Innocence Project Announces Three New Members to Board of Directors

Names Former Attorney General of the United States Janet Reno as Director Emeritus



(New York, NY; Wednesday, October 20, 2010) – The Innocence Project welcomes three new members to the Board of Directors and names former Attorney General of the United States Janet Reno as Director Emeritus.  The new Board Members are Laura Arnold, Co-Chair of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation; Rossana Rosado, publisher of El Diario La Presnsa; and Darrel Stephens, Executive Director of the Major City Chiefs Association. 

“The Innocence Project is thrilled to welcome Ms. Arnold, Ms. Rosado and Mr. Stephens to the Board of Directors and looks forward to benefiting from their shared breadth of experience,” said Innocence Project Executive Director Madeline deLone. “They each bring unique strengths to the organization that will enable us to continue to grow and better serve the many people who are wrongfully convicted.”

Laura Arnold is the Co-Chair of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which invests in innovative strategies to address social justice issues across the country, including education and poverty.  She is an Adjunct Professor of Management at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University and Chair of the Civil Service Commission of the City of Houston. Until late 2005, Arnold was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Cobalt International Energy, L.P. in Houston. Prior to that, she was a mergers and acquisitions attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz in New York City. 

Rossana Rosado is the Publisher of El Diario La Prensa, the largest and oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in New York City and the oldest Spanish-language daily in the United States.  She also serves as Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Civic Empowerment Initiatives for impreMedia, El Diario’s parent company. Prior to her tenure at impreMedia, Rosado worked for WCBS-AM and WPIX.  She has received many awards, including a Peabody Award, an Emmy, the New York State Broadcaster’s Award, NY Women’s Agenda’s STAR Award and the Folio Award.

Darrel Stephens is the Executive Director of the Major City Chiefs Association and an Instructor at Johns Hopkins University School of Education, Division of Public Safety Leadership.  He is an accomplished police executive with more than 40 years of experience. Throughout his career, Stephens received the prestigious Police Executive Research Forum’s Leadership Award and was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

“Janet Reno has been an inspiration and tremendous asset to the board,” said Rodney Ellis, Texas State Senator and Chairman of the Innocence Project Board of Directors. “It is with great pleasure that we designate her as Director Emeritus.”

Former Attorney General Reno is a founding director and has served on the Board for the past six years.  In 1993, she was nominated and confirmed as the first female Attorney General under President Bill Clinton and remained in that role throughout his presidency.  Since then, Reno received the Council on Litigation Management’s Professionalism Award, which recognizes and commemorates an individual who has demonstrated the unique ability to lead others by example in the highest standard of their profession, and was awarded the Justice Award by the American Judicature Society.

Contact:  Alana Salzberg; 212-364-5983; ASalzberg [at] innocenceproject.org