Join the Palm Beach Chapter of the ACLU of Florida for our virtual 2021 Annual Meeting and Glasner Award ceremony on Sunday, March 14. We are thrilled to present our Glasner Award to Mark Schneider, president of the Palm Beach Chapter, for lifetime contributions to civil liberties in Palm Beach County.
Our featured speaker for the virtual event will be Dr. Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. Mark Schneider, president of the Palm Beach Chapter, will review the year in civil liberties in Palm Beach County.
ACLU members will also have a chance to vote on candidates for the chapter board. Biographies for chapter board nominations can be viewed online.
RSVP to receive the Zoom event details. Upon registration, you will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom details.
Chapter Board Nominations
The nominating committee of the PBC ACLU proposes the following slate of candidates for election to the Board in 2021. Incumbent members are indicated by an asterisk. Nominations will be accepted from the floor, but according to our by-laws, nominees must have attended three board meetings in the past year or three meetings of standing committees or a combination of both.
- *James Green: James K. Green has been practicing law in Palm Beach County for 38 years. He was former Legal Director of the Florida ACLU and was its President from 1993 to 1996. He is also a former Chair of the State Legal Panel and has been Chair of the Palm Beach Chapter Legal Panel for more than 30 years.
- *Leonard Gross: Leonard Gross is an Emeritus Professor of Law at Southern Illinois University School of Law. Before joining the faculty at Southern Illinois University in 1983, Professor Gross clerked for Judge Frederick L. Brown of the Massachusetts Appeals Court from 1976 to 1977, and practiced corporate litigation with the New York City law firm of Shearman & Sterling from 1977 to 1983. He is the author of many legal books and articles. His specialty is legal ethics. Leonard Gross is a member of the Palm Beach chapter of the ACLU where he serves on the legal panel. As a member of the legal panel, he has done research and written legal briefs and memoranda. On behalf of the ACLU he also has given many speeches to the community on civil liberties topics. He has also served as a legal observer on protest marches. Professor Gross is past president of the Southern Illinois Chapter of the ACLU. He is currently on the board of the Jewish Federation of Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri, and Western Kentucky and is their past president. He has served as a Reporter for the Illinois Judicial Conference and was a member of the Carbondale, Illinois Elementary School board. Leonard Gross has consulted and testified as an expert witness on cases involving legal ethics and legal malpractice.
- *Marica Halpern: Marcia Halpern serves as the Board’s Treasurer. She has been working with the ACLU’s People Power since the 2018 election on its texting platform. Using that experience, Marcia created a texting 2020 GOTV project for the League of Women Voters of PBC. Also, she has been on the board of Emergency Medical Assistance, Inc. serving as its Treasurer for the past 15 years.
- *Jill Hanson: Ms. Hanson is a cum laude graduate of Rutgers Law 2005 and practiced labor law in New York and Florida for a total of about 30 years. she was one of the founders of the first all female law firms in Florida. After retirement in 2009, she began her volunteer career, serving as a founding board member of El Sol, Jupiter’s Neighborhood Resource Center, as board president, and as a volunteer for among other things, legal services. She is also on the board, and past board president, of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, and a founder and past board member of the Palm Beach County for Immigrant Rights. She is also on the board of Esperanza, a new community center in northern West Palm Beach, which assists day laborers. Finally, she is a member and on the board of PEACE, People Engaged in Active Community Efforts, a justice ministry organization consisting of 20 congregations in Palm Beach. PEACE has successfully advocated for a funded system to aid victims of wage theft in the county; a reduction in out-of-school suspensions; an increase in civil citations for juveniles accused of non-violent misdemeanor offenses. We are currently advocating to expand the Community ID program, and to get police departments to track traffic stops by race and ethnicity, to determine whether racial profiling is happening. She’s served on the local ACLU board for three terms; and previously, in the 1990’s. She received the Harriet Glasner award, in 2012, and the Hon. Jose Labarga award from the Palm Beach County Hispanic Bar Association.
- *Marcia Hayden: Marcia is currently a chapter representative to the State Board and serves as its secretary. Marcia’s experience includes work in the nonprofit, educational and political field. She is an active member of her community. She serves on several boards and committees, including Village of Wellington Education Committee, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)-Florida, ACLU-Palm Beach County Chapter, Wellington Shores Homeowners Association, and a Commissioner on the Palm Beach County Planning Commission. For the past 20+ years she has actively participated in getting out the vote and developing political campaigns materials. In the past she coordinated and worked diligently on the Rights Restoration Project in Palm Beach County, holding Rights Restoration workshops across the county while partnering with various legal organizations; she has lobbied and raised funds for nonprofit organizations and causes including Amendment 4. During the last election, she worked with the ACLU of Florida and the League of Women Voters in Palm Beach County to create a plan for outreach to minority communities and returning citizens in Reference to Amendment 4. For the past 2+ years she has volunteered with the Americans for Immigrant Justice to conduct immigration legal screening clinics that offer free consultation to determine if residents are eligible for any immigration relief and/or legal representation and TPS renewals. Marcia Hayden was appointed by the Governor to the Palm Beach County Housing Authority in 2008, where she served as its Chairman from 2013-2015. Marcia has been an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority since 1974. A wife, mother, and grandmother, Marcia and her husband Frank are proud parents of 4 children and 5 grandchildren.
- *Turia Hayden: Turia Hayden has been a part of ACLU for over 15 years. She has participated in a host of different planning committees and has served as an at-large delegate to the State Board.
- *Art Levin: Presently, Mr. Levin is Executive Director of Cambodian NGO that aids land mine victims and consultant to governments and private sector on climate change and international law. Formerly, Chief of Staff of the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations specialized agency in Geneva, Switzerland, General Counsel of the OECD in Paris, senior investigating attorney with the Federal Trade Commission and private practice. Adjunct professor of law at the University of New Hampshire Law Center (1998-2005) and visiting professor at University of San Diego Law School.
- *Hazel Lucas: Ms. Lucas is the managing attorney of Florida Rural Legal Services. She graduated from Rutgers University and the Temple University School of Law. She has been associate counsel for the Palm Beach County School Board and an Adjunct Professor at Nova Southeastern School of Law. She is now serving as a member of the Legal Panel of the Chapter.
- *Rick Mades: Rick is the owner and director of Maine Arts Camp (maineartscamp.com), an overnight camp for youth ages 9-16. Rick started the camp in 2004 after being in the camping industry for over 20 years. The camp is geared toward bright and creative kids and teens, with extensive program offerings in the visual arts, performing arts, culinary arts, film photography, film making, writing and more. Rick does all the hiring and most of the camper recruiting. The camp generally has about 70-85 campers each two-week session, along with 35 staff. Maine Arts Camp is located on the campus of Thomas College in Waterville, Maine. Rick is a Florida Supreme Court certified county mediator (since 2014) and circuit civil mediator (2020). He also is a FINRA arbitrator (2019). Rick has been working in the 15th Circuit courts on a weekly basis since 2014, mainly in South County. Most of over 400 cases he has mediated have been landlord-tenant, along with many HOA/Condo, small claims and whatever other cases end up in county court. Rick has both undergraduate (B.A. in Economics - 1983) and graduate (M.A.T. with a mathematics concentration - 1990) from Tufts University (Massachusetts).
- *Manjunath Pendakur: Mr. Pendakur is a retired professor of film and media studies and has also served as dean at three public universities in the US and Canada. He has published a number of books and articles dealing with the political economy of the media. Educated in India, Canada and the U.S., Pendakur was instrumental in founding a human rights organization in Chicago known as India Alert and the Union for Democratic Communications, an academic organization. He has been committed to equity, diversity and civil liberties all his adult life. Currently Pendakur serves as Vice President of two boards in Palm Beach County - the Friends of Gumbo Limbo and Friends of the Boca Raton Public Library.
- Susan Riley: Ms. Riley's Interest in social justice started during the civil rights movement in the 1960s and resulted in her career as a university professor and a writer and producer of public television documentaries. Her documentaries include; The Fear Inside, about domestic violence ( WBRA, Roanoke, VA;) Hometown in Peril, about a hazardous waste dumpsite ( WPTO, Cincinnati and WPTD, Dayron, OH;) Transcending the Boundaries, about Bessie Coleman, the first African American aviatrix ( WPTO, Oxford, OH;) and Gail Della Piana: Art & Identity, about an African American artist who built structures in two villages in Ghana and eventually became their Queen Mother (National Museum of Women In the Arts, Washington, D.C. .) As a university professor she taught courses about documentaries & civil rights and scriptwriting at Virginia Tech and Miami of Ohio and finally, became the Director of the School of Communication & Multimedia Studies at FAU for 12 years. After returning to teaching, she was the Chief Bargainer for the FAU chapter of United Faculty of Florida until she retired. Presently, she volunteers at Florence Fuller Child Development Center and Boca Helping Hands and is a member of the Boca Raton Library Board. She would like to continue her work for social justice by joining the Board of the Palm Beach chapter of the ACLU, an organization she has supported during her years in Boca Raton.
- *Marsha Vinson: Marsha is currently serving her 2nd term as Secretary of the Palm Beach County Chapter of the ACLU of Florida. She also serves on the Intake Committee of the Legal Panel of the ACLU of Florida's Palm Beach County Chapter. Marsha was recruited as a Florida Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform Ambassador and participated in the Criminal Justice Volunteer Institute. She was invited to attend the Criminal Justice Reform Lobby Day in Tallahassee. Marsha was Gun Safety Chair for the League of Women Voters Palm Beach County Chapter. She was a League Speaker and News Reporter. She served as President, Kings Point Civic Association on Long Island. She was a Parent Member (mother of 4), New York State Committee on Special Education. She is a sports enthusiast – following University of Michigan teams and professional tennis and ice hockey. Marsha worked for Surrogate Millard Midonick in New York City. She was recruited as a Nader Raider for the Congress Project. She holds a JD, a Masters in Medical Informatics, and a Care Coordinator Certificate, Palm Beach County Medical Society. She was featured in The Wall Street Journal (1/13/13). Marsha’s growing involvement in the ACLU is a natural progression in her activism – her favorite subject in law school was Constitutional Law. As a long term community leader and advocate, she has consistently demonstrated strong passion for the protection of civil liberties and individual rights.
