co-authors, Learning From Others: Good Programs and Successful Campaigns (1996) and Beyond the Bake Sale: An Educator's Guide to Working with Parents (1986). Currently, Anne is developing a tool kit to accompany her latest report, co-authored with Anne C. Lewis, Urgent Message: Families Crucial to School Reform. Prior to her work with the Center for Law and Education, Anne worked as a Senior Consultant to the National Committee for Citizens in Education, the International Meditation Society, the New Jersey Department of Education, the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Anne has a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and master's degree in Political Science from the Eagleton Institute at Rutgers University.

Eileen L. Ordover - Staff Attorney

Eileen Ordover has been an attorney with CLE where, since 1990, she has provided technical assistance, advice and training to attorneys and other advocates representing low-income students and parents, and represented students' interests before state and federal legislative and administrative bodies and in the courts. Her work at CLE has focused on such issues as the education rights of students with disabilities, including court-involved youth; school discipline and student rights; race, gender and language equity issues; education and training implications of welfare reform; and rights of students who are homeless. Prior to joining CLE, she practiced disability rights, mental health, environmental and energy law.

Larry Searcy - CAPS Coordinator

Larry Searcy serves as the national Coordinator of the Community Action for Public Schools (CAPS) initiative of the Center. In this capacity he is responsible for establishing a support network for CAPS members. Elements of the support network include the CAPS newsletter, the CLE Web Site and the dissemination of the CLE School Improvement Catalog. During his previous 28 years in human services, Larry served as the Chief Operating Officer of the National Parent Network on Disabilities (NPND). While at NPND Larry designed and implemented national training curriculums, conceptualized and implemented the NPND Friday Fax and worked with federal legislation. Prior to NPND, Larry directed the policy arm of Fairfax County Department of Human Development, developed and operated the Shared Communication and Assistance Network (SCAN) for the American Association of University Affiliated Programs and taught at the university and high school levels

Margarita Villalta - Office Manager

J. Margarita Villalta is the office manager at the Center for Law and Education. She has been with CLE for the past thirteen years. When she joined the Center, she was employed as a part-time receptionist/secretary with CLE and part-time with the National Consumer Law Center. One year later, she was hired as CLE's full time receptionist/secretary. In 1989, she became their administrative assistant and in 1991, she became CLE's office manager. Before Ms. Villalta came to CLE, she worked at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) for two and a half years, as their receptionist/administrative assistant. She also worked with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) as their membership assistant. In addition, she responds to requests for education related information from members of our Community Action for Public Schools project (CAPS).

Paul Weckstein - Co-Director

Paul Weckstein joined CLE full-time in 1978 as a staff attorney, moved to Washington to direct the DC office in 1981, and has been co-director with Kathy Boundy since 1990. He played a major role in shaping past and current reforms of Title I, the Perkins and School-to-Work Opportunities Acts, and other federal education legislation and has developed projects to assist with local implementation of both Title I/academic reform and vocational reform. He has written, trained, and advocated extensively in all areas of education affecting low-income students. Mr. Weckstein began his education career at the Massachusetts Department of Education, where he worked with high school students on involvement in school decision-making. He graduated from Haverford College and holds both education and law degrees from Harvard University, where he has also taught education law.