Steve Collier has been a staff attorney at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in San Francisco since 1987, representing low-income tenants in all aspects of housing law. He specializes in affirmative tenant suits for wrongful eviction and habitability, and Ellis Act eviction defense. In addition to his work at Tenderloin Housing Clinic, Steve is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Golden Gate University School of Law.
Leah Simon-Weisberg, Board Vice President
Leah Simon-Weisberg is the managing attorney of the Anti-Predatory Lending and Home Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Practice at Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA). Before coming to CLSEPA, Leah was the co-Executive Director of the Eviction Defense Network (EDN) in Los Angeles, California. At EDN, Leah litigated over 1,000 unlawful detainer cases on behalf of tenants facing eviction in Los Angeles County. Leah has extensive experience providing education to legal service providers as well as tenants and homeowners facing eviction and/or foreclosure.
Ted Gullicksen, Board Secretary & Treasurer
Ted Gullicksen is the executive director of the San Francisco Tenants Union. He has directed the SFTU since 1988, and has been at the forefront of successful organizing and legislative battles to strengthen rent control and eviction protections for San Francisco tenants. Prior to working at the SFTU, Ted did tenant rights & lead poisoning prevention work in Massachusetts.
María Guadalupe Arreola, Director
Lupe Arreola is the former Director of Counseling Programs at St Peter's Housing Committee where she worked from 2001 to 2008 counseling and organizing San Francisco tenants. Lupe has served on the board of directors of the San Francisco Community Land Trust and as a member of the Lead Poisoning Citizens' Advisory Committee. She has also served as a member of the Healthy Children Community Collaborative, and has received training in lead hazard and asthma risk assessment.
Gen Fujioka, Director
Gen Fujioka is the Senior Policy Advocate at the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development. Prior to this, Gen was the Director of Programs at the Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco based nonprofit law office dedicated to serving the needs of Asian Pacific Americans. Gen joined the Caucus in 1989 and served as its lead attorney on land use, eviction, and housing development cases as well as on other civil rights matters. Previously, Gen also served as a staff attorney for five years with the Legal Aid Society of Santa Clara County.
Larry Gross, Director
Larry Gross is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Economic Survival (CES). He has been with CES for nearly 37 years, since its inception in 1973. CES is a grassroots, multi-racial, multi-ethnic tenants' rights organization serving low and moderate income renters throughout the greater Los Angeles area. CES' impressive track record includes leading campaigns to win rent control in the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, among many other accomplishments. Larry has been selected to serve on many City housing task forces and committees over the years, most recently being appointed by the L.A. City Council to the City Rent Stabilization Ordinance Study Oversight Committee.
Staff
Dean Preston, Executive Director
Dean is the Executive Director of Tenants Together. Prior to launching Tenants Together, Dean was a staff attorney at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in San Francisco for seven years where he counseled low-income tenants, defended tenants against eviction, sued landlords for wrongful eviction and substandard housing conditions, and fought conversion of rent-controlled housing.
Gabe Treves, Program Coordinator
Prior to joining Tenants Together, Gabe spent five and a half years working as a researcher and campaigner in the labor movement, first with the United Farm Workers in the Central Valley and later with SEIU- United Healthcare Workers in Oakland. Before that, he worked with the Welcome Home Project of Berkeley-based Housing Rights, Inc., to identify the issues faced by immigrant tenants and to connect them with the appropriate local resources.
Gitanjali ("Giti") Dadlani, Organizer
Giti joins Tenants Together after organizing at Tenants & Neighbors, a New York-based tenants’ rights organization, where she advocated for stronger tenant protections in New York City and across the state. Prior to working as a tenant organizer, Giti worked at the Spatial Information Design Lab in New York, where she created and managed transportation and land use maps using ArcGIS software. Giti also coordinated membership of a neighborhood association in Manhattan, where she conducted outreach to residential and commercial tenants. Giti holds a B.A. in urban studies from Barnard College of Columbia University.
judy b., Administrative Assistant
After 10 years in journalism, judy b. put her writing, project management, and communication skills to work for various advocacy projects. She has written and edited for newspapers and websites, was once a radio producer/director, and has worked as a teacher, translator, and legal assistant. Her fiction appears in various online publications, including McSweeney’s.
