NVCCE Advisory Board

Our organization is led by some of the great leaders in our local communities. Everyday they seek out new ways to give back and be civically engaged.  Leading this organization is one of the many ways they take action.

Rachel Anderson

  • Rachel J. Anderson is a tenured Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV. She teaches courses on Business Organizations, Consumer Law, International Business Transactions, International Law, and Diversity Leadership.

    Before becoming member of the full-time faculty at the William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV in 2007, Professor Anderson worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (UK) in London, England, and MVV Consulting GmbH in Berlin, Germany. She has experience in international development projects and general corporate, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and securities matters.

    Professor Anderson earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, her M.A. in International Policy Studies from Stanford University, and her Zwischenpruefung from the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. While earning her J.D. at U.C. Berkeley, she served as Articles Editor on the California Law Review, Executive Editor on the Berkeley Journal of International Law, and Managing Editor of the Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy. A longtime Nevada resident, Professor Anderson is a graduate of Edward C. Reed High School in Sparks, Nevada.

Marc Picker

  • Marc Picker, Esq., is the Washoe County Alternate Public Defender. He has represented clients in the criminal justice system for 30 years. Marc obtained his B.A. in Journalism from the University of Nevada Reno, and completed his JD at UC Davis School of Law. Prior to graduating from the UC Davis School of Law, Marc was a reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal and editor of the Ely Daily Times. He is a graduate of Procter Hug High School and the University of Nevada Reno. While in law school, Marc was a member of the UC Davis Law Review, and Environs, and contributed to the Environmental Law Journal.
    Marc was in private practice for 25 years before joining the Alternate Public Defender in 2013. Prior to being selected as the Alternate Public Defender, he was the Chief Criminal Deputy APD. Mr. Picker has taught in the TMCC paralegal program, and has taught a number of Continuing Legal Education courses in the areas of criminal defense, evidence, trial practice, ethics, bankruptcy and real property. Mr. Picker is also on the faculty of The National Judicial College.

Dr. David Tanenhaus

  • Professor Tanenhaus is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Grinnell College and earned his Ph.D. with distinction in American history from the University of Chicago in 1997. He joined the History Department at UNLV in 1997, and was a Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Newberry Library during 2000-2001. He is a co-editor of A Century of Juvenile Justice (University of Chicago Press, 2002), author of Juvenile Justice in the Making (Oxford University Press, 2004) and The Constitutional Rights of Children: In re Gault and Juvenile Justice (University Press of Kansas, 2011), and the immediate past editor of Law and History Review. Professor Tanenhaus teaches American Legal History.

Senator Scott Hammond

  • Scott Hammond was born in 1966 in Syracuse, New York. He was elected to the Nevada State Senate in 2012 to represent Senate District 18 which encompasses the northwest part of the Las Vegas Valley including portions of the communities of Summerlin, Centennial Hills, Tule Springs and Lone Mountain.
    Scott Hammond has been involved in the We the People program since his teaching days at Basic High School and Indian Springs High School.

Dr. Michael Green

  • Michael Green is an associate professor of history in UNLV's Department of History. He earned his B.A. and M.A. at UNLV and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. He teaches history courses on nineteenth-century America and on Nevada and Las Vegas, for the history department and the Honors College.

    His books on the Civil War era are Freedom, Union, and Power: Lincoln and His Party during the Civil War (Fordham University Press, 2004), Politics and America in Crisis: The Coming of the Civil War (ABC-CLIO, 2010), and Lincoln and the Election of 1860 (Southern Illinois University Press, 2011). His works on Nevada include Las Vegas: A Centennial History (with Eugene Moehring, University of Nevada Press, 2005); Nevada: A Journey of Discovery, a middle school textbook (Gibbs-Smith, 2004); and the oral history of a longtime Nevada attorney and politician, A Liberal Conscience: Ralph Denton, Nevadan (University of Nevada Oral History Program, 2001). The University of Nevada Press published his college-level textbook Nevada: A History of the Silver State in 2015.

    Green is now working on several projects. He is writing a history of the Great Basin in the twentieth century for the University of Arizona Press and a history of organized crime in the twentieth century for Rowman & Littlefield. He also is editing A Companion to Abraham Lincoln as part of the Wiley-Blackwell series of historiography volumes.

    He edits the Wilbur S. Shepperson Series on Nevada History for the University of Nevada Press and is a member of the editorial board for the press. He is a member of the board of directors for The Mob Museum. He is the director of Preserve Nevada and serves as executive director of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association.

    Green is also active in writing and speaking in the community. He writes "Nevada Yesterdays" for Nevada Humanities and KNPR, and "Inside the Beltway" for a newsletter, Nevada’s Washington Watch. He lives in Las Vegas, but not in Las Vegas (and he can explain why), with his wife, Deborah Young, former director of scholarship and tribute giving at UNLV, in a home owned by their two cats.

Justice Elissa Cadish

  • Justice Elissa F. Cadish was elected to a 6-year term in November of 2018.

    Justice Cadish graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Political Science. She received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1989, where she was a member of the Virginia Law Review and was honored to be awarded the Order of the Coif. After graduation, she moved to Las Vegas and clerked for two years for Hon. Philip M. Pro in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada.

    She then entered private practice where she focused on commercial litigation and employment law. She practiced at Hale Lane Peek Dennison and Howard, where she worked from 1995 until August of 2007, becoming a shareholder at Hale Lane in 2000. In July of 2007, she was appointed by Governor Jim Gibbons to fill the position of District Judge in Department 6 of the Eighth Judicial District Court.

    Justice Cadish was President of the Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys from 2004 to 2006, and remains an active member in that organization. She is also a Master in the Howard D. McKibben Inn of Court, an active member of the local chapter of the Federal Bar Association, and a member of the American Bar Association and the Clark County Bar Association.

    In 2006, she was appointed as a Lawyer Representative to the United States District Court, acting as a liaison between the bench and bar, assisting in planning the District Court Conference, and attending the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference on behalf of our district.

    In November 2017, Justice Cadish was appointed to the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure (NRCP) Committee, which reviewed all civil rules and procedures for Nevada Courts resulting in rule revisions effective March 1, 2019.

    Over the years, Justice Cadish also has taught at numerous seminars regarding employment law topics, and participated in presentations regarding various litigation topics for the Inn of Court.

Angela Orr

  • Ms. Orr has been an educator for 19 years, although her passion for teaching, learning and service to her community commenced in her childhood. She has a B.A. in Secondary Education, an M.S. in Educational Specialties: Literacy, and a M.Ed in Educational Administration. As a social studies teacher in WCSD, she focused on building strong relationships and helping all students find their voices rise to meet high expectations academically, socially, and as leaders. Ms. Orr left the classroom to become a professional learning specialist after being awarded a grant from the Department of Education. In working with teachers across Northern Nevada, she learned that creating a culture of respect and curiosity for educators could lead to remarkable growth for teachers and their students. Her disciplinary literacy work in partnership with teachers was recognized several times on a national level and offers a case study for others interested in building a sustained learning environment and engaged community focused on high-level learning.

    Prior to leading at Doral Academy, Angela’s work involved curriculum development and professional learning in literacy and social studies in grades K-12. She delved deeply into educational research and partners regularly with the University of Nevada, Reno to inquire into what works in education. Several years ago, she also collaborated with colleagues to begin a rigorous, research-based learning program for teacher leaders across the state. This program supports shared leadership and empowers teachers to lead within and beyond the classroom. In addition, she has taught several courses at the University and at Sierra Nevada College, and serves on the board of several local organizations as she believes that we can all make positive change through community involvement.

Judge Michael Montero

  • Judge Michael R. Montero was born October 13, 1966, in Winnemucca, Nevada, and spent his childhood on the family ranch in rural Humboldt County. He graduated from Albert M. Lowry High School in 1984, and thereafter received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture and Resource Economics from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. He went on to earn his law degree from Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas.

    After completing law school, Judge Montero began practicing law in Reno, Nevada, with the law firm of Lemons, Grundy & Eisenberg. While at Lemons, Grundy & Eisenberg, Judge Montero’s practice focused primarily on litigating the defense of claims involving personal injuries stemming from automobile and aviation accidents, premises liability, and products liability. His practice also included representing insurance companies in first-party claims, and advising insurance companies on coverage and valuation issues. In 2006, Judge Montero joined the Echeverria Law Office, a firm that specializes in representing the catastrophically injured in plaintiffs’ personal injury litigation throughout the western United States, primarily in Nevada and California.

    In November 2008, Judge Montero was elected as District Judge in the Sixth Judicial District Court, Department II. In addition to his judicial duties within this district, Judge Montero currently chairs the North Central Region Judicial Council and serves as a representative on the Judicial Council of the State of Nevada. Furthermore, Judge Montero is a Nevada delegate to National Conference of State Trial Judges of the American Bar Association, serves on the Nevada Children’s Justice Act Taskforce, and is a member of the Administrative Office of the Court’s Leadership Summit Planning Committee.

    Since the Sixth Judicial District was split by the Nevada Legislature on July 1, 2015, Judge Montero is the only judge presiding over the Sixth Judicial District of Nevada. His caseload is now comprised of every civil and criminal case that originates in or proceeds to the District Court level in Humboldt County.