Dorothy Alther was made the Executive Director of CILS in July 2013. Ms. Alther is the recipient of the national 2010 Pierce Hickerson Award which is granted to distinguished Indian legal services attorneys. She also received the “Outstanding Achievement in California Indian Law” award from the California Indian Lawyers Association in 2014. Dorothy has been an attorney with CILS since 1989 and has practiced Indian law since1985. Ms. Alther was in the Bishop CILS Office until she relocated to the Escondido Office in 2003. In addition to her executive and administrative duties, Ms. Alther maintains an active caseload serving as legal counsel for several Tribes and tribal entities. Her current work focuses on impact litigation on matters of federal Indian law as well as working directly with tribes on building tribal governmental infrastructure. Ms. Alther has assisted tribes with tribal court and law enforcement development, working with tribes on establishing or revising tribal governing documents and building tribal program law. Ms. Alther is also active in ensuring CILS is involved in state and federal issues impacting Tribes and tribal communities. This includes providing comments on behalf of the tribal client to pending state and federal rules or legislation, partnering with others and tribal coalitions to advance legislation or regulation to protect and enhance tribal governments and providing community information and awareness on critical issues impacting California tribes. Ms. Alther has been a trainer on Public Law 280, the Indian Child Welfare Act, Housing law,  Tribal Law Enforcement, Building Tribal Courts, Tribal Law and Order Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and Cultural Resource Protection. Dorothy is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and graduated from the University of South Dakota and earned her J.D. from Northeastern University. Ms. Alther served as Managing Attorney at DNA’s People’s Legal Services in Crownpoint, New Mexico before coming to CILS and has acted as Tribal Attorney for the Suquamish Tribe in Washington.

Debra Avenmarg joins CILS as a Staff Attorney in the Eureka office. She received her J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law in 2010 and received a B.S. in Business and B.A. in Economics from Humboldt State University in 2005. Debra joins CILS with years of Child Welfare experience from many different roles and perspectives. In 2005, she volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for three foster youth, which inspired her to go to law school and practice Child Welfare Law. Debra has experience supervising visitation and transporting youth while working for a Foster Family Agency (FFA). She has also been a foster parent. She has advocated in the County role, and she has also represented parents, guardians, children, and Non-minor dependents in Child Welfare proceedings. Debra has worked in Lassen County, Marin County, and Humboldt County.  Debra is excited to now have the opportunity to represent tribes.

Denise Bareilles is the Directing Attorney at the Eureka office. Denise was born and raised in the U.S. Territory of Guam and moved to the states to attend law school at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. She graduated with a J.D. in 2004. Most of her legal career has been spent in Northern California where she currently resides with her husband and two young children. In her earlier years, she practiced in the areas of general civil litigation, insurance defense, probate, and estate planning. She worked for the Yurok Tribal Court from 2011 to 2017 and gained substantial experience in the areas of tribal court development, intergovernmental negotiations with county and state agencies, development and implementation of direct federal funding to tribal social services agencies under Title IV of the Social Security Act (which included development of the first tribal Title IV-D child support program in California), tribal code development, and the American Indian Probate and Reform Act. She is barred to practice law in the courts of the State of California, the U.S. Territory of Guam, and the Yurok Reservation.

Susan Platt Dalati began her legal career in 1988 as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Honolulu, Hawaii. During some of her time there she worked in the Domestic Violence Unit, Special Prosecution Division. Ms. Dalati has civil and family law experience. She has worked as a Court Liaison Officer for a police department and she has teaching experience. From 2002–2015, she worked at a local social service agency that assists victims/survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. She provided direct legal services, managed a center in north county San Diego for more than three years, and supervised and mentored many advocates, attorneys, interns, support staff, and volunteers. Ms. Dalati has provided trainings on domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking to many agencies and organizations. She helped to develop the High-Risk Team meetings for the north county region of San Diego. These meetings are attended by many local agencies and community partners to rapidly help and assist victims/survivors who are deemed to be at high risk of lethality. She currently co-chairs the North County Domestic Violence Coalition.

Michael Godbe joined CILS in 2019 as a Registered Legal Aid Attorney for the Bishop office. He returned to CILS after clerking with the Bishop office in 2014 while in law school. Prior to joining CILS, he practiced law in Wisconsin, protecting employees from discrimination and wrongful termination, and representing consumers experiencing abusive debt collection and false advertising. He received his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and his B.A. in History from Vassar College. Attorney Godbe is licensed to practice law in the state and federal courts of Wisconsin, and he is currently practicing law in California as a Registered Legal Aid Attorney. Attorney Godbe is a member of the National Lawyers Guild, the oldest progressive bar association and the first to integrate its ranks. Mike joined the board of directors of the Legal Aid Association of California (LAAC) in 2021. When not working, he enjoys hiking, gardening, spending time with his wife and two large cats, and turning wooden bowls on his lathe.

Kia Murdoch joined CILS as a Staff Attorney in 2021. Kia graduated from Willamette University College of Law in 2017 and earned her B.A. degree from the University of Wyoming in 2014. During law school, she clerked with the Oregon Department of Justice in the Child Dependency Section. She also worked for SOAR Immigration Legal Services, a legal aid organization in Portland, Oregon. Kia moved to California in 2017 and worked at a corporate immigration firm prior to passing the California Bar. Kia is an active volunteer in environmental advocacy, particularly regarding the preservation of California’s forests.

Christina J. Oleson joined CILS as a Staff Attorney in 2021. A native of San Diego County, Ms. Oleson was the youngest person to be elected President of the Ramona Bar Association where she organized monthly community legal clinics providing free legal assistance to the community. Ms. Oleson earned her law degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She also received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from California State University, San Marcos, and obtained an ABA Approved Paralegal Certificate from the University of California, San Diego Extension. Ms. Oleson is also a licensed California Real Estate Broker. Prior to joining the office, she worked for the Bakersfield City Attorney’s Office and the Fresno County Public Defender’s Office. Ms. Oleson also worked for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools representing School Districts in special education and student issues throughout California. Ms. Oleson is licensed to practice law in both California and Illinois. In her free time, Ms. Oleson enjoys exploring State and National Parks. An animal lover, she raises two cats and two dogs with her husband.

Jedd Parr has worked at CILS since 2005. He graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 2002 with a B.S. in Environmental Science. He was an environmental scientist with a Bay Area consulting firm for three years before moving to Bishop, California, where he started as a volunteer with CILS. Mr. Parr worked as an Advocate for two years in the Bishop office, and as an Advocate and Staff Attorney for eight years in the Eureka office, having received his J.D. from Northwestern California University in 2012. He is now the Directing Attorney for the Sacramento office.

Jay Petersen is a career legal services Attorney who started practice on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota where he worked as Reginald Heber Smith Community Law Fellow. Over his 20 year career with CILS, he has worked in the Bishop and Oakland offices. In Oakland, he worked as Directing Attorney. His caseloads have covered a wide range of issues that include non-profit representation, Native religious practices, legislative political restoration, un-termination litigation, access to trust land issues, habeas corpus, federal recognition, ICWA, and public benefits. He is active in the volunteer community and has worked on non-profit housing, domestic violence prevention, and recovery program boards. Jay recently earned a master’s degree in political science.

Mark Vezzola joined California Indian Legal Services as a Staff Attorney in 2009. Originally from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Mark graduated from UMass-Amherst in 2000 and moved to California in 2001 to study Indian law at UCLA where he earned his J.D. and M.A. in American Indian Studies. While in law school, Mark clerked for the Hopi Appellate Court in Keams Canyon, Arizona, the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C., and CILS during the summer of 2004. Upon passing the California bar exam, Mark worked as a litigator with Callahan, McCune & Willis, APLC, in downtown San Diego before returning to CILS. Aside from practicing law, Mark is an adjunct professor of history at San Diego Mesa College and American Indian Studies at Palomar College in San Marcos. He has published several articles and book chapters on the constitutional rights of incarcerated Native Americans to practice their religion as well as the issue of same-sex marriage in Native communities. Mark has served on the Board of Directors of the California Indian Law Association and the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program.