Staff & Board of Directors

Robin M. Maher, Executive Director

Robin M. Maher has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the death penal­ty field, both domes­ti­cal­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly. She has worked in the fed­er­al defend­er sys­tem, at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School since 2010. For thir­teen years she was Director of the American Bar Association (ABA) Death Penalty Representation Project, where she over­saw the cre­ation of the 2003 ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases. For more than twen­ty years, Ms. Maher has also spo­ken at inter­na­tion­al legal con­fer­ences and trained lawyers and judges around the world.

Full Bio for Robin M. Maher »
 

Pam Quanrud, Deputy Director

Pam Quanrud joined DPI as Deputy Director in the fall of 2024. Prior to join­ing DPI, Pam worked as a cap­i­tal defense attor­ney with the ACLU Capital Punishment Project and the ACLU of Northern California, with a focus on the use of data to make equal pro­tec­tion and California Racial Justice Act claims. Retired from fed­er­al gov­ern­ment in 2018, Pam enjoyed a thir­ty-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service serv­ing in a diverse array of lead­er­ship posi­tions, includ­ing Principle Deputy Executive Secretary to the Secretary of State, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe, Director for Europe at the National Security Council, and at posi­tions abroad in the U.S. Embassies in Warsaw, Moscow, Bonn, Pretoria, and Kingston. She grad­u­at­ed from Howard University School of Law with hon­ors and is a mem­ber of the DC Bar. 

Anne Holsinger, Managing Director
Anne Holsinger’s work relat­ed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment began in 2004, vol­un­teer­ing as part of efforts to reform Virginia’s use of the death penal­ty for juve­niles. As an under­grad­u­ate, she con­duct­ed inde­pen­dent research on the role of reli­gious rhetoric in death penal­ty argu­men­ta­tion. She came to DPI in 2010 as Special Projects Assistant and worked as an Information and Resource Specialist before becom­ing Managing Director in 2018. As Managing Director, she has imple­ment­ed a staff super­vi­sion struc­ture, over­seen DPI’s project to launch the Death Penalty Census, and worked to align DPI’s hir­ing and man­age­ment process­es with best prac­tices for diver­si­ty, equi­ty, and inclu­sion. Anne earned a B.A. in Linguistics from the College of William & Mary.

Dane Lindberg, Digital Director
Dane Lindberg joined DPI as Digital Director in August 2015. They led a mul­ti­year mod­ern­iza­tion project to rebuild and re-plat­form DPI’s 20-year-old web­site. This effort involved mov­ing thou­sands of con­tent pages and doc­u­ments and enlist­ing the sup­port of Foster Made to mod­ern­ize the design and man­age­ment work­flow of DPI’s web­site. Dane also led the devel­op­ment of DPI’s sen­tenc­ing data­base that even­tu­al­ly devel­oped into the Death Penalty Census, an ongo­ing project to doc­u­ment every death sen­tence in the United States since 1972. Additionally, they are respon­si­ble for edit­ing and pub­lish­ing DPI’s month­ly pod­cast, Discussions with DPIC.

Prior to join­ing DPI Dane spent over a decade work­ing as the Creative and Digital Director for a pub­lic rela­tions firm focused on sup­port­ing nation­al and local non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions. In this role they over­saw the devel­op­ment of var­i­ous adver­tis­ing cam­paigns, web­sites, pod­casts, social media strat­e­gy, and oth­er projects for a range of clients. Dane earned B.A. degrees in Political Sciences and Classics from the University of Southern California.

Nina Motazedi, Senior Research and Data Associate
Nina Motazedi stud­ied International Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Psychology at George Mason University. For her under­grad­u­ate hon­ors the­sis, she con­duct­ed an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary exper­i­ment exam­in­ing the effects of non-ver­bal mim­ic­ry on nego­ti­a­tion out­comes to bet­ter under­stand the poten­tial role of empa­thy in diplo­mat­ic con­texts. She has also assist­ed with research on deci­sion-mak­ing, trust, for­give­ness, and pun­ish­ment. Prior to join­ing DPI in September 2022, she worked with Afghan evac­uees as part of Operation Allies Welcome.

Hayley Bedard, Communications Associate
Joining the orga­ni­za­tion in September 2022, Hayley Bedard assumed the role of Administrative Assistant and tran­si­tioned to Communications Associate in June 2024. Hayley cre­ates and updates web­site con­tent, help­ing to main­tain DPI’s robust online resources. She coor­di­nates media and press rela­tion­ships and helps ampli­fy DPI’s impact, fos­ter­ing mean­ing­ful con­nec­tions with jour­nal­ists and stake­hold­ers, and build­ing under­stand­ing of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment issues with the gen­er­al pub­lic. Additionally, Hayley is respon­si­ble for co-man­ag­ing DPI’s interns, help­ing to fos­ter a col­lab­o­ra­tive envi­ron­ment with space for learn­ing and growth. 

Prior to join­ing DPI, Hayley was an Investigative Intern with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. Hayley is a May 2022 grad­u­ate of The George Washington University, where she stud­ied Criminal Justice and Chemistry.

Leah Roemer, Staff Attorney

Leah Roemer joined DPI as a Legal Fellow in August 2023 and became a Staff Attorney in September 2024. Leah devel­ops and pro­duces major research and writ­ing projects for DPI. She direct­ed research and served as a pri­ma­ry author for DPI’s Lethal Election report, which exposed the influ­ence of elec­toral pol­i­tics on cap­i­tal cas­es. Her work has been cov­ered in numer­ous exter­nal out­lets. Leah also man­ages legal interns and cre­ates visu­al­iza­tions on death penalty topics.

Leah grad­u­at­ed from Berkeley Law in 2023 with a cer­tifi­cate in Public Interest and Social Justice. She was a mem­ber of Berkeley’s Death Penalty Clinic, where she assist­ed in the defense of a client on death row in Alabama. She also interned at pub­lic defend­er offices in Albuquerque, Seattle, and the Bay Area, and served as a legal researcher for repro­duc­tive rights projects in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Berkeley’s School of Journalism. She received her under­grad­u­ate degrees in Sociology and French from the College of William & Mary in 2019, where she worked with incar­cer­at­ed youth and wrote her the­sis on post-colo­nial women’s rights in Senegal.

Anumta Ali, Research and Data Associate

Anumta Ali joined DPI as an Administrative Assistant in June 2024. Over time, she began con­tribut­ing to the data team as the pri­ma­ry staff resource on data aggre­ga­tion and Python. Her con­sis­tent sup­port of nov­el data and research-relat­ed inquiries led to her for­mal tran­si­tion into becom­ing a Research and Data Associate in March 2025. She is pas­sion­ate about data-informed equi­ty research, draw­ing from her BS in Information Science from the University of Maryland, and her CITI research train­ing. Since grad­u­at­ing, she has held mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary roles in research, data sci­ence, and civic edu­ca­tion. Most recent­ly, she com­plet­ed a research project for the City of Greenbelt, Maryland, where she aggre­gat­ed, ana­lyzed, and pre­sent­ed data find­ings to city offi­cials to dis­cuss the effi­ca­cy of an EMS re-staffing plan entrenched in lit­i­ga­tion at the time.

Kinari Council, Graphic Designer 

Led by a fas­ci­na­tion with the visu­al and human aspects of prob­lem solv­ing, Kinari Council enrolled and grad­u­at­ed from NC A&T’s Art depart­ment with a BA in Visual Media Design. Through design he has assist­ed in edu­ca­tion and aware­ness of chal­lenges that affect inter­sect­ing com­mu­ni­ties. Working for both orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als alike, Kinari has strived to make infor­ma­tion acces­si­ble and emo­tion­al­ly res­o­nant and con­tin­ues to do so at DPI. His role con­sists of col­lab­o­rat­ing with the rest of the staff to lay­out reports and cre­ate var­i­ous visu­al assets in ser­vice of the stories presented.

Board of Directors

The Center’s Board of Directors includes many renowned experts on the sub­ject of capital punishment:

Anthony G. Amsterdam (Board mem­ber emer­i­tus), Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law at New York University Law School. Mr. Amsterdam argued Furman v. Georgia before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, result­ing in the over­turn­ing of the death penal­ty and the spar­ing of more than 600 lives.

David J. Bradford, Partner at Jenner and Block in Chicago. Mr. Bradford serves as Counsel to the MacArthur Justice Center. He has lec­tured on the death penal­ty at the University of Chicago Law School, been active in death penal­ty lit­i­ga­tion, and spo­ken exten­sive­ly on this sub­ject. Mr. Bradford was recent­ly elect­ed a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a for­mer President of DPI’s Board.

David Bruck, Director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse at Washington & Lee School of Law and Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel. One of the coun­try’s lead­ing experts on the death penal­ty, Mr. Bruck has argued sev­en death penal­ty cas­es in the U.S. Supreme Court. Among oth­er high pro­file cas­es, Mr. Bruck rep­re­sent­ed Susan Smith in her cap­i­tal tri­al in South Carolina.

Deborah W. Denno, the Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law. Ms. Denno is a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized expert on many aspects of the death penal­ty and crim­i­nal jus­tice. The National Law Journal select­ed her as one of its ​“Fifty Most Influential Women Lawyers in America” in 2007.

Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Frank Murphy Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. A for­mer pro­fes­sor at Yale and Stanford, Ms. Ellsworth spe­cial­izes in law and psy­chol­o­gy. She is a research expert on emo­tions and has writ­ten exten­sive­ly on Americans’ views on the death penal­ty. She is President of DPI’s Board.

Alexis Hoag-Fordjour, Assistant Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, where she teach­es and writes about racism and the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem. Professor Hoag-Fordjour pre­vi­ous­ly rep­re­sent­ed cap­i­tal­ly con­vict­ed clients in fed­er­al post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and the Office of the Federal Public Defender. She serves as a legal con­trib­u­tor to var­i­ous media out­lets and co-chairs the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment com­mit­tee of the New York City Bar Association.

George Kendall, Director, Public Service Initiative at Squire Patton Boggs in New York. He for­mer­ly served as Death Penalty Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Mr. Kendall has defend­ed death penal­ty defen­dants nation­wide, includ­ing in the U.S. Supreme Court, par­tic­u­lar­ly where racism has been a fac­tor in the pros­e­cu­tion. He is a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized spokesman on the injus­tices of the death penal­ty. He is a for­mer President of DPI’s Board.

John R. MacArthur, President and Publisher of Harper​’s Magazine. Mr. MacArthur is the inspi­ra­tion behind the Death Penalty Information Center. He has writ­ten on a wide vari­ety of social justice issues.

Mark Olive is one of the nation’s lead­ing experts and train­ers in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law and habeas cor­pus prac­tice. He is the for­mer direc­tor of death penal­ty resource cen­ters in Florida, Georgia, and Virginia, and is now in pri­vate prac­tice. He has lit­i­gat­ed cap­i­tal cas­es in state and fed­er­al courts through­out the coun­try, includ­ing in the U.S. Supreme Court, where he most recent­ly argued Wilson v. Sellers.

Sia Sanneh is a Senior Attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, where she rep­re­sents peo­ple on death row and oth­er indi­gent defen­dants who have been wrong­ly con­vict­ed, unfair­ly sen­tenced, or denied effec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Sia also helps devel­op and man­age EJI’s racial jus­tice projects. She has taught cours­es on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and pub­lic inter­est law at Yale Law School since 2011.

Cassandra Stubbs, Director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. Ms. Stubbs is a lead­ing advo­cate against the death penal­ty. She has rep­re­sent­ed cap­i­tal defen­dants in tri­al, post-con­vic­tion, and appeals across the coun­try. Her clients include Levon Jones, a North Carolina for­mer death row inmate exon­er­at­ed in 2007, and Marcus Robinson, the first defen­dant to win a life sen­tence based on a show­ing of statewide racial bias in jury selection.

Ronald J. Tabak, Special Counsel and pro bono coor­di­na­tor at the Law Firm of Skadden, Arps in New York City. Mr. Tabak is a vet­er­an of cap­i­tal lit­i­ga­tion, and has been instru­men­tal in draft­ing American Bar Association posi­tions on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. He cur­rent­ly serves as co-chair of the Death Penalty Committee of the ABA’s Section of Civil Rights & Social Justice.