Meet the ALJs

The State Personnel Board Administrative Law Judges.

Teri L. Block

Teri L. Block joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in July of 2010. Prior to joining the State Personnel Board, Ms. Block worked in private practice specializing in employment law for 9 years. She also served as a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice, Government Law Section, and clerked for two years for Judge Consuelo M. Callahan, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Ms. Block graduated from the University of California at Davis, and received her J.D. from Pacific McGeorge School of Law.

Gregory Brown

Mr. Brown joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in March 2006. Prior to joining the State Personnel Board, Mr. Brown worked as a Deputy State Public Defender at the California Office of the State Public Defender, and as a Senior Counsel on the Administrative Litigation Team at the California Department of Health Services. Mr. Brown graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and received his J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law.

Suzy Choi-Lee

Suzy Choi-Lee joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in February 2018. Before joining the State Personnel Board, Ms. Choi-Lee worked primarily in the transportation industry, most recently handling labor relations matters for a transportation agency in San Jose, California. Prior to that, she spent three years as an in-house counsel and ethics officer for a commuter rail agency and six years as a Deputy General Counsel for a county agency in Chicago, Illinois, focusing mostly on ethics, investigations, labor relations and employment matters. Ms. Choi-Lee graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan and received her J.D. from the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Illinois.

Eileen Doleschal

Ms. Doleschal joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in January 2009. Prior to joining the State Personnel Board, Ms. Doleschal was an attorney in private practice, principally in the civil defense arena representing clients against lawsuits involving general tort liability claims, professional liability, and products liability. Ms. Doleschal received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and received her J.D. from San Joaquin College of Law.

Gurdeep Dhaliwal

Gurdeep Dhaliwal joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in January 2018. For the six years prior to joining the SPB, Ms. Dhaliwal worked at a small law firm in Sacramento primarily representing teachers in employment matters. Ms. Dhaliwal also worked for five years at a non-profit law firm in Los Angeles representing low-income clients in housing and employment matters. Ms. Dhaliwal graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Rhetoric and received her law degree from UC Davis School of Law.

Amy Friedman

Amy Friedman joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in February 2015. Before joining the State Personnel Board, Ms. Friedman was a Deputy Attorney General with the Correctional Writs and Appeals section of the Attorney General’s Office. In that capacity, Ms. Friedman litigated habeas corpus petitions, civil rights actions, petitions for writ of mandate, and various law and motion matters in state and federal trial court. Ms. Friedman also litigated appeals in the California Supreme Court, California Court of Appeals, and the Ninth Circuit. Ms. Friedman earned her J.D. from the University of California, Davis, School of Law (King Hall), after earning Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and Studio Art.

Lori A. Green

Lori Green joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in April 2016. Prior to joining the State Personnel Board, Ms. Green worked for two and one half years as a Special Assistant Inspector General with the Office of the Inspector General, eight and one half years as a Labor Relations Counsel for the California Department of Human Resources, and four and one half years as a Certified Mediator in Small Claims and Unlawful Detainer Court for the Human Rights/Fair Housing Commission. Ms. Green received both her Master of Arts Degree in History and her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Humanities from California State University Sacramento, and a JD from Lincoln Law School of Sacramento.

Jean M. Hobler

Jean M. Hobler joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in January 2021. After receiving her J.D. from the University of Arizona College of Law and clerking for the Arizona Supreme Court, in 2001 Ms. Hobler began practicing general civil litigation and white collar criminal defense in Sacramento with Downey Brand, then DLA Piper. She joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento as an Assistant United States Attorney in 2008, focusing on white collar and national security crimes, and was appointed Senior Litigation Counsel for the Criminal Division in 2015. After leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2017, Ms. Hobler maintained a solo practice handling workplace investigations, criminal appeals, and civil litigation and a consulting business training Title IX investigators throughout the country in advanced investigation techniques and reporting.

John G. Johnson

John G. Johnson joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in May of 2016. Prior to joining the State Personnel Board, Mr. Johnson was a partner at the law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, now known as Dentons, first in their Chicago office, then in their San Francisco office. During his fifteen years at Sonnenschein, Mr. Johnson litigated cases in state and federal courts across the country, specializing in class action defense and environmental coverage actions. Mr. Johnson additionally handled a variety of other matters, including contract disputes, government contract actions, and tort claims, among others. Mr. Johnson graduated with a B.A. from the University of Chicago and graduated Order of the Coif from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he was a Berkson Merit Scholar and Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. Mr. Johnson is admitted to the bars of California and Illinois. Prior to going to law school, Mr. Johnson was employed by the University of Chicago as a financial analyst and in publishing.

Ralph Kasarda

Ralph Kasarda joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in October 2016. Before joining the State Personnel Board, Mr. Kasarda was a staff attorney in the Civil Rights practice group at the Pacific Legal Foundation. Mr. Kasarda was also an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau, an attorney in private practice, principally working in the area of liability defense, and a law clerk for a Federal Administrative Law Judge in the U.S. Department of Labor. Mr. Kasarda has litigated in state and federal courts, including the California Court of Appeal, and the Fourth and Ninth Circuits. Mr. Kasarda earned his J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law, after earning a Master’s in Education from George Mason University, and a Bachelors of Arts in Physical Science from San Francisco State University. Prior to the practice of law, Mr. Kasarda served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps and taught high school earth science in Northern Virginia.

Jason Krestoff

Mr. Krestoff joined the State Personnel Board in January 2009, as an Administrative Law Judge. Prior to joining SPB, Mr. Krestoff spent thirteen years as a civil litigator in private practice with the Law Offices of Daniel J. Sullivan, three and half years at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation – primarily dealing with inmate initiated civil litigation, ten years as a Judge Pro Tem /Small Claims Court/ Sacramento County Superior Court, and eight years as an Arbitrator for the Sacramento County Superior Court. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University of San Francisco, and a J.D. from the University of Arizona, College of Law.

Mark Kruger

Mark Kruger joined the State Personnel Board as an Administrative Law Judge in April of 2014. Prior to joining the Board, Mr. Kruger worked in the private sector representing employees and employee labor associations in all facets of employment law including administrative hearings, and proceedings in state and federal court. During the last 14 years of Mr. Kruger's practice in the private sector, his practice focused primarily on representation of employees before the State Personnel Board. Mr. Kruger graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana and received his J.D. from Pacific McGeorge School of Law.

Bruce Monfross

Bruce A. Monfross was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge with the State Personnel Board during December 2011. ALJ Monfross received his B.A. degree from the University of California, Davis, and his J.D. degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. Prior to joining the SPB, Mr. Monfross was in private practice where he represented both employees and employers in employment litigation before state administrative agencies, as well as in state and federal courts. He subsequently was appointed as Staff Counsel for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation where he represented the department in employment-related matters. Mr. Monfross thereafter served as Staff Counsel for the SPB for a number of years. He most recently served as Staff Counsel for the Office of the Inspector General.

Anthony Musante

Mr. Musante joined the State Personnel Board in April 2017, as an Administrative Law Judge. Prior to joining the SPB, Mr. Musante worked at a state department as in-house counsel advising management on all personnel-related matters. Before that, he was an associate in a multinational law firm specializing in employment law for six years. Mr. Musante graduated with a Masters from CSU, Chico and received his J.D. from the University of Oregon.

Douglas Purdy

Mr. Purdy joined the State Personnel Board in January 2008. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Riverside, and his J.D. from the University of California, Davis, School of Law (King Hall). Prior to joining SPB, he worked for a labor union in which he represented employees in SPB hearings, represented school districts and charter schools at a firm that emphasized education law, and was a Staff Counsel for a state agency in which he represented the agency in SPB hearings and other employment law matters.