John F. Savarese, Chair
John F. Savarese (1995) is a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. His practice principally relates to securities regulation, compliance, and the defense of regulatory and white-collar criminal investigations. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and then worked as an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York, serving there as chief appellate attorney. He has taught advanced criminal procedure at Harvard Law School.

Roger Blissett, Trustee
Roger Blissett (2011) joined RBC Capital Markets Corporation in 1996 as a managing director and senior deputy general counsel, after working at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Lehman Brothers. He is currently vice president and responsible for the management, operation, and regulatory status of the New York Branch of RBC Capital Markets and managing director for that corporation’s U.S. strategy. He is a member of the leadership team and the head of the education working group of the Pipeline Crisis: Promoting Winning Strategies, an association of senior partners and managers in leading law firms and financial institutions who address challenges faced by young black men.

James K. Bredar, Trustee
James K. Bredar (2007) is a United States District Judge in Baltimore. Judge Bredar is a member of the U.S.  Judicial Conference Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction. Previously, he served as the federal public defender in Maryland, as an assistant United States attorney in Colorado, and as a national park ranger. Judge Bredar headed Vera’s London office in 1991 and 1992. 

Edward P. Brynn, Trustee
Edward P. Brynn (2006) is the historian for the U.S. Department of State. He taught history and politics at the University of North Carolina (2005-2009) and was associate provost for international programs at UNC Charlotte (2000-2005). During a distinguished career in the Foreign Service he was the U.S ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ghana, principal deputy in the Bureau of African Affairs, and vice commandant of the National War College in Washington, DC. 

Karen S. Burstein, Trustee
Karen S. Burstein (1995), a practicing attorney in New York City, served from 1990 to 1994 as a judge of the New York State Family Court. She has served as auditor general of New York City, president of the New York State Civil Service Commission, chair and executive of the State Consumer Protection Board, a member of the Public Service Commission, state senator from Long Island’s ninth district, co-chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Domestic Violence, and chair of the Temporary State Commission on Workers’ Compensation and Disability Benefits.

Zachary W. Carter, Trustee
Zachary W. Carter (1999) joined the New York office of Dorsey & Whitney, a Minneapolis-based law firm, in July 1999 after serving for six years as United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Previously, he was a federal magistrate judge, a New York City Court judge, executive assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, a litigation associate at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, and an assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

William P. Dickey, Trustee
William P. Dickey (1999) is president of The Dermot Company, Inc., a real estate investment, development, and management company that specializes in multi-family housing. He served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force from 1964 to 1970; practiced law at Cravath, Swaine & Moore from 1974 to 1986, the last six years as a partner in the corporate/real estate department; and was a managing director of the First Boston Corporation, the New York investment banking firm, from 1986 until 1990. He is also a director of Kilroy Realty Corp., a Los Angeles-based REIT.

Dawn Dover, Trustee
Dawn Dover, a managing director and co-head of the Financial Institutions Practice of Kekst and Company, has joined Vera’s board of trustees. Since joining the firm in 1987, she has assisted a variety of clients in addressing how their organizations present themselves and how they deal with new or particularly challenging situations. She was a member of the board executive committee of
one-time Vera spin-off Wildcat Service Corporation until it was acquired by Fed Cap in July 2011.   

Richard G. Dudley, Trustee 
Richard G. Dudley, Jr., M.D. (1989) has a private practice in psychiatry that handles clinical, forensic, and consultation/education services. He was previously deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Mental Health, and held faculty appointments as associate professor of medicine and director of the Department of Behavioral Sciences at City University of New York Medical School at City College, and as adjunct assistant professor of law at New York University School of Law. He is also on the board of Housing Works, Inc. 

Dean M. Esserman, Trustee
Dean M. Esserman (2005) is chief of police in New Haven, Connecticut. From 2003 through June 2011 he served as police chief in Providence, Rhode Island. Before that he led the Stamford, Connecticut, Police Department as its chief; and from 1993 to 1998, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Metro North Police Department in New York as its chief. He was assistant chief of police in New Haven, Connecticut, from 1991 to 1993 and counsel to Chief William Bratton of the New York City Transit Police from 1987 to 1991. He began his career as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York. 

Saul A. Green, Trustee
Saul A. Green (2006) is the former deputy mayor of Detroit and is senior counsel at Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone in Detroit. Formerly, Mr. Green was a U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from 1994 to 2001. He served as Wayne County corporation counsel from 1989 to 1993; chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Detroit Field Office from 1976 to 1989; and as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1973 to 1976. A significant component of his private practice is civil rights cases. Through his work with the Innocence Project, he helped secure the exoneration of Eddie Lloyd, who had served 17 years in prison after having been wrongfully convicted of murder.

Robert H. Henry, Trustee
Robert H. Henry (1999) is president of Oklahoma City University. From 1994 to 2010 he was a member of the federal judiciary, serving as chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Previously he was attorney general of Oklahoma from 1987 to1992, and from 1976 to 1986 he was a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He has practiced law in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and taught and served as dean at Oklahoma City University School of Law.

Sally T. Hillsman, Trustee
Sally T. Hillsman (2003) is executive officer of the American Sociological Association, a membership association dedicated to advancing sociology as a scientific discipline and profession serving the public good. She was deputy director of the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, from 1996 to 2002. Earlier, she was vice president for research at the National Center for State Courts and associate director of the Vera Institute of Justice. A sociologist specializing in crime and justice, she earned her doctoral degree from Columbia University and taught at Queens College of the City University of New York.

Sandra A. Lamb, Trustee
Sandra A. Lamb (2008), through Lamb Advisors, serves as a consultant to nonprofits on strategic alliances and change solutions such as financial restructuring and increased organizational efficiency. She spent the first part of her career as a portfolio manager in the MONY Group and then moved to Lazard Freres, where for 20 years she was responsible for mergers and acquisitions as well as other complex corporate financial advisory assignments. She has served on the board and audit committees of several stock-exchange-listed companies and nonprofit organizations. She currently serves as a trustee and treasurer of the Taproot Foundation, a trustee and vice chair of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and a trustee and chair of the audit committee of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York.

Eric Lane, Trustee
Eric Lane (1990) is the Eric J. Schmertz Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Public Service at Hofstra University School of Law. He is the coauthor of The Genius of America: How the Constitution Saved Our Country and Why It Can Again with Michael Oreskes and of several law school textbooks with the Honorable Abner J. Mikva. He has served as special counsel to the Speaker of the New York City Council, council to the New York State Temporary Commission on Constitutional Revision, chair of the New York City Task Force on Charter Implementation, executive director/counsel to the New York City Charter Revision Commission, and counsel to the New York State Senate Minority Leader. He serves on the boards of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, GrowNYC, and Columbia County Land Conservancy.

Susan Powers Lodge, Trustee
Susan Powers Lodge (1998) was the deputy district attorney for programs and planning in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office. Former director of the Community Service Sentencing Project at Vera, Ms. Powers has chaired several committees of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. In addition, she has published extensively in the field of criminal justice.

Catie Marshall, Trustee
Catie Marshall (2006) is a senior vice president at Citigroup working in communications. She has served as deputy superintendent for communications and media relations at the New York State Banking Department, assistant press secretary in New York City Hall, assistant commissioner in the city’s housing agency, spokesperson for City Planning, the Economic Development Corporation, and the city’s schools chancellor; and director of internal communications for a global advertising agency.

Joseph F. McDonald, Trustee
Joseph McDonald (1983), senior counsel and former partner at Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, LLP, is a former director and chairman of Project Renewal, a Vera spin-off; a trustee emeritus of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest; and a director of Education Through Music, Inc.

Theodore A. McKee, Trustee
Theodore A. McKee (2006) has been a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit since 1994. Before being appointed to the federal bench he was a state trial judge. During that time, he chaired the Pennsylvania Sentencing Commission. He has also served as an assistant U.S. attorney. In addition, to his judicial duties, he currently serves on several other boards of directors, including the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple University; the advisory board of City Year, Philadelphia; and as chair of the board of advisors of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Orlando Rodriguez, Trustee
Orlando Rodriguez (2003) is chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Fordham University and former director of Fordham’s Hispanic Research Center. His areas of research interest are the mental health of minority and migrant populations, program evaluation research, and criminal justice processes. He received his B.A. in sociology from City College of New York and his PhD in sociology from Columbia University.

Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr., Trustee
Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr. (1978-1981, 1987-present) is senior counsel at Cravath, Swaine and Moore and chief counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. He has served as corporation counsel of New York City, chairman of the New York City Charter Revision Commission, and chief counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He currently chairs the board of the Natural Resources Defense Council and is chair of the New York City Campaign Finance Board.

Karen Patton Seymour, Trustee
Karen Patton Seymour (2007) is a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Her practice focuses mostly on white-collar criminal defense and internal investigations. She has also served as chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where she oversaw, among others, the investigations into WorldCom, ImClone, and Adelphia.

Alan Vinegrad, Trustee
Alan Vinegrad (2010) is a partner at Covington & Burling LLP. His practice focuses on representing individuals, corporations, and corporate board committees in a wide variety of criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, as well as in complex civil litigation. He has also served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and as the office's chief assistant U.S. attorney, chief of the Criminal Division, deputy chief of the Criminal Division, chief of Civil Rights Litigation, and chief of General Crimes.

Sheena Wright, Trustee
Sheena Wright, the President and CEO of Abyssinian Development Corporation, has joined Vera’s board of trustees. Wright is the President and CEO of Abyssinian Development Corporation (ADC). Before joining ADC, Ms. Wright served as General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Business Development for Crave Technologies, a minority-owned software company, and was an associate at two law firms: Reboul, MacMurray Hewitt, Maynard and Kristol and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz. 

Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Honorary Trustee

Patricia Wald, Honorary Trustee