Board of Directors

Alondra Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. A former deputy assistant to President Joe Biden, she served as acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. As a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, she has provided science and technology policy guidance to local, state, and federal governments, international organizations, and others. Her research examines intersections of science, technology, medicine, and social inequality and she is the author of several books including The Social Life of DNA. Her essays, reviews, and commentary have been featured in a range of media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired and Science.

Andrew Tananbaum is the managing partner of AHT Partners, LP. He was formerly the executive chairman of White Oak Commercial Finance and Capital Business Credit. He also previously served as the president and CEO of Century Business Credit Corporation and as a law clerk to a United States district judge for the Southern District of New York.

Brett J. Hart is the president of United Airlines and responsible for United’s global operations. Additionally, he leads all external-facing functions, including the government affairs, regulatory, communications, legal, community engagement, and environmental sustainability teams. Mr. Hart also presides over United’s business-critical functions, such as the human resources and labor relations teams.

Cedric L. Alexander was formerly the deputy mayor of Rochester, New York, and the deputy chief operating officer for public safety in DeKalb County, Georgia. In 2014, he was named a member of the President’s Commission on Policing in the 21st Century. He also previously served as the national president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, chief of police for the DeKalb County Police Department, and chief of the Rochester Police Department.

Cindy Augustine is the global chief talent officer at McCann Worldgroup. She previously served as executive vice president and global chief talent officer at IPG sister agency network FCB, where she led all aspects of human resources, including recruiting, talent development, benefits and compensation, and diversity & inclusion programs. A dedicated mentor, she also served on Save the Children’s board of directors.

Ekow N. Yankah is the Thomas M. Cooley Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where his work focuses on questions of political and criminal theory. He was formerly a professor of law at Cardozo School of Law. Mr. Yankah has written for publications that include The New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and The New Yorker, and he has appeared as a regular commentator on criminal law issues on outlets such as NBC, MSNBC, CNN, BBC, NPR, and PBS.

Gordon DuGan is the Innocence Project’s board treasurer. He is co-founder and chairman of Blackbrook Capital, a real estate investment firm. Previously, he was CEO of Gramercy Property Trust (GPT); as part of GPT, Mr. DuGan founded Gramercy Europe. Prior to joining Gramercy, Mr. DuGan worked at W. P. Carey & Co. Mr. DuGan serves on the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts’ board of governors.

Jack Taylor is the Innocence Project’s board chair. He is also the CEO, president, and board member of Granite Point Mortgage Trust. Previously, he served as a managing director and head of global real estate finance for Prudential Real Estate Investors (now PGIM). He was also a partner at Five Mile Capital Partners LLC and a co-head of UBS Group AG’s real estate investment banking for the Americas and Europe. Mr. Taylor was a founding member of the Board of the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (now Commercial Real Estate Finance Council) and is a member of the President’s Council of the Real Estate Roundtable.

Jennifer L. Eberhardt is a social psychologist who conducts research on race and inequality at Stanford University, where she is also a professor of organizational behavior, a professor of psychology, the Morris M. Doyle Centennial Professor of Public Policy, and a faculty director of Stanford SPARQ (a university initiative that uses social psychological research to address pressing social issues). She is the author of the award-winning book Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We, See, Think, Do.

Jessica Roth is a professor of law at Cardozo School of Law, where she is the co-director of the Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice of Law. Previously, she was a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. She also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Denise Cote of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and then for the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

John Grisham is a bestselling author, attorney, politician, and activist widely known for his legal thrillers. He previously practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the House of Representatives in Mississippi. His non-fiction book The Innocent Man, which was published in 2006, tells the story of Innocence Project client Ron Williamson’s wrongful conviction and subsequent exoneration.

Marvin Anderson is a former Innocence Project client and the 99th person in the U.S. to be exonerated due to post-conviction DNA testing. In 1982, he was wrongfully convicted of a robbery, rape, sodomy, and abduction he did not commit, and he subsequently spent 15 years in prison and four years on parole. He was granted a full pardon in 2001. Mr. Anderson is a retired district chief of the Hanover Courthouse Volunteer Fire Company in Virginia. 

Pia Cohler is a trained corporate attorney and previously worked at Skadden Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom LLP as well as Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. For the last few years, she has dedicated herself to pro bono and philanthropic work in the criminal justice system space, both in the U.S. and in the U.K. Since 2017, she has volunteered at the Innocence Project, undertaking comprehensive case reviews for the intake department, which is responsible for managing, analyzing, and vetting each letter the Innocence Project receives to determine if it will be able to provide legal assistance.

Sara Naison-Tarajano is a partner at Goldman Sachs, where she is the global head of Private Wealth Management Capital Markets. In addition, she oversees the firm’s Apex Family Office business globally and leads the One Goldman Sachs Family Office Initiative in the Americas. She is also on the Steering Committee for the Consumer and Wealth Management Inclusion and Diversity Council and a mentor for the Firmwide Black Retention Pillar.

Steven Reiss is a retired partner of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP where he chaired the appellate and antitrust litigation practices. He has been named one of “The Best Lawyers in America” in appellate litigation, antitrust litigation, commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense. He was a law clerk to Justice William Brennan of the United States Supreme Court, and the recipient of the American Bar Association’s prestigious Pickering Award for his outstanding pro bono work and the Law and Society Award from The New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

Tony Goldwyn is an actor, producer, director, political activist, and co-chair of the Innocence Project’s ambassadors program. He starred in the ABC drama Scandal and co-created the legal drama series The Divide. He also directed the movie Conviction, which tells the story of Betty Anne Waters’ journey to free her brother Kenny, a former Innocence Project client.

Vered Rabia is the Innocence Project’s board vice chair and a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where she is active in the firm’s real estate practice. She has repeatedly been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America. She was selected to Crain’s New York Business’ inaugural list of Leading Women Lawyers in New York City, was included among Real Estate Forum’s 2020 and 2016 “Women of Influence” and was named by the New York State Bar Association as a 2015 Empire State Counsel Honoree.

Yusef Salaam is a member of the Exonerated Five who was wrongly convicted of a rape and assault that took place in New York’s Central Park in 1989. After another person confessed to the crime and DNA evidence corroborated the confession, Mr. Salaam, along with four other teenagers he had been wrongly convicted with, was exonerated in 2002. Since then, he has been an advocate for reform on innocence issues and speaks more broadly on criminal justice issues.

Partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Former Attorney General of the United States
Innocence Project Board Director, 2004-2010