Pete Martel is a Program Coordinator at AFSC's Michigan Criminal Justice Program in Ypsilanti, Michigan. In this role he works with volunteers and interns to carry out direct service advocacy work with people incarcerated in Michigan's prison system. He is leading up individual liberation work for long and life serving people in Michigan's prisons. He has worked in various capacities in Michigan's criminal legal system and is currently a graduate student in the University of Michigan's Sociology Department. His research interests include the legal system, criminal procedure, and punishment. Pete loves music.
Danny Jones is a mediator, facilitator, speaker, and organizer, and is a Program Coordinator with the American Friends Service Committee Michigan Criminal Justice Program (AFSC-MCJP). As a former Juvenile Lifer, Danny spent his time inside prison doing deep, introspective work, and mentoring others. In 2013, he worked to develop the Personal Enrichment and Parole Readiness program, which is now used in several prisons across Michigan. Upon his re-sentencing and release in March of 2019, Danny co-facilitated two national convenings, one in Michigan on Ending Perpetual Punishment, the other in Washington, D.C., in an “Unlock the Box” campaign to end solitary confinement, and hosts a weekly support call, via Zoom, for families with loved ones currently incarcerated.
Natalie Holbrook-Combs has worked against the punishment system and for collective accountability and healing for 20 years. Natalie's work is centered around ending life and long sentences in Michigan. Organizing with people in prison and people who have been to prison, through her paid work with the American Friends Service Committee’s Michigan Criminal Justice Program, has been the most meaningful calling and privilege imaginable.
Sienna Dana serves as the Program Coordinator for the Wabanaki Youth Program in Maine. She is creating a web of connections and communications between the youth within the tribal communities in Maine. Her focus is to empower and encourage youth to find their positioning within this world by finding the strength in their voice and presence.
Amy Gottlieb is the Associate Regional Director for the Northeast.
Blair Minnard is the Program Associate for the Peace by Piece program in New Orleans, LA. She is a member of AFSC’s Community Safety Beyond Policing program. She is a graduate of the University of New Orleans and has been a resident of New Orleans for over 20 years.
Dee Dee Green is the Area Program Director for American Friends Service Committee’s Peace by Piece New Orleans program. Dee Dee has lived in New Orleans since 2007 and serves on the executive boards of the Hollygrove Neighbors Association, Inc., and Ubuntu Village NOLA. She is a member of the Institutional Review Board for the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies (IWES). She is a 2007 recipient of the Academy for Educational Development’s New Voices Gulf Coast Transformation Fellowship and a 2018 and 2022 Mellon Fellow in Tulane University's Graduate Program in Community Engaged Scholarship.
Debbie Southorn served as Program Coordinator for Chicago’s Peacebuilding program, where she organized with youth and communities in Chicago around anti-militarism, divesting from policing, and ending surveillance since 2015.
Alicia Brown is the inaugural Michael McConnell Peace with Justice Fellow with AFSC in Chicago. She is a restorative justice practitioner, circle keeper, and abolitionist. She enjoys writing and was recently published in the “Envisioning Justice Curricular Concepts Resource Guide, Incarcerated Mothers: Illinois Humanities” (2019). Additionally, she performs pieces that she has written. Alicia is a proud mother of four beautiful children, and she strives to make the world a better place for them.
Marie Jean is the Legal Services Coordinator for AFSC Florida.