Staff

Suzanne Chester was the project director of The Child’s Advocate (“TCA”) from January 2014 through December 2023. Under Suzanne’s leadership, TCA developed from a small community non-profit to a robust program at Legal Aid of North Carolina providing client-directed representation to children in Wake and Durham family courts. Suzanne trained and supervised TCA attorneys appointed by the court to represent children in contentious custody cases. Because most of TCA’s cases involve concerns such as domestic violence, child abuse/maltreatment, substance abuse or mental instability of a parent, Suzanne emphasized collaboration with children’s therapists to better understand the experiences and views of TCA’s child clients. With the goal of educating the judiciary and the local family law bar about best practices for client-directed representation for children, Suzanne and her team developed an annual program which includes presenters from TCA, the judiciary, children’s therapists, and the private family law bar. This program continues to produce a cadre of trained pro bono attorneys to help meet the growing demand for children’s attorneys. 

During her years leading TCA, Suzanne put the TCA model of child representation on the national map: in 2020, Suzanne presented at the ABA Family Law Conference in Florida on client-directed advocacy for children in custody cases involving domestic violence; in 2021, the Journal of Trauma, Child Custody and Child Development published an article by Suzanne entitled “Reunification, Alienation or Re-traumatization: Let’s Start Listening to the Child”. In 2022, Suzanne presented at the AFCC annual conference in Las Vegas on TCA’s model of client-directed representation for children in contested custody cases. In November 2023, Suzanne participated as a panelist in an online seminar hosted by the NC Chapter of the AFCC on 50/50 shared parenting. Suzanne’s blogs for the North Carolina Bar Association about children trapped in contentious custody cases have been widely read. In 2022, NC Lawyers Weekly named Suzanne a leader in the law for her advocacy for children. In November 2023, Wake Women Attorneys honored Suzanne as their Woman of the Year.

Before graduating from UNC School of Law, Suzanne obtained a Ph.D. in French literature with a minor in critical gender and race studies. Prior to leading TCA, Suzanne spent fifteen years representing adult litigants in domestic violence and child custody matters. Suzanne has also litigated discrimination claims based on sex, race, and disability under the Fair Housing Act. In 2015, the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys awarded Suzanne the Gwyneth B. Davis Award for promoting the rights of women and children under the law.

In 2023, Suzanne was recruited to lead the Child’s Voice Project and is now employed by Panorama Global, a national social impact non-profit. 

The mission of the Child’s Voice Project is to elevate children’s voices in family courts across the country by replicating TCA’s model of representation in select areas. 

Atiya M. Mosley graduated from George Washington University Law School in 1998 and began practicing law at the Augusta office of Georgia Legal Services Program. After spending some time handling a myriad of poverty law issues, she began to focus on family law and domestic violence prevention. Atiya has served as a domestic violence prevention advocate in some capacity since law school. After four years at Legal Services, Atiya opened her own successful family law firm also serving as a Guardian ad Litem for the Augusta Judicial Circuit during that period. In 2005, Atiya moved to North Carolina to be closer to her family. She joined Legal Aid of North Carolina to serve as the Domestic Violence Prevention Initiative attorney for the Raleigh office. In July 2017, Atiya transitioned to the Child’s Advocate (a project of Legal Aid), where she serves as senior staff attorney for children in high-conflict custody lawsuits so that their voices are heard and their interests protected. Atiya is a founding member of the Wake County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team. She currently serves as a trainer for the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence. In part due to her commitment and dedication to meet violence with love and kindness, Atiya was selected by the Wake Women Attorney’s to serve as their first Wake Woman of the Year in 2016. Outside of the office, Atiya enjoys cooking yummy meals that she shares with loved ones, adventures, delving deeper and exploring life.

Athina Hinson-Boyte graduated from UNC School of Law in 2021 with honors. During law school, Athina completed over 200 hours of pro bono work, was on the National Holderness Moot Court team, and served as president of Law Students Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. Athina interned for ten weeks with The Child’s Advocate in the summer of 2020. 

Before attending law school, Athina worked as a court advocate at the Abuse Prevention Council for three years. This experience inspired her to pursue public interest work throughout her legal education and career. 

After graduating from law school, Athina was awarded a prestigious Julian T. Pierce fellowship at the Pembroke office of Legal Aid of North Carolina. She litigated cases in the areas of domestic violence protective orders and landlord/tenant disputes. In September 2022, Athina returned to The Child’s Advocate as a staff attorney and now specializes in representing children in contentious custody cases in Wake and Durham Counties. 

In her free time, Athina can be found reading a good book with a cat on her lap.