who is justin?

Justin’s work centers around civil and human rights, new technologies, open data, and new forms of collaboration. He is a co-founder of MoveSmart.org and is currently the Director of Project and Grant Development at the Metro Chicago Information Center. In 2009, he was named one of the “35 Under 35″ emerging civil rights leader in Chicago by the Community Renewal Society.

From the spring of 2009 through February 2010 Justin was the Program and Technical Coordinator at NetSquared, where he coordinated internal communication and helped run innovation competitions. Before that, he was the Fair Housing Testing and Outreach Coordinator for the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. There he supervised the testing program, handled intake and investigation, and conducted fair housing trainings for 3.5 years. At CLCCRUL, his work focused on the intersection of fair housing and technology and he the led the investigation into craigslist’s publication of discriminatory advertisements, helping create the model for pursuing complaints against creators of discriminatory online housing ads.

Prior to working in fair housing, Justin was a Chicago Public School teacher (8th and 3rd grades) for two years and a research analyst for the Center for New Community for four years. At the Center, he monitored white nationalist activity and trained more than 5,000 young people on how to spot and respond to hate. While at the Center, he wrote for Fellowship, Intelligence Report, and Searchlight magazines and appeared on CLTV, VH1, and NPR’s “All Things Considered”.

Justin holds a BA in Political Science, with a minor in Womens’ Studies, from Loyola University of Chicago and a MA in Teaching from National Louis University. He completed the Fair Housing Accessibility FIRST training and NFHA’s Fair Housing School. In the past, he helped organize meetings of the now-dormant Illinois Data Exchange Affiliates and was a founding co-covener of Chicago Net Tuesdays.

From 1998 through 2002, he was the co-host of Government Music on WLUW, 88.7fm in Chicago, a Friday night punk and hardcore radio show. During the same time he co-founded and ran a record label of the same name, releasing  one great and one truly amazing record. Born and raised in New Orleans (geaux Saints!), Justin now lives in Chicago’s South Loop with his wife Abbie and their daughter Marlowe. In his spare time, he is an avid boxing fan.