Staff

Staff Biographies

Lawrence Liu, Staff Director

Lawrence T. Liu was appointed by Senator Sherrod Brown as Staff Director of the CECC in February 2013 and previously as Deputy Staff Director and Acting Staff Director (Cochairman) from May 2011 to December 2012. He joined the CECC staff in August 2006. Before joining the CECC, Mr. Liu spent three years as a corporate attorney in New York at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where he also worked for several months in the firm's Beijing office. Mr. Liu graduated from Columbia Law School. While in law school, Mr. Liu interned in the Beijing office of Jun He Law Offices and wrote a paper on China's consumer protections laws. Before law school, Mr. Liu was a Fulbright fellow in Taiwan and also worked as a reporter for the Taiwan News. He holds a bachelor's degree in public policy from Brown University. Mr. Liu speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese.

Paul B. Protic, Deputy Staff Director

Paul B. Protic was appointed by Representative Christopher H. Smith as Deputy Staff Director of the CECC in February 2013 and previously as Staff Director from August 2011 – December 2012. He also has served as a Congressional Chief of Staff and as a Special Assistant at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He was the first Director of the Apprenticeship Program and an Instructor of Government at Patrick Henry College and also served as Director of the Capitol Hill Ministry of the Christian Embassy, Washington, D.C. He has been involved in numerous Republican Campaigns including serving as Campaign Manager at the Congressional and State levels. Having traveled to China, Taiwan, and Mongolia promoting ethics training, Mr. Protic received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a master's degree from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Judy Wright, Director of Administration, Budget, and Contracts

Judith F. Wright joined the CECC staff in February 2002, after five years working as an executive assistant on Capitol Hill. From 1997 through 2001, she was responsible for managing and coordinating appointments, staff assignments and travel schedules for Congresswoman Marge Roukema (R-NJ). Her duties also included managing official functions, planning meetings with visiting New Jersey delegations, and overseeing correspondence between Ms. Roukema and other government officials. Prior to that, she oversaw scheduling and staff assignments, and tracked activity on the House floor for Congresswoman Karen McCarthy (D-MO). Ms. Wright also served on the Legislative Resource Center Staff for the House of Representatives Office of the Clerk. While there, she assisted the Director with speech writing, edited and proofread official correspondence, and reviewed campaign financial reports and lobbying reports. She also researched and updated the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the Bibliography of the U.S. Congress, and the Guide to Research Collections. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland-College Park.

Steve Marshall, Senior Advisor and Prisoner Database Program Director

Before joining the CECC staff in March 2002, Steven D. Marshall spent more than two decades traveling widely on the Chinese mainland and researching the human rights situation in China and the Tibetan areas of China. He has served as an expert consultant on China and Tibetan issues for Congressional members and their staff as well as State Department officers. His publications include In the Interest of the State: Hostile Elements III - Political Imprisonment in Tibet, 1987-2001 (2002); Suppressing Dissent: Hostile Elements II - Political Imprisonment in Tibet, 1987-2000 (2001); Rukhag 3: The Nuns of Drapchi Prison (2000); Tibet since 1950: Silence, Prison or Exile (2000); Hostile Elements: A Study of Political Imprisonment in Tibet, 1987-1998 (1999); and Tibet Outside the TAR: Control, Exploitation and Assimilation - Development with Chinese Characteristics, a 2,700 page CD-ROM with interactive text, images, and maps (1997). In addition, Mr. Marshall compiled, designed and maintained a database of Tibetan political prisoners that the State Department described as “the world's most comprehensive.” He also presented lectures about the Tibetan areas of China at the Foreign Service Institute for China Area Studies seminars in 2001-2013, and testified on Tibetan human rights before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2008 and before the House International Relations Committee in 1999.

Anna Brettell, Senior Advisor

Anna Brettell joined the CECC staff in January 2009. Previously she was program officer for East Asia with primary responsibility for China at the National Endowment for Democracy. Ms. Brettell has been a Research Associate at the Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, University of Maryland, and a visiting professor at Cornell University and the University of Vermont, teaching courses in Chinese and Asian politics, international environmental policy and law, and comparative politics. Her Ph.D. in Government and Politics is from the University of Maryland and her M.A. in international environmental policy is from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She has lived and worked in Greater China for more than nine years and speaks Mandarin Chinese. Her publications include articles and book chapters regarding the relationships among economic development, levels of pollution, and public participation; Chinese environmental groups; environmental justice and China's complaint and dispute resolution systems; and environmental cooperation in East Asia.

Steve Andrews, Counsel

Steve Andrews joined the CECC staff in April 2014.  Before joining the Commission, Mr. Andrews spent two years as foreign counsel in the Beijing office of a Chinese law firm.  He has also worked as an environmental and legal consultant.  Mr. Andrews has published a number of articles on intellectual property law and environmental monitoring in China.  He graduated from the UCLA School of Law and also studied at Tsinghua Law School.  Prior to law school, Mr. Andrews was a fellow in the Beijing office of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He has also worked on refugee projects for the International Rescue Committee in Ethiopia, Sudan and Thailand.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in geosciences from Princeton University.  Mr. Andrews is fluent in Chinese.

David Machinist, Research Associate

David Machinist joined the CECC staff in June 2012. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Machinist worked in the New York office of China Labor Watch (CLW). Mr. Machinist has strong interests in social advocacy and human rights work. He received his B.A. in East Asian Studies and Communications from McGill University. He has also studied at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan, and Peking University in Beijing, China. Mr. Machinist speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese.

Amy Reger, Research Associate

Amy Reger joined the CECC staff in July 2012. She previously worked as a researcher at the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). Ms. Reger has worked in the human rights and journalism fields, with a focus on China, for more than a decade. She is an alumnus of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, and traveled extensively throughout China and Asia during studies in Nanjing, Beijing and Taiwan. She speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese.

Jen Salen, Research Associate and Manager of Annual Report Production

Jen Salen joined the CECC staff in July 2012. Before joining the Commission, she managed China technical assistance programs in the areas of public interest law, civil society legal advocacy, and women’s rights for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative and in rural women’s political participation and civil society capacity building for the International Republican Institute. Earlier in her career, Ms. Salen was involved in educational initiatives to expand Chinese language education and East Asian studies at U.S. elementary and high schools. She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Bryn Mawr College and a master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Harvard University.

Andrea Worden, Senior Counsel

Andrea returned to the Commission in February 2014. In addition to her public service focusing on human rights and rule of law issues in China, Andrea has worked with several nonprofit organizations that provide capacity building and support for human rights advocates in Asia, most recently as acting executive director of Asia Catalyst. Previously she was a counsel with O’Melveny & Myers, LLP and served as a fellow at the Yale Law School China’s Law Center. Andrea has a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a master's degree in modern Chinese history, also from Stanford. After obtaining her bachelor's degree in history and East Asian Studies from Yale University, she taught English in Tianjin and Hunan with the Yale-China Association. Fluent in Mandarin, Andrea has served as an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law and St. John's University School of Law, where she taught courses on the Chinese legal system.

Mingzhi Chen, Research Associate

Mingzhi Chen joined the CECC staff in February 2014. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Chen worked as the China Analyst at Ntrepid Corporation. He has strong interests in human rights and rule of law issues in China. Mr. Chen received his B.S. degree in Business Management from Binghamton University, M.A. in Religion from Westminster Theological Seminary and M.S. with distinction in Justice, Law, and Society from the American University. Mr. Chen is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Fukienese.

David Petrick, Research Associate

David Petrick joined the CECC staff in March 2014 and covers developments in Hong Kong and Macau and freedom of residence and movement. Mr. Petrick received a bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies from Oberlin College, and studied at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing. He speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese.