Board of Directors

Lisa spiegel, President

Lisa is a founder and director of Soho Parenting, a psychotherapy and parenting center in New York City. She has worked with clients for over forty years to heal trauma, build healthy relationships and strengthen families. Her yoga and meditation practices deeply inform her clinical perspective. Soho Parenting has been featured in many media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Parents Magazine. Lisa is the author of two books, A Mother’s Circle and Internal Family Systems Therapy with Children and teaches therapists worldwide. She is a mother and grandmother and lives with her husband in New York.

Sloan Benson, Secretary

Sloan is the President of Sage Street, LLC. She received a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington. After 25 years in business management, building and leading a multi-million company, Sloan shifted her emphasis to working with individuals. Sloan is a certified co-active coach within the International Coach Federation. She holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from Meridian University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology, examining the topic of resilience for individuals with backgrounds mired in complex trauma. For the past thirty years Sloan has worked with individuals and groups to cultivate and leverage their strengths and capacities, specializing in working with individuals who desire personal restoration and interpersonal reconciliation. Sloan has four daughters, one son, and eight lively grandchildren.

Mary Lou Leary, Treasurer

Mary Lou has 30 years of criminal justice experience at the federal, state, and local levels, with an extensive background in criminal prosecutions, government leadership, and victim advocacy. Most recently, before her retirement, Mary Lou Leary served as the Deputy Director for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Prior to her appointment to ONDCP, she was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) from 2009 to 2012, and Acting Assistant Attorney General for OJP from 2012 to 2013. Between 1999 and 2001, Mary Lou also held executive positions at the Department of Justice, including Acting Assistant Attorney General for OJP, Deputy Associate Attorney General, and Acting Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Mary Lou has served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, as well as Principal Assistant and Senior Counsel to the U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Office’s Superior Court Division. Mary Lou was Executive Director of the National Center for Victims of Crime from 2005 to 2009. She received her law degree from Northwestern University School of Law, a Master’s degree in education from Ohio State University, and a Bachelor’s degree in English literature from Syracuse University.

Kimberly cook

Kimberly (Kim) teaches Sociology and Criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She is a restorative justice practitioner, and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Australian National University, where she studied Restorative Justice. Kim’s current research focuses on original crime victims and survivors in wrongful conviction cases, using in-depth interviews to document their experiences, their needs, and their perceptions of justice reform. Kim completed her Bachelor's degree in Sociology at the University of Maine, and her Master's degree and PhD at the University of New Hampshire. She specializes in criminology, sociology of the family, and social policy.

Kandace Davis Farrar

Kandace serves as Associate Dean of Advancement for the UNC School of Social Work and has been a development professional at UNC-Chapel Hill for 10 years. Previous roles include director and sr. director of scholarships and student aid, assistant director of corporate and foundation relations and special assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Development. In her current role, she is noted for raising over $10 million in private within her first 10 months, beating the school’s 10-year annual fundraising average of $2 million by 500%. Prior to transitioning to development work, Kandace worked at the UNC System Office on Title IX compliance and policy. Kandace holds a B.S. in sociology from Appalachian State University and a Juris Doctorate from the UNC School of Law. She currently resides in Chapel Hill with husband, Dante and son, Davis, and will welcome daughter, Khoury, in late May 2024.

David Singleton

David is a professor of law at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). Prior to joining UDC, David was the director of the Chase Constitutional Litigation Clinic at the University of Kentucky and Executive Director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. David earned a Juris Doctor at Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in economics and public policy at Duke University. Following graduation from law school, he received a Skadden Fellowship to work at the Legal Action Center for the Homeless in New York City, where he practiced for three years. He then worked as a public defender for seven years, first with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and then with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

Gerda Stein

Gerda worked at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation for 30 years as a mitigation investigator, communications director, and advocate. She served on the defense team in capital cases, investigating and telling the life histories of people facing the death penalty. She later shifted to communicating those human stories and grave injustices to the public, the legislature, the governor, and the courts. Gerda has served on several boards and committees, including the ACLU of NC, The Fair Trial Initiative, NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Blueprint NC, Wake Teen Medical Services, Great Schools in Wake Coalition, the NC Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System, and committees of the Governor’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and her Masters of Social Welfare degree from the University of California-Berkeley.