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Founder & Director

Thomas W. Mitchell holds the Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Endowed Chair at BC Law and serves as the Director of the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights, which seeks to help disadvantaged people and communities acquire and secure important property rights. Prior to joining °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥ College in 2022, he served as a tenured professor on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin Law School (2000-2016) and Texas A&M University School of Law (2016-2022). In 2017-2018, he served as interim Dean of Texas A&M School of Law.Ìý

Professor Mitchell is a national expert on property issues facing disadvantaged families and communities, and has published leading scholarly works addressing these matters in academic journals, government publications, and publications for trade associations such as the American Bar Association. He has been interviewed by numerous media outlets including theÌýNew Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today,ÌýNPR,ÌýProPublica, The Nation, Politico, Mother Jones, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,Ìýthe Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, VICE, and many more.Ìý

Policy Director

Megan Haberle leads the Initiative’s Legal Reform and Policy Laboratory, which develops legal reform and policy proposals to address critical land and housing issues at the local, state, and federal level.

She previously served as Director of Community Development for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission in western Massachusetts and in senior-level policy and capacity-building roles in Washington, D.C. Her prior positions include that of Senior Director of Policy at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), Senior Policy Counsel on economic justice for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Deputy Director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), where she led work on fair housing and environmental justice issues. Throughout her career, she has worked to advance civil rights and economic opportunity through policy reforms, in particular with regard to fair housing, affordable housing, and land use.

Ms. Haberle is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was an Executive Editor of the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, and Swarthmore College, where she studied sociology. Prior to law school, she worked at the ACLU National Legal Department supporting its racialjustice litigation, and as an English teacher in South Korea. She also practiced private litigation in New York and as Economic Opportunity Fellow and Associate Counsel for The Opportunity Agenda.

Senior Policy Advisor

David Abromowitz is nationally known for his expertise on affordableÌýhousing, economic development, and workforce development issues.Ìý A long time attorney in the law firm Goulston & Storrs, David has led a wide variety of transactions involving HUD-assisted housing, public housing revitalization, assisted living, community land trusts, and other multi-layered public/private projects. He is the lead author of the original model community land trust ground lease and co-led the project that produced the first Community Land Trust Legal Manual.Ìý

David served six years as Chief Public Policy Officer at YouthBuild USA, leading the organization’s advocacy on a broad range of workforce, education and criminal justice issues.Ìý Prior to joining YouthBuild, David was a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for America Progress focusing on economic mobility issues.Ìý David is also a past chair and founding member of both the Lawyers’ Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness and of the American Bar Association’s Forum Committee on Affordable Housing and Community Development, a board member of the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association, and a member of America Forward’s Advisory Council.Ìý He has served on numerous transition teams and policy working groups for elected officials, including for then Governor-elect Deval Patrick (D-MA) and °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥ Mayor Tom Menino, and served six years on the board of MassDevelopment, the Commonwealth’s economic development agency.Ìý

A New Jersey native, David is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.Ìý He recently published his first novel,ÌýThe Foxtail Legacy.

Finance and Operations Manager

Abigail Wronkowski is the Finance and Operations Manager for the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights at °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥ College Law School. In this role, Abi will be advancing the Initiative's strategic priorities and managing the Initiative's budget and fiscal resources.

Prior to joining BC Law, Abi was the Program Manager of the Housing Stability Counseling Program (HSCP) at NeighborWorks America. HSCP was a $100 million grant program funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to support housing counseling agencies providing services to households facing housing instability, such as eviction, default, foreclosure, loss of income or homelessness.

Abigail has held policy positions at Housing Partnership Network (HPN), Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and the City of San Diego. Her experience in public policy started in 2010 as Deputy Field Director for a San Diego City Council campaign and in 2011 as a Congressional intern (CA-51).Ìý

Abigail is a graduate of San Diego State University (2014, MPA) and University of California San Diego (2010, BA).

Special Projects Manager

David Price is theÌýSpecial Projects Manager for the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights at °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥ College Law School. In this role he manages these program components, which collectively help advance community development, estate planning, and property rights defense on behalf of disadvantaged communities:

• A community legal education program, the Homeownership Estate Planning Project;
• The Real Estate and Community Development Law degree concentration;Ìý
• Creating opportunities for law student internships and externships in the community development, estate planning, and real property fields.Ìý
  

Prior to joining BC Law, David worked for 27 years helping build strong local development organizations in °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥, including most recently over thirteen years as the Executive Director of Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation in °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥â€™s Roxbury neighborhood, where he departed in 2022. Two transformative developments are Bartlett Station in Roxbury’s Nubian Square and The Loop at Mattapan Station. At Nuestra he co-founded Homes for Equity, a research and advocacy coalition dedicated to the adoption of race-conscious homeownership policies to counter redlining and other forms of institutional racism.Ìý

Prior to joining Nuestra, David served as Deputy Director and General Counsel for Madison Park Development Corporation and as Executive Director for Tent City Corporation. David’s community organizing experience began as a volunteer with Mel King’s campaigns for Mayor of °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥ in 1979 and 1983.

David is a graduate of Harvard College (1977) and °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥ College Law School (1991).Ìý He clerked for Hon. Francis O’Connor at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and was a real estate attorney at Goulston & Storrs in °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥ prior to joining the community development field.

Estate Planning Fellow

Lian Blake is the Estate Planning Fellow for the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights. She will be working on the Homeownership Estate Planning Project. The project will provide estate planning classes combined with legal assistance to create estate plans for disadvantaged homeowners.Ìý

Lian is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School (2024) and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥ (2018).Ìý

Prior to working at the ILHPR, Lian served as the Chief Comment Editor of Suffolk University's Journal of Health and Biomedical Law. She also worked as a Summer Law Clerk at CannonMurrayLaw, an estate planning firm, and interned at Volunteer Lawyers Project in the Bankruptcy and Consumer units.Ìý

Administrative Assistant

Samantha Ghelli serves as the Administrative Assistant for the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights. She is an alumna of Louisiana State University (2022), where she studied International Law & Politics alongsideÌýArabic and Middle Eastern Studies.ÌýPrior to her work with °¬¿ÉÖ±²¥ College LawÌýSchool, Samantha worked in industrial agriculture production. Please send all inquiries to the email or phone number listed to the left.Ìý