Tzedek DC has promoted three senior staff members in a significant expansion of our leadership team. Long-time Associate Director Sarah Hollender has been named Deputy Director, and Senior Staff Attorneys A.J. Huber and Jorge Tormes have each been named to Associate Director positions.
These three leaders bring proven management experience and success and have already served in enhanced leadership roles, including during Founding Director Ariel Levinson-Waldman’s sabbatical earlier in 2024. The three of them bring a combined fifteen years of experience at Tzedek DC already, and a combined total of more than 35 years of legal, public interest, and management experience.
Ariel Levinson-Waldman said, “We have already benefited enormously from Sarah, A.J., and Jorge’s remarkable talents. In this next chapter, our management team is poised to be stronger than ever as we continue to grow the Tzedek DC team and show up for our teammates, expand our impact in support of DC residents, and, ultimately, work in broad community coalition to safeguard the legal rights and financial health of DC residents and to end the racial wealth gap in the District of Columbia.”
In response to community demand, Tzedek DC has grown rapidly as an organization in the nearly eight years since we opened our doors, and now has 20 paid staff members, three full-time staff volunteers, and, over time, 300+ volunteers who have helped provide critically needed capacity. The expansion of our senior management team reflects that growth as the organization adapts to more effectively and efficiently meet the needs of our clients and the community we serve.
Deputy Director Sarah Hollender has dedicated her entire 12-year legal career to civil legal aid. Sarah was the second lawyer to join Tzedek DC, in 2017, and has played a major role in the myriad ways the organization’s success, client and community member impact, and growth have evolved in the years since. As Deputy Director, she works with the senior leadership team to make and implement major organizational decisions, leads our internal decision-making and systems, grants-related work, and day-to-day operations, and supervises the Associate Directors and other team members.
Associate Director A.J. Huber has been part of the Tzedek DC team since 2020. During that time, he has represented hundreds of DC residents in individual and systemic legal matters, mentored numerous pro bono attorneys and interns, helped develop the Young Adult Financial Empowerment Program, and played a key role in reforming DC’s debt collection laws. He supervises Tzedek DC’s staff attorneys and leads our litigation efforts.
Associate Director Jorge Tormes has been part of the Tzedek DC team since 2020. Jorge has led Tzedek DC’s ¡Sin Deudas, Sin Dudas! (No Debts, No Doubts) Project, focused on providing services and outreach to DC’s Latino and Spanish-speaking community, and is working to expand our financial counseling program after playing a key role in its establishment. He supervises Tzedek DC’s program staff and leads our programmatic and outreach efforts.
About Tzedek DC
Tzedek DC’s name is drawn from the ancient Jewish teaching “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof,” or “Justice, justice you shall pursue.” Headquartered at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, and with offices also in Ward 8, Tzedek DC is a nonprofit organization. Our mission is to safeguard the legal rights and financial health of DC residents with lower incomes facing the often-devastating consequences of debt collection and credit-related obstacles. This mission is carried out as anti-racism work in response to the massive wealth gaps tracking race in DC and nationwide. Tzedek DC seeks to serve and empower its client base, which is comprised of 90% Black residents, 60% women, and 25% disabled community members. Our strategic approach combines three synergistic activities: (i) free direct services—legal representation and advice, and financial counseling; (ii) working in coalition to make systemic change; and (iii) providing bilingual community legal education on debt collection, identity theft, and credit management. Since 2017, Tzedek DC has served over 4,000 client households in legal matters and catalyzed systemic reforms benefiting hundreds of thousands of DC residents.