Board of Directors

Paul Nathanson, Board President

Paul, a national leader in the world of legal services and elder justice, has dedicated his career to ensuring that legal services lawyers on the national, state and local level can effectively fight senior poverty and address barriers for those who face the largest disparities in health and wealth.  Paul founded Justice in Aging (formerly the National Senior Citizens law Center) and was the Executive Director from 1972-1980.

He returned to lead Justice in Aging from 2008-13 and currently serves as special counsel, working on projects such as the organization’s efforts to restore and improve the Supplemental Security Income program. In between, he was the director of the University of New Mexico (UNM) Institute of Public Law, and a member of the UNM law school faculty where he is now emeritus. Paul has returned to his home state of Florida,  and he is committed to increasing advocacy resources and advancing health and economic justice in Florida and other Southern states.
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Paul is a past president of the American Society on Aging and a founding member of the ABA Commission on Law and Aging.  He has also served as National Secretary of the Gray Panthers and is a past Chair of the Board of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security  and Medicare (NCPSSM); he is currently on the NCPSSM Board. Paul is a graduate of Duke University (JD) and the University of Chicago (MCompLaw).

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Dr. Marian "Taffy" Griffiths, M.D., Vice President

Taffy is a retired neurologist who has spent her career caring for individual patients and addressing the challenges of ensuring access to quality affordable health care for her patients. Even though she had two young children, 6 and 8 years old, Taffy decided to go to medical school after she and a close family member experienced life threatening health events. 

She received her M.D. from Tufts University Medical School and did her residency at New England Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center.  As a medical student, she also trained in the People's Republic of China, where she was exposed to traditional Chinese medicine as well as "Western" medicine.

Taffy has also taught at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda through Health Volunteers Overseas, where she learned first-hand the special challenges of practicing medicine in a resource-poor environment.   Throughout her career, Taffy has cared for patients on Medicaid, as well as patients with no insurance.  She is well aware of the “social determinants of health” and challenges faced by her low- income patients in being able to access affordable quality health care.

While Taffy and her husband, renowned mathematician Phillip A. Griffiths, split their time between Princeton, the eastern shore of Maryland and Miami, they are committed to the mission of ensuring that low incomes Floridians have access to health care.

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​Cherie Hall, Board Treasurer

Cherie started her non-profit career working for a regional museum, primarily in finance and operations. In 2007 she joined Disability Rights Florida; she currently serves as the Director of Operations/Chief Financial Officer. She was fortunate to spend several years traveling throughout Florida visiting nursing homes, group homes, half-way houses, and assisted living facilities.  This experience opened her eyes to the gaps in service and resources to individuals with disabilities and created a passion for service to those who often must fight for equal standing.
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She currently services as a board member of the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council. Previously she’s served on such boards as the GFWC Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs, Tallahassee Museum, Association of Government Accountants, Big Bend Homeless Coalition, and many others.  Cherie spends her free time with her family enjoying the beautiful waterways and red hills of the Big Bend. 

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Dr. Zinzi Bailey, ScD, MSPH

Zinzi (she/her/hers) is a social epidemiologist focused on the health impacts of and policy solutions for structural and institutional racism, the use of data in equitable policy and management, and cancer health disparities. She is the CEO and Managing Director of Health Equity Research Solutions, LLC and based at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Jay Weiss Institute for Health Equity at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to these positions, she was the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Center for Health Equity in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Zinzi serves as not only a board member of Florida Health Justice Project, but also an Associate Director to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program and a mentor for the Health Policy Research Scholars program, also funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

She received her B.A. from Princeton University, an MSPH from Emory University and her ScD from Harvard University.

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Dr. Fred Anderson, M.D.

Dr. Anderson graduated from University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine and trained in Family Medicine at the University of Miami. His career focus has been on caring for medically underserved populations and seeking innovative ways to build effective interdisciplinary teams to address their health care needs.

He began as a National Health Service Corps participant at a community clinic in Little Havana, Miami. While working at the county’s community clinics, he was promoted to medical director and also served as Medical Supervisor for the county’s Medical Care-a-vans, where he oversaw mobile outreach efforts in Miami-Dade County.

He joined Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in June 2012. Dr. Anderson currently acts as the Medical Director for the Green Family Foundation Mobile Health Centers and Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities, Health, and Society.  He oversees quality improvement efforts in the department, works on developing clinical services for underserved populations, and seeks to integrate legal offerings with medical services through the NHELP Medical-Legal Partnership.

His projects include incorporating social determinants of health into the medical plan of care, integrating behavioral health with primary care, and the use of health information technology to provide improved care to vulnerable communities. He is board certified in Family Medicine.

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Brian Larson

Brian serves as the CFO and COO for Catalyst Miami. He is a lawyer and CPA and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica. He worked for 20 years for CARE, an international humanitarian and development organization, living mostly in Africa.

In his spare time, Brian runs marathons and is pursuing an MFA degree.

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Evian White De Leon

​Long before graduating from the University of Miami School of Law, Evian’s passion has been making her vibrant hometown of Miami a place where all of its residents, especially communities of color, have the opportunity to thrive. 
 
At Florida International University, Evian studied International Relations and Spanish Language and Literature, both in Miami and in Spain. She leveraged those experiences to work at Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. for almost seven years as a community lawyer and litigator to empower her clients facing systemic and institutional inequities. She then joined Miami Beach Community Health Center, Inc. (MBCHC), a federally qualified health center, as their Executive Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Programs. Part of her work was representing the interests of MBCHC to improve operations, quality of patient care, and to mitigate risk. The other part was developing relationships with government and community partners to expand access to quality, affordable health care. Evian has also served as Deputy Director of Miami Homes for All, Inc. (MHFA), a nonprofit with a vision that everyone in Miami has a safe and stable place to call home through affordable housing and youth homelessness policy advocacy, research, and coalition building. At Southern Poverty Law Center, Evian worked in the Children's Rights project to advance educational, health, and racial justice for children in the Deep South. Currently, Evian is Chief Legal Counsel for the MIAMI Association of REALTORS® and is a Senior Staff Attorney with The P.E.E.R. Group, a neighborhood nonprofit law firm.
  
Outside of the office, Evian has served as: the President of the Dade County Bar Association Young Lawyers Section; an investigative member of The Florida Bar Grievance Committee 11P; the Mayor’s appointee to the Miami-Dade County Affordable Housing Advisory Board; and, Class IX of Miami Fellows.

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Shawn Boehringer

Shawn, Executive Director of Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania, is committed to advancing human rights and health care justice for all. Shawn was inspired to begin his legal career as a Skadden fellow with the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky (“Appalred” ) after spending time in the coal mining hollows of Eastern Kentucky.   While working at Appalred, he represented clients in  Kentucky’s most rural and impoverished  counties on a number of health justice issues, including claims for federal black lung benefits for disabled coal miners.

After leaving Kentucky and prior to undertaking a leadership role in  Maryland’s legal aid program, Shawn worked for 12 years  in 3 of Florida’s largest legal services programs, including Legal Services of Greater  Miami, Coast to Coast Legal Services and Broward Legal Aid. His work and expertise span a range of civil legal aid substantive  areas that impact the social determinants of health—including housing, health, consumer and elder law.

As Project Director for the HIV/AIDS Law Project and Director of Advocacy at Broward legal Aid,  Shawn also co-counseled major statewide Medicaid class actions. Shawn has deep ties to Florida and an enduring commitment to health care justice for all.

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Dr. Wayne Stephens, D.D.S.

Dr. Stephens has spent most of his career working to improve the lives of children. He cares deeply about oral health care equity, particularly for vulnerable children. To this end, he established the pediatric dental specialty practice at Jessie Trice Community Health Center, Florida's oldest federally qualified community health center. His practice is located in one of Miami's most neglected neighborhoods, Liberty City.

Dr. Stephens received a B.A. from Williams College in 2000. He graduated from Columbia University in 2010 after completing a dual degree program with the College of Dental Medicine and the Graduate School of Business. His specialty training in pediatric dentistry was done at Miami Children's Hospital (now Nicklaus Children's). In 2016, he was selected to the Miami Fellows program, South Florida's premier civic leadership development program for young professionals. In 2017, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry chose him for their Samuel D. Harris Fellowship in Oral Health Care Policy. ​

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Aidil Oscariz

Aidil Oscariz is the founder and president of Advance Justice Consulting, which develops strategies and programming to support social justice organizations. Her services include policy and legal assistance and strategizing as well as community engagement and coalition-building. She previously served as Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at Catalyst Miami. She provides support to various other organizations to further social justice in Miami, as well as across Florida. Towards this goal, she also serves on several boards including the Miami Workers Center, the Anthropocene Alliance, Miami-Dade County’s Commission on Human Rights, Unity through Creativity, and is the President of the South Florida Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. 

Previously, Aidil was an attorney and pro bono coordinator for Americans for Immigrant Justice, where she represented and advocated on behalf of immigrants, including unaccompanied children, and oversaw the pro bono program.  She has also worked for various other nonprofits and served as a consultant to various community organizations and groups to empower and improve the lives of vulnerable and underserved populations. In 2009, her research was published in Churches and Charity in the Immigrant City: Religion, Immigration, and Civic Engagement in Miami. 

Aidil holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Sociology from Florida International University and a JD from Fordham University. She is a writer and is very passionate about protecting our planet and making the world a healthier and more just, mindful, joyful, and equitable home for us all. 

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