Staff & Board

Taylor Pacheco

Executive Director

Taylor first joined the PLSE team in 2019 as a Staff Attorney. She was promoted to the role of Deputy Executive Director in 2021, and rejoined the team in 2024 as Executive Director. Most recently she served as the Associate Director of Public Interest Fellowships and Government Careers at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She is a 2016 graduate of Penn Law where she was Senior Editor of the Journal of Law and Social Change, an Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Summer Fellow, a Leo Model Summer Fellow, and a student volunteer with the Criminal Records Expungement Clinic run in partnership with PLSE. Her career after law school included positions with the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender and the Support Center for Child Advocates. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and currently serves as co-chair of the Legal Services to the Public Committee, in addition to serving as a board member of the Defenders Association of Philadelphia. Fluent in Spanish, Taylor is barred in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. She went to law school to devote her career to undoing the harms of mass incarceration and the criminal legal system perpetuated on low-income communities and communities of color and she believes deeply that no one is the worst thing they've ever done.

Don Berliner

Information Technology Director

Don started out as a volunteer with PLSE in 2018, later assuming responsibility for virtually all of PLSE’s technical infrastructure including the Salesforce, Microsoft, and Google platforms as well as security, confidentiality, backup of all data and meta-data, and user technical support and strategic consulting with staff as needed. Don graduated from MIT with a BS in Applied Mathematics and got his graduate education at University of Pennsylvania with MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Systems Engineering/Operations Research. After his education he has worked in technology-related positions throughout his professional career, with employment at a wide variety of organizations, from multi-national firms, small businesses, sole proprietorship, government, and non-profits, and in a wide variety of industries, e.g., food, pharmaceuticals, finance, energy conservation, and social equity.

Kristen Cherry

Pro Bono Manager

Kristen (she/her) joined PLSE in November 2022 from Philadelphia Legal Assistance, where she was the Family Court Based Paralegal and assisted pro se litigants with filing child custody paperwork in family court. Prior to that, Kristen worked at a domestic violence & sexual assault center in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. There she uncovered her passion for legal services after she was able to act as an advocate for petitioners seeking protection orders. Kristen got her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Near Eastern Languages & Cultures from Indiana University and completed a Master’s in Middle Eastern Politics at SOAS University of London. Kristen’s work is driven by her opposition to state violence, structural violence, and interpersonal violence, and her commitment to supporting the marginalized communities who are most impacted.

Sarah Coyle, Esq.

Managing Attorney

Sarah joined PLSE in September 2019 from Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania (LASP), where she had been a staff attorney for over two years and ran the Media office. After receiving her JD in 2016 from Savannah Law School, she worked in a private firm concentrating in criminal defense before joining LASP, where she developed a program assisting victims of domestic/sexual violence under a program funded by the Victims Of Crime Act (VOCA). While at law school, she had internships in the Women’s Law Project here in Philadelphia, and in both Georgia Legal Services and the Savannah Justice Law Center, where she first worked on expunging criminal records and helping clients obtain identification cards. Sarah is barred in New Jersey as well as Pennsylvania.

Jeffrey Eberly

Chief Financial Officer

Jeff Eberly started volunteering with PLSE in October 2017 as the Chief Financial Officer. His finance career spans over 25 years primarily working in higher education and non-profit institutions. During the last 12 years, he has led and managed numerous financial and operational functions within those institutions. Today he is the Executive Director, Fiscal Operations, for the Gene Therapy Program of the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in Financial Accounting from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and his Master’s in Business Administration from Drexel University through its executive MBA program.

LaShonda Ellis

Business Manager

LaShonda Ellis joined PLSE in August 2022 as Business Manager. Born and raised in Philadelphia, LaShonda completed her undergraduate studies in finance from Drexel University and MBA from Saint Joseph’s University. Prior to joining PLSE LaShonda has had extensive experience leading Alternative Investments teams at SEI and account management at Alliance Bernstein in NYC. Her personal goals align with those of PLSE in “expanding opportunities to empower communities”. Serving and supporting marginalized populations have always been key drivers for her through volunteerism and philanthropic activities.

Morgan Gallagher

Legal Administrative Intern

Morgan joined PLSE in April 2022 as a co-op from Drexel University. Morgan has always had a strong interest in decarceration efforts in Philadelphia which she has built upon during her time at PLSE. Morgan stayed on the team after her co-op and has made many improvements to the administrative procedures. She also helps manage the co-op system since April 2024 along with our Managing Attorney. Morgan graduated Drexel in 2024 with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and with minors in Sociology and Legal Studies. She plans on attending law school in the near future to continue this work.

Zach Keasling

Grant Consultant

Zach brings unconditional love and empathy to his work, drawing deeply from his own past experiences. With a vision of true equity, Zach strives to be a peacemaker in the world, building bridges of understanding one person and one interaction at a time. His greatest joy is serving others, helping them find hope, and guiding them toward the peace he discovered after enduring some of life’s darkest moments when hope and peace seemed out of reach. Representing PLSE and its values has allowed Zach to contribute countless volunteer hours, strengthening the statewide PLSE Pardon Project and the PPSC, where he serves as an executive committee member. More recently, now working for PLSE as a Grant Consultant, he has continued to advance PLSE’s efforts in Philadelphia and across the Commonwealth. All of his contributions are grounded in the hard-earned wisdom and hope from his personal journey.

Patrick Jackson Keough

Program Director

Patrick joined PLSE from Bebashi – Transition to Hope, where he managed all administrative and operational aspects of its hunger relief programs. He is a 2015 graduate of Drew University where he was a Civic Scholar. He began his career in Philadelphia as an Episcopal Service Corps Fellow, serving at St. Marks Church, Locust Street where, among other things, he introduced models of trauma-informed care and non-prerequisite service to the parish’s long established community engagement programs. Along the way, he has continuously worked with formerly incarcerated people.

Andrea Lindsay, MSW

Director of Strategic Initiatives

Andrea (she/her) is Director of Strategic Initiatives at Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity (PLSE). In this role, she works collaboratively with staff and community partners to develop and implement PLSE’s strategic priorities and special projects. She is the author of PLSE’s February 2021 report “Life Without Parole for Second-Degree Murder in Pennsylvania: An Objective Assessment of Sentencing” and co-author of PLSE’s April 2021 follow-up investigation into racial disparities in the same population. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Andrea previously worked as a mitigation specialist and received her Master of Social Work degree from the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, where she specialized in systems-level transformation.

Moriah Mendicino

Staff Attorney

After graduating from the University of Colorado, Moriah accepted a job in education and relocated to Philadelphia where she taught middle and high school while earning her Master of Science in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. After teaching for four years, Moriah enrolled in Rutgers Law School – Camden where she served as a court-appointed mediator, co-lead of the Street Law student organization, University Senator and Senior Managing Editor of Rutgers Race and the Law Review. She first joined PLSE as a legal intern in 2021 and returned in the fall of 2022 as an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by Comcast and Duane Morris LLP.

Victor Sotelo

Paralegal

Victor joined PLSE in January 2022 as a full-time paralegal. He brings an abundance of experience working as a court clerk in both Colorado and Pennsylvania courts for over four years. During this time, he witnessed firsthand the difficulties of living with a conviction and the value of second chances. In Colorado, he served on the board for the county’s Professional Development Program and as a volunteer judge for the Colorado Bar Association High School Mock Trial Competition. As an immigrant from Mexico, he hopes to reach the Latino/a community and break down barriers to justice. Victor is currently completing his associate’s degree and plans to continue his education with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He is excited to join the PLSE team to help advocate for everyone who has been negatively affected by the criminal legal system.

Robin Wynne

Senior Paralegal

Robin Wynne joined PLSE in May 2019 as our first full-time paralegal. She is a graduate of the Community College of Philadelphia, receiving her Associate of Applied Science degree in Paralegal Studies with Highest Honors, and a recipient of the Paralegal Studies Award. It was at CCP that she participated in an expungement clinic hosted by the Defender Association, and first learned about the difference that expungements can make in people’s lives. Before receiving her degree, she worked with Children’s Choice, Inc., as a case aid. She is an active member of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church. Keenly aware of the social structures that support and promote racial and income-based disparities in the law, she believes everyone is entitled to a second chance.

Ryan Allen Hancock, Esq.

Board Chair

Ryan Hancock is Of Counsel and chair of Willig, Williams & Davidson’s Employment Group where he counsels and represents clients in all matters related to their employment. Prior to joining Willig, Williams & Davidson, he served as Assistant Chief Counsel with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC), the Commonwealth’s civil rights enforcement agency. While there, he successfully litigated a wide range of discrimination matters including but not limited to claims of: sexual orientation, religious accommodation, disability, race, sex and denial of employment based on a criminal record. Mr. Hancock is the author of The Double Bind: Obstacles to Employment and Resources for Survivors of the Criminal Justice System, 15 U. Pa. J.L. & Soc. Change 515 2011-2012 and the principal author of the PHRC policy entitled Disparate Impact Discrimination Implications Related to a Denial of Employment Based on a Criminal Record. Ryan received his law degree from Rutgers School of Law and clerked in Camden County Superior Court, Criminal Division, for the Honorable David G. Eynon. He was one of PLSE’s co-founders and has served on the Board ever since.

Glenn D. Barnes, Esq.

Board Vice Chair

Glenn Barnes has been volunteering with PLSE in various capacities since 2017. Receiving his JD in 1985, he began his legal practice in Boston as a commercial trial attorney, then moved to Philadelphia ten years later, thereafter practicing in the areas of business and employment law, personal injury and estate law. He began teaching undergraduate legal studies as an adjunct at Peirce College in May 2003, became a member of the full-time faculty in 2005, and a full professor in 2010, and continued to teach and mentor students until his retirement in 2016. For his unstinting commitment to his students, for whom a college education would make all the difference, he was presented with the faculty’s highest honor, the Hamilton Award for Academic Excellence and Integrity. Among other accomplishments, he is an award-winning poet and was a Pew Fellowship in the Arts finalist. His passion for social equity continues to be fueled by his experiences with apartheid in South Africa while a high school exchange student in 1972-73. His support for PLSE is a part of his continuing effort to make an “outraged difference” in our too often unjust world.

Nicole Hunt

Board Secretary

Nicole Hunt is the President of UNITEHERE LOCAL 634, a union that represents over 2,000 public sector school cafeteria employees and student climate staff working for the School District of Philadelphia. Daughter of a devoted member of 1199C, Nicole began her public service in the School District in 2001 as a food service worker and volunteering in the Union’s offices where she rose to become the office manager. She was elected Secretary-Treasurer of Union 634 in 2010 and its President in 2017. In 2013, she was one of the eight protesters who fasted in front of Governor Corbett’s office seeking full funding for our public schools. Raising two sons, she has seen how easy it is for young black males to be arrested in what she has called “the school-to-prison pipeline”, and how arrests and convictions have severely limited the life choices of her sons’ friends who now, in their mid-20s, “have had all hope taken from them of being allowed to do what they are capable of doing.” She is passionate about helping people obtain expungements and pardons so that they get the second chances they have earned through their good works.

Jeffrey N. Brown

Board Treasurer

A fourth-generation grocer, Jeff Brown is the founder, President & CEO of Brown’s Super Stores, Inc., a network of 11 ShopRite and 2 Fresh Grocer Supermarkets in the greater Philadelphia area. The company estimates that it employs 500 returning citizens, often providing them with their first jobs after being released from prison. He started this practice in 2008, making him one of the very first business leaders to act on the fact that it makes sense for society to employ former inmates so they can remain crime-free and contribute to the economy. This is not his only, or even his first, “win-win” business innovation with immense benefits for impoverished communities: he was the first to open a major grocery store in a low-income underserved neighborhood, often referred to as a food desert, in Philadelphia (in 2004), and he now operates seven of them. In recognition of his leadership in solving the “food desert” crisis, he was a guest of First Lady Michele Obama at President Obama’s first State of the Union address in 2010; and he was named 2014 Ernst and Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year for his innovative work of meeting the needs of impoverished communities through holistic supermarket hubs. In addition to many other public service activities, Jeff chairs the Pennsylvania Workforce Development Board and the Philadelphia Youth Network, and is a member of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Corporate Council. He is also the founder and chair of Uplift Solutions, a non-profit working to create sustainable access to healthy and affordable food, nutrition education, health care and workforce development for returning citizens to obtain opportunities in the food industry, all for underserved communities nationally.

Rev. Leslie Callahan.

Rev. Callahan has been Pastor of St. Paul’s Baptist Church at 10th & Wallace Streets, a large and diverse congregation in North Philadelphia, since 2009. When the coronavirus hit in 2020, she was among the first to transition her church and pastoral care services from face-to-face to virtual, while, like other working parents, trying to educate her seven-year-old first grader at the kitchen table. Rev. Callahan earned her Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Harvard University/Radcliffe, her Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York, and her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Religion from Princeton University, and for a time, was a member of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as assistant professor of religious studies. Rev. Callahan currently serves as a Commissioner for the Philadelphia Housing Authority and is a member of POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness Empower and Rebuild).

Kathleen (Kathy) Lee

A resident of Philadelphia, Lee is a retired veteran History and English teacher with the School District of Philadelphia. She also served as director of the first middle school YDSLCs (Youth Driven Service-Learning Centers,) in the country, located in Turner Middle School and her second at the School of the Future. Lee also served as Master Service-Learning Educator for the Docent Training Program for the Belmont Mansion Underground Railroad Museum and helped fund for six years. Lee has her BA from the University of Pennsylvania, her Masters in Education from Temple University.

Ana Pujols McKee, M.D.

Ana McKee is the executive vice president and chief medical officer of The Joint Commission, which evaluates and accredits more than 22,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Dr. McKee focuses on and develops policies and strategies for promoting patient safety and quality improvement in health care, and, among other things, provides clinical guidance and support to the Commission’s Center for Transforming Healthcare. Before joining Commission in February 2011, Dr. McKee served as chief medical officer and associate executive director at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania Health System, and clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She also served as medical director for the Philadelphia Health Department’s ambulatory network. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology fromf the State University of New York at Binghamton and her medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital in Philadelphia. Dr. McKee was named as one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare in both 2020 and 2014.

Jeffrey N. Rosenthal, Esq.

Jeffrey N. Rosenthal began his relationship with PLSE in 2021, when he organized his law firm’s first Pardon Clinic; he has organized additional clinics, and personally served as a Pardon Coach to multiple applicants, since then. He is a Partner at Blank Rome LLP, where he has extensive experience in high-stakes corporate and commercial litigation defending privacy and consumer protection class actions. For over ten years, Jeffrey has regularly written the Cyberlaw column for The Legal Intelligencer, wherein he explores issues related to computing and the law. In addition to his work with PLSE, Jeffrey handles several pro bono cases each year. He was recognized by Blank Rome with its Pro Bono Hero Award in 2011 and serves as a member of the Firm’s Philadelphia Pro Bono Coordinating Committee. He has also served on the Board of Directors for Community Legal Services since 2016 and was elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Governors for the Philadelphia Bar Association. He received a B.S., with distinction, from The Pennsylvania State University, and a J.D., cum laude, from Syracuse University College of Law. He is a regular volunteer with the United Way of Southeastern PA and the Senior Law Center.

Rev. Dr. Michelle Anne Simmons

Rev. Dr. Michelle Anne Simmons is the Founder and CEO of Why Not Prosper, a community-based organization in Germantown that supports women coming out of prison and one of PLSE’s first Pardon Hubs. She herself was formerly incarcerated and is a recovering addict. In 2008, Rev. Michelle graduated from Chestnut Hill College with a bachelor’s degree in Human Services, and since then has earned a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and a Doctorate in Ministry from Friends International Christian Academy. She is also a Certified Allied Addictions Practitioner and a Certified Domestic Violence Counselor. “The Rev” (as she is called) received a pardon from the Governor in 2017. She has been a member of PLSE’s Pardon Project Steering Committee since 2019, and has served as its Chair since January 2020.

Hillary Weinstein, Esq.

Hillary Weinstein found her passion for social justice work while working as a paralegal with the Federal Defenders in the Southern District of New York. While at law school, she spent a semester as an extern with the prosecution team at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. After graduation, she began her career with a one-year Philadelphia Bar Association Fellowship at the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Community Defender. For six years, she was a litigation associate with Morgan Lewis where she worked pro bono on a number of social justice matters, including volunteering with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, representing a criminal defendant in federal pre-trial proceedings, and representing an incarcerated client in his (eventually successful) adult adoption proceedings. Hillary also has experience at a small firm specializing in providing advice and representation to clients in the non-profit sector. Recently, Hillary and a colleague started their own law firm, First Law Strategy Group, LLC, specializing in representing plaintiffs in state and federal class actions, insurance bad-faith cases, and in appellate advocacy. Hillary joined PLSE’s Board in 2017.