JusticeAid Board of Directors
JusticeAid boasts a Board of Directors whose diverse lived experiences and accomplishments put them at the forefront of the legal, communications, arts, and activist communities. Our Board members share a passion for helping those most in need, but their abilities to effect positive change don’t hold them back from having a good time. When they aren’t winning major court cases, assisting public defender services, advising nationally renowned nonprofits, and creating art themselves, you can find them at any of our events…usually dancing in the front row. Here are our social justice warriors.
N. Kámeron Akhéru, Ph.D.
(né Cameron Van Patterson)
Professor
Dr. N. Kameron Akhéru (né Cameron Van Patterson) is a multi-hyphenate writer, “artivist,” independent intellectual, and emancipatory who employs critical race structural competency and the praxis of decolonization to advance reparatory justice initiatives aimed at social transformation.
Dr. Akhéru currently serves as Founder-In-CEO of AKHERU ENTERPRISES, LLC., where he consults with a growing list of clients to support their social impact initiatives. Past clients include, but are not limited to John Hopkins University, Humanity in Action, Urban Equity, College Unbound, and Our Family Coalition.
Recently, Akhéru served as the Director of Programs for The Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center for Education, Justice & Ethics at the University of Maryland, College Park. In this role, he designed, developed, implemented, and managed signature programs aimed at improving educational outcomes, reforming the criminal legal system, and creating more robust structures of opportunity for people from historically disadvantaged communities.
Dr. Akhéru’s scholarly research employs critical literacy through creative lenses to interrogate the legacy of racial slavery, settler colonialism, and social inequalities resulting from the history of anti-Black structural racism throughout the African Diaspora. He has contributed to documentary films and has written about the politics of race in higher education. In addition to his academic interests, Dr. Akhéru is passionate about the global influence of African culture and mythology, the visual and performing arts, and the empowerment of youth cultures in promoting civic engagement and leadership development.
Born and raised in Long Beach, CA, Dr. Akhéru has been recognized for numerous achievements in education and is a two-time recipient of the Pedro Noguera Volunteer of the Year Award. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies and a minor in Education from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a Ph.D. in African and African American Studies with an emphasis in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University.
Jeffrey Alston
Entertainment Executive
Jeffrey Alston has over 25 years of experience as an entertainment executive. He is currently the managing director of Guardian Angel Music Inc., and an owner and managing partner of Rebel Soul Records, LLC.
Jeff founded Rebel Soul Records, a boutique record label specializing in alternative urban and mainstream music products, in 2004. Jeff oversees the strategic creative and business development, marketing, and promotion of notable R&B artists, including Grammy and Oscar winning legacy balladeer Peabo Bryson. His work with Guardian Angel has taken him all over the world, including shows with Roberta Flack in South Africa and Regina Belle in Japan. Rebel Soul allows Jeff to not only utilize his business and finance background, but to tap into his creative side which is what drew him to the music business so many years ago. Rebel Soul artists have appeared in major theatrical movies, toured festivals globally, and performed with major symphonies, all while staying true to their creative voice and vision.
Prior to transitioning to the music industry, Jeff was an International Trade Banking Officer at Bank of America. Jeff holds a B.A. in finance from Morehouse College and lives in New York City with his wife and two teenage sons.
Steve Anderson
Executive VP, ESPN, retired
JusticeAid Board President
Steve Anderson retired after a 35-year career at ESPN and ABC Sports. Steve joined ESPN seven months after the network launched in 1979, and in a few years became a producer. He then served over 25 years in various senior management roles overseeing TV, Radio, and International Production and Operations departments, as well as productions including SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, College Football, and Basketball live events and studio shows. Steve was also a proud member of ESPN’s Editorial Board, the Executive Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and was the Executive Champion of ESPN’s Women’s Employee Group. He was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2019.
After graduating from The College of the Holy Cross, Steve worked two years as an assistant basketball coach at Fordham University. During those six years on college campuses, his love and appreciation for many different genres of music including Rock, Blues, Jazz, Reggae, Folk, and Country was explored and developed. His passion for all types of music continues today.
Since 2016, it has been Steve’s honor to be a member of this important board dedicated to celebrating and financially supporting organizations engaged in the fight against injustice.
Kim Duckett Coaxum
JusticeAid CEO
Attorney
Kim Duckett Coaxum is a proud Southern girl from Atlanta, Georgia who now lives in New York and has somehow become a Yankees and Knicks fan. She has loved music and the arts her entire life. Unfortunately, as happens with so many musical prodigies, Kim peaked early and flamed out after becoming first chair clarinet in middle school. With music off the table as a career path, Kim turned to the law. She attended Howard University School of Law and served as an intern and law clerk to the Hon. Stephen Milliken—JusticeAid’s Co-Founder. She then spent several years as a corporate litigator. Kim has since transitioned from a practicing attorney to a practicing mother of two amazing daughters.
Ray Conley
Owner, Brave Dog Productions
Ray Conley owns Brave Dog Productions, where he edits, produces, and directs long-form storytelling. He is also a voice actor and audiobook narrator.
Ray worked for over thirty years for ABC / ESPN / Disney in the news and sports divisions. He’s the recipient of 5 Emmy Awards, and a Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award for the PBS autism documentary In A Different Key. Previously he contributed to films for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls, and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, among many others.
During the world’s pandemic-mandated hiatus from live events, Ray delved more deeply into the confluence of music and charitable-giving — producing, editing, and directing online fund-raising concerts for the Saratoga Jazz Fest, Gilda’s Club, JusticeAid, and WBGO — validating again the model of bringing people together for positive change through the power of music.
Ray has been a music lover since the early 1970s, starting with progressive rock influences and evolving through jazz and blues to singer / songwriters and an eclectic assortment of Americana. He considers himself a lapsed bass player.
Ray has devoted his time, expertise, and his voice to JusticeAid since 2017, crafting video profiles for events and forums of JusticeAid and grantee partners including Black Voters Matter, SMYAL, the Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center, Civil Rights Corp, Essie Justice Group, Election Protection, and the National Defender Service.
Economic inequality has been a particular concern since his months spent in Bolivia in his teens, where he witnessed economic disparity firsthand. He feels privileged to contribute through JusticeAid to the fight for social justice in its many forms.
Blair Fishburn
Operations and Finance Executive
Blair is an operations and finance executive with extensive government/public sector experience.
He began his professional career with IBM and went on to provide 20 years as the Chief Financial Officer for four nationally prominent transportation organizations.
Moving beyond his roles in strategic leadership and executive financial management, Blair has turned his focus to helping nonprofit organizations achieve long-term financial success and sustainability.
He is VP of the Board of Directors and liaison for state government funding of Hero Dogs, Inc., a Maryland nonprofit that provides highly-trained service dogs to disabled veterans and first responders at no cost for the lifetime of the partnerships. He is also a member of MD Comptroller Peter Franchot’s Business Advisory Council.
Blair’s mission-oriented service enthusiasm dates back to high school in the early 70s, where he volunteered with disabled veterans at the Bronx (NY) Veterans Administration Hospital.
His lifelong love of music includes tickets to “too-numerous-to-count” live concerts, from Richie Havens, Traffic, and New Riders of the Purple Sage to The Band, Dave Matthews, and Sting,
Blair rose through the ranks from Disc Jockey to Program Director at his college radio station (WRTC-FM Trinity College, CT). But the real highlight was freshman year in ’73. Working stage security at a Mahavishnu Orchestra campus concert, he escorted to the stage a then-little-known warm-up band named…Aerosmith!
Blair is both deeply honored and humbled to serve alongside his renowned and highly accomplished JusticeAid Board members, who dedicate their time leveraging art and music to bring action in the fight against injustice.
Judith Friedman
Attorney
Judi is a retired career public servant, having spent over 50 years with the U.S. Department of Justice in various positions, including, as counsel at the National Institute of Corrections, where she trained wardens and sheriffs on how to run constitutional prisons and jails, working with the ACLU’s Prison Project to implement court-ordered changes to corrections systems, and drafting inmate grievance procedures to serve as models for state prisons systems; and as counsel to the 93 Presidentially-appointed U.S. Attorneys.
Judi holds a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice Administration, and a law degree, and has been active in the ABA Criminal Justice Section since she was in law school. She clerked in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, served on the CJS Council, and worked on the ABA’s Legal Status of Prisoners Standards and the Mental Health Standards. In 2020, she was honored with the ABA’s prestigious Minister of Justice Award.
Judi also served for nine years on the Board of Directors of HIAS, an international refugee organization dedicated to protecting the rights of refugees, asylees, and other displaced persons, and currently serves on the Board of the HIAS Foundation.
Judi’s passion for the intersection of the arts and justice derives from her parents. Her mom was a professional artist, who, at the age of 12, tap danced on the radio, and at 14, opened her own ballet school. Judi’s own lifelong passion for ballet began at age 3.
Judi’s dad, who moved to Miami with his family in 1926, was known as the “singing judge,” as he sang at any event that allowed him to do so. He was also the Vice President of B’nai B’rith International, heading what is now the Anti-Defamation League; and, during the 1960s, most significantly, he desegregated the municipal courts of Miami.
Madhuri (Madhu) Grewal
Attorney, Public Policy Consultant
Madhuri (Madhu) Grewal is an attorney and public policy consultant focused on civil rights, immigration, and criminal justice issues. She is founder of Grewal Strategies, a firm that works primarily with civil and human rights organizations to develop and execute innovative and impactful campaigns, strategic communications, and policy initiatives. She has appeared on BBC News and in major outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. She has also authored op-eds in The Washington Post and The National Journal.
Prior to Grewal Strategies, Madhu was a lobbyist in the political department of the ACLU, where she advocated for immigrants’ rights, including on appropriations, immigration detention, and the Trump administration’s family separation policy. Previously as senior counsel at The Constitution Project, she focused on criminal justice issues, including the right to counsel and funding for public defense, sentencing reform, policing, and the death penalty. She also worked as policy counsel at Detention Watch Network, a national coalition of groups working to end immigration detention. She began her legal career clerking in the D.C. Superior Court (including for the Hon. Stephen Milliken—a JusticeAid co-founder!) and for the U.S. Department of Justice Honors Program.
Madhu graduated from American University Washington College of Law and University of Michigan. Madhu lives in Washington, DC with her spouse and young children, who enjoy a good dance party, inspired her to write a children’s book, and share her love of baking and great desserts.
Callie Lardas
Senior Director of Tour Marketing at mtheory LLC
Callie Lardas is the Senior Director of Tour Marketing at mtheory LLC, where she leads a successful tour marketing strategy for top talent including Tyler Childers, Zac Brown Band, Jelly Roll, Shakey Graves and many more. Prior to mtheory, she spent 10 years at AEG Presents and Live Nation executing marketing campaigns for Mission Ballroom, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, The Superdome, and AT&T Center, among others. After hours and when she’s not attending concerts across the great city of New Orleans, Callie is an avid rower and ceramicist.
Brian Lockhart
Vice President and Executive Producer, ESPN+
Brian Lockhart currently serves as vice president and executive producer of Original
Content for ESPN+, where he oversees strategy and development for all original
programming initiatives.
Prior to joining ESPN in 2019, Brian was vice president and executive producer of
Original Content for NFL Media. He was the driving creative force behind the
development of the original NFL Network documentary series The Timeline, highlighted
by the critically acclaimed installment “America’s Game and the Iran Hostage Crisis.”
His work at NFL Media earned him three of his eight career Emmy Awards, including
the groundbreaking multiplatform experience JFK: The Untold Story of That Day in
Dallas and the digital series The NFL Season: A Biography.
Prior to his NFL tenure, Brian spent the early part of his career at ESPN, ABC Sports,
and HBO Sports. Among his notable productions from the field was Larry Merchant’s
news-making interview with Nelson Mandela in Mozambique.
He was the team captain for the basketball team at College of the Holy Cross, where he
earned his B.A. in Mathematics in 1996. He has remained active as a member of his alma
mater’s President’s Council, and ALANA (African-American, Latino, Asian-American
and Native-American) mentor.
Brian’s personal experience with a family member struggling through the justice system
has drawn him to Justice Aid. He is inspired by the organization’s mission that focuses on
social impact by exciting the ears and igniting the heart.
Anne Messner
JusticeAid Treasurer
Consultant
Anne Messner has worked as a Vice President in Foreign Exchange Sales & Trading with HSBC and Jefferies in New York City, and as Executive Director of the non-profit organization The Roots of Music in New Orleans. In addition, she has consulted with various businesses in real estate and retail in New Orleans, assisted the producer for a film, obtained a yoga instructor certification, and continued her education at Tulane University.
Anne was born in Boston, MA. and spent her youth in New York, California, and Kansas. She went on to graduate from Wake Forest University with a B.S. in Business and a minor in Spanish. Anne moved to New York City after college and began her career with one of the top teams in the Global Markets Sales and Trading industry. She specialized in Foreign Exchange Institutional Sales and was quickly promoted from Assistant to Vice President during her eight years with HSBC.
At The Roots of Music, a free after school music education program for 9-14-year-old youth in New Orleans that seeks to empower students through music and mentorship, Anne served as a board member then Executive Director for 3 years. As the Executive Director, Anne focused on increasing the visibility and transparency of the organization. By establishing strategic partnerships and performance opportunities, Anne deepened the connection between supporters and the community served. She guided the non-profit through many challenges as it grew from a grassroots program into a program with long-term organizational sustainability in a safer new home in the Marigny neighborhood.
Anne first encountered JusticeAid in 2015 when students from The Roots of Music opened for Ani DiFranco at a House of Blues concert to benefit Innocence Project New Orleans. In 2019 Anne was asked to join the board and is now co-head of Institutional Advancement with Kim Coaxum. Anne is passionate about JusticeAid’s mission to provide resources to grassroots organizations in pursuit of equality in social justice issues such as immigration reform and voter empowerment. Anne’s focus will be to use her fundraising experience and financial expertise to increase the impact of JusticeAid grants.
Hon. Stephen G. Milliken, JusticeAid Co-Founder
Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Retired
Stephen Milliken served as a Judge for more than 20 years in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. As an undergraduate at Harvard, he worked at Phillips Brooks House (Prison Committee), assisting court-involved children released into community-based treatment—a program that cut re-arrest rates by nearly half. After college, he signed onto the night shift at a reform school in upstate New York to explore corrections alternatives. Following law school and a stint at the Department of Justice, he continued his commitment to public defense and legal services as a Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center and as a founder/partner of Milliken, Van Susteren, & Canan. Steve also taught for over 20 years at Harvard Law’s Trial Advocacy Workshop.
Steve is thrilled to be promoting justice through the arts, especially by the music he loves. As a judge, he created the “Juried Art Show,” a competition for District of Columbia public school art students held in the Jury Room of the Superior Court, and judged by, among others, the Dean of the Corcoran School of Art. With 10,000 potential jurors viewing their work, the students received great exposure, and winners earned scholarships to continue their studies.
Now that Steve has retired from the bench, he has turned to painting at the Washington Studio School. He is the driving force behind the founding of JusticeAid to leverage the community-building power of art and music to transform awareness into action in the fight against injustice. As the first, and volunteer CEO of JusticeAid, Steve wrote his job description to say “must attend JazzFest in NOLA every year to do musical research, preferably both weekends…”
Neil Parekh
Vice President
Events and Communications, Digimentors
Music, musical theater, and social justice figure strongly in Neil Parekh’s life experience.
His earliest influences included Fiddler on the Roof, John Denver, and Sha-Na-Na. Classic and Folk Rock are mainstays. He has been known to livestream his Karaoke performances.
Neil walked a picket line when he was 7 (for District 1199 in New York City). Thirty years later, he was working for the Service Employees International Union 775 on behalf of home care and nursing home workers. For nine years at United Way, he fought for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in every community. These experiences, combined with positions at USAID (Cairo), the Washington state legislature, and a newspaper serving the Indian immigrant community, led to a focus on policy, communications, and marketing. He currently serves as Vice President of Events and Communications for Digimentors, a hybrid/virtual events and digital consulting firm based in New York City.
A graduate of Wesleyan University and a native of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, Neil lives outside Washington, DC with his wife and 8-year-old daughter.
Joining the Board gives Neil the chance to combine his love of music and his passion for social justice in support of JusticeAid’s mission.
Johnny Perez
Director of U.S. Prisons Program
National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT)
Johnny is a highly accomplished criminal justice reform advocate, public speaker, and thought-leader in the field of ending torture and inhumane treatment in the U.S. prison system. As the Director of NRCAT’s U.S. Prisons Program, he champions an end of solitary confinement and equips faith communities and affected individuals to engage in education and legislative changes nationwide. Johnny represents NRCAT in several collaborative efforts with other organizations, including Unlock the Box, a national campaign to end solitary confinement and the Federal Anti-Solitary Taskforce (FAST).
Johnny proudly serves on the Board of Directors of the National Multifaith Initiative to End Mass Incarceration, JusticeAid, New York City’s Urban Justice Center and The Appeal. He is an ambassador for the End The Exception Campaign and serves as an advisory board member for the DC-based Urban Institute’s Prison Research and Innovation Initiative. As a committee member to the ARCH Network Committee at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), he helps advance initiatives to improve the well-being of both incarcerated people and staff.
Preston Pugh, JusticeAid Vice President
Member, Crowell & Moring
Preston Pugh is a native of Chicago, home to more musical “firsts” than anyone can count. Music has had a central role in his life: it was jazz that brought his family to the city during the Great Migration, house music that brought him and his wife together in D.C. for the first time, and he even had his own short-lived stint as a drummer, until keeping a different beat going on the snare and bass proved to be too much (ugh).
Preston is involved in the development of criminal justice and compliance policy, especially with respect to whistleblower reporting, investigations, and incentives. In 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sought his input into the development of its whistleblower incentives pilot program. In 2022, he served as one of the “experts in corporate ethics and compliance” that DOJ consulted in announcing policy reforms in its “Further Revisions to Corporate Criminal Enforcement Policies” memo (the September 2022 “Monaco Memo”). He is a voting member of the ABA Criminal Justice Section Council, which proposes changes in the administration of criminal justice to federal and state legislatures. And, he is a member of the board of the NYU Program and Corporate Compliance and Enforcement, a law and research program dedicated to developing a richer and deeper understanding of the causes of corporate misconduct and the nature of effective enforcement and compliance.
Preston is excited to be a part of promoting justice through the arts and continues to share his love of “real” music with his two teenage daughters. Now a resident of the Washington, DC area, he is a trial lawyer and co-lead of the False Claims Act practice at Crowell & Moring. He is honored to be a part of the JusticeAid board.
Sam Rapoport
Senior DIrector, NFL
Rapoport is at the helm of the NFL’s progress toward building a diverse and inclusive League. Most notably, since 2017 her work to empower and establish women in football has resulted in the hiring of more than 250 women into football roles league-wide and has positioned the NFL as a sports industry leader in this space. Through these efforts, the NFL now has more women coaches than any other male professional sports league in the world.
Rapoport is the host of the NFL’s groundbreaking podcast called “Earnin’ It: The NFL’s Forward Progress” with iHeart Radio and has recently appeared as a guest on the Pat McAfee Show, Up & Adams with Kay Adams, and her work was recently featured on the TODAY Show on NBC.
Rapoport was recently named one of Sports Illustrated‘s Most Powerful, Most Influential, and Most Outstanding Women in Sports, Sports Business Journal’s 2023 Game Changers, and Adweek’s 2023 Champions of Change. She was also awarded the NFL Commissioner’s Award selected by Commissioner Roger Goodell, Fortune’s 40 Under 40, Outsports’ Hero of the Year, and was recently named one of People Magazine’s 25 Women Changing the World.
Rapoport has played football since the age of 14 as quarterback of several women’s tackle and flag football teams. She is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and resides with her wife and their young children in the New York area.
Addy R. Schmitt
Managing Partner
Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler
Addy R. Schmitt is the Managing Partner at the DC office of Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, where she represents individuals and corporations in criminal and civil litigation. She has significant trial experience in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland federal courts, and extensive experience representing clients facing parallel proceedings in multiple jurisdictions. Her expertise in white-collar criminal defense and internal investigations has been recognized by a number of publications, including Chambers USA, Legal 500, Best Lawyers in America, and Washingtonian Magazine.
Previously, Ms. Schmitt was vice chair of the litigation department at Miller & Chevalier. She served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia from January 2010 to January 2014. She began her legal career as an Associate for Dickstein Shapiro, LLP and also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan on the U.S. District Court.
Ms. Schmitt is active in the community at national and local levels. In 2018, she was elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. In 2017, President Barack Obama appointed Ms. Schmitt to the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission. She recently completed two terms on the District Court’s Committee on Grievances and is a member of several local legal organizations, including Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court and the Lawyers’ Club of Washington.
Ms. Schmitt has been an Adjunct Professor at the American University Washington College of Law. From 2006-2019, she served on the board of directors of the Abramson Scholarship Foundation, where she remains active today.
Jennifer Turner
Talent Manager, Filmmaker, Teacher
Jennifer Turner, raised in Washington, D.C., credits her high school teacher’s social justice class with shaping her personal approach to social issues from a young age. Her instructor was notorious for posing the question, “Where are your wounds? Was there nothing worth fighting for?” Those principles remain with her as she looks to combine both her personal and professional background to further the mission of Justice Aid. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Jennifer accepted a position working at Def Jam Records, where she worked in A&R, tour production, marketing, and talent management. Since then she’s booked both domestic and international tours, co-developed artist mobile apps’, created e-commerce stores to sell artist merchandise globally, and negotiated film and television roles. She now works in a management capacity for multi-platinum hip-hop artist, DMX, and as an indie filmmaker. Simultaneously since moving back to Washington, D.C., Jennifer also works at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
