Susan Antos is an attorney at the Empire Justice Center, a statewide, multi-issue non-profit law firm focused on changing the "systems" that affect those trapped in poverty. She specializes in public benefits, including child care and child support as it relates to low income families. She was most recently counsel in Doe v Doar a statewide class action that restored public assistance benefits to 27,000 households containing children and disabled family members. She is vice president and current legislative chair of the New York State Child Care Coordinating Council, serves on the Reentry net steering committee and serves on the advisory board of the New York State Kinship Navigator http://www.nysnavigator.org, a resource for non-parent relative care givers. She is a graduate of the University of Rochester and Albany Law School.

Juan Cartagena is a constitutional and civil rights attorney who is presently General Counsel at the Community Service Society where he litigates cases on behalf of poor communities in the areas of voting rights, housing, employment, and health. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Columbia University School of Law Mr. Cartagena is a former Municipal Court Judge in Hoboken, NJ and currently lectures on constitutional and civil rights issues at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

A writer of numerous articles on constitutional and civil rights laws, Mr. Cartagena is particularly recognized for his work on the political representation of poor and marginalized communities - especially Puerto Rican and Latino communities. His work on a national level with the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act led to invitations in 2005-2006 to testify before the U.S. House and Senate on the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and its effects on Latino communities in New York and New Jersey.

Mr. Cartagena has experience in litigating cases on behalf of African American and Latino communities in the areas of employment rights, language rights, public education financing, environmental law, housing and access to public hospitals. Currently he is involved in litigating challenges to New York's felon disfranchisement laws and its laws and policies that create barriers to employment to formerly incarcerated persons.

Mr. Cartagena lives with his family in Jersey City. He is active in various community activities including cultural activities that highlight the diversity of Jersey City's neighborhoods.

Annette Warren Dickerson, a native New Yorker, has been with the Center for Constitutional Rights since 2000 and is the Coordinator of the Center's Education and Outreach Program. In addition to her role as the statewide coordinator of the New York Campaign for Telephone Justice, Annette is also responsible for CCR's organizing and educational work in the areas of racial justice, social and economic justice, international human rights, government misconduct and the recently created Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative.

Glenn E. Martin is currently the Associate Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at The Fortune Society, Inc. In this role, Mr. Martin is responsible for developing and advancing Fortune's criminal justice policy advocacy agenda. Mr. Martin works to create partnerships with other advocates and policymakers to identify and implement criminal justice policy reform initiatives to remove practical and statutory roadblocks facing people who are working to reintegrate into society.

Prior to this position, Mr. Martin served as the Co-Director of the Legal Action Center's National H.I.R.E. Network (HIRE). Mr. Martin also served as the Program Manager on a 12-month national employment discrimination audit study (Discrimination in NYC Low Wage Labor Markets) conducted by Devah Pager and Bruce Western of Princeton University in conjunction with the New York City Commission on Human Rights, which measured race and criminal conviction related discrimination in the New York City entry-level labor market.

During his career, Mr. Martin has assisted thousands of clients with criminal records, histories of alcohol and drug dependence and HIV/AIDS. He drafted the updated version of How to Get and Clean Up Your New York State Rap Sheet, Sixth Edition, a manual to assist clients in obtaining and understanding how to read their state criminal records. From 2000 to 2003, Mr. Martin served as the Assistant Program Coordinator at Consortium College in Buffalo, one of the only surviving male prison college programs in New York State.

Mr. Martin currently serves on the Steering Committee of Reentry.net, the Correction Committee of the NYC Bar Association, the Policy Committee of ICARE, the Employment Working Group of the NYC Discharge Planning Initiative, the advisory committee of the Voter Enfranchisement Project, the Board of Directors of the College and Community Fellowship at the CUNY Graduate Center and Youth Represent at CASES and a number of other boards and working groups addressing issues related to reintegration of people with criminal records.

Demi McGuire is the Executive Director of the New York State Episcopal Public Policy Network and the coordinator of chaplains for the New York State Council of Churches. She is also a board member of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty.

Rev. Vivian Nixon, Executive Director, College and Community Fellowship, is an ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her current work includes fighting for the removal of barriers to reentry for formerly incarcerated people in the United States, and advocating for the inclusion of higher education in prison and in reentry. In 2004, she received the "Lifting as We Climb Advocacy Award" from the Correctional Association of New York. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Services Administration from the State University of New York, Empire College and will complete a Master of Liberal Studies in 2008 at the same institution. Rev. Nixon is the director, and an alumna of the College and Community Fellowship (CCF). CCF is unique in that it uses higher education and leadership development as primary strategies to help formerly incarcerated women develop economic security for themselves and their families. As a recipient of a Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship awarded by the Open Society Institute in 2005, she founded ReEnterGrace - a project that employs the talent of formerly incarcerated women and men to reach out to African American faithbased communities and educate them about the disparate impact of United States criminal justice policies on people of color, to encourage them to help individuals resettle in the community, and to help them advocate for the elimination of systemic barriers to reentry. Rev. Nixon serves on the advisory boards of the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College, the Interfaith Coalition of Advocates for Reentry and Employment (ICARE), and Reentry Net. Rev. Nixon recently published an essay titled "A Christian Response to Mass Incarceration: Unbind them!" in the Beacon Press anthology "Getting on Message: Challenging the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel".

Sue Porter, Coordinator of the Judicial Process Commission, has overseen the organization's reentry services for the past 23 years. As part of the JPC team she assists hundreds of people annually to successfully return to the Rochester area from local, state or federal prisons through JPC's case management/job development and mentoring services. These reentry support services, along with a faith-based Public Policy Group, are funded by a three-year grant from the Rochester Area Community Foundation.

Sue graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Natural Resources and subsequently became interested in criminal justice reform while serving as a Vista Volunteer with the Criminal Justice Consortium, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1980. As a member of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, she was part of a team of volunteers that collected data on the abysmal conditions of the Allegheny County Jail.

For almost twenty years Sue has helped area families get to Attica and other area prisons on Saturdays by writing grants and driving the van. A member of Calvary St. Andrews Presbyterian Parish, she sings in the choir and serves as a deacon/partner in ministry. In 2003, Sue received a Mayor's Unsung Hero Award and in 2005, she was given the Helen Montgomery Barrett Award from the Women's Studies program at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

Alan Rosenthal is a criminal defense and civil rights attorney with over 30 years of experience. A graduate of Syracuse University College of Law, he has litigated cases involving police misconduct and violations of civil rights in both jails and prisons. He is currently Co-Director of Justice Strategies, the research, training and policy initiative of the Center for Community Alternatives. As the Director of Justice Strategies he has supervised and provided mitigation services in capital cases for the past five years. He has lectured on such topics as "Race and the Criminal Justice System," "Race and the Juvenile Justice System," "Treatment Courts," "Community Justice," "The Prisons Industrial Complex," "Police Misconduct Litigation," "Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions," "Working with a Criminal Record," "Sentencing Advocacy and Mitigation," "Reentry and Reintegration," "Understanding the Interplay Between Sentencing and Department of Correctional Services Programs," and "Incarceration and Violence."

He has drafted legislation on "Racial Profiling and Data Collection," and "Citizen Review Boards." As the Director of Justice Strategies, Alan undertook a study of race and the local criminal justice system for the local branch of the NAACP and the Alliance Network. He authored the CCA publication Sentencing for Dollars , a tool for criminal defense lawyers to use when reviewing the financial consequences of a criminal conviction, and a working paper, Unlocking the Potential of Reentry and Reintegration . He has presented training for lawyers for both the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Legal Aid & Defender Association, National Alliance of Sentencing and Mitigation Specialists, The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and New York State Defenders Association on sentencing, sentencing advocacy, mitigation, the collateral consequences of criminal convictions, Rockefeller Drug Law Reform, and ethics.

Kate Rubin is the New York City Coordinator of Policy and Community Outreach and Reentry Net Coordinator, a collaborative, statewide network and online resource center for advocates. organizers, and individuals in the reentry community. Reentry Net started in 2005 as a joint project of The Bronx Defenders and Pro Bono Net. Kate comes to Reentry Net with extensive experience in teaching, direct services, and grassroots organizing with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in New York City and upstate New York .

McGregor Smyth is the Project Director and Supervising Attorney of the Civil Action Project at The Bronx Defenders, a public defender agency in New York City that provides integrated criminal and civil legal and social services to indigent people accused of crimes in the Bronx . McGregor established the Civil Action Project, which offers comprehensive legal and social services to clients, in 2000 and has extensive practical experience helping clients cope with the consequences of criminal proceedings. McGregor represents clients at every jurisdictional level, and trains advocates nationally on these hidden sanctions, with a focus on facilitating civil-defender collaborations. In addition, in partnership with Pro Bono Net, McGregor is leading the development of Reentry Net at www.reentry.net, a collaborative network and online training and support center.

McGregor serves on the New York State Bar Association's Special Committee on Collateral Consequences of Criminal Proceedings, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York 's Social Welfare Law Committee, and the Advisory Board of the New York City Policing Roundtable.

Gabriel Torres-Rivera is Director of the Reentry Initiative at the Community Service Society. He has worked at CSS since 2000 where he headed CSS's nonpartisan voter registration campaign. Torres-Rivera directed the effort to register disadvantaged people in New York, focusing on the formerly incarcerated, immigrants and low¡Vwage earners. Since 2005, he has directed the CSS Reentry Initiative, chairing monthly Reentry Roundtable meetings to determine what policies and resources are necessary to facilitate the successful reentry of formerly incarcerated individuals back into their communities. On May 22, 2007, Torres Rivera led more than 100 advocates of prisoner reentry to Albany to discuss Reentry Roundtable legislative proposals affecting the formerly incarcerated with legislators and staff of key committees overseeing correctional issues. Prior to joining CSS, Gabe worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights as coordinator of the Movement Support Resource Network focusing on issues surrounding police brutality in New York and nationally. He coordinated two marches on Washington, while at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Lastly, Torres-Rivera served as a spokesperson for Amnesty International speaking at 19 colleges and universities throughout Europe including Oxford, Cambridge, and the University of Dublin. Mr. Torres-Rivera has a Bachelor of Science in Education from City College and a Juris Doctor from the City University of New York Law School at Queens College.

Paul Keefe is a Staff Attorney at the Community Service Society and a 2007 graduate of the CUNY School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the New York City Law Review; president of the National Lawyers Guild chapter; co-president of the Public Interest Law Association, among many other activities. With funding from the Yale Public Interest Interest Initiative, he trains individuals with criminal histories and the organizations that serve them about employment discrimination and ways to fight it. He also helps such individuals obtain licenses to practice their chosen occupations and brings affirmative litigation to enforce their employment rights under federal, state, and city civil rights laws.

Roberta Meyers-Peeples is Director of the Legal Action Center's National H.I.R.E. (Helping Individuals with criminal records Reenter through Employment) Network, a project aimed at increasing the number and quality of job opportunities available to people with criminal records by changing public policies, employment practices and public opinion. Prior to assuming this position, Ms. Meyers-Peeples served as Co-Director of HIRE for two years, Co-Deputy Director for one year and as the Field Educator and Organizer for two years while dramatically expanding the outreach of the Network. She has worked directly with policy makers and advocates around the country to identify public policy priorities that directly affect employment opportunities for people with criminal records as well as helped develop appropriate advocacy strategies in strengthening or challenging existing legislation in those states. Ms. Meyers-Peeples has also served as a Legal Assistant at the Legal Action Center for 10 years.

Ms. Meyers-Peeples has accepted invitations to present at dozens of national, regional, and local criminal justice and workforce development conferences around the country. She has trained hundreds of workforce development and corrections staff on employment strategies that best serve job seekers who have criminal histories. She is the author of the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) newly released primer entitled Serving the Employment Needs of Justice-Involved Juveniles and Adults: A Primer for Treatment and Recovery Support Service Providers (May 2008), is a contributing author for the U.S. Department of Labor guidebook, Working Ahead: A Guide for Connecting Youth Offenders with Employment Opportunities (July 2004) and is author of the “Completing Employment Applications” section of Legal Action Center’s How to Get and Clean Up Your New York State Rap Sheet, Sixth Edition 2003.

Roberta has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, Management, and Economics with a concentration in Management from the State University of New York/Empire State College. Additionally, she serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Youth Represent, a non-profit legal advocacy organization for juveniles in New York City and steering committee member of the National Transitional Jobs Network.