The Advisory Committee assists the Grant Committee of the Board of Directors in the review and selection of the Foundation’s annual grant recipients. Advisory Committee members are past Directors of the Foundation’s Board as well as any individuals subsequently nominated by the Foundation’s Board.
Michael Cleveland practiced labor and employment law at Vedder Price P.C. for 41 years until his retirement in June 2015. During that time, he litigated cases in state and federal courts throughout the country, including multiple class actions. He also held multiple firm management positions, including on the firm’s Executive Committee, and for the last several years of his practice served as the firm’s Ethics Counsel.
Doug Hallward-Driemeier is head of the Appellate and Supreme Court practice at Ropes & Gray LLP, and Managing Partner of the firm's Washington, D.C., office. Doug first worked with Barbara while he was at the DOJ Civil Appellate Staff and she at the Solicitor General's Office. Doug later succeeded Barbara both as Assistant to the Solicitor General and as member of the Board of Trustees at their church, Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, in Bethesda, Maryland. Doug has argued over 60 appeals, including before every federal circuit and 16 times before the United States Supreme Court. He served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation from 2009 to 2021 before transitioning to the Advisory Board.
Jim Kilbourne is a former attorney with the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice, having recently retired after working for the ENRD for nearly 43 years. In 1979, he joined ENRD through the Honor's Attorney program as a staff attorney in the Appellate Section; later transferred to the Division's Wildlife and Marine Resources Section, ultimately becoming Chief of that office; and then in 1995 he transferred back to the Appellate Section, as its Chief. He argued appeals in many of the federal circuits across the country and, over the years, worked closely with the Office of the Solicitor General on ENRD cases that went to the Supreme Court.
Hayley Maclean Coker, Barbara McDowell’s niece, is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist in private practice in Sacramento, California. She completed medical school and residency at the University of California, Davis. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she also competed on the women’s water polo team. Hayley had the pleasure of living with Barbara and Jerry for a summer while completing a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. Haley served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation from 2009 to 2021 before transitioning to the Advisory Board.
Matthew Roberts served as Special Counsel to the United States Sentencing Commission before retiring from federal service in July 2019. Prior to his role with the Sentencing Commission, Mr. Roberts worked as a Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the U.S. Department of Justice, from 2011 to 2017, where he focused on issues involving national security law. Before joining OLC, Mr. Roberts served for more than 12 years as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, where he had the privilege to be Barbara’s colleague and to present 30 oral arguments and file hundreds of briefs on behalf of the United States before the U.S. Supreme Court. He served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation from 2009 to 2021 before transitioning to the Advisory Board.
Rebecca Tarneja, Barbara McDowell's niece, is an attorney at Cooley LLP, where she handles a variety of complex business and commercial litigation matters. She is also active in pro bono, litigating several high-profile cases with the ACLU. During and after undergrad, Rebecca moved to Washington, D.C., where formed indelible memories with Barbara and Jerry. Barbara was and remains a big influence on Rebecca's pursuit of the law and social justice. Rebecca served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation from 2009 to 2021 before transitioning to the Advisory Board.
Richard Ugelow was a faculty member at the American University Law School until 2019 when he retired. Richard joined the law school faculty in 2002 following a 29-year career as a senior trial attorney and deputy section chief in the Employment Litigation Section, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice. At the Department of Justice, he supervised investigations and litigation to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and challenges to the constitutionality of federally sponsored affirmative action programs.
Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Richard was a captain in the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps for four years. Richard is a complaint examiner for the District of Columbia Office of Police Complaints, which is responsible for investigating and resolving citizen complaints filed against individual members of the Metropolitan Police Department. He is also a member of the Personnel Appeals Board of the United States Government Accountability Office.