Alan W. Houseman is President of the Consortium for the National Equal Justice Library. He oversees the activities of the Consortium and the NEJL.
He was Executive Director of the Center for Law and Social Policy from 1981 – 2013. He has been Assistant Director of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council, a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow, founder and director of Michigan Legal Services and Director of the Research Institute at the Legal Services Corporation. He has written numerous articles, manuals, papers and books on legal services and poverty law advocacy as well as on welfare policies.
Volunteer work includes: Chair of the Civil Committee and board member of NLADA; Chair of the Organization of Legal Services Backup Centers; staff to the ABA Presidential Task Force on Access to Justice; and a member of the ABA Task Force to Revise the Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid, the Comprehensive Legal Needs Study Advisory Group, and ABA Special Committee on Access to Justice. He has taught at Georgetown University Law Center and Wayne State University Law School.
He is a graduate of Oberlin College and New York University School of Law, where he was a Hays Civil Liberties Fellow. He has received the Earl Johnson Equal Justice Award, National Equal Justice Award, the Oberlin College Distinguish Achievement Award, the Coalition on Human Needs Hero Award and three NLADA Special Awards. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Oberlin College.