Meet Our Team
Elizabeth Vartkessian, Executive Director
Elizabeth Vartkessian has been investigating the life histories of those facing the most severe penalties possible in the United States since 2004. She started working as a mitigation specialist in Houston, Texas at a time when it was the epicenter of capital punishment. There she learned and developed skills aimed at helping decision-makers have a full picture of her clients.
After starting a successful private practice and obtaining her Ph.D. in Law from the University of Oxford, Dr. Vartkessian and several colleagues created Advancing Real Change, Inc. (ARC, Inc.) a national non-profit located in Baltimore, MD dedicated to conducting high-quality life history investigations in criminal cases. As the founding Executive Director, Dr. Vartkessian is committed to having the history of an accused at the forefront of their criminal case. She has worked as a mitigation specialist with defense teams in trial and post-conviction cases in state and federal jurisdictions and is an international expert on the collection and effective presentation of mitigating evidence, as well as the standard of care required by the defense in death penalty and juvenile cases.
Dr. Vartkessian’s approach to investigating and presenting evidence is informed by research. She is currently a Research Fellow at the University at Albany in the School of Criminal Justice where she is a researcher with the Capital Jury Project (CJP). The CJP is an ongoing research project sponsored by the National Science Foundation that seeks to understand how capital jurors make their sentencing decisions and whether those decisions are made in keeping with the law. The results of her research were widely cited by the American Bar Association’s review of the Texas capital sentencing system. Her publications, which include articles in law reviews, peer review journals, and opinion pieces focus on receptivity to mitigating evidence.
In addition to having received her Ph.D. in Law from the University of Oxford, Dr. Vartkessian also holds a M.S. in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford and B.A.s in Philosophy and Political Science from the George Washington University where she was a Presidential Scholar. In 2015 she was awarded the J. M. K. Innovation Prize for her efforts to bring mitigation to all areas of the criminal justice process. In 2018, the City Council of Baltimore passed a resolution praising Dr. Vartkessian’s efforts to bring human dignity into the justice system.
Erin Fiaschetti, Director of Operations
Erin Fiaschetti has worked with nonprofit organizations and government agencies for more than a decade. Her experience includes the fields of domestic violence, local legislation, community development, and poverty alleviation. Erin received her Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland School of Social Work, where she studied Management and Community Organizing, and her B.A. in English and Sociology from Vanderbilt University.
Katherine Atkins, Director (Baltimore Office)
Katherine Atkins provides direct supervision to staff in addition to working on behalf of ARC's capital and juvenile clients. Katherine has worked on capital cases in both federal and state courts, juvenile resentencing cases, and sentencing modifications for those convicted of crimes as children. Katherine joined ARC, Inc. with a background in community-based advocacy and direct service to individuals experiencing homelessness, and became involved with mitigation work during an internship with the University of Texas School of Law's Capital Punishment Clinic. She joined ARC, Inc. after receiving her Master of Science in Social Work degree (MSSW) from the University of Texas at Austin and her Master of Divinity degree (MDiv) from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Katherine is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW).
Sara Baldwin, Director (Florida Office)
Sara Baldwin has been a mitigation specialist in continuous practice since 1997. She began her career at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL) in Durham, NC, and was a staff mitigation specialist and NC death row support services coordinator with CDPL for the first 6 years of her career. At CDPL, Sara worked primarily in capital post-conviction but also worked on capital pretrial and clemency cases. In 2003 having had her third child, Sara returned to her hometown of Jacksonville, FL, where she opened a private practice. For the next 14 years she offered mitigation services in hundreds of capital and non-capital cases throughout the state of Florida and across the Southeast, in both state and federal courts.
Sara closed a thriving private practice in 2017 in order to accept a position as the Director of Mitigation in the Office of the Public Defender, 4 th Judicial Circuit (PD4), located in Jacksonville. During her tenure at PD4, the Mitigation Unit handled over 40 capital and JLWOP cases, as well as numerous non-capital cases. Sara holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and a Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) also from UNC-CH. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW).
Megan Buchanan, Record Collection Specialist
After receiving her B.S. from American University, Megan began working at the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. There, she worked with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals as well as their family members to advocate around sentencing issues. Inspired by the stories of those most directly impacted by sentencing policy, Megan made the shift toward mitigation work and joined the ARC, Inc. team as a Record Collection Specialist.
Maddie Burger, Record Collection Specialist
Maddie joined ARC, Inc. with the desire to advocate for individuals charged with or convicted of capital or juvenile crimes in state and federal courts. Prior to joining ARC, Inc., Maddie worked in mitigation on cases out of the Public Defender's Office in Florida. Previously, Maddie worked in child welfare, providing in-home behavioral care to families, and in ministry providing emergency housing to impoverished individuals and families in rural Appalachia. Maddie received her B.S. in Psychology and is currently pursuing her M.S.W. from Florida State University.
Kahpri Carter, Record Collection Specialist
Kahpri Carter works as a Record Collection Specialist. Prior to joining ARC, Inc., Kahpri worked as a paralegal for environmental & public health consultants. She has a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Hampton University and is currently completing a Masters in Nonprofit Management.
Lennox Dasilva, Life History Investigator/Record Collection Specialist
Lennox Dasilva is a graduate of Towson University, where he received a B.S. in Criminal Justice. During his undergraduate career, he focused his studies on mass incarceration and addressing the impact of the criminal justice system on vulnerable communities. Lennox has also served on the executive board of various student groups on campus. During his final semester at Towson University, he was selected to serve as a Teacher’s Assistant for an Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program that took Towson students inside a prison to study criminal justice as equals with incarcerated men and women to challenge and transform their notions of crime and justice.
Kia Fortson, Record Collection Specialist
Kia Fortson is a former teacher and mentor of both general population and special needs students. She has been a middle-school English teacher in both Baltimore City and Southeast D.C. Prior to teaching, she obtained a B.A in English from Coppin State University and is currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Baltimore. Her desire has always been to become a catalyst for change, with first youth and now adults, which has influenced her transition to restorative justice and the ARC inc. team.
Lauren James, Life History Investigator
Lauren James, LMSW (Tulane School of Social Work, 2015) is a Life History Investigator. Her professional experience includes working with homeless youth, clinical counseling, forensic social work, and mitigation investigation in both pre-trial and post-conviction cases in Louisiana. Lauren is a Spanish speaker who is passionate about her Afro-Caribbean and West Indian heritage, which informs her interest in how intersectionality extends into mitigation and court proceedings.
Judith Mazdra, Life History Investigator
Judith joined ARC, Inc. to support individuals charged with or convicted of capital crimes in federal and state courts. She has a background in sociocultural anthropology, global health, community-based harm reduction, and human rights advocacy. Judith received her M.A. in Medical Anthropology and Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies from Harvard University and her B.A. in Anthropology and Russian/East European Studies from Tufts University. Judith speaks fluent Russian and conversational French.
Emily Mulder, Life History Investigator
Emily conducts mitigation investigation in both pre-trial and post-conviction capital cases and has experience working on state and federal capital cases in Alabama and Louisiana. Emily is a former journalist, researcher, and cook. She holds an MA in Divinity from the University of Chicago Divinity School's Anthropology Department and a BA in Religious Studies and Middle East Studies from the University of Washington. She is conversational in Levantine Arabic.
Mary Roberts, Development Manager
Over the last 15 years, Mary has worked with youth-centered institutions and nonprofit organizations. Her service has included advocating for students with disabilities and educating adjudicated youth in Maryland. She comes to ARC, Inc. with 3 years of development experience. Mary has earned a Master of Nonprofit Management from Notre Dame of Maryland University where she studied Grant Writing and Professional Writing. In addition, she has received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Communication from Eureka College.
Kara Stoner, Office Manager
Kara joined ARC, Inc as the Office Manager. Prior to joining ARC Inc., Kara worked as a Accounts Manager for a home healthcare agency, and was a medical billing specialist for over a decade before deciding to return to school. Kara received her Associates degree at Howard Community College, and her B.S in Health Services Management from University of Maryland University College.
Theo Sullivan, Record Collection Specialist
Prior to joining ARC, Inc.'s work as a Record Collection Specialist, Theo worked as a writer, educator, and baker. He holds a B.A. in History from Wesleyan University.
Elizabeth Vartkessian has been investigating the life histories of those facing the most severe penalties possible in the United States since 2004. She started working as a mitigation specialist in Houston, Texas at a time when it was the epicenter of capital punishment. There she learned and developed skills aimed at helping decision-makers have a full picture of her clients.
After starting a successful private practice and obtaining her Ph.D. in Law from the University of Oxford, Dr. Vartkessian and several colleagues created Advancing Real Change, Inc. (ARC, Inc.) a national non-profit located in Baltimore, MD dedicated to conducting high-quality life history investigations in criminal cases. As the founding Executive Director, Dr. Vartkessian is committed to having the history of an accused at the forefront of their criminal case. She has worked as a mitigation specialist with defense teams in trial and post-conviction cases in state and federal jurisdictions and is an international expert on the collection and effective presentation of mitigating evidence, as well as the standard of care required by the defense in death penalty and juvenile cases.
Dr. Vartkessian’s approach to investigating and presenting evidence is informed by research. She is currently a Research Fellow at the University at Albany in the School of Criminal Justice where she is a researcher with the Capital Jury Project (CJP). The CJP is an ongoing research project sponsored by the National Science Foundation that seeks to understand how capital jurors make their sentencing decisions and whether those decisions are made in keeping with the law. The results of her research were widely cited by the American Bar Association’s review of the Texas capital sentencing system. Her publications, which include articles in law reviews, peer review journals, and opinion pieces focus on receptivity to mitigating evidence.
In addition to having received her Ph.D. in Law from the University of Oxford, Dr. Vartkessian also holds a M.S. in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford and B.A.s in Philosophy and Political Science from the George Washington University where she was a Presidential Scholar. In 2015 she was awarded the J. M. K. Innovation Prize for her efforts to bring mitigation to all areas of the criminal justice process. In 2018, the City Council of Baltimore passed a resolution praising Dr. Vartkessian’s efforts to bring human dignity into the justice system.
Erin Fiaschetti, Director of Operations
Erin Fiaschetti has worked with nonprofit organizations and government agencies for more than a decade. Her experience includes the fields of domestic violence, local legislation, community development, and poverty alleviation. Erin received her Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland School of Social Work, where she studied Management and Community Organizing, and her B.A. in English and Sociology from Vanderbilt University.
Katherine Atkins, Director (Baltimore Office)
Katherine Atkins provides direct supervision to staff in addition to working on behalf of ARC's capital and juvenile clients. Katherine has worked on capital cases in both federal and state courts, juvenile resentencing cases, and sentencing modifications for those convicted of crimes as children. Katherine joined ARC, Inc. with a background in community-based advocacy and direct service to individuals experiencing homelessness, and became involved with mitigation work during an internship with the University of Texas School of Law's Capital Punishment Clinic. She joined ARC, Inc. after receiving her Master of Science in Social Work degree (MSSW) from the University of Texas at Austin and her Master of Divinity degree (MDiv) from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Katherine is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW).
Sara Baldwin, Director (Florida Office)
Sara Baldwin has been a mitigation specialist in continuous practice since 1997. She began her career at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL) in Durham, NC, and was a staff mitigation specialist and NC death row support services coordinator with CDPL for the first 6 years of her career. At CDPL, Sara worked primarily in capital post-conviction but also worked on capital pretrial and clemency cases. In 2003 having had her third child, Sara returned to her hometown of Jacksonville, FL, where she opened a private practice. For the next 14 years she offered mitigation services in hundreds of capital and non-capital cases throughout the state of Florida and across the Southeast, in both state and federal courts.
Sara closed a thriving private practice in 2017 in order to accept a position as the Director of Mitigation in the Office of the Public Defender, 4 th Judicial Circuit (PD4), located in Jacksonville. During her tenure at PD4, the Mitigation Unit handled over 40 capital and JLWOP cases, as well as numerous non-capital cases. Sara holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and a Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) also from UNC-CH. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW).
Megan Buchanan, Record Collection Specialist
After receiving her B.S. from American University, Megan began working at the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. There, she worked with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals as well as their family members to advocate around sentencing issues. Inspired by the stories of those most directly impacted by sentencing policy, Megan made the shift toward mitigation work and joined the ARC, Inc. team as a Record Collection Specialist.
Maddie Burger, Record Collection Specialist
Maddie joined ARC, Inc. with the desire to advocate for individuals charged with or convicted of capital or juvenile crimes in state and federal courts. Prior to joining ARC, Inc., Maddie worked in mitigation on cases out of the Public Defender's Office in Florida. Previously, Maddie worked in child welfare, providing in-home behavioral care to families, and in ministry providing emergency housing to impoverished individuals and families in rural Appalachia. Maddie received her B.S. in Psychology and is currently pursuing her M.S.W. from Florida State University.
Kahpri Carter, Record Collection Specialist
Kahpri Carter works as a Record Collection Specialist. Prior to joining ARC, Inc., Kahpri worked as a paralegal for environmental & public health consultants. She has a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Hampton University and is currently completing a Masters in Nonprofit Management.
Lennox Dasilva, Life History Investigator/Record Collection Specialist
Lennox Dasilva is a graduate of Towson University, where he received a B.S. in Criminal Justice. During his undergraduate career, he focused his studies on mass incarceration and addressing the impact of the criminal justice system on vulnerable communities. Lennox has also served on the executive board of various student groups on campus. During his final semester at Towson University, he was selected to serve as a Teacher’s Assistant for an Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program that took Towson students inside a prison to study criminal justice as equals with incarcerated men and women to challenge and transform their notions of crime and justice.
Kia Fortson, Record Collection Specialist
Kia Fortson is a former teacher and mentor of both general population and special needs students. She has been a middle-school English teacher in both Baltimore City and Southeast D.C. Prior to teaching, she obtained a B.A in English from Coppin State University and is currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Baltimore. Her desire has always been to become a catalyst for change, with first youth and now adults, which has influenced her transition to restorative justice and the ARC inc. team.
Lauren James, Life History Investigator
Lauren James, LMSW (Tulane School of Social Work, 2015) is a Life History Investigator. Her professional experience includes working with homeless youth, clinical counseling, forensic social work, and mitigation investigation in both pre-trial and post-conviction cases in Louisiana. Lauren is a Spanish speaker who is passionate about her Afro-Caribbean and West Indian heritage, which informs her interest in how intersectionality extends into mitigation and court proceedings.
Judith Mazdra, Life History Investigator
Judith joined ARC, Inc. to support individuals charged with or convicted of capital crimes in federal and state courts. She has a background in sociocultural anthropology, global health, community-based harm reduction, and human rights advocacy. Judith received her M.A. in Medical Anthropology and Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies from Harvard University and her B.A. in Anthropology and Russian/East European Studies from Tufts University. Judith speaks fluent Russian and conversational French.
Emily Mulder, Life History Investigator
Emily conducts mitigation investigation in both pre-trial and post-conviction capital cases and has experience working on state and federal capital cases in Alabama and Louisiana. Emily is a former journalist, researcher, and cook. She holds an MA in Divinity from the University of Chicago Divinity School's Anthropology Department and a BA in Religious Studies and Middle East Studies from the University of Washington. She is conversational in Levantine Arabic.
Mary Roberts, Development Manager
Over the last 15 years, Mary has worked with youth-centered institutions and nonprofit organizations. Her service has included advocating for students with disabilities and educating adjudicated youth in Maryland. She comes to ARC, Inc. with 3 years of development experience. Mary has earned a Master of Nonprofit Management from Notre Dame of Maryland University where she studied Grant Writing and Professional Writing. In addition, she has received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Communication from Eureka College.
Kara Stoner, Office Manager
Kara joined ARC, Inc as the Office Manager. Prior to joining ARC Inc., Kara worked as a Accounts Manager for a home healthcare agency, and was a medical billing specialist for over a decade before deciding to return to school. Kara received her Associates degree at Howard Community College, and her B.S in Health Services Management from University of Maryland University College.
Theo Sullivan, Record Collection Specialist
Prior to joining ARC, Inc.'s work as a Record Collection Specialist, Theo worked as a writer, educator, and baker. He holds a B.A. in History from Wesleyan University.
The ARC, Inc. team in May 2019
Steven Asin, President
Steve served for over 25 years as the Deputy Chief of the Defender Services Office (DSO) within the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Soon after joining the DSO in 1988, he assumed primary responsibility for federal court death penalty representation matters, including the development, funding, and oversight of 17 Death Penalty Resource Centers. Following their defunding in 1996, Steve conceived of and was responsible for establishing Capital Habeas Units in 17 traditional federal defender offices. During the last half of his tenure with the DSO, Steve also served as the Chief of its Program Budget Division, managing the budget and grant process for the nation's federal public and community defender organizations and overseeing the formulation of the annual Defender Services appropriation request. Steve began his career at The Legal Aid Society in New York City.
Jeremiah Sierra, Vice President
Jeremy Sierra has more than ten years experience in nonprofit administration and communications. He has an MFA in creative nonfiction from the New School and has written for a number of publications, including the Huffington Post. He is currently communications manager at Cities of Service, a nonprofit that helps mayors build stronger cities by changing the way local government and citizens work together.
Amber Kaset, Treasurer
Nashville-based mitigation specialist and criminal defense investigator Amber Kaset started her career at the Nashville Metropolitan Public Defender’s Office, where she spent seven years serving the city’s poorest defendants, including those in the Hispanic community through her fluency in Spanish. She left in 2010 to start a private firm focused on fact investigation and mitigation for indigent clients throughout Tennessee and Kentucky. Her team has investigated hundreds of high-level state and federal cases, and has worked on capital cases from California to Maryland. Amber graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and also studied at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Nicole Flowers, Secretary
Nicole is a San Francisco native and has worked in Silicon Valley's Learning and Development field for 15 years, previously at Genentech and most recently, Facebook. An entrepreneur at heart, she founded hiip, a one for one fanny pack company where a kit of basic necessities is hand-delivered to a person in need on the street for every bag sold. hiip encourages community involvement by inviting locals to join in on handouts with organizations like the Salvation Army with a goal to see and connect the marginalized. When not actively connecting with local neighbors through her homemade food delivery ministry, Meet the Street, Nicole enjoys traveling and discovering all the food around San Francisco. She holds a degree in Journalism from Pepperdine University.
Jim Marcus, President Emeritus
Since 1993, Mr. Marcus has represented death-sentenced clients at every level of state and federal habeas corpus proceedings, first with the Texas Resource Center and then with the Texas Defender Service, a non-profit capital defense project he helped found in 1995. Mr. Marcus served as the Executive Director of Texas Defender Service from 1997 until stepping down in the summer of 2006 to join the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law. In addition to co-directing the Capital Punishment Clinic, Mr. Marcus trains and supports capital habeas counsel in Texas cases and lectures in capital defense seminars across the nation.
Adrián de la Rosa
Adrián de la Rosa is a capital investigator and mitigation specialist with experience working in Texas at both the federal and state habeas levels. Prior to his work in the capital community, he led the community education efforts at the Texas Fair Defense Project (TFDP), a nonprofit legal advocacy organization that works to improve the fairness of Texas’s criminal courts to ensure that all Texans have access to justice. Adrián also has worked as an adjunct associate professor in the Sociology Department at Austin Community College and previously served on the board of the Workers Defense Project (Proyecto Defensa Laboral), a membership-based organization that empowers low-income workers to achieve fair employment through education, direct services, organizing and strategic partnerships. He currently serves on the Commission on Immigrant Affairs for the City of Austin where he focuses on issues of common concern to immigrants and immigrant communities. Adrián is a proud native West Texan, fluent Spanish-speaker, and actively volunteers with several nonprofits in the Austin community, while also mentoring Latinx and other underserved community college students.
Ruth Friedman
Since 2006, Ruth has been the Director of the Federal Capital Habeas Project, which recruits, trains and consults with qualified counsel in order to improve representation in post-conviction for the growing number of men and women on the federal death row. Ruth previously served as Senior Counsel at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and prior to that position as a staff attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta.
Richard Jasper
Richard Jasper is a criminal defense attorney with 30 years experience in New York City specializing in federal criminal defense and federal capital litigation. Since 1994, Richard has represented defendants in federal capital cases. He has served as a member of the faculty at the Bryan R. Shechmeister Death Penalty College, Santa Clara University School of Law.
Lauren Mims
Lauren Mims is an assistant Professor of educational psychology at Ball State University. Lauren received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology: Applied Developmental Science at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. Broadly, Lauren’s work focuses on promoting the wellbeing and development of Black students, with a particular focus on Black girls. Lauren formerly served as the Assistant Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans during the Obama Administration, where she focused her efforts on student programming, supporting federal interagency relationships, the development of research-based publications and handbooks for students, managing the Initiative social media accounts, and engaging with stakeholders through multi-media platforms. She was a member of the White House Council on Women and Girls, the U.S. Department of Education Policy Committee, the U.S. Department of Education Socioeconomic Diversity Working Group, as well as a member of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Working Group.
Anupama Vishwamitra
Anupama Vishwamitra is the Director of Mitigation at the Office of the Georgia Capital Defender. She oversees all trial-level death penalty cases in the State of Georgia. She trains, supervises and mentors Mitigation Investigators, consults with capital defense teams around the nation and presents on a variety of mitigation issues at professional conferences. Anu teaches the Forensic Social Work course at Georgia State University – Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and manages interns from several colleges and universities. She has been dedicated to capital defense work since 2006, a year after earning her Master in Social Work.
Christopher K. Walters
Chris has been Senior Pro Bono Counsel at the global law firm Reed Smith LLP since 2004. In that capacity, on a full-time basis Chris manages the pro bono work of Reed Smith’s 1800 lawyers, most of whom are in the United States. For 25 years before becoming Reed Smith’s Senior Pro Bono Counsel, Chris was a litigation partner at the firm. Chris graduated from Princeton University and Michigan Law School. Prior to law practice he served on active duty as an Army Intelligence officer, including one year in Vietnam.
Steve served for over 25 years as the Deputy Chief of the Defender Services Office (DSO) within the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Soon after joining the DSO in 1988, he assumed primary responsibility for federal court death penalty representation matters, including the development, funding, and oversight of 17 Death Penalty Resource Centers. Following their defunding in 1996, Steve conceived of and was responsible for establishing Capital Habeas Units in 17 traditional federal defender offices. During the last half of his tenure with the DSO, Steve also served as the Chief of its Program Budget Division, managing the budget and grant process for the nation's federal public and community defender organizations and overseeing the formulation of the annual Defender Services appropriation request. Steve began his career at The Legal Aid Society in New York City.
Jeremiah Sierra, Vice President
Jeremy Sierra has more than ten years experience in nonprofit administration and communications. He has an MFA in creative nonfiction from the New School and has written for a number of publications, including the Huffington Post. He is currently communications manager at Cities of Service, a nonprofit that helps mayors build stronger cities by changing the way local government and citizens work together.
Amber Kaset, Treasurer
Nashville-based mitigation specialist and criminal defense investigator Amber Kaset started her career at the Nashville Metropolitan Public Defender’s Office, where she spent seven years serving the city’s poorest defendants, including those in the Hispanic community through her fluency in Spanish. She left in 2010 to start a private firm focused on fact investigation and mitigation for indigent clients throughout Tennessee and Kentucky. Her team has investigated hundreds of high-level state and federal cases, and has worked on capital cases from California to Maryland. Amber graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and also studied at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Nicole Flowers, Secretary
Nicole is a San Francisco native and has worked in Silicon Valley's Learning and Development field for 15 years, previously at Genentech and most recently, Facebook. An entrepreneur at heart, she founded hiip, a one for one fanny pack company where a kit of basic necessities is hand-delivered to a person in need on the street for every bag sold. hiip encourages community involvement by inviting locals to join in on handouts with organizations like the Salvation Army with a goal to see and connect the marginalized. When not actively connecting with local neighbors through her homemade food delivery ministry, Meet the Street, Nicole enjoys traveling and discovering all the food around San Francisco. She holds a degree in Journalism from Pepperdine University.
Jim Marcus, President Emeritus
Since 1993, Mr. Marcus has represented death-sentenced clients at every level of state and federal habeas corpus proceedings, first with the Texas Resource Center and then with the Texas Defender Service, a non-profit capital defense project he helped found in 1995. Mr. Marcus served as the Executive Director of Texas Defender Service from 1997 until stepping down in the summer of 2006 to join the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law. In addition to co-directing the Capital Punishment Clinic, Mr. Marcus trains and supports capital habeas counsel in Texas cases and lectures in capital defense seminars across the nation.
Adrián de la Rosa
Adrián de la Rosa is a capital investigator and mitigation specialist with experience working in Texas at both the federal and state habeas levels. Prior to his work in the capital community, he led the community education efforts at the Texas Fair Defense Project (TFDP), a nonprofit legal advocacy organization that works to improve the fairness of Texas’s criminal courts to ensure that all Texans have access to justice. Adrián also has worked as an adjunct associate professor in the Sociology Department at Austin Community College and previously served on the board of the Workers Defense Project (Proyecto Defensa Laboral), a membership-based organization that empowers low-income workers to achieve fair employment through education, direct services, organizing and strategic partnerships. He currently serves on the Commission on Immigrant Affairs for the City of Austin where he focuses on issues of common concern to immigrants and immigrant communities. Adrián is a proud native West Texan, fluent Spanish-speaker, and actively volunteers with several nonprofits in the Austin community, while also mentoring Latinx and other underserved community college students.
Ruth Friedman
Since 2006, Ruth has been the Director of the Federal Capital Habeas Project, which recruits, trains and consults with qualified counsel in order to improve representation in post-conviction for the growing number of men and women on the federal death row. Ruth previously served as Senior Counsel at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and prior to that position as a staff attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta.
Richard Jasper
Richard Jasper is a criminal defense attorney with 30 years experience in New York City specializing in federal criminal defense and federal capital litigation. Since 1994, Richard has represented defendants in federal capital cases. He has served as a member of the faculty at the Bryan R. Shechmeister Death Penalty College, Santa Clara University School of Law.
Lauren Mims
Lauren Mims is an assistant Professor of educational psychology at Ball State University. Lauren received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology: Applied Developmental Science at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. Broadly, Lauren’s work focuses on promoting the wellbeing and development of Black students, with a particular focus on Black girls. Lauren formerly served as the Assistant Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans during the Obama Administration, where she focused her efforts on student programming, supporting federal interagency relationships, the development of research-based publications and handbooks for students, managing the Initiative social media accounts, and engaging with stakeholders through multi-media platforms. She was a member of the White House Council on Women and Girls, the U.S. Department of Education Policy Committee, the U.S. Department of Education Socioeconomic Diversity Working Group, as well as a member of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Working Group.
Anupama Vishwamitra
Anupama Vishwamitra is the Director of Mitigation at the Office of the Georgia Capital Defender. She oversees all trial-level death penalty cases in the State of Georgia. She trains, supervises and mentors Mitigation Investigators, consults with capital defense teams around the nation and presents on a variety of mitigation issues at professional conferences. Anu teaches the Forensic Social Work course at Georgia State University – Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and manages interns from several colleges and universities. She has been dedicated to capital defense work since 2006, a year after earning her Master in Social Work.
Christopher K. Walters
Chris has been Senior Pro Bono Counsel at the global law firm Reed Smith LLP since 2004. In that capacity, on a full-time basis Chris manages the pro bono work of Reed Smith’s 1800 lawyers, most of whom are in the United States. For 25 years before becoming Reed Smith’s Senior Pro Bono Counsel, Chris was a litigation partner at the firm. Chris graduated from Princeton University and Michigan Law School. Prior to law practice he served on active duty as an Army Intelligence officer, including one year in Vietnam.