Board of Directors

The Louisiana Justice Coalition is supervised and supported by a Board of Directors.

Mr. Alan Golden
District Defender, First Judicial District Court
Shreveport, LA
Alan Golden has been a public defender for 17 years and the District Defender in Caddo Parish (Shreveport) for the past 10 years. In that capacity he has an active caseload and oversees the administration of one of the state’s largest public defender offices with nearly 50 full-time attorneys, investigators and support staff. Mr. Golden is on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Public Defenders Association, is a member of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and serves as President of the LJC Board of Directors.

Ms. Malia Brink
Counsel for Special Projects, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Washington, DC
Malia Brink has been involved in class-action and reform-oriented litigation with NACDL for 5 years, as well as intensive assessments of public defense delivery systems around the country. In that capacity she provides on-the-ground support for litigation efforts in states addressing public defense crises. Ms. Brink is intimately involved in the class-action lawsuit addressing funding in Lake Charles, LA as well as the significant report, "Gideon’s Broken Promise: An Investigation of Trial-Level Indigent Defense Services in Louisiana 40 Years after Gideon". One of her particular contributions to the Board is her ability to contextualize Louisiana’s public defense system against other systems in other states.

Ms. Emily Maw
Director, Innocence Project New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Emily Maw is the Director of the Innocence Project New Orleans, which is located in New Orleans but represents individuals from Mississippi and Louisiana. Under Ms. Maw’s leadership, Innocence Project New Orleans provides post-conviction representation, investigative services, public policy reform and exoneree/re-entry advocacy to their clients.

Ms. Ilona Picou
Communications and Policy Director, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court
New Orleans, LA
Ilona Picou is an attorney with vast experience in juvenile defense. She started the Southern Juvenile Defender Center, served as the first director of the Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Center and spent four years working with the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. She currently serves as Policy and Communications Coordinator with the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court, managing many of the Court’s day-to-day operations and its Juvenile Detention Alternative (JDAI) Program. Ms. Picou has also served on the Board of the Virginia Indigent Defense Coalition (now the Virginia Fair Defense Project) and as a public defender in several states.

Ms. Monique G. Ruiz
Advocate
Jefferson Parish (relocated to TX post-Katrina)
Monique Ruiz is originally from Jefferson Parish in the metropolitan New Orleans area, and has relocated to Denton, TX post-Katrina. Ms Ruiz’ brother, Ryan Matthews, served eight years in prison -- 5 of them on death row -- for a crime that he did not commit. Ryan Matthews was represented by the Jefferson Parish Public Defender’s Office. His defense was compromised by a lack of thorough investigation and troubling mistakes made at trial by the public defender assigned to his case. Ultimately, Ryan was exonerated in 2003. His co-defendant, Travis Hayes, was represented by the Innocence Project New Orleans and exonerated in 2007. Throughout Ryan’s trial and the fight for his freedom, Ms. Ruiz has been an advocate for improvements to the criminal justice system and the abolition of the death penalty. She has traveled nationally and internationally to tell Ryan’s story and call for a wide range of criminal justice reforms.

Mr. Christopher Shillow
Advocate
Lake Charles, LA
Chris Shillow is a life-long resident of Lake Charles, Louisiana and is currently completing the Drug Treatment Program in Calcasieu Parish District Court. Mr. Shillow serves as a leader in group counseling sessions and works for Goodwill, Inc. in Lake Charles. He has knowledge of the criminal justice system in southwest Louisiana, provides insight on the successes and flaws of the Calcasieu specialty court system, and guides LJC’s efforts to reduce the collateral consequences of conviction.