PAC Members

Allison A. Dunlop, is an attorney and gender-based violence expert. She has represented survivors of domestic and sexual violence for over two decades.  She practices law through a trauma-informed lens and has litigated extensively in Family, Supreme, and the Integrated Domestic Violence Courts in NYC. She represents survivors of intimate partner violence in complex matrimonial and family law proceedings and in gender-based humanitarian applications for immigration relief. Ms. Dunlop speaks widely on gender-based violence issues. Under her leadership, her office developed a trauma-informed training series to foster improved interactions between first responders and survivors, including co-producing training videos that assist first responders in identifying trauma responses exhibited by survivors and has trained hundreds of police officers.  For over a decade, Ms. Dunlop served as the consultation attorney at the Brooklyn Family Justice Center, a walk-in center for survivors, where she provided legal assistance to thousands of survivors.  She has experience challenging abusive and discriminatory work-place practices that harm women, especially women of color and those from immigrant communities.  Ms. Dunlop has worked in the areas of education law, employment law, and community economic development.  

A native New Yorker and Afro-Latina of Dominican descent, Ms. Dunlop obtained her JD from the University at Buffalo School of Law, where she studied international law and human rights. She has a B.A. from New York University where she studied Journalism, Political Science, and Latin-American Literature.

Nelson Mar is a public interest attorney whose practice includes Education Law with prior experience in Social Security disability law, labor/employment law and community economic development law.
Nelson has litigated hundreds of special education administrative hearings and student disciplinary hearings over the last 25 years. His work has focused on the intersection of students with disabilities and student discipline. In an effort to address root causes of student discipline, Nelson is working to bring healing centered practices to New York City public schools. Nelson has been active in various bar associations in NYS and is also an adjunct law professor. He has also served on a number of citywide task forces on matters related to education.

Outside of his day job, Nelson has been a fierce advocate for workers rights and the fight against displacement. Nelson is the president of the 318 Restaurant Workers Union, co-founder and board member of the Peter Kwong Immigrant Workers Learning Center, co-founder of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS) and the founder and director of the Virginia Yu Fund for Social and Economic Justice. Nelson received a dual degree JD & MSW from the University at Buffalo and his BA from Binghamton University.