Amelia Casas joined the Texas Fair Defense Project as Policy Analyst in 2021. In her role, Amelia supports TFDP’s advocacy strategy to pass impactful legislation and the development of TFDP’s pilot Client Advocacy Program, empowering former clients and directly impacted community members to lead criminal legal reform policies in Texas. Prior to her time at TFDP, Amelia served as the Policy Coordinator for the Workers Defense Project, where she advocated for workers’ rights and fair employment practices in Dallas, TX. Previously, Amelia finished her graduate final field practice with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, advocating for basic human rights and services in prisons. Amelia is a Licensed Master Social Worker and graduate of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas, where she also received her BSW. 

Maya is a 2021–2022 Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Her project focuses on ensuring criminal hearings across Texas are open to the public through litigation and legislation. Maya earned her J.D. from the UCLA School of Law and is a graduate of the Critical Race Studies and Public Interest Law and Policy Programs. During law school, she worked at the Public Defender Service for DC and the Promise of Justice Initiative, was a graduate research fellow with the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and served as the Chief Executive Editor of the UCLA Law Review. Before law school, Maya was a Senior Investigator at the Southern Center for Human Rights working on litigation and advocacy challenging constitutional violations in the criminal legal systems in Georgia and Alabama. She holds a B.S. from Georgetown University.

Karly Jo Dixon is the Managing Attorney of Client Services at Texas Fair Defense Project. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas School of Law. Karly Jo came to Texas Fair Defense Project as an Equal Justice Works Fellow in 2016, working on TFDP’s Criminal Justice Debt Initiative. Using direct representation, community education, advocacy, and volunteer legal clinics Karly Jo works to stop courts from incarcerating people who cannot afford to pay their Class C tickets and related fees, and helps people facing this unaffordable debt avoid warrants, arrest, jail time, and driver’s license suspensions. Under her leadership, in 2022 TFDP will continue to expand our client services and reach underserved jurisdictions throughout Texas.

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Nathan's work focuses on improving representation for Texans who get arrested and cannot afford a lawyer, including by challenging illegal and ineffective indigent defense systems, advocating for improved defense provision, and helping people who have been mistreated or ignored by their local provider. Because this type of work is always a team effort, he also provides advice and legal representation to advocates, attorneys, and organizers seeking to improve their local indigent defense systems. Before moving to Texas, Nathan coordinated intake, appointment of counsel, and post-sentencing services at the Orleans Public Defenders. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School, the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas - Austin, and the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

Emily Gerrick is the Policy Director at Texas Fair Defense Project. She joined TFDP in 2014 as a Liman Fellow and helped to develop TFDP’s Criminal Debt Initiative and Freedom to Drive Initiative. Emily leads TFDP’s legislative and policy work. She has helped to pass legislation to combat modern-day debtors’ prisons, establish the right to ability-to-pay hearings, expand access to debt waivers, and restore hundreds of thousands of driver licenses that had been suspended for inability to pay fines, fees, and surcharges. Emily is a strong believer in community-based advocacy and works in coalitions to implement reforms, including local campaigns to decriminalize homelessness, end unconstitutional bail practices, and stop prosecutions for marijuana possession. Emily also works on TFDP’s impact litigation and is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Emily earned her B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles and her J.D. from Yale Law School.

Camilla develops and manages TFDP's litigation program, which aims to support the shared goals of TFDP and its community partners in the fight against the criminalization of poverty.  Before TFDP, Camilla was an appellate public defender at the Center for Appellate Litigation in New York City, where she brought challenges to debilitating enmeshed consequences of conviction alongside her direct representation work; a trial-level public defender at The Bronx Defenders; and an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center, where she represented clients charged with misdemeanors and felonies and taught in the Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic.  She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Yale University.

Sarah Mae Jennings manages TFDP’s statewide pro bono program helping low-income Texans restore their driver’s licenses and alleviate barriers to jobs, housing, and public benefits imposed by criminal records. In her role, Sarah Mae trains and supervises pro bono attorneys assisting low-income Texans in their communities with Class C misdemeanor and criminal record clearing cases; and recruits pro bono attorneys to join TFDP in the fight to end the criminalization of poverty. Sarah Mae joined TFDP as a Staff Attorney in 2020 building out TFDP’s criminal record clearing work and working with the Clean Slate Texas Coalition to advocate for policy changes to increase access to criminal record clearing in Texas. Before joining TFDP, Sarah Mae worked as a trial attorney at the Orleans Public Defenders office in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she defended hundreds of clients against misdemeanor and felony charges from arrest through post-conviction. As a law student in Austin, Sarah Mae managed both the UT Law Expunction and Driver’s License Recovery pro bono clinics. Sarah Mae is admitted to practice law in the State of Texas and in the State of Louisiana.

Jessica Johnson is the Deputy Director of TFDP. She joined the TFDP team in 2020 as the Director of Pro Bono Programs to build a statewide pro bono network of attorneys to help with driver's license restoration cases. Previously, Jessica practiced family law, privacy law, and nonprofit law at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and practiced criminal law through a Justice Center fellowship at SAFE Alliance. Jessica earned her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and her B.A. from the College of William and Mary. She is admitted to practice law in the State of Texas.

Katie Kis is the Operations Manager at Texas Fair Defense Project. She joined TFDP in 2020 to help build internal systems and processes, as well as to support new and existing programs. Prior to joining TFDP she managed an Austin-area AmeriCorps program. She received a B.S. and a graduate certificate from the University of Oregon in 2013.

My Le is the Accountability Project Director at Texas Fair Defense Project. My’s work at TFDP centers communities who are entrenched in the policing and carceral systems and takes lead from the movements challenging these systems. Through creative advocacy, litigation, and movement support strategies, My works to hold system actors accountable or abolish their abusive policies and practices. Prior to joining TFDP, My was a holistic public defender in the criminal defense practice at The Bronx Defenders, where they collaborated with an interdisciplinary team of advocates to defend Bronx residents from pre-arrest through post-conviction. During law school, My completed the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) and Immigrant and Non-Citizens Rights Clinics, and interned with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, Outten & Golden, LLP, and the East Bay Community Law Center. My is a graduate of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, where My was a National Fred T. Korematsu Fellow and a Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice Fellow. Prior to law school, My organized with grassroots movements and other directly impacted folks in San Antonio and nationally to end immigration criminalization, detention, and deportation through popular education, movement-building, and direct actions.

Hans is a long-time Texas resident and a recent graduate of Austin Community College with an Associate degree in Paralegal Studies. He joined TFDP in April 2022 as a Pro Bono Program Legal Assistant. In that role, he is helping expand TFDP's capacity to provide direct criminal legal services, including record clearing and driver’s license reinstatement, to low-income Texans. Prior to joining TFDP, Hans worked as legal assistant for The Law Office of Mark W. Smith, PLLC. He also has extensive experience in volunteer criminal legal system reform advocacy with Grassroots Leadership, American Ethical Union, and other groups, as well as professional experience in customer service and information technology support.

Lulu Portillo is the Systems Navigator at TFDP. She joined the TFDP team in May 2022 to assist the Client Services team in providing additional advocacy and support to our clients with their non-legal issues. Previously, Lulu served 5.5 years as the Foster Youth Specialist of the Texas Foster Youth Justice Project. Before that, she was a Bilingual Survivor Advocate at the SAFE Alliance, working with survivors of domestic violence and abuse.  Lulu is an alumnus of Saint Edward's University in Austin, Texas.

Ana Prado is the Legal Assistant at Texas Fair Defense Project. She joined in 2021 to help support direct services and complete intakes for new potential clients. Prior to joining TFDP, she was a Litigation Clerk at Cleveland | Terrazas PLLC, intern at Grassroots Leadership, a field research assistant for PROJECT SEED at UT, and a research assistant for Dr. William Kelly at UT. She received her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in Philosophy.

Keegan Shepherd is the Development & Communications Associate at Texas Fair Defense Project. They joined TFDP in 2021 to help grow the organization’s development bandwidth and public-facing communications. Prior to joining TFDP, they were (among other things) Policy Coordinator for the Texas Pension Coalition. They received a PhD in history from the University of South Florida in 2017.

Amanda Woog joined Texas Fair Defense Project as Executive Director in September 2018. During her tenure, TFDP has expanded their legal services to serve hundreds of Texans each year, helped to pass legislation that provided relief to over 1 million Texans living in poverty, and worked with partners to settle historic bail litigation in Harris County. She regularly works in coalition with community partners, and was part of the community-led group that advocated to start the Travis County Public Defender Office. Previously, Amanda held research fellowships at the Quattrone Center at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the University of Texas at Austin, was a litigation associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and served as Policy Director for the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and briefing attorney to the Honorable Cheryl Johnson of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and Trinity College. Amanda is co-author of the forthcoming essay Courts and the Abolition Movement in the California Law Review

Harjeen Zibari is a 2020-2022 Equal Justice Works Fellow, sponsored by Lisa Foster and Alan Bersin. Her project focuses on reforming probation in Texas, primarily by advocating for clients’ early release from probation and its related fines and fees. Additionally, she works to empower and educate others on their rights during the probation period, and to equip pro bono attorneys to provide similar services. Prior to joining TFDP, Harjeen worked at the Forensic Project, the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs, and the ACLU of Texas. She is a graduate of The University of Texas School of Law and the University of Texas at Dallas.