Staff & Board of Directors
Robert Dunham, Executive Director
Robert Dunham became the Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center in March 2015. A nationally recognized expert on the death penalty, Mr. Dunham has 25 years of experience as a capital litigator and teacher of death penalty law, including arguing in the United States Supreme Court. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center. Click here for an extended biography. Click here for hi-resolution photo.
Ngozi Ndulue, Senior Director of Research and Special Projects
Ngozi Ndulue joined DPIC’s staff as Director of Research and Special Projects in September 2018. Ms. Ndulue’s career as a lawyer has focused on the intersection of racial justice and the criminal legal system. After graduating from Yale Law School, she clerked for Judge Eric L. Clay on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She litigated on behalf of death-sentenced individuals as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Phoenix, Arizona and as a staff member of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center (OJPC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. At OJPC, Ngozi also engaged in policy research, coalition building, and advocacy on a variety of state and local criminal justice issues. Before coming to DPIC, Ngozi served as Senior Director of Criminal Justice Programs at the national NAACP, where much of her work centered on providing unit training, strategic direction, and research to support the NAACP’s criminal justice agenda.
Anne Holsinger, Managing Director
Anne Holsinger earned a B.A. in Linguistics from the College of William & Mary. As an undergraduate, she conducted independent research on religion and the death penalty. She has worked and volunteered with various death penalty organizations since 2004. She joined DPIC in October 2010, and has worked on DPIC’s communications, student resources, and website content.
Dane Lindberg, Digital Director
Dane Lindberg earned B.A. degrees in Political Science and Classics from the University of Southern California.
Contact Dane:
- for questions about DPIC’s website
- for assistance with DPIC’s multimedia and database resources.
Chloe Madvig, Communications and Resource Specialist
Chloe Madvig is a May 2018 graduate of the College of William & Mary, where she studied Government and Computer Science. As a student, she actively pursued education initiatives about the death penalty and grew interested in weaving data into storytelling. Her senior year, she interned at the Central Virginia Capital Defender’s Office in Richmond, VA. Chloe started working for the Death Penalty Information Center in June 2018 as a Special Projects Assistant.
Contact Chloe:
- for general information and student inquiries
- to arrange an interview with Robert Dunham
- to place an order for DPIC’s various resources
- to obtain permission to reprint DPIC materials in your publication
Steven Czarnecki, Data Fellow
Steven Czarnecki completed his Masters of Justice, Law and Criminology from American University in December 2019 and his Bachelors of Law from the University of Central Lancashire in May 2017. With focuses on the death penalty and drug policy, Steven worked at the National Drug Court Resource Center as a Graduate Research Fellow while pursuing his Masters and penned several academic projects relating to death penalty policy.
Michael Bartholomew, Legal Fellow
Michael Bartholomew is a May 2020 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and a May 2017 graduate of Frostburg State University, where he studied Political Science and Philosophy. Prior to joining the team full-time, he worked as an intern at DPIC in Fall of 2019. Michael started working for the Death Penalty Information Center in September 2020 as a Legal Fellow. Michael provides genera legal analysis, specializing in prosecutorial misconduct.
Richard Dieter (retired)
Much of the content of DPIC website was developed under the guidance of Richard Dieter, who served as Executive Director from 1992 until March 2015 and as Senior Program Director through April 8, 2016. DPIC is forever indebted to Dick for his wisdom, guidance, and 25 years of unparalleled service. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Dick was also an adjunct professor at the Catholic University Law School for many years. Click here for an extended biography. Click here for hi-resolution photo.
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 DPIC’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.
James W. Ellis, the Henry Weihofen Professor of Law at the Univeristy of New Mexico School of Law. Mr. Ellis argued for the petitioner in Atkins v. Virginia, the case that resulted in the exemption of the intellectually disabled from the death penalty. He was chosen as the “Lawyer of the Year” by the National Law Journal in 2002.
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 Vice President of DPIC’s Board.
Brandon L. Garrett is the L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law at Duke Law School. From 2005-2018, he taught at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law. Professor Garrett’s books include Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong, published in 2011, examining the cases of the first 250 people to be exonerated by DNA testing, and End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice, published in 2017, examining the statistics and the significance behind the decline in American death sentencing.
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. Mr. Kendall is President of DPIC’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.
Diann Rust-Tierney, Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Ms. Rust-Tierney is a nationally recognized spokeswoman on capital punishment and has led a number of legislative efforts to reform the nation’s capital punishment laws.
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.