Melody Webb
Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director
Melody is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School. She has spent her career practicing public interest law, both paid and unpaid. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan, then on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Since then, Ms. Webb has focused on legislative and policy advocacy as Systemic Reform Attorney at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, as Legislative Counsel for US Senator Robert Casey, and as Associate General Counsel for Service Employees International Union. While at home raising her young children between 2002 and 2006 she ran several pro-bono advocacy campaigns on a variety of topics, working with local and national partners. She was quoted in the media often, including an appearance on the Dianne Rehm Show on NPR. She has supervised public interest attorneys as Legal Director for the Employment Justice Center, and public interest attorneys as Pro Bono Counsel for Neighborhood Legal Services Program of the District of Columbia. In addition, Ms. Webb has represented indigent parents through the Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect of the DC Superior Court, and served on the DC Superior Court, Court Improvement Program Advisory Committee. In 2016, the student body of Harvard Law School selected her as the alumni Gary Bellow Public Service Award recipient. From 2019 to 2021, Melody served as the Program Director of GW Law School Jacob Burns Community Legal Clinics, where she managed the legal operations and legal programming of the clinics. Additionally, she has designed and taught on the intersecting topics of race, class and family law and supervised students in the Family Justice Litigation Clinic.
Publications by Melody Webb:
- Building a Guaranteed Income to end the “Child Welfare” System Columbia Journal of Race and Law, Vol 12, No. 1 (2022)
- From Authoritarian Police State to Black-Inclusive Democracy University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 31 : No. 1 , Article 12 (202).
Cheli English-Figaro
Treasurer
Cheli, an initial board director of Mothers Outreach Network, is a co-founder and president emerita of Mocha Moms, Inc. She graduated from Yale University and Columbia University School of Law. Prior to leaving full-time employment outside the home, she practiced law in New York and Washington, D.C. She currently works part-time from home. She has been featured in Ebony Magazine, the Washington Post, the Gazette, and has been a featured writer for the Proctor and Gamble website, HomeMadeSimple.com. She has also appeared as a regular guest on National Public Radio’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin.
Esther Coleman
President
Esther DeAnn Coleman is a proud native of Jacksonville, Florida. At an early age, Esther became disillusioned with the images of children and teens being thrown into the juvenile justice system and resolved that she could be a part of the solution to this burgeoning problem. After a harrowing trip with Youth Leadership Jacksonville to the county jail, where the students were allowed to speak with several teen inmates who were housed in the jail, Esther’s plans to become an attorney and legal advocate were solidified. She knew at that point that the only way that she would be able to help those in her community fight the allure of crime and to fight against other civil injustices would be to be well versed in the tool that was being used against them– the law. Esther found that the law would be a perfect utilization of her analytical skills and her gifts of language and creative expression. Esther attended the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University where she became president of the school’s section of the National Council of Negro Women; and completed internships at the Florida State Senate and the Levin College of Law’s Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida. After moving to D.C. to matriculate at the Georgetown University Law Center, Esther nurtured her interest in constitutional law by interning at the Advancement Project and the D.C. Office of the Corporation Counsel. Esther’s desire to empower her community through knowledge of law continues to be the motivating factor for all of the work that she does. Esther is striving to continue to work with community based groups to create and facilitate their public policy platforms and to address the legal issues that the groups that they serve face. Esther has a particular interest in advancing the rights of women and youth and works closely with small business startups. She currently is principal attorney at Executive DC Legal Services and compliance manager for a behavioral health services provider; on the board of directors of Mother’s Outreach Network, and Words, Beats and Life, Inc.; as a trustee of the Shiloh Baptist Church of Washington, DC; and regularly volunteers with Capital Caring, the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts and the Maryland Volunteer Lawyer Service. Esther works to use her talents to inform and encourage others to discover their own power and voice. After a harrowing trip with Youth Leadership Jacksonville to the county jail, where the students were
Rene Blocker
Board Director
Rene, a long-time advisor to Mothers Outreach Network, is a graduate of Cornell Law School. She worked as Deputy Attorney General for New Jersey, and then from 1994 to 2005 with the Multistate Tax Commission, rising through the ranks to become Interim Executive Director. Since then she has worked as a consultant to small businesses and nonprofit organizations.
Cathy Krebs
Board Director
Cathy has long advocated for children’s rights and through that work has become a passionate advocate for strong parents and families. Currently she serves as the Committee Director of the American Bar Association Litigation Section Children’s Rights Litigation Committee (CRLC) which focuses on access to justice for children in all aspects of the legal system as well as on improving the quality of lawyering for children and youth. Cathy attended the University of Michigan for her undergraduate degree and prior to law school she worked in a domestic violence shelter and a group foster home. She attended Northeastern University School of Law to become a lawyer for children and youth and upon graduation received a Skadden Fellowship which allowed her to work at the Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts representing children and youth in child welfare and education cases. In 2016 the National Association of Counsel for Children selected Cathy as the Outstanding Legal Advocate of the year.
Kelvin Lassiter
Board Director
Kelvin was raised in a middle-class family in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Life was challenging due to a lack of communication within the family and home foreclosure. The death of his mother sent Kelvin into a very dark space. After experiencing homelessness for three years and legal trouble, Kelvin considered giving up—until a minister entered his life and decided to help. Reverend J.C. Melvin believed in him and shaped his focus to become a productive man in society. Now rightfully restored to humanity, Kelvin has embraced several meaningful relationships that shaped the direction of his life. In 2010, Kelvin began advocating for social justice by giving speeches on the issue of housing insecurity and authoring and publishing three self-help books. Kelvin is the Community Programs Manager for Save Us Now Inc. and is honored to be a MON board member. Kelvin and his wife of 20 years currently reside in Washington, DC.
