2009-2010 ICADP Board of Directors
Vice-president: Chris Lynch
Secretary: Gwen Farry, BVM
Treasurer: Sandra Shimon
Richard Conser is a patent attorney, formerly employed as a chemical engineer and economist with Universal Oil Products. He has been active in the governance of the United Church of Christ and drafted its Illinois Conference resolution on the death penalty. Richard was formerly trustee, mayor and village attorney of Golf, IL and was president of United Way of Glenview-Golf. He also served as president of Harper House, serving homeless people in Uptown. Richard's interest in the death penalty was inspired primarily by Jack Nordgaard, Don Benedict, and Mary Powers.
Mary Cummins-Enoch sends birthday and Christmas cards to the prisoners on death row, works on finding legal representation for prisoners, and does court watching at post-conviction death penalty hearings at 26th & California and Markham.
Maria M. Cunningham is a teacher and mother of three children. Her husband Dick served on the board of the ICADP, and represented a number of men on death row before his untimely death. Maria has a long history of interest and activity in human rights issues, particularly the death penalty. She is a member of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation.
Gwen Farry, BVM is a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at 8th Day Center for Justice. Her previous ministries have been in Elementary Education, Hospital Chaplaincy and internal ministry with the BVM congregation. Abolishing the death penalty has been a deep concern for several years. Activities have included writing letters, attendance at the 2004 CEDP National Conference and writing to death row inmates.
E. Garnet Fay is a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and represents the American Friends Service Committee at the Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago. He serves on the board of the Illinois Conference of Churches and serves as a liaison to these groups.
Betty Fields is originally from Ypsilanti, Michigan. After finishing high school, she spent six years in the military and then went to work for General Motors. In 1988 she moved to Normal, IL to help set up the Mitsubishi plant. Her daughter Lorraine Fields was murdered in 2004. It was Betty who discovered her daughter's body in a car in a vacant lot. The prosecutor wanted to give the murderer the death penalty. But Betty insisted from the beginning that she was opposed to that and convinced the State not to seek death. She sends her daughter's murderer cards and has told him that she has forgiven him.
Aviva Futorian represented death penalty defendants in post-conviction proceedings and appeals before Governor Ryan commuted all death sentences in Illinois. She helps coordinate the ICADP's death row support and visiting program. She is the ICADP's liaison to the John Howard Association, where she is an officer and board member. She is president of the Long-term Prisoner Policy Project, a "think tank" focusing on problems of long term maximum security prisoners in Illinois; and she is currently working on an oral history and community development project in north Mississippi.
Alice Harper-Jones is a life-long resident of Chicago and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She is a member of Trinity UCC and currently serving as the social-justice minister at Kenwood UCC. Alice also serves in various UCC leadership positions at the local and Conference levels. She holds a BA from the University of Illinois, an MA from Chicago State University and a MD from Chicago Theological University. Alice serves in various social advocacy organizations.
Terrence K. Hegarty has practiced as a trial lawyer since 1970, specializing in representing plaintiffs in catastrophic personal injury cases. He has been active in the Illinois State Bar Association as treasurer, member of the Board of Governors, and President. He has participated extensively in legal seminars and has written widely in legal periodicals.
Sarah Heyer, who resides in Carbondale, has been a member of her local Death Penalty Moratorium Committee. She is also active in the Southern Illinois Prisoner Advocacy Committee, making it easier for family and friends to visit inmates in Tamms (the state's "supermax" prison) by providing visitors with breakfast, local transportation, and information (e.g., transportation and lodging options).
Charles Hoffman graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1974. He then joined the Peoples Law Office in Chicago, specializing in civil rights and criminal defense work. Since 1986, he has served as an Assistant Defender in the Supreme Court Unit of the Illinois State Appellate Defender, representing indigent defendants in capital cases. He has been lead attorney in 30 death penalty appeals in the Illinois Supreme Court. He has also taught a seminar on capital punishment at DePaul University Law School. In 2002, he received an "Outstanding Legal Services" award from the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Laura Kunard is a researcher at UIC's Center for Research in Law & Justice and a Ph.D. candidate in UIC's Department of Criminal Justice. She has studied a variety of death penalty issues in her academic work, and her dissertation will focus on capital jurors. She helps coordinate ICADP visits to death row. She also has visited death row inmates through the ICADP since 2000 and regularly shares her experiences with many in the UIC community.
Chris Lynch is a lifetime Chicagoan who has been involved in alternative education for almost 18 years. In his work at Jobs For Youth/Chicago, Inc., he has provided GED instruction to some 7,000 economically disadvantaged young people. This work with young people led to an interest in criminal and juvenile justice issues, and cemented his opposition to the death penalty. Chris is currently working to develop special programs for young people with criminal backgrounds, to assist them in overcoming barriers to employment. He is also a photographer and writer whose work has appeared on album covers, in the Chicago Reader , and in Spring Wind magazine. In 2000, his photography show at the Jett Sett Gallery became a benefit for ICADP.
Ina Marks has been a volunteer for ICADP for a little over two years. She has done research and helped in the office. She has also been active on the faith-based organizing committee. From 1976 to 2003 Ina was an attorney with the Office of the Cook County Public Defender including work in the appeals, mental health and juvenile delinquency divisions. She also trained over 150 bar association lawyers to handle cases in the abuse courts. Ina has been an active volunteer with Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA). She has also done volunteer work with the Chicago History Fair/Chicago Metro History Education Center. Since retirement Ina completed a class on Excel at Truman College and a grant writing workshop at the Donor's Forum.
Patrick D. McAnany is professor emeritus (1999) of Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is an attorney (Harvard '60) and taught law at St. Louis University (1965-69) and at UIC and State University of New York at Albany (1978-79). His main research and teaching interests were corrections and juvenile justice, as well as the theory of sanctions. He has served on boards for several ex-offender organizations.
Ethel Robinson has been a long-time visitor for the Coalition to both the Pontiac and Menard death rows. Ethel also served for many years as a teacher for the Cook County Board of Education. She is currently a member of the Long Term Maximum Prisoners Project, a think tank dealing with problems of long term prisoners in Illinois maximum security prisons.
Johanna Ryan is co-author of the ICADP's Annual Report on the state of the death penalty in Illinois. She has been prison visitor at all three condemned units in Illinois. Johanna has done extensive anti-death penalty organizing work in many communities throughout the state and continues to research the use of the death penalty in Illinois.
JoAn Schullian, OSF is a Hospital Sister of St. Francis and ministers as a Pastoral Associate at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Decatur. She is a founding member of the Macon County Citizens Opposing Capital Punishment. Sister JoAn serves on various Social Justice and Racial Justice Committees in Springfield and Decatur.
W. Robert Schultz, III's career as a human rights activist has included disability, peace and justice, and gay rights issues. Robert's current work as field organizer at Amnesty International's Midwest Regional Office links him to the abolition movement in 13 states. Robert is a freelance writer and contributor to the Windy City Times, and BLACKlines, an African-American LBGT magazine he helped to launch.
Sandra Shimon is a long-time resident of Oak Park. She is married and has three grown children. She runs her own business, a medical transcription company. Sandra is one of the most active members of the West Suburban Committee Against Capital Punishment. She has been attending all the hearings in the capital case of Ronny Atkins, which arose in Oak Park. She sponsored the first House Party for ICADP. She has been an activist all her life in various causes, including Death Sentence 2001 in River Forest.
Rev. Tricia L. Teater is a Soto Zen Buddhist Chaplain and Priest in affiliation with Udumbara Zen Center of Evanston. She is the Director of their national Chaplain Training Program. She has worked in maximum security prisons and on death row in Indiana and Illinois for nearly 10 years, regularly conducting Buddhist meditation services, offering spiritual support and hospice care. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Long Term Prison Policy Project. Tricia is a Volunteer with Horizon Hospice of Chicago specializing in pediatric hospice and palliative care, as well as serving on the Ethics Committee. Tricia is the Director of Human Resources for the Office of Cook County Clerk David Orr.
Robin Johnson-Thompkins is a paralegal, mother of three children and co-chair of Families of Inmates on Death Row. Robin is the daughter of former death row inmate Willie M. Thompkins. Robin has been involved in death penalty issues for almost 20 years, and began speaking on these issues publicly over the past few years. She has spoken at various and private events and assisted in the organization of news conferences. She continues to work diligently with various committees to abolish the death penalty.
Andrea Wilson is the Program Assistance Manager at the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Prior to that position, Andrea worked for the Illinois Conference of Churches whose mission it was to bring people of faith together to advocate on issues of poverty and racism. Andrea is licensed to practice law in Illinois. She has always had a passion for people whose voices are discounted or not heard at all, particularly regarding the death penalty. Andrea’s husband, Ryan, is an Assistant Defender at the Office of the State Appellate Defender.
