Meet the MADP Board of Directors
Cheryllyn Branche
Cheryllyn Branche currently serves as the Executive Assistant to the CEO of the Robert Russa Moton Charter School in New Orleans. She is involved in a number of church ministries, and serves as President of the Board of Directors for the GU272 Descendants Association, dedicated to preserving and restoring the memories of 272 enslaved people sold by the Maryland Province Jesuits in 1838 and those who were enslaved before, during, and after their sale by the Society of Jesus (and the building of Georgetown University).
Cormac Coyle
Cormac Coyle is a native of Ireland who currently makes his home in Naples, Florida. He spent his career as a physician (Internal Medicine), mainly in New England. He has spent decades doing volunteer work with a wide array of social justice organizations, including No Kid Hungry, a variety of homelessness organizations, and MADP. He is a member of the MADP Finance Committee.
David Cressy
David Cressy is a graduate of Loyola School of Law (New Orleans) and is the former City Attorney for the Cities of New Orleans and Mandeville, Louisiana. He has spent the last three decades working on reentry programs for the formally incarcerated who are making the transition back to their outside communities. David serves as the MADP Treasurer and Chair of our Finance Committee.
Susanne Dumbleton
Susanne Dumbleton is Professor Emerita and former Dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. Susanne was instrumental in leading DePaul University to house Sister Helen’s archives, which are now found in the Special Collections Department at the DePaul Library on the Lincoln Park campus. Susanne serves as the secretary for the MADP Board.
Barbara Crain Major
Barbara Crain Major is an anti-racist community organizer and trainer based in New Orleans. Her work includes nurturing leadership development and assisting organizations and institutions in developing strategies to identify and de-institutionalize all aspects of racism. In 2023 she published a “major” book, Deconstructing Racism: A Path Toward Lasting Change (with Joseph Barndt).
Michael Radelet
Michael Radelet serves as Chair of our Board of Directors. He is Professor Emeritus in the Sociology Department at the University of Colorado-Boulder and is the author of six books and 100 scholarly publications on the death penalty (mainly in the areas of racial bias and erroneous convictions). He has worked closely with Sister Helen on various projects for forty years.
Judy Rittenhouse
Judy Rittenhouse spent her working life as a writer, editor, and publisher, and now tutors at Lehigh Community College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She has been assisting anti-death penalty efforts with Sister Helen since meeting her 40 years ago.
Rachael Zafer
Rachel Zafer is based in Ann Arbor, and is a specialist in curriculum development, start-up project creation and strategy, visual and narrative branding, and graphic and web design, working with social justice groups throughout the U.S. Her main work, currently, with MADP is organizing and administering a program we call “Art to End the Death Penalty,” which encourages younger activists (ages 16-22) to develop projects related to Sister Helen’s work for in visual arts, music, theater and writing.
Elizabeth Zitrin
Elizabeth Zitrin, the Vice-Chair of our Board, is an attorney based in San Francisco. She is the former President of the World Coalition against the Death Penalty, and today serves on the Boards of the Southern Center for Human Rights and for Witness to Innocence (the organization of nearly 200 people sentenced to death in the U.S. since 1972 who were later vindicated).