Board of Directors

Sr. Alice serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors. She is the coordinator of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center in Cincinnati, OH. She is also the conveener of a group called Families that Matter, which consists of family members and friends of death row prisoners in Ohio. Sr. Alice has been working to end Ohio's death penalty for more than 15 years.

Sr. Marian belongs to the community of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine in Richfield, OH. She serves as an at-large member of the Board of Directors. In her work with OTSE, she has been instrumental in organizing faith communities across Ohio through sign-on campaigns and outreach. Sr. Marian is a long-time board member of the Commission on Catholic Community Action in the Diocese of Cleveland.

Germaine is an at-large member of the Board of Directors. She works for Catholic Charities of the Toledo Diocese, where she serves the community in bereavement ministry, jail and prison ministry and social justice. Germaine holds a Master's degree in Theology and earned a Bachelor's degree in Social Work. She has worked in the Lucas County Juvenile Court, Family Services of Northwest Ohio and Bethany House, a shelter for abused women and their children.   

Chicagoan, Bill’s legal career began in the Cook County Public Defender’s office when he worked as part of the Delbert Tibbs defense team in Illinois, the case that led to the exposure of 20 innocent people on Illinois’ death row. The Tibbs case lead to the moratorium on executions in Illinois in 2001.

Stacy Brannan

Stacy is the marketing and communications coordinator at OhioLINK in Columbus, Ohio. Her career in marketing and communications is steeped in her vast writing and editing skills. She worked at the associate editor of the Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory  and as the  assistant editor of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center at the Ohio State University.

Prior to her work at OhioLINK and OSU, Stacy worked in New York as desk editor of the Nation’s Restaurant News, a weekly publication ranging from 60-150 pages. Stacy’s career began as a copy desk editor for Suburban News Publications in Columbus, a company which provides news for 22 weekly newspapers.

Stacy is an active member in her church, the Maynard Avenue United Methodist Church, serving on the leadership council, the mental health ministries team and the parish relations team. She is an avid Cleveland Indians baseball fan.  

Jeff Gamso, is a criminal defense lawyer practicing with GAMSO, HELMICK & HOOLAHAN in Toledo. He has represented the capitally accused and sentenced at every stage from indictment through execution and litigated the only pre-trial case to have found Ohio’s former lethal injection protocol unconstitutional. He has served as Legal Director of the ACLU of Ohio, as a member of the Ohio Public Defender Commission, and as a Board Member and Secretary of the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He has been recognized as an Ohio Super Lawyer and has received awards from the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the ACLU of Northwest Ohio. A former college instructor, Jeff has taught at universities in Michigan, Texas, Ohio, and New Jersey including courses in writing, literature, and film; he has also taught courses on the death penalty. He is the author of the award-winning (but frequently foul-mouthed) blog, Gamso - For the Defense.

Rev. Will Mebane

Will serves as Canon at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio. Will was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. He earned a Masters of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and a diploma in Anglican Studies from Berkley Divinity School also at Yale University.

Prior to entering the seminary and ordained ministry, Will worked in a variety of capacities including managing 50th Anniversary Celebrations commemorating the entry of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball, the 1995 Special Olympics World Games, and the 1998 Elton John World Tour. He is a founding board member and served as vice president of AMISTAD America, Inc.

Will has volunteered for nonprofit organizations addressing HIV/AIDS, affordable housing, refugee resettlement, the education of urban youth and other social concerns. Will is chaplain to the Wilma Ruth Combs Union of Black Episcopalians Chapter in Northern Ohio and is the Cuyahoga Mission Area Council liaison to Greater Cleveland Congregations.

Rev. Sala W. J. Nolan Gonzales

Sala serves as the Minister for Criminal Justice and Human Rights and Justice and Witness Ministries for the United Church of Christ.

Rev. Nolan’s portfolio addresses human rights and criminal justice issues, including political imprisonment, the death penalty, youth incarceration, reentry from prison to community, and patterns of systemic injustice.  She works with indigenous populations on sovereignty and land rights issues, and the right to practice traditional religions while incarcerated.    She has worked on initiatives in South Africa, Palestine, the Marshall Islands, Puerto Rico, and with indigenous people in the South Pacific and the continental United States.  Rev. Nolan’s concentration and work focus is highly responsive to emerging situations, such as police and school shootings, political detention, and community unrest. 

Sala ministers to men on death rows around the United States as a spiritual advisor. In her role accompanying condemned individuals, she has witnessed five executions of men to whom she ministered.

Lucy Waechter Webb

Lucy is a campus minister at the Summit on 16th United Methodist Church in Columbus. Lucy provides pastoral care to students at the Ohio State University and to the congregations within the university community. Lucy also leads small group studies and chairs the Campus Team committee. She has been an active in fundraising efforts for campus ministry and in the areas of leadership development and collaboration with local non-profits.

Prior to joining the Board, Lucy worked as a prison chaplain at Metro State Women’s Prison in Georgia and as a case manager for individuals being released from prison. Lucy also served as a volunteer chaplain at the Georgia Classification and Diagnostic Prison in Atlanta, GA, the same prison where Georgia conducts executions.