Staff

Executive Director

Nancy Hopkins joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania in January of 2005. She previously worked for the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency coordinating a teaching partnership with the University of Scranton. Nancy received her Master's degree in Counseling from West Chester University and has extensive experience in leadership and management of victim advocacy and direct service programs. (Philadelphia)

Associate Director - Pittsburgh Office

Barb Feige joined the ACLU-PA Greater Pittsburgh Chapter as Chapter Director in November 2002. She is responsible for all of the non-legal activities of the Western PA office such as membership, development, public education and administration. Barb is an experienced non-profit manager with 20 years experience. She served as the HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator for the Jewish Healthcare Foundation of Pittsburgh providing fiscal management and programmatic support to government-funded services for persons affected by and at risk for HIV/AIDS. Barb has also worked for the United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh as a Community Campaigns Coordinator involved in all aspects of fundraising. A Pittsburgh native, Barb is a magna cum laude graduate of Duquesne University and did her graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh. As a stage manager for professional theatre, Barb worked for seven years in theatres across the country and overseas. Barb is an active community volunteer and serves on the boards of a number of community service organizations. (Pittsburgh)

Associate Director - Philadelphia Office

Sara Mullen started at the ACLU of Pennsylvania as a volunteer in its Pittsburgh office in 1997. She joined the staff as the office manager in January 1998 and worked her way up to Assistant Director of the Pittsburgh Chapter in 2000. Sara transferred to the Philadelphia office in November 2002 after meeting her now-husband at an ACLU annual membership meeting. Sara currently heads the Community Organizing Department. She received her BA in Middle Eastern History from the University of Chicago in 1993. Prior to joining the ACLU, Sara worked in academic publishing. (Philadelphia)

Legal Director

Witold "Vic" Walczak , the son of a Polish Holocaust survivor, came to the United States at age three. He graduated from Colgate University and Boston College Law School. Before attending law school Vic traveled to martial-law Poland, where he experienced the deprivation of civil liberties, including police brutality, wiretapping and a strip search. Vic joined the ACLU in 1992, after five years of prisoners’ rights work at Maryland’s Legal Aid Bureau. He served for twelve years as the Pittsburgh Chapter’s Executive Director. In 2004 he became the ACLU of Pennsylvania’s Legal Director. Besides specializing in free-speech and religious-liberty cases, Vic has handled nationally significant cases involving challenges to widespread police misconduct, substandard public-defender services, and the Secret Service’s use of “protest zones” to shield President Bush from demonstrators. In 2005, Vic was one of three lawyers who successfully tried Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the first case challenging the teaching in public schools of “intelligent design” (ID), which the ACLU claimed was creationism repackaged. Most recently, Vic was co-lead counsel in a precedent-setting case challenging an anti-illegal-immigrant ordinance in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, the first of its kind in the nation. Vic has received many honors, including the 2003 Federal Lawyer of the Year award from the Federal Bar Association’s Western Pennsylvania Chapter. (Pittsburgh)

Legislative Director

Position vacant.

Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project Director

Carol Petraitis received her BA in Visual Arts from the University of California at San Diego in 1974. She joined the Duvall Education Fund as program director in 1991 and was promoted to Executive Director in 1993. In 2000 she oversaw a merger with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the organization was renamed the Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project. Ms Petraitis has overseen an expansion in the mission of the organization. Its role of research, publication, and training for pro-choice activists in Pennsylvania has broadened to identifying and creating solutions for some of the underlying barriers to reproductive health care such as the lack of training in the medical professions in abortion, fighting against abstinence-only education until marriage programs in public schools, emergency contraception, and minors' rights. As a state-wide organization, the Duvall Project is particularly sensitive to the needs of those who are young, poor, or live in rural areas. She has co-authored articles for peer-reviewed journals, as well as numerous publications for activists including several fact sheets and brochures about emergency contraception (EC). In addition she has written training manuals about minors' rights to confidential health care services and about EC in the emergency room. (Philadelphia)

Staff Attorney - Harrisburg Office

Valerie Burch joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania as a staff attorney for the Harrisburg Office in June 2007. Prior to joining the ACLU, she served as managing attorney of the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center, where she litigated immigration cases. She is a 2004 graduate of Penn State's Dickinson School of Law and a 2000 graduate of the University of Rochester. (Harrisburg)

Staff Attorney - Philadelphia Office

Mary Catherine Roper is a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia Office, where she coordinates litigation on a broad range of civil liberties issues, including freedom of speech, religious liberty, racial and ethnic justice, equality for lesbians and gay men, student rights, privacy, prisoners’ rights and police misconduct. Prior to joining the ACLU, Mary Catherine was a partner in the firm of Drinker Biddle and Reath, where she was well known for her commitment to pro bono work. Mary Catherine is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Anita B. Brody of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and served a year with the Disabilities Law Project as the first recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation Public Interest Fellowship. (Philadelphia)

Staff Attorney - Pittsburgh Office

Sara J. Rose is a staff attorney in the organization's Pittsburgh office. Before joining the ACLU of Pennsylvania, she was a legal fellow with Americans United for Separation of Church and State. She received her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and her undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. She worked as the publications coordinator for the Student Press Law Center for two years before attending law school. (Pittsburgh)

Community Organizer - Eastern PA

Harold Jordan joined the ACLU staff in December of 2007. He brings to the ACLU three decades of experience working in non-profit organizations. Harold has done extensive advocacy work on peace, youth leadership development, military service, and human rights issues. His past jobs include serving as the coordinator of a national program at the American Friends Service Committee for 16 years, as a paralegal at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, as the executive director of a national public school advocacy organization, as a computer programmer, and as an administrator in the School District of Philadelphia. Harold has lectured and conducted workshops nationwide. He has extensive writing, editing, program planning, and web development experience. Harold’s major volunteer commitment is with The Organizers Collaborative, a Boston-based non-profit organization that promotes better use of technology by social change organizations. He holds a degree in Social Thought and Analysis from Washington University in St. Louis. (Philadelphia)

Community Organizer - Central PA/Legislative Assistant

Andy Hoover is the community organizer in the Harrisburg office of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, a position he has held since December, 2004. In this position, he is responsible for public education events, media relations, building relationships with grass-roots volunteers and like-minded organizations, assisting ACLU-PA's four central PA chapters and student chapters, and organizing around legislative issues. Since 2000, Andy has been a volunteer in the anti-death penalty movement in Pennsylvania and is a member of the board of directors of Central Pennsylvanians to Abolish the Death Penalty and Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Andy graduated cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and is currently a candidate for a Master of Arts degree in Community Psychology and Social Change at Penn State. (Harrisburg)

Community Education Organizer - Western PA

Pamela Irwin joined the ACLU of staff in October 2007. She works with local chapters, spearheads outreach and community education on priority campaigns and works with the Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project of the Pennsylvania ACLU. Prior to joining the ACLU, she worked as field staff with non-profit environmental organizations and worked as a field director on electoral campaigns. (Pittsburgh)

Development Coordinator

Christopher Keelty joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania as Development Coordinator in June of 2007. A native of New York, he has lived most of his life in Pennsylvania, and holds a BA in Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. Chris previously managed marketing and development for the Lehigh Valley Zoo and the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, and was an independent marketing consultant. He remains an active volunteer, supporting non-profit zoos and LGBT organizations. (Philadelphia)

Legal Program Assistant

Steve Gotzler joined the ACLU staff in June of 2005. He received his law degree from Rutgers - Newark in 2000, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin. Steve has a long history of political and community activity as either a board member or an activist in many organizations. (Philadelphia)

Administrative Assistant/Intake Coordinator

Susan Davis McIntosh joined the ACLU staff in August 2004. Her background includes experience in office administration in both the private and nonprofit sectors. She has a long history of volunteerism and activism in the areas of civil liberties & human rights, AIDS education and prevention, mental health advocacy, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender rights, and environmental issues. She also served for a year as an AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteer In Service To America) at the Institute for Community Service-Learning based out of Slippery Rock University. Previously a volunteer and then an intern at the ACLU, Susan was initially hired to be the Administrative Assistant at the Pittsburgh office. In January of 2005, her position was expanded to include coordination of legal intake and management of office interns and volunteers. Susan received her bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her master's degree in Counseling Psychology from Slippery Rock University, and most recently was awarded an associate degree in Computer Forensics from Butler County Community College. (Pittsburgh)

Administrative Assistant/Intake Coordinator

Jamie Mullen joined the ACLU in December of 2004. She currently assists the staff attorney in the Harrisburg office, manages daily office duties and receives and responds to all incoming intake. Jamie is a graduate of Bridgewater College, VA where she received a degree in Political Science. She is also currently volunteering her time at Common Cause of Pennsylvania, a nonprofit organization that lobbies for accountable government at the state level. (Harrisburg)

Administrative Assistant

Vendetta (Vinni) Washington joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania in September 2007. She is a native Philadelphian with over 10 years of administrative, office management and HR experience in various kinds of organizations including healthcare, financial services and office staffing. She currently holds an Associates Degree in Secretarial/Business Sciences and is an active volunteer with agencies such as William Way LGBT Center, NOLOSE, MANNA, The Philly Fringe/Live Arts Festival, The Philadelphia Film Festival; The Mural Arts Project and Philadelphia Cares. (Philadelphia)