New Leaders Take Reins at Community Legal Aid Offices

GREENFIELD and NORTHAMPTON — Community Legal Aid, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services annually to more than 9,000 low-income and elderly residents of Central and Western Mass., has named new managing attorneys for its operations in Franklin and Hampshire counties.

Annie Connor

Annie Connor has been named managing attorney of Community Legal Aid’s Northampton office, which serves Hampshire County residents. Connor joined Community Legal Aid in 2022 as a staff attorney with the CORI & Re-Entry Unit and then became the coordinating attorney for that unit in 2023. She came to Community Legal Aid from the city of Somerville Mayor’s Office, where she served as director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Legislative Liaison under Mayor Joseph Curtatone.

Prior to that, Connor spent five years as a public defender at the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Worcester. A graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, she also holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College.

Santina Sciaba-Douglas has been named managing attorney for Community Legal Aid’s Greenfield office, which services Franklin County residents. After graduating from Western New England University School of law, Sciaba-Douglas began her legal career as a law clerk to the judges of the Western Massachusetts Superior Court. She then worked as a special attorney general for the Massachusetts Department of Health’s Lead Program while also representing individuals facing involuntary treatment hearings, monitoring court-approved treatment programs, and serving as guardian ad litem through the Committee for Public Council Services.

Sciaba-Douglas also worked at the Center for Public Representation (CPR) for close to 20 years, representing individuals appealing the denial of Social Security benefits at all levels of the administrative appeal process, including in federal court. While at CPR, she also advocated for students with disabilities seeking special education services and challenging school suspension and/or expulsion. Prior to joining Community Legal Aid, she served as deputy executive director and interim executive director for Disability Rights CT. She is a native Spanish speaker.

Connor and Sciaba-Douglas are replacing Jennifer Dieringer, who led the Northampton office since 2011 and the Greenfield office since it opened in 2024. Dieringer is leaving Community Legal Aid for a position as a full-time lecturer at UMass Amherst.