Central West Justice Center, an affiliate of Community Legal Aid, announces that attorney Claudia Quintero has been named its director. Quintero will oversee a team of lawyers, paralegals, and staff who assist low-income and elderly clients with immigration, housing, and employment benefits in the five counties of Central and Western Massachusetts (Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester). CWJC, which has offices in Worcester, Fitchburg, Northampton, Springfield and Pittsfield, also houses the statewide Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Project. Quintero replaces Kristen Williams, who has been named chief operating officer of Community Legal Aid.
Quintero joined the Central West Justice Center in 2017 as the staff attorney for the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Project, where she assisted farmworkers in immigration, employment, housing, benefits, and family law cases. Since 2021, she has also led the Fairness for Farmworkers Coalition, a group engaged in legislative advocacy to support a law that would entitle farmworkers to a minimum wage and overtime pay.
Since 2022, Quintero served as an assistant professor of law at Western New England University School of Law in Springfield, teaching first-year law students the foundational lawyering skills of legal research and writing. She will continue to teach Law and Social Change as an adjunct professor at the school.
Quintero received her law degree, cum laude, from the Western New England University School of Law. She was a Public Interest Scholar and a member of the Law Review. She also led the National Lawyers Guild student chapter and founded the Latino/a Law Student Association. In 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services Attorney awarded Quintero the exceptional student Adams Award for spearheading initiatives to engage her fellow students in public interest activities. She also received the Student of the Year award from the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Quintero earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication studies with a minor in music from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Master of Science degree in rhetoric from the University of Utah.
In her new role, Williams will help oversee the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of Community Legal Aid. Williams will provide supervision for and resources to other legal managers throughout the organization’s six offices.
Williams joined Community Legal Aid in 2014 as an AmeriCorps member assisting tenants in eviction cases. She then became a staff attorney representing clients in public benefits cases, including Social Security and unemployment. She has been an active member of Community Legal Aid’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee (which she currently co-chairs) and Technology team. Originally from the suburbs of Philadelphia, Williams attended Williams College and Boston College Law School.
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Dalton & Finegold LLP, a law firm specializing in real estate law, estate planning and litigation, announces the promotions of Paige Shlayen and Mckenzie Russell-Masterson to partner.
Shlayen was most recently a senior associate at the firm and specializes in residential real estate with a focus on buyer and seller representation. She joined the firm in June 2020, having previously worked in compliance for Santander Bank, and works out of the Boston office. Shlayen is a graduate of Quinnipiac University and New York Law School.
Russell-Masterson last held the position of associate and specializes in residential real estate, with a focus on home buyers, sellers, and developers. She joined the firm in February 2018 and leads the Longmeadow office while also serving clients from Boston to the Berkshires. Russell-Masterson is a graduate of Saint Anselm College and New England Law.
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The directors of The Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation, based in Springfield, have announced that Kiley O’Meara has been named new executive director. O’Meara will oversee the foundation’s strategic initiatives and brings with her three decades of experience in philanthropy, policy and education.
For the past year, O’Meara has served the foundation as director of strategy and learning. She previously worked as a senior researcher at Stanford University at the PACE (Policy Analysis for California Education) research center.
Specializing in improving education for low-income youth, O’Meara has conducted research on initiatives supported by major foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Her career includes roles such as director of policy and research at GreatSchools; program officer at The Stupski Foundation in San Francisco; and policy director of the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative, part of the national Hewlett-Annenberg Challenge school improvement effort.
O’Meara served as an AmeriCorps member after graduating college, teaching inmates at the Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston. She then went on to be an educator before entering the realm of policy and research.
O’Meara grew up, studied and worked in Massachusetts and spent 20 years in California before returning to the East Coast. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College. O’Meara serves in leadership roles at Choate Rosemary Hall’s Parents Association and the Harvard Alumnae Association, and also volunteers at Healing Meals in Simsbury, Connecticut.
