Our Team - Project Real

BOARD MEMBERS

Danielle A. Kolkoski, Esq.,

BOARD PRESIDENT

Danielle Kolkoski has practiced law in Nevada since 2003, and has served as the Board President of Project REAL since 2015. "I joined Project REAL because my son is growing up in Las Vegas. I can teach him all the laws and consequences I can imagine, but I feel better knowing Project REAL is out there teaching the exact same thing to the students that could be the kids he hangs out with in the future. A parent only has so much influence, so the more I can do to ensure my child has a large selection of wonderful peers to choose from, the safer I know he will be, along with myself and all other residents of Nevada."

Thomas Kovach, Jr.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ACTING SECRETARY & TREASURER

Thomas (Tom) Kovach Jr. is Project REAL's Executive Director and has been helping nonprofits throughout Southern Nevada succeed in their service and fundraising needs for well over a decade. Tom has served on the boards of a number of esteemed organizations including United Way of Southern Nevada, Human Rights Commission, Nevada School of the Arts, and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Foundation. When asked about his decision to join Project REAL, Tom explained, "I knew Sam Lionel and Irwin Molasky did amazing things for this town, so when the opportunity came along to help support a project they created together, I was instantly intrigued. As I learned about Project REAL, it was clear this was an organization doing vital work for Nevada, and I wanted to be a part of it. Today, I feel great pride in knowing our work has shaped the lives of nearly 200,000 students in Nevada.”

Samuel S. Lionel Esq.

FOUNDER, BOARD DIRECTOR

Samuel (Sam) S Lionel is an attorney and co-founder of Las Vegas-based Lionel Sawyer & Collins - a law firm focused on gaming. Sam founded the firm in 1967 with former Nevada Governor Grant Sawyer and Jon Collins. It became one of the largest firms in the state, representing major Strip developers and gaming clients before being dissolved in 2015, when Sam then joined the Fennemore Craig law firm. Sam is also a retired Lieutenant Colonel, Judge Advocate General and a member and chairman of the Board of Bar Examiners of Nevada. He also served on the board of trustees of Nathan Adelson Hospice. Mr. Lionel received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2013. In addition to his many great law-related accomplishments, Sam is well known for his philanthropic efforts throughout the state of Nevada.

PARTNERS & DONORS

Corporations, government agencies, and other nonprofits have all seen the value of our work and rose to the challenge of ensuring Project REAL continues to serve the students of Nevada. We acknowledge and are grateful for these organizations for the grants and donations they provide to help make our work possible. We are also fortunate enough to have the support of key philanthropic individuals without whom we'd be unable to continue serving Nevada's students. We'd like to take a moment to thank some of those organizations and individuals now.

Premier Sponsors & Donors
Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant
Friends of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept. Foundation
US District Court, District of Nevada's Attorney Admissions' Fund

Select Sponsors & Donors
Cirque Du Soleil
NV Energy Foundation
Savant Investment Partners

Essential Sponsors & Donors
The Molasky Group of Companies
Sam & Lexy Lionel

Sponsors
Nevada Humanities
Speedway Children's' Charities
The Gratitude Project

Benefactors
Kamer, Zucker, & Abbott
Jewish Nevada, Nevada's Jewish Federation
Summer Business Institute
Lovee & Bob Arum
Stephen & Andrea Wynn
Steve Lawrence

Supporters
American Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division - Nevada Chapter

EMPLOYEES

Mike Kamer, M.P.A

SENIOR DIRECTOR

Project REAL's Program Director Mike Kamer has been serving the students of Nevada on behalf of the organization since early 2016. Since coming onboard with Project REAL, Mike's 10+ years of experience in program development & management have allowed the organization to significantly increase the number of students served and the number of tools available to serve them with.

Northern Nevada Regional Coordinator

SEASONAL

Our Northern Nevada office is staffed by a rotating team of interns provided by the University of Nevada, Reno. This team is responsible for ensuring Project REAL provides continuous service in the northern parts of Nevada, including our well known courthouse fieldtrips. They also regularly make contributions to our ‘additional content' law blogs.

VOLUNTEERS

Project REAL always welcomes inquiries about traditional volunteer opportunities, however the majority of volunteer hours served with us are performed by interns, teachers, and law-professionals. We would like to take a moment to highlight the unique and invaluable ways these groups serve Nevada's children through Project REAL.

Teachers

The teachers who volunteer to bring our materials and experiences into their classrooms are essential to our success. Principals and school administrators do contact us with requests for our services (and we gladly respond to those requests), however the majority of our services are delivered to students by the teachers who took the initiative to bring Project REAL into their classrooms.

Law Professionals

Lawyers, Judges, Clerks, and Law Officers.... Teachers are 45% responsible for Project REAL's success, and people in these and similar positions make up another 45% (that leaves 10% of the lifting for us to do).

Officers are not just responsible for co-teaching our materials about laws and the consequences of breaking them to students, they also take on the challenge of winning over the students' hearts and minds during difficult times in our nation.  

The many judges, lawyers, and courthouse staff who allow us to bring up to 90 students into Nevada's courthouses nearly every day of the week are the only reasons our field trips are so invaluably interactive – otherwise these trips would just be tours of empty buildings were it not for them. Their volunteerism goes well beyond the passive allowance of our presence of course – most of these volunteers go above and beyond, taking time out of their day to speak with the students and answer their questions. They allow our field trips in their courts, they provide the opportunities for us to give those trips, and best of all, they greatly improve upon the experiences we offer.

Interns

Our organization has the benefit of hosting a wide-range of interns, all of whom have make significant contributions to our work. Interns help to improve the ways our fieldtrips run, contributed to new activities we've developed, created administrative tools that have allowed us to make notable gains in our efficacy, and much more. When you see the credits pages in our printed materials, you can get a sense of just how much impact these amazing individuals create during their time at Project REAL.

Corporate Groups & Individuals

Project REAL has numerous needs that can be addressed by individuals in the community joining us as volunteers. Our volunteer program is currently 'under construction', so for now those opportunities are on hold. If you are interested in joining our program, EMAIL US HERE and we will notify you as soon as our program begins onboarding new volunteers.

Community Organizations & Strategic Partners

In the first fifteen years of service, the majority of our work took place in the classroom. Thanks to program expansions and new opportunities that developed, today our resources are in use at summer camps, afterschool programs, community centers, and even family development classes aimed at adults. We take pride in the growing list of education programs, community groups, and nonprofit partners that are taking part in our work educating and empowering the students of Nevada.

DEDICATED TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

We serve a diverse range of students throughout Nevada, and are dedicated to having an equally diverse team to serve them with. We are firmly committed to ensuring the students we serve are being helped by people from within their own communities whenever possible.

We go beyond the generic sentiment of having a non-discrimination policy – we actively recruit from the communities we serve. All resumes and applications are reviewed and prioritized in batches, with identifying information removed to prevent any unconscious bias from influencing those decisions. Resumes are not the end-all evaluation tool in our team development process either – we also take candidates' potential for professional development into consideration when making decisions about additions to our team.

If you would like to help support our commitment to these practices and philosophies, consider joining our Diversity and Inclusion committee that provides guidance on administrative policies and our academic content. Visit the volunteer section of our site to learn more.