Executive Director
Reggie Shuford joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania in September 2011. Prior to joining the ACLU-PA, he served as the director of law and policy at the Equal Justice Society (EJS), a national strategy group heightening consciousness on race in the law and popular discourse. From 1995-2010, Shuford served as senior staff counsel in the national ACLU's Racial Justice Program. During his tenure there he helped to pioneer legal challenges to racial profiling practices nationwide. He was the ACLU's chief litigator in challenges to racial profiling, leading national litigation efforts and consulting with ACLU state affiliates and others in cases of "driving while black or brown," airport profiling, and profiling related to the war on terror. Shuford is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill, where he was his graduating class president. (Philadelphia)
Deputy Director
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
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. Sara currently heads the Community Organizing Department and oversees the organization's communications program. 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)
Development Director
Bruce Makous joined the ACLU-PA in 2010. He has been a professional fundraiser for over twenty-seven years, with leadership positions in major educational, healthcare, and arts organizations. Bruce most recently served as national Vice President for Development at Multiple Sclerosis Association of America. Bruce is a published author, with many articles on fundraising ethics, major gifts, and other topics. He currently serves on the national board of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning and has served on the international board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and is past president of AFP Greater Philadelphia Chapter. In 2009, he was named by The Nonprofit Times one of the "Most Influential and Effective" fundraisers in the US. Mr. Makous has been granted the Certified Fundraising Executive status by the International CFRE Board, and the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy and Chartered Financial Consultant by The American College. He has an MA from New York University and a BA from Oberlin College. (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
Andy Hoover is responsible for the ACLU of PA's lobbying efforts at the state level in Harrisburg and at the federal level in Washington, D.C. From 2004 to 2008, he was a community organizer for ACLU-PA and is an experienced advocate, cutting his teeth in the anti-death penalty movement during the Ridge-Schweiker administration. Andy also recently served on the boards of directors of Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and The Interfaith Alliance of Pennsylvania. In 2008, Andy graduated from Penn State with a master's degree in Community Psychology and Social Change. He is also a 1995 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a bachelor's degree in communications. Andy has lived most of his life in Dauphin County. (Harrisburg)
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)
Business and Operations Manager
John Magolan first joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania in March 2008 as a part-time contract bookkeeper. In his current role John is responsible for financial analysis and reporting, human resource administration, and contract management. John has nearly 30 years of experience developing and supporting systems and networking software, including the design of patented e-mail transfer methods. He has held numerous nonprofit leadership positions, notably as a community theater president and treasurer, on a volunteer basis. A native of Wyandotte, Michigan, John holds a BS in Mathematics from the University of Michigan [where he was a member of both the Michigan Marching Band and Phi Beta Kappa] and an MA in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. (Philadelphia)
Senior Staff Attorney
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
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)
Staff Attorney
Molly Tack-Hooper started at the ACLU of Pennsylvania as a volunteer legal fellow in 2010-2011 and returned in 2013 as a staff attorney focusing on civil liberties issues arising in Central Pennsylvania and on immigrants' rights. Molly obtained her law degree in 2009 from the NYU School of Law and her undergraduate degree in 2002 from Brown University. For her dedication to civil liberties, Molly received an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellowship and the John Perry Prize from NYU Law. In 2009-2010, she clerked for the Honorable Michael H. Dolinger, U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of New York. From 2011 to 2013, she represented plaintiffs in complex class action suits as an associate at Berger & Montague. (Philadelphia)
Community Organizer
Ngani Ndimbie joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania in September of 2010. She is a Pittsburgh native who graduated from the University of Florida where she studied Political Science and Visual Arts, graduating with a degree in Creative Photography. Prior to joining the ACLU, she worked with the Regional Equity Monitoring Project and the League of Young Voters. (Pittsburgh)
Community Organizer
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 the National Coalition of Education Activists, as a computer programmer, and as an administrator in the School District of Philadelphia. Harold has extensive writing, editing, program planning, and web development experience. He serves on the leadership board of The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, an independent, nonprofit news service reporting on public education, and is a leader in the national Dignity in Schools Campaign. Harold holds a degree in Social Thought and Analysis from Washington University in St. Louis. (Philadelphia)
Chapter Relations Manager
Jamie Pauls joined the ACLU in December of 2004. Before joining the ACLU she worked as a community organizer for a community-based organization that advocates for low- and moderate- income families. Jamie is a graduate of Bridgewater College, VA where she received a degree in Political Science. Jamie currently resides in downtown Harrisburg with her husband and cat. (Harrisburg)
Annual Fund Manager
Tiffanny M. Walsh joined the ACLU staff in January 2013. She was most recently with the William J. Clinton Foundation where she was responsible for donor research, development-related writing, and database management. In 2011, she won a national award for writing a public service announcement on train track safety. She is a graduate of Marymount College of Fordham University, where she won the Theatre and Media Arts medal for the highest GPA in that program and served as Vice President of Psi Chi, the psychology honor society. Although she is a native New Yorker, she vows to never refer to Philadelphia as "the sixth borough". (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)
Office/Intake Manager
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)
Legal Fellows
Jonathan C. Dunsmoor is currently a legal fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Jonathan has a passion for civil liberties and has worked throughout his career to achieve social justice. He currently oversees the Bailey v. City of Philadelphia project which entails teaching law school students and attorney volunteers the fundamentals of Fourth Amendment search and seizure as it relates to police stops. Jonathan is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School where he received his LL.M. in Criminal Law with honors and Elon University School of Law. In addition, Jonathan is alumnus from the University of South Carolina, where he completed his undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice and Experimental Psychology. He is a proud and lifelong Gamecock fan. (Philadelphia)
Alexis Webster is currently a legal fellow in the Philadelphia office of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. Alexis received her J.D. from the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University in Philadelphia and her undergraduate degree in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. As a Legal Fellow, her current projects include obtaining proper funding and staffing for public defender offices and assisting in litigating the First Amendment rights of individuals to record and observe government officials in the performance of their duties. Before joining the ACLU, Alexis served as a law clerk for a Superior Court Judge in Mercer County, New Jersey. Alexis also has a passion for travel and before attending law school, shamelessly offered her services as a native English speaker in exchange for room and board while traveling through Italy. (Philadelphia)
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