ANA YÁÑEZ-CORREA, PH.D.
Executive Director
[email protected]
(512) 441-8123, ext. 109
For the past 10 years, Dr. Ana Yáñez-Correa has served as Executive Director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC). TCJC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing smart justice policies that safely reduce Texas’ costly over-reliance on incarceration – creating stronger families, less taxpayer waste, and safer communities. Dr. Yáñez-Correa has successfully led a team of talented and devoted policy analysts and attorneys through six legislative sessions, and their efforts have been crucial in advancing and passing over 150 smart-on-crime bills related to youth justice, indigent defense, sentencing, probation, parole, and reentry. TCJC has also been instrumental in shifting Texas’ mentality from “tough-on-crime” to “smart-on-crime,” resulting in the closure of three adult corrections facilities and nine youth facilities without compromising public safety.
Dr. Yáñez-Correa was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States with her mother at the age of 10. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and a Masters Degree in Public Administration, and she obtained a Ph.D. in Policy and Planning with an emphasis on the school-to-prison pipeline. She served as Chief of Staff for a Texas State Representative focusing on criminal justice-related policies, and as Policy Director for the League of United Latin American Citizens of Texas, where she developed and advocated for their legislative platform.
Dr. Yáñez-Correa’s personal experiences allow her to better connect with affected communities, where she has taken an active leadership role to advance reforms. A once undocumented immigrant herself, she empathizes with the feelings of fear and shame that affect some previously incarcerated men and women, and she understands the challenges they face in accessing housing, employment, and education. While she found relief through citizenship, her advocacy is informed by the perspective that these individuals will always carry a stigma that minimizes their ability to live as responsible and productive citizens, affecting not only these individuals, but also their families and communities.
Since 2005, Dr. Yáñez-Correa has successfully fostered relationships among a wide range of coalition partners, criminal justice practitioners, law enforcement groups, civil rights organizations, and other community members. These relationships allow TCJC to promote policies that serve all facets of society. During the 80th Legislative Session, Yáñez-Correa was formally honored by the Texas Legislature for “working toward real solutions to the problems facing the Texas criminal justice system.” In 2014, she was one of the key players who launched the Smart-On-Crime Coalition, a bipartisan effort between the Texas Association of Business, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Goodwill Industries of Central Texas, the ACLU of Texas, and TCJC, which pursues cost-effective reforms that enhance public safety, promote safe rehabilitation, and save taxpayer dollars.
JENNIFER CARREON, M.S.C.J.
Policy Researcher
[email protected]
(512) 441-8123, ext. 103
Jennifer Carreon graduated with honors from Texas State University in 2007, where she earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice. She continued her education, earning an M.S.C.J. from Texas State University in 2009. During her post-graduate studies, Jennifer was the recipient of various awards, including Applied Arts Graduate Award [Fall 2007], College of Applied Arts Fellowship Award [Fall 2008], and Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year: Department of Criminal Justice [Spring 2009]. Pursuing her passion for research, Jennifer remains in academia as an adjunct professor for her alma mater and has taught courses in Forensic Evidence, Cybercrime, Crime Theory, and Juvenile Justice. In 2011, Jennifer joined TCJC, working to address issues currently facing the Texas juvenile justice system. Jennifer has focused her research in a multitude of areas that lend perfectly to TCJC’s Solutions for Youth Justice project, including the development of juveniles and its impact on delinquency, comparative juvenile justice systems across the globe, gender disparities among juvenile delinquents, treatment versus punishment, and the need for a national juvenile justice evaluation center.
ELIZABETH A. HENNEKE, J.D.
Policy Attorney
[email protected]
(512) 441-8123, ext. 105
Elizabeth A. Henneke is the third generation in her family to demonstrate a commitment to Texas criminal justice issues; she follows in the footsteps of her grandfather and father, both of whom retired from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and her grandmother who was a Walker County Sheriff’s Deputy. Elizabeth graduated from Yale University where she earned a B.A. in History with a concentration on race relations in the South. After completing a Fulbright Fellowship in South Korea and a year as a paralegal for Mayer Brown, where she helped prepare several death penalty appeals, she returned to the University of Texas School of Law. During law school, Elizabeth worked with the Texas Defender Service investigating and preparing federal habeas petitions for individuals on Texas’ death row. Elizabeth graduated from UT Law with honors and received the University Co-op Public Interest Award honoring her commitment to public service. She then represented Guantanamo detainees as a clinical instructor for the University of Texas’ National Security and Human Rights Clinic. She received the 2007 Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award for her work there. Elizabeth also worked as a law clerk for the South Africa Constitutional Court and for Judge Edward C. Prado on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, and she was a litigation associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Elizabeth was the inaugural Audrey Irmas Clinical Teaching Fellow at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. There, Elizabeth supervised students in the Post-Conviction Justice Project, the Immigration Clinic, and the International Human Rights Clinic, successfully receiving legal status for over 35 individuals and obtaining new sentencing hearings for three (and counting) individuals facing life without parole sentences for crimes they committed while juveniles. She also taught first-year criminal law and a seminar on the death penalty. Elizabeth joins TCJC as a Policy Attorney with the Solutions for Youth Justice project, where she will bolster TCJC’s efforts to create a more humane, safe, and transparent juvenile justice system in Texas.
JOHN J. KREAGER, J.D.
Policy Fellow
[email protected]
(512) 441-8123, ext. 104
John J. Kreager graduated with highest honors from the University of Southern California in 2011, where he earned a B.M. in Cello Performance with a minor in Business Law and was selected as a Renaissance Scholar for demonstrated excellence in two disparate fields of study. He then returned to the University of Southern California, where he graduated from the Gould School of Law in 2014. During law school, John focused his studies on criminal justice and worked in the Felony Preliminary Hearing Unit of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. His law review publication, which offered solutions to the problems posed by the federal government’s attempts to remove individuals from non-death penalty states’ criminal justice systems for federal capital prosecution, was selected the “Most Outstanding Note” for the Class of 2014. John joins TCJC on its juvenile justice team, and his research focuses on addressing the unique problems faced by Texas’ crossover youth, who are involved with both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
LINDSEY LINDER
Policy Associate
[email protected]
(512) 441-8123, ext. 110
Lindsey Linder is a second year law student at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Through Senator Rodney Ellis’ Texas Legislative Internship Program, Lindsey is able to spend the 84th Legislative Session as a Policy Associate with TCJC. Even before graduating from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Lindsey was active in community service and volunteerism. In 2011, Lindsey was awarded first place in a national fundraising campaign, which resulted in an opportunity for her to visit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and it was this experience that sparked her passion for legal advocacy. Now, as President of Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity, Lindsey utilizes her positions of leadership to organize local fundraising, community service, and advocacy efforts. During summer 2014, Lindsey was able to intern with UNICEF in Tel Aviv, Israel, drafting a report on Israel’s implementation of the UN treaty Convention on the Rights of the Child to be submitted to the New York and Geneva United Nations headquarters for review. Upon graduation from law school, Lindsey hopes to continue effecting positive change through policy work and advocacy.
SARAH PAHL WORTHINGTON, L.M.S.W., J.D.
Policy Attorney
[email protected]
(512) 441-8123, ext. 106
Sarah Pahl graduated with honors from Southwest Baptist University in 2005, where she earned a B.A. in Sociology. She received her M.S.S.W. from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2007, with a specialization in community and administrative practice. She later went on to earn a J.D. from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law and was accepted to the State Bar of Texas in 2013. As a social worker, Sarah partnered with community coalitions to effect policy change, and she worked with individuals with Class C offenses in a restorative justice setting. Sarah also has several years of experience working with immigrant victims of violence seeking legal status in the United States. Sarah joined the TCJC team in January 2014 as a Policy Attorney focusing on the adult criminal justice system. She hopes to fuse her multidisciplinary experience with her passion to be a voice for vulnerable populations in order to effectively carry out TCJC’s mission.
Douglas Smith, M.S.S.W.
Policy Analyst
[email protected]
(512) 441-8123, ext. 102
Douglas Smith graduated magna cum laude from St. Edward’s University in 1994 with a B.A. in Psychology. He trained peer counselors at a crisis hotline in Austin, and served as a Program Director for a homeless-service organization. In 2000, he earned his M.S.S.W. from the University of Texas at Austin with a concentration in macro-level practice. He served as a Policy Analyst in the House Committee on Human Services, as well as a Legislative Director for a member of the Texas House of Representatives. He helped to develop workforce development, public assistance, and poverty alleviation policies for the state. He also served as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, teaching courses on Public Policy Analysis, Poverty and Public Policy, and the Dynamics of Organizations and Communities. Doug brings a unique perspective to criminal justice issues. In addition to his policy and social work experience, Doug also served nearly six years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for crimes committed as a direct outcome of addiction. While incarcerated, he was a Peer Educator, helping to change the culture of violence inside prison. Doug brings an important perspective on strategies to address substance abuse to avoid incarceration, conditions of confinement, and reentry issues for formerly incarcerated individuals.