Our Board of Directors
The Restore Justice Foundation Board of Directors includes people who have been directly affected by the criminal legal system, current and retired attorneys, and civic leaders. We work to advance criminal legal system reform.
Angel Ysaguirre
Angel Ysaguirre has been the Executive Director of Illinois Humanities since 2014. From 1999 to 2005, he was also the Director of Programs, creating programs and series that include The Odyssey Project, Einstein’s Revolutions, and the Law. Angel was Deputy Commissioner at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events from 2012 to 2014, where he managed the city’s public art program, creative industries offices, and arts programming. From 2005 to 2012, he was Director of Global Community Investing at the Boeing Company, overseeing the company’s grantmaking program in 60 offices throughout the globe. Angel began his career in Chicago as a program officer at the McCormick Tribune Foundation.
Ashley Tate-Gilmore
Ashley Tate-Gilmore was born and raised in Chicago. She is a graduate of Whitney M. Young High School and attended Howard University. Ashley served as an intern with Barack Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign and subsequently as an executive assistant in his Senate office. Ashley was active in Senator Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and, in 2010, became the Director of the White House Travel Office. Since her time working in the White House, Ashley has continued to manage the Obama family’s personal travel. She has also established her own company, Fortis Global, an exclusive travel concierge service. In addition, Ashley heads the consulting company, Tate & Associates, established by her late mother Desiree Tate. She also serves on the boards of Breakthrough Urban Ministries, the Chicago Elite Classic Advisory Board, and the City of Chicago’s Status of Women and Girls Working Group.
Bernardine Dohrn
Board Member Emerita
Bernardine Dohrn
Board Member Emerita
Bernardine Dohrn is a civic leader and advocate working to protect children involved with the legal system. Bernardine champions human rights locally and internationally. In 1992, she founded the Children and Family Justice Center (CFJC) at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. She served as director and Clinical Associate Professor of Law at the CFJC for more than 20 years until her retirement in 2013.
Cathy Aguilar
Cathy Cahue-Aguilar is the sister of Joseph Rodriguez, who was sentenced to natural life without parole in 1982 for a crime committed at age 16. Cathy has advocated for releases and criminal legal system reform for more than 35 years. She was an early member of Communities and Relatives of Illinois Incarcerated Children (CRIIC) and remains actively involved in the group’s activities and advocacy. Since Joseph’’s release in November 2016, Cathy has provided him with a home and support as he adjusts to life outside of prison. She has unique experience with the needs of individuals who grew up behind bars as well as the difficulties faced by families as loved ones transition back into society. Cathy is a Customer Data Analyst for Newark element14, an electronics distribution company. She and her partner, Humberto, have 7 children, 22 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren.
Corrie Leech
SECRETARY, RESTORE JUSTICE FOUNDATION
Corrie Leech is a web developer in Chicago. She previously served as the director of communications for Start Early (formerly the Ounce of Prevention Fund), where she led the organization’s media and public relations strategy. She has also served as the director of communications for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and as a development officer for Human Rights Watch, where she managed fundraising, outreach, and cultivation events in Chicago. She began her career at the global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, where she executed strategic communications plans and provided corporate reputation, executive visibility, and media relations support on campaigns ranging from women’s empowerment to green industry. Corrie holds a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, where she majored in Gender Studies and Political Science.
Dedrea Gray
Board Secretary
Dedrea Gray
Board Secretary
Dedrea became a founding member of the Restore Justice Illinois board in 2014 and the Restore Justice Foundation board the following year. She also serves on the board of directors for both the Hyde Park Arts Center and Human Rights Watch. Dedrea is a political activist who seeks to change the world, and she enjoys running and traveling.
Jeanne Bishop
Jeanne Bishop is the sister of Nancy Bishop Langert, who, along with her husband Richard and their unborn baby, was murdered by a teenager in 1990. Jeanne Bishop is a felony attorney with the Office of the Cook County Public Defender, an adjunct professor in the Trial Advocacy Program at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and the author of two books on mercy and forgiveness. She serves on several boards supporting reform in the criminal legal system, including the Illinois Prison Project and the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy. Jeanne is the mother of two sons, Brendan, a graduate student at the Naval Postgraduate School, and Stephen, a high school senior.
Jeff Howard
VICE PRESIDENT, RESTORE JUSTICE FOUNDATION
Jeff Howard is a lifelong advocate for children and people who are indigent within the criminal legal system. Jeff worked for the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender for 30 years. As an Assistant Public Defender, Jeff engaged in extensive defense work on behalf of children and other clients. He represented people in capital cases. Jeff also served in a variety of supervisory roles, including as Chief of Operations (known as First Assistant Public Defender). Jeff is extremely proud to have played a part in abolishing capital punishment in the State of Illinois. He is past President of the Illinois Public Defenders Association. After leaving the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender, Jeff became the Legal Director for the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (CFSY), a national organization working to abolish youth life without parole. At CFSY, Jeff shaped and implemented strategy and worked with coalition partners and firms working on youth life cases. Jeff has presented on a variety of criminal defense topics at seminars across the country. He is a founding Board Member of Restore Justice.
Jennifer Pope
Jennifer Pope is the president and owner of The Red Balloon Co, a children’s retail business based in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood. She started The Red Balloon in 1999 with vintage and custom furniture for kids. The Red Balloon has grown to include clothing, toys, and gifts; it has been named “Best Children’s Store in Chicago” numerous times during the past two decades and has been featured in more than a dozen national news publications. Jennifer graduated with a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and is a wife and mother of two teenagers. She has served on the Executive Committee of the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce and has volunteered her time with Human Rights Watch, Care for Real, and the Lakeview Pantry.
Judy Wise
Judy Wise is a founding member of the Restore Justice Board of Directors. Formerly the Senior Director of Facing History and Ourselves, an international non-profit professional development organization for educators, Judy founded the organization’s first regional office in Chicago and later founded the United Kingdom office. She served in executive positions for 25 years and remains involved as a member of the organization’s board of directors. Judy also serves on the boards of the Chicago Media Project and the Baskin Family Foundation, and chairs the board of Mother Jones Magazine. She served on President Barack Obama’s Commission on White House Fellowships for eight years. Judy received her Bachelor of Arts from Washington University and Master of Arts in psychiatric social work from the University of Chicago. She was married to Sheldon Baskin and has three children and four grandchildren.
Kevin Gallagher
Board President
Kevin Gallagher
Board President
Kevin Gallagher is a civic leader and criminal legal system reform advocate in Chicago. He is actively involved with Old St. Patrick’s Church and its Kinship Initiative with the people of North Lawndale. He also serves as a mentor for formerly incarcerated youth. Retired, Kevin previously served as the Vice President and Corporate Secretary for Telephone and Data Systems (TDS), a Chicago-based telecommunications service company.
Mickey Gaynor
Mickey Gaynor, a retired attorney, has been a passionate advocate for youth who are incarcerated since joining the Illinois Coalition for the Fair Sentencing of Children (housed at his alma mater, Northwestern University Law School) in 2006. He has visited with youth serving adult prison terms in Illinois and has made significant contributions to the legislative agenda of the Coalition. Mickey was among the founding board members of Restore Justice Illinois and Restore Justice Foundation.
Mickey’s legal career focused on bankruptcy law. He and his wife, Judy, are deeply rooted in Democratic politics in Illinois and both were close friends and allies of former Congressman, Federal D.C. Circuit Judge, and White House Counsel, the Honorable Abner Mikva, also a founding board member of Restore Justice Illinois and the Foundation. Judy and Mickey spend time traveling to visit their three grown children and four grandchildren.
Mitchell Cobey
Mitchell Cobey, who retired in 2008, opened perhaps the first gourmet takeout food and catering shop in Chicago on the Near North Side in 1977. A graduate of Washington University and the Columbia University Business School, Mitch picked up his studies again at the University of Chicago, where he has taken more than 70 courses, mostly focusing on political science and film. He is Co-Chair of the Human Rights Watch Chicago Committee and a volunteer docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Mitch serves on the board of FACETS, a Chicago-based nonprofit that connects people to independent ideas through transformative cinema, and he is active in national and local politics.
Scott Main
Scott Main served as an Assistant Appellate Defender in the Office of the State Appellate Defender’s first District Office for more than 10 years. From 2012 through 2019, he was a Clinical Fellow in the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law focusing on policy and litigation strategy for youth in adult court facing or serving lengthy sentences. As a Fellow, his work primarily focused on youth serving life without parole sentences, but also included reform and litigation efforts surrounding transfer, parole, and enhanced sentencing discretion for youth. Scott has taught legal writing and the Criminal Appeals Clinic at DePaul University College of Law and a Criminal Law Practicum at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Scott holds an A.B. from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago.
Shobha Mahadev
Shobha L. Mahadev is a Clinical Professor of Law at the Children and Family Justice Center (CFJC), housed in the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. In that capacity, Shobha represents adolescents, as well as adults, facing trial (or previously convicted) for offenses that occurred in their youth, on appeal, and in post-conviction and clemency proceedings; Shobha also supervises students working on those cases. In addition, she serves as the project director for the Illinois Coalition for the Fair Sentencing of Children, overseeing policy and litigation strategy with respect to advocating for fair sentencing laws for youth and young adults convicted of serious crimes. The Coalition’s work and Shobha’s expertise has contributed to significant reforms of Illinois’s sentencing laws and sentencing laws across the country. Shobha has co-authored numerous amicus curiae briefs submitted in the United States Supreme Court, state supreme courts, and other courts of review. She was also the primary author of The Illinois Juvenile Defender Practice Notebook, a training manual for attorneys representing youth in court. Prior to joining the CFJC, Shobha was a litigation associate at a Chicago-based law firm and an Assistant Defender with the Office of the State Appellate Defender, First Judicial District, where she represented clients who are indigent on appeal.
Susanne Dumbleton
Board Treasurer
Susanne Dumbleton
Board Treasurer
Susanne Dumbleton earned a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and PhD in English from the State University of New York at Albany. She served as a Professor and Dean at DePaul University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Susanne is a dedicated social justice researcher and advocate.