We’re thrilled to welcome Charlie Mitchell to the NoHLA team as Senior Attorney. We asked him to share a little about himself:

I am delighted to join the NoHLA team as Senior Attorney after 28 years as a civil legal aid attorney. I grew up in Seattle and the Portland area, and graduated from Whitman College (Walla Walla). After college, I served as a VISTA volunteer in Chickasha, Oklahoma, then worked as a public defenders’ investigator. At Harvard Law School, I enjoyed representing low-income tenants and assisting a community lawyer in Mississippi, where an African-American community was still fighting school segregation.

After law school, I clerked for an Oregon Supreme Court justice and then worked at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., focusing on food safety, labeling, and advertising. We successfully lobbied for the law requiring nutrition labeling on every food package you buy.

At Evergreen Legal Services and Northwest Justice Project (NJP) in Vancouver, my practice focused on helping people work through problems they faced getting public assistance, especially health care, along with education, youth, and landlord-tenant cases. Throughout this time, I’ve worked closely with NoHLA advocates and from 2010 to 2017, I served on NoHLA’s Board of Directors.

Working for NoHLA is a wonderful opportunity to pursue affordable, quality health care for all. I’ll continue to be based in Vancouver, where my wife Holly directs preservation of historic buildings. Our daughter Olivia works for an arts organization that mentors disadvantaged youth, and our son Isaac does outreach for a green energy company.   

-Charlie Mitchell

Please give Charlie a warm welcome!