Alongside his wife, Jessica, Drew Willey founded Restoring Justice. He currently serves as the organization’s CEO. Drew left a career as an accountant to attend law school at the University of Houston Law Center. An internship with the Texas Innocence Network showed him firsthand how the legal system dehumanizes poor people, people of color, and those with mental health conditions. After receiving training from Gideon’s Promise, Drew became a criminal defense attorney, primarily working on representation of the indigent. He is dedicated to providing not only high-quality, holistic counsel to those who need it the most, but also find ways to expose, disrupt, and fix the systemic racism and discrimination in our criminal justice system.

Peggy Lindner is an assistant professor in the Department of Information & Logistics Technology where she teaches Computer Information Systems. Her background is in engineering and she has built her career around data science education and digital humanities at UH since 2014. Her research is on emerging patterns through data in areas where qualitative and quantitative data sources come together. She is also the Director of the Data Analytics in Student Hands (DASH) program, which helps students to engage in meaningful data science projects in interdisciplinary settings bridging the gap between STEM fields and the Humanities. In addition to teaching at ILT and working with DASH, she is currently serving on the Advisory Committee for the Digital Research Commons (DRC) at UH.

Following a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Maryland, Ioannis Konstantinidis has been working to promote greater emphasis on the motivation/impact parts of the research project lifecycle, having taken on multiple roles within academia, non-profits and business start-ups. This multi-faceted service record has strongly shaped his focus on “data” as the key aspect of “data science” projects that succeed within the policy decision landscape. Within the Data & Society minor, he aims to provide structures that promote this same focus while nurturing student researchers in their diverse paths toward more engaged citizenship.

Monique Joseph is the Holistic Services Director at Restoring Justice, she works to build relationships with clients who are currently facing charges and helps them get connected to the necessary resources they need not just to survive but thrive. She started organizing for criminal justice reform in Harris County after her husband was wrongfully convicted to 45 years in prison in 2017. Helplessly watching what happened to her family and seeing how her husband's incarceration turned her children into statistics, it compelled her to join the movement to reimagine justice, safety, and healing for the community. Our most vulnerable individuals, their families, and children are being harmed by this system that claims to pursue justice. She aims to lift the cries for change while walking with clients toward building their agency and community support.