TCADP

Angelle Adams. Angelle is an attorney in Houston, Texas. Her areas of concentration include general civil litigation, third-party insurance defense, construction law, and personal injury cases. Angelle received her Bachelor of Science in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000 and her Masters in Education from the University of Houston. She received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from St. Mary’s University in 2006. Angelle is a Board member of the Houston Lawyers Association and serves as Secretary of the African-American Lawyers Section of the State Bar of Texas. She is also an active member of Amnesty International and participates in Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Angelle is the founding member of The Woodlands Area Chapter of TCADP. thewoodlands@tcadp.org

Nancy Bailey. Nancy Bailey has been a member of TCADP since 1999 and a member of the board member since 2003. She has been involved in death penalty work since 1995. She is a member of Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, and the Houston chapter of Amnesty International in which she is the death penalty coordinator. She has a particular interest in prison conditions, especially those on death row. Nancy has a BS from Auburn University. She spent seventeen years in the clinical laboratory in the Texas Medical Center. Her last position in this field was as the first Chief Medical Technologist at Park Plaza Hospital. She is currently retired and lives in Meadows Place, Texas, a suburb of Houston. houston@tcadp.org

Roger C. Barnes, Ph.D. Roger C. Barnes is a professor of sociology at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. He teaches criminology, criminal justice, sociological theory, and the sociology of the death penalty, as well as other courses. Roger has specialized as both a scholar and social activist on the death penalty. His writings on the death penalty and crime and justice issues have appeared in the National Social Science Journal, the Journal of Interdisciplinary Education, the Journal of South Texas Studies, the Criminal Justice Journal, Police Studies, Verbum Incarnatum, in edited books, and in newspapers. Roger is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Kansas, where he also received his doctoral degree. He has been a member of TCADP since 1995. Roger resides in San Antonio, Texas. sanantonio@tcadp.org

Les Breeding. Les Breeding has worked with political issues and the Texas Legislature for the last 25 years. He has served as the director of a peace group located adjacent to Pantex, the country’s nuclear weapon assembly plant (Peace Farm); as a legislative aide and as legislative director for members of the Texas House of Representatives (John Hirschi and Lon Burnam); and as a state and national board member of the country’s largest grassroots peace organization (Peace Action). He is currently a college instructor (Virginia College) and owns a consulting firm where he has conducted legislative research for litigation attorneys for the last 13 years (Capitol Research). breeding@tcadp.org

Curt Crum. Curt Crum is a criminal defense lawyer in the firm of Ben Hill Turner in Ft. Worth, Texas. Curt has a B.A. in History and Government from the University of Texas and a Law degree from the J.D. Thurgood Marshall School of Law. He has been an Assistant County Prosecutor. Curt is a current board member of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. He is also a member of Amnesty International, Tarrant County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the State Bar of Texas Curt has been a member of TCADP since 2000. Curt resides in Ft. Worth, Texas. ftworth@tcadp.org

Rick Halperin, Ph. D. Rick Halperin is the Director of the Southern Methodist University Human Rights Education Program. Rick holds degrees from George Washington University, Southern Methodist University and Auburn University. He has also studied at The Sorbonne in Paris, France. Rick has held numerous positions of importance in organizations concerned with human rights and social justice. He is a past Chair of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, USA. He served on the Board of Directors for several organizations, including the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Human Rights Initiative, Capital Punishment Investigation and Education Services, Jefferson-Titus Refugee Foundation, Center for Survivors of Torture and the International Rescue Committee. Rick’s awards and recognition include: Amnesty International Frederick Douglass Abolitionist Award; Dallas Peacemaker of the Year; DCTV Freedom of Speech Award; NCADP Grassroots Activism Award; NCADP Lifetime Abolition Achievement Award; SMU Robert O. Cooper Fellowship in Peace and Justice. Rick has been a member of TCADP since 1998. He resides in Dallas, Texas. halperin@tcadp.org

Mary Heartlein. Mary Heartlein has 20 years experience managing volunteers and raising funds for Houston’s nonprofit community. Working for Volunteer Houston and now at the John P. McGovern Museum of Medical and Health Science(The Health Museum), Mary is dedicated to the nonprofit sector as a means to build community. Mary values Houston’s diverse population and is committed to raising awareness of, and harnessing resources for, the under-served. Her interest in furthering public awareness of social justice issues has grown through her work with teens as a religious education instructor, as a volunteer at Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and through creating volunteer opportunities that target minority teens at Volunteer Houston and The Health Museum. Mary’s interest in the death penalty was nurtured by following the work of criminal defense attorneys in the cases of Clarence Brandley and Kerry Max Cook, and their subsequent freedom from Texas Death Row.

Pat Monks. Pat, a native Houstonian, has practiced law as a criminal defense attorney for 25 years in Houston and Dallas, Texas. Pat has argued 5 cases before the Texas Court of Criminal appeals and is the founding member of the Municipal Justice Bar Association of Texas. Pat is a board member of the American Prepaid Legal Services Institute, which is a branch of the American Bar Association. Pat has been associated with the Republican Party since birth – his father Gerald Monks was a long-time Republican Chair in Harris County dating back to the time George H.W. Bush was the county chair. Pat has been the chair of Precinct 718 of Harris County for the past 8 years. He has attended almost all of the precinct, senatorial, and State Republican Conventions for the last 20 years and currently serves on the Judicial Candidate Selection Committee of Harris County. Members of his family have run for office many times as judge, district attorney, city council and school board member. He is a firm believer of getting involved in politics. Pat Monks is a conservative Republican who believes the death penalty is fundamentally flawed: “I don’t see how, we as a people, can legislatively give another man the right to kill in God’s name.”

Robert Van Steenburg, President. Bob is a retired U.S. Army Colonel with more than 27 years service. He has commanded soldiers from platoon to brigade level. Bob has been active in social justice issues since 1970 and has been involved with the effort to end use of capital punishment since 1998. Bob holds a BS from the University of Florida and an MA from the University of Akron. Bob is a member of Pax Christi, Catholics Against Capital Punishment, Amnesty International, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and the NAACP. Bob has been a member of TCADP since 2003 and a member of the board since 2005. Bob resides in Austin, Texas. president@tcadp.org

Linda L. White, Ph.D., Vice President. Linda White is a former adjunct faculty member at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, in the Department of Psychology and Philosophy. Linda holds a BS in Psychology and an MA in Clinical Psychology from Sam Houston State University and earned her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. Linda’s 26-year old daughter was raped and murdered 1986. Following this devastating loss, she returned to college to study grief and loss in order to be able to educate others and counsel those with similar losses. Linda has written for several publications about her own experiences, restorative justice, and victims’ issues. Linda is a volunteer mediator with the Victim Offender Mediation/Dialogue program in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and was appointed in 2003 by Governor Rick Perry of Texas to represent victims’ issues on the Texas State Council for Adult Offender Supervision. She is a member of Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation. She has been a member of TCADP since 1999 and joined the Board of Directors in 2008. Linda resides in Tomball, Texas. white@tcadp.org

Richard Woodward, Ph.D., Secretary. Rich Woodward is an associate professor at Texas A&M University in the Department of Agricultural Economics. His research is in the general area of environmental and resource economics. A founding member of the Brazos Valley chapter of TCADP, Richard has been vocal about his opposition to the death penalty for over a decade. secretary@tcadp.org