Board of Directors

Mark Steinbach, President
Mark is a partner at the law firm O'Toole, Rothwell, Nassau & Steinbach in Washington, DC. His emphasis is on individual and consumer class action litigation involving motor vehicles, lender liability, fraud and deceptive trade practices. He previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. He has organized and served as moderator for Consumer Law Training Programs sponsored by the D. C. Bar for more than 20 years. Mark attended the University of Exeter in Devon, England and has a BA from Case Western Reserve University and a law degree from The Catholic University of America.

Rebecca Bowman, Vice President
Rebecca is Administrator of the Howard County Office of Consumer Affairs. Prior to that she spent more than 20 years in the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, most recently as Director of the Mediation Unit and Assistant Attorney General. She was also a consultant to the Egyptian government in the establishment of its first consumer protection program, assisting in the creation of a consumer call center, and mediation and enforcement programs. Rebecca has a BA from Ohio State University and a law degree from American University.

Martin Wolf, Treasurer
Martin is a founding partner at Quinn, Gordon & Wolf, Chtd in Towson, MD, where he specializes in representing consumers in class action lawsuits. He was named 2009 Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Maryland Association for Justice and is listed in Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who in American Law, Maryland Superlawyers, and has received an AV peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell. Martin is an ordained Deacon in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and ministers at the Metropolitan Transition Center as a prison chaplain. Martin received his BA from Johns Hopkins University and his law degree from the University of Maryland.

Sue Rogan, Secretary
Sue is currently a consumer/financial educator and communications consultant. She is also the co-chair of the Montgomery County Coalition for Financial Literacy; on the board of the Maryland Coalition for Financial Literacy; and the media relations coordinator for Montgomery County Safe Kids Coalition. She worked for 19 years with the Montgomery County Office of Consumer Protection, first as an investigator then as the communications manager.  She graduated from University of Maryland Baltimore County with a BA in Political Science.

Louise Carwell
Louise is a senior staff attorney for Consumer Law at Legal Aid Bureau and a founding member of MCRC.  She has more than 20 years experience speaking and training attorneys, judges, client groups, social workers and students about credit and consumer related matters. She also teaches consumer protection and bankruptcy at the University of Baltimore School of Law, University of Maryland University College and Stevenson University. Louise was presented with the Access to Justice Award in November 2009 by the Women's Law Center in recognition of her nearly 25 years of helping vulnerable individuals in the courts. She has a BA from the University of Rochester and her law degree is from Case Western Reserve University.

Eric Friedman (ex-officio)
Eric directs the Office of Consumer Protection for Montgomery County, which focuses on consumer scams directed at minority groups, senior citizens, and vulnerable consumers. He has testified before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Maryland State Legislature, the Montgomery County Council, and the Washington D.C. Council. Eric has also appeared on national television and radio news programs, local television and radio news broadcasts, and has been quoted in national and local news magazines and newspapers. He received a BA from George Washington University and a law degree from George Mason University.

Henry M. Greenberg
Hank is a founding member of MCRC and he is the Associate State Director for Advocacy at AARP in Maryland.  After graduation from the University of Baltimore, he joined  the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Attorney General's office focusing on consumer legislation.  He later served as the Attorney General's Director for Legislation, Research and Policy handling government relations on a broad range of issues.

William Leibovici
Bill served for 20 years as Division Chief and Assistant Attorney General in the Maryland Consumer Protection Division, where he supervised a staff of 50 and oversaw seven consumer-protection units before his retirement in 2007. He also represented the Office of the Maryland Attorney General on consumer protection issues in Maryland's General Assembly, U.S. Congressional hearings, federal and state courts, and in communications with the press. He is a graduate of Gettysburg College and American University's Washington College of Law. He also did legal work in Botswana from 1969 to 1972 as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Robin McKinney
Robin is director of the Maryland CASH Campaign, a statewide network that promotes financial stability for working families throughout the state of Maryland. She was previously at East Harbor Community Development Corporation where she created and managed the Money WISE Café, a one-stop shop for asset development, ran a high-volume free tax preparation site, and managed direct service staff. Prior to East Harbor, Robin worked at the Annie E. Casey Foundation on their Family Economic Success portfolio.  Robin has a Bachelor’s from Elizabethtown College and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Karren Pope-Onwukwe
Karren is a prominent elder law attorney, bar leader, and community activist. Her practice is centered around helping clients plan for aging, disability, and wealth transfer.  She is the immediate past chair of the Elder Law Section Council of the Maryland State Bar Association and a member of the State Advisory Council on Quality Care at the End of Life. She has a BA from Eastern Kentucky University; a BS degree from University of Maryland University College and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Phillip R. Robinson
Phillip is the Executive Director of Civil Justice Inc., a Maryland-based public interest legal association that provides services to consumers. Phillip was recognized as the 2008 Denis J. Murphy Maryland Consumer Advocate of the Year by MCRC and as a Maryland ”Super Lawyer” for 2008-2009 for his work as a leading public interest attorney helping consumers who are victims of unfair foreclosure, predatory lending practices, and mortgage fraud. He has a BA from American University and attended both Georgetown Law Center and Widener University School of Law where he received his JD.
 

Charles Shafer
The immediate past president of MCRC, Charles is a professor of law at the University of Baltimore, where he has taught for the past 30 years. His courses include Consumer Protection, Business Bankruptcy, Debtor Creditor Relations, Torts, Commercial Law, Law and Social Reform. He authored the Maryland Consumer Law Manual in 2006 and has lectured on consumer finance law at Shandong University in the Peoples Republic of China. He has a BA from Marietta College and received his JD from Rutgers University and an LLM from the University of Illinois College of Law.


Johanna Neumann, Representative, Maryland PIRG
Johanna is the State Director for Maryland PIRG, responsible for program development, research and advocacy. Prior to joining Maryland PIRG in 2006, Johanna worked with Toxics Action Center based in Boston and the Environmental Health Education Center at the University of Maryland School of Nursing to protect communities from toxic threats. She also worked with Public Citizen’s Energy and Environment Program based in New Orleans, LA and Washington D.C. Her areas of expertise include energy policy, toxics reform and consumer protection. She has a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and she graduated from Green Corps, the Field School for Environmental Organizing.

Note: Organizational affiliations are shown for reference only; members serve as individuals, not as representatives of their employers.

Staff

Marceline White, Executive Director
Marceline brings more than 20 years of management, fundraising, advocacy, research, and organizing experience to her position. In addition to consumer issues, Marceline has written and advocated on international trade, gender and development, labor rights, environmental justice, and reproductive rights. She is a contributing author to Trading Women’s Health and Rights? Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health in Developing Economies (2006) and Women and Justice (2004) and has authored numerous policy reports, journal and media articles. She has presented her work before Members of Congress, U.S.Trade Representative (USTR) staff, and US Agency for International Development (USAID) officials. Marceline's research and advocacy on fair trade has been presented to government officials in Bangladesh, Kenya, Peru, and Jamaica. Marceline developed research and led trainings for USAID Missions in Bangladesh and Peru on gender and trade issues that led to changes in the Mission's programming. Marceline has been interviewed on national radio programs and interviewed by local, national, and international media including The Washington Post, Foreign Policy in Focus, and The Utne Reader. She holds a Masters of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Kristine Henry, Communications Director
Kristine has more than 10 years’ experience as a journalist and a marketing copywriter. In addition to her marketing work, she was a staff reporter for The Baltimore Sun for five years and has worked for a variety of newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News and the Minneapolis Star Tribune in its Washington bureau. She has a bachelor's in journalism from the University of Minnesota.