ASHLEIGH STARNES | January 27th, 2020
Big news: 2020 will be Marty Ellin’s last year at AVLF.
For the last 20 years, Marty Ellin’s leadership has established a stable foundation for the future of AVLF.
We’ve grown tremendously as an organization, hosted dozens of successful fundraisers, and moved the needle toward a safer and more stable Atlanta.
Under Marty’s wing, we fostered countless friendships within the Atlanta legal community and beyond.
We’re looking forward to strengthening these partnerships as we welcome Michael Lucas as our next Executive Director, effective January 1, 2021.
Under Michael’s leadership, we’ve grown to be at the forefront of place-based, mobile, and trauma-informed legal services that help low-income Atlantans reach the justice they deserve.
Since Michael began his tenure as Deputy Director in 2014, he has worked with Marty to safely guide our organization through a time of significant growth and change. Under Michael’s leadership – first as the head of Housing and Consumer Programs and now as our Deputy Director – we’ve grown to be at the forefront of place-based, mobile, and trauma-informed legal services that help low-income Atlantans reach the justice they deserve.
Our goals are innovative and ambitious, and there is no better person to lead us there than Michael.
This spring, we set out on a strategic planning process in which we mapped the next 5, 10, even 25 years of AVLF’s future. We spent countless hours determining the right goals and the right metrics to support us in our growth.
Our goals are innovative and ambitious, and there is no better person to lead us there than Michael.
Michael will honor Marty’s years of dedication to our mission by committing himself to thoughtful, creative, and socially conscious leadership as our Executive Director.
Thank you for standing with us in the fight for equal justice, and we look forward to building a fairer and more equitable Atlanta.
Read more about the Strategic Plan.
Ashleigh Starnes
Communications Manager
As AVLF’s Communications Manager, Ashleigh develops strategy, design, and content for AVLF’s digital and print communications. She’s deeply committed to sharing resources and education with her community at large – and makes it her mission to support AVLF’s programs and outreach in all they do.
Ashleigh is an Atlanta native. Before joining AVLF, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey. Ashleigh holds a Bachelor’s in English and Linguistics from the University of Georgia. She is also a performance artist, and can occasionally be seen performing movement pieces, poetry, and combinations of the two around Atlanta and beyond.
Check out more from this author.