My name is Gracie Armijo. I currently serve as a community organizer on the Right 2 Justice campaign with Texas Organizing Project. I have been engaging communities of color throughout the city of Houston for more than two years and helping shape leaders who will join the fight to end mass incarceration.

I was born and raised in the East End (Second Ward), a neighborhood of people of color that was over-policed, and people there rarely got the justice they deserved.

My passion for criminal justice reform is rooted in my experiences with a system that seemed designed to crush people like me.

I lost my father in 1980, when he was caught in the crossfire between police and a suspected murderer. A police officer was also fatally shot. I’ll never forget how everyone who responded to the scene ignored my father as he lay dying, and instead focused on the dead police officer.

A decade later, I lost my brother and my oldest son in an accident. They were being pursued by the police.

A few years after, I was mired in my grief and struggling to make ends meet. I was a single mother of two working minimum wage jobs.

I miscalculated my bank account funds and checks bounced. And as I attempted to make things right, I was arrested.

I now have a record that impacts me because I took a plea and did not understand what that entailed. 

But despite of everything I’ve experienced, I feel blessed that I get to fight everyday to change the system, and make justice accessible to everyone!

In August 2024, Leah Barton was appointed Interim Executive Director for Harris County Public Health (HCPH) – the nationally accredited public health agency for the nation’s third-largest county serving 4.8 million people.

Leah comes to the Department with a vision of building a more dynamic, vibrant, and resilient community, committed to improving public health outcomes, equity, and transparency. Prior to her appointment, she served as Deputy County Administrator in the Office of County Administration (OCA). In this role, she was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of OCA, driving strategic initiatives, and ensuring efficient collaboration within OCA and between OCA and other County departments and offices. Within OCA, Leah previously served as Managing Director of the Grants and Partnerships Division, overseeing the administration of $1B of COVID recovery funds made available through the American Rescue Plan Act. She also incubated cross-departmental functions including the Office of Early Childhood and homelessness response strategies.

Leah's distinguished career spans nearly 20 years in the energy sector, serving in commercial, IT, finance, marketing, and operations leadership roles at Centrica plc/Direct Energy, MXenergy, Shell Chemical LP, and Nuvera Fuel Cells. Collectively her achievements include leading divisional turnarounds, driving growth, and establishing effective performance management systems. Leah began her career as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania and speaks Spanish and Swahili.

Leah's commitment to community leadership is exemplified by her active involvement in various organizations and recognition as a "Woman Who Means Business in Energy" by the Houston Business Journal. She currently serves as Director of St. Paul’s United Methodist Foundation, as Advisory Board Member for ProUnitas, and is an American Leadership Forum Senior Fellow. She previously served as a Board Member of Child Advocates and Advisory Board Member of the UH Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality. As part of her commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace environment, Leah sponsored the LGBTQ+ employee resource group at Direct Energy. She was the founding board chair of EMERGE, a college access organization now serving thousands of students and graduates across the Houston region.

She earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Yale, a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School, and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Honorable Te'iva Johnson Bell is the current the presiding Judge of the 339^th State District Court of Harris County Texas. She was elected by her colleagues on the Felony Board of Judges, to lead the division as their Administrative Judge. In preparing for her law career, Judge Bell attended the prestigious Spelman College where she excelled in athletics, served as student ambassador, and contributed to the success of a number of student organizations.

During her matriculation, Judge Bell took advantage of an opportunity to study abroad in London, at the University College London. After graduating from Spelman, she attended the University of Iowa College of Law. While there, she was active in a number of organizations, and was afforded the opportunity once again, to study abroad in Arcachon, France. 

Upon earning her Juris Doctorate, she began practicing law as an Assistant District Attorney, where she prosecuted felony and misdemeanor cases in the Trial Division at the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

After her departure from the District Attorney's Office, Judge Bell opened up her own law practice with her husband Antoy.

When Harris County opened the county's first Public Defender's Office in 2011, Judge Bell’s commitment to indigent defense drew her back to public service. Judge Bell wanted to contribute to the growth and development of the office; she left her private practice and joined the office’s Felony Trial Section.

While at the Public Defender's Office, she was a Senior Litigator for the Felony Trial Section where she was entrusted with the office’s most serious cases, ranging from drug possession to murder. Judge Bell used her vast experience in advocacy and trial skills to supervise other attorneys in the division. She proudly led the office in dismissals of cases that she secured on behalf of her clients. She was also asked to join the Faculty of the Trial Lawyers College, where she taught trial skills courses to attorneys across the nation.

Always eager to expand her reach of service, Judge Bell decided to run for Judge of the 339^th State District Court following the resignation of the most senior Judge in the division at the time. Judge Bell campaigned throughout the most dangerous part of 2020, while concurrently navigating her clients through the uncertainty of Court proceedings during the pandemic, and she actively participated in movements for social justice. In January of 2021, Judge Bell was sworn in as Judge of the 339^th State District Court. While the title of “Judge” is her proudest career achievement, the titles she’s most proud of are Wife and Mother of three beautiful girls.  

Alex Bunin is the Chief Public Defender for Harris County, Texas, an office he established in 2010. Previously, he was the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of New York. In 1999, he was appointed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to establish Federal Public Defender offices in the Districts of Northern New York and Vermont and he was twice reappointed to additional four-year terms. In 1995, before relocating to New York, he established and managed the federal defender organization in the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile. From 1993 to 1995, he was an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Eastern District of Texas in Beaumont. From 1986 to 1993, he was in private practice in Houston, Texas. He earned Board Certification in Criminal Law and Criminal Appellate Law from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. In over 30 years as a criminal defense lawyer, Mr. Bunin has tried many cases, including federal capital murder and complex white collar fraud. He received the Champion of Public Defense Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Thurgood Marshall Award for capital litigation from the New York City Bar Association and the Torch of Liberty Award from the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. He was an Adjunct Professor at Albany Law School of Union University from 2003-10. He sits on the Advisory Board of THE CHAMPION magazine and the CRIMINAL JUSTICE MAGAZINE of the American Bar Association. He served on the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Board of Directors (2012-15), Executive Committee (2013-14), and committees on Federal Rules, Forensic Sciences, and Fourth Amendment Advocacy. He is Vice-Chair of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association’s Public Defender Committee and a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum. As well as having written law review articles on federal sentencing and the death penalty, he is co-author of O’CONNOR’S FEDERAL CRIMINAL RULES & CODES (Jones McClure 2016).

Marilyn Burgess is the Harris County District Clerk. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with over thirty years of experience bringing fiscal responsibility and exceptional organizational skills to public and private organizations. She ran on a platform dedicated to modernizing the jury system by going all electronic, increasing juror diversity, reforming the bail system, and decreasing waste and inefficiencies in the District Clerk’s office to ensure a living wage for the hardworking professionals that staff it.

Marilyn graduated from Louisiana State University with an accounting degree that launched a successful career in business, which has included serving as the president of the North Houston-Greenspoint Chamber of Commerce and the Chief Financial Officer at a family-owned local company. It was during her work as the Executive Director of the Texas Parent Teachers Association (PTA) that she found her true calling: fighting and advocating for causes that better the lives of teachers, working- and middle-class families, single mothers, and children.

As District Clerk, Marilyn oversees a budget of $36 million and a staff of approximately 600 individuals, a responsibility to her constituents she takes seriously. Marilyn now brings her seasoned, measured, smart leadership to the District Clerk’s office, where she will work to fulfil her campaign promises to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, increase community participation, and fairly compensate the employees.

Chief J. Noe Diaz was appointed Chief of Police by Mayor John Whitmire on August 14, 2024. Prior to his current appointment he served as the Chief of Police for the Katy Police Department.

Chief Diaz began his law enforcement career as a correctional officer with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from 1987 to 1994.

Diaz completed the University of Houston-Downtown Police Academy in 1994 and worked for the Harris County Precinct Five Constable’s Office until 1996, when he was selected by the Texas Department of Public Safety to attend DPS Academy A-96. Upon completion of the DPS Academy, Chief Diaz was assigned to the Katy Highway Patrol Office as a Trooper.

In 2001, Diaz was promoted into the Narcotics Division of the State Police and was stationed in Houston, where he was assigned to the Harris County Organized Crime Task Force, HPD, ATF, DEA, and the FBI during his seven years as a Narcotics Sergeant.

In 2008, Chief Diaz was appointed as a Texas Ranger and briefly served in Rio Grande City, until returning to the Houston Office, where he was assigned as the Public Corruption Ranger for Company A (Greater Houston Area) for over ten years, working various high profile public corruption investigations. Chief Diaz was assigned to the FBI Public Corruption Border Task Force as a Task Force Officer and maintained top-secret clearance.

Diaz has over 6,800 Law Enforcement (TCOLE) training hours and earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Houston- Downtown (100 Club Scholarship Recipient) and a Master of Science in Criminology from Lamar University. He is a graduate of the 263rd FBI National Academy and FBI Texas Command College. Chief Diaz also graduated from the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety, School of Police Staff and Command in 2024.

He is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Texas Police Chief’s Association.

Born and raised in the Northside, Precinct 2 has always been home to Commissioner Adrian Garcia. His 35-year career in public service began as a Houston Police Officer. In 1994, he was appointed by Mayor Lee Brown as Director of the Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office, and in 2003, was elected to Houston City Council.

During his tenure, he served as Chair on two City Council committees — the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee and the Minority/Women Business Enterprise Committee. With the support of his peers, Mayor Bill White confirmed him as Mayor Pro-Tem.

In 2008, Commissioner Garcia continued his service by being elected as the Harris County Sheriff — the largest sheriff's office in Texas and the 3rd largest in the United States. On November 6th, 2018, he was elected Harris County Commissioner for Precinct 2, which serves more than 1.1 million people. Commissioner Garcia is committed to working every day to make Precinct 2 and all of Harris County a place where everyone who wants a job can get a job, where everyone can afford to rent or own a home, and where our kids and seniors can walk to church, park or school without fear of crime.

Kathryn Griffin Townsend was born in Inglewood, California, and after being adopted, she lived her formative childhood and teenage years in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. At the age of sixteen, Kathryn arrived in Houston, Texas with a full scholarship for enrollment at Texas Southern University.

Kathryn's innate talent for music and entertainment, returned her to California, where she performed with internationally acclaimed recording artists George Clinton and Rick James. In 1986, she met her biological father, Ed Townsend, the famous producer of Marvin Gaye and many celebrity "Motown" recording artists. Later that year, she entered the first of many rehabilitation treatment centers to address her substance abuse addiction.

Kathryn was offered a 'choice' by her Criminal Court Judge in November 2003 to either suffer a long sentence of incarceration, or change her bad habits and become a productive citizen. In February 2005, Kathryn was the first to graduate from the Harris County STAR Drug Court Program. Today, Kathryn is one of the greatest advocates in Congress, the Texas Legislature, and Harris County Commissioners Court, where she fights to secure funding for rehabilitation vs. incarceration.

Kathryn is a strong voice for victimized children, men, women, transgenders, and works tirelessly on their behalf. She is the Program Coordinator for Our Road to Freedom that is housed in Plane State Jail and the Henley Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division. She also administers her Re-Entry Program Been There, Done That in the Harris County Jail of the Sheriff’s Office to rehabilitate women who have been victims of human trafficking and prostitution. Kathryn now heads the Human Trafficking Division for Harris County Constable Alan Rosen, Precinct One.

On November 14, 2019, Kathryn will celebrate sixteen years of sobriety.  She is presently married to the Morning Show's FOX TV Anchor Jose Grinan in Houston and she is always raising her three daughters.    

MEMBERSHIPS & APPEARANCES

• Guest on TV's Steve Wilco Show as the "Prostitution Rehabilitation Specialist"
• Guest on TV's Dr. Drew Life Changers as a "Life Changer"
• Guest on TV's Bill Cunningham Show
• Guest on FOX-TV's Jeremy Kyle Show
• Hosted for three years the world famous PrisonShow on the PACIFICA Foundation's KPFT-FM Radio
• Host of her own TV show Invisible In Plain Sight (Produced by HTV Studios)
• A Motivational Speaker who serves on many national and local organization's boards to speak on human trafficking and humanitarian needs
• A proud Rotarian
• A special staff liaison working in the Texas House Of Representatives
• Guest speaker at Congressional Hearings on human trafficking and the National Association Of District Attorneys
• Membership in the National Jewish Women's League, Texas Drug Court Association, Houston Mayor's Human Trafficking Task Force, and League Of Women Voters.
• Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts Coordinator

Dr. May was appointed Director of the Harris County CSCD in 2013. She has over twenty years of experience in criminal justice and currently oversees the 3rd largest Community Supervision Department in the country.

She has worked extensively in the development, operation, and implementation of a number of evidence-based treatment programs and two comprehensive assessment centers for criminal justice involved individuals. In collaboration with Dr. Brian Lovins, Dr. May led the statewide initiative to adopt, validate, and implement the Texas Community Supervision Risk Assessment tool currently used across the State of Texas.

Dr. May serves on numerous local and state committees and provides testimony regarding policy and funding issues related to criminal justice programs to the Texas State Legislature.

Dr. May received her Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University (SMU) and is a licensed clinical psychologist in the State of Texas. Prior to serving in administrative roles, Dr. May provided forensic assessment and treatment services for the Court system and taught personality, forensic, and behavioral action of drug classes as an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University.

Christian is a civil litigation attorney who was recently recognized as a 2019 Texas Rising Star by Super Lawyers. Christian has called Houston home since early childhood, and he attended K-12 in the Klein and Alief Independent School Districts. He currently resides in Houston with his wife Kaitlyn and their rescue dogs, Howie and Kennedy.

The son of two veterans, Christian understands duty and service. On September 11, 2001, just hours after our country was attacked, Christian's older brother was diagnosed with cancer. As his brother received treatment from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and his parents spent many hours at the hospital, Christian took a more active role in raising himself and looking after his younger sister. Christian's family overcame - his brother beat cancer, he became the first person in his family to attend college, and his sister went on to earn a bachelor’s degree.

Christian attended the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), where he was elected Vice President of the Student Government Association, recognized as the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. International Undergraduate of the Year, and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration.

After graduating from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and interning at the Harris County Public Defender’s Office, Christian began his legal practice at Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright), an international law firm founded in Houston more than 100 years ago. Christian has spent countless hours on pro bono work, including advising the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, advising immigrants and their families at Bush Intercontinental Airport during the “Muslim ban,” and working with Texas Appleseed on expanding alternatives to involuntary commitment for the mentally ill.

Though Christian’s day job is practicing law, he has for years spent his nights and weekends working to better his community. Christian served on Houston’s Independent Police Oversight Board, which is charged with evaluating all Houston Police Department (HPD) internal affairs investigations involving excessive force or the use of a firearm. In this role, Christian wrote and championed a new HPD regulation requiring that when an officer uses his firearm against a civilian, the officer must provide emergency first aid until a medic arrives. Christian also served on the boards of the Houston Young Lawyers Association (HYLA), the State Bar of Texas’s Minority Counsel Program, and a nonprofit aimed at providing job readiness programs to ex-offenders. In his role at HYLA, he ran a program that took students at underserved public high schools on a field trip to the Harris County Civil Courthouse, at which judges and lawyers encouraged the students by reminding them that they were capable of being lawyers one day. For his involvement in that program, Christian received the President’s Award from the Parents for Public Schools of Houston in 2018.

Christian is a graduate of Leadership Houston (Class XXXVI) and the United Way Project Blueprint board leadership-training program (Class XXXV).

Natalie Michailides is currently the Director of Harris County Pretrial Services.  She comes to Harris County with over twenty years of experience as a justice system practitioner and consultant.  She has a diverse public safety background that has formed her personal goal to reshape pretrial justice systems to increase community safety, reduce racial and ethnic disparities, and achieve a less costly alternatives to pretrial incarceration. 

Her career has centered around the re-engineering pretrial justice systems across the county that are consistent with evidence-based practices to reduce unnecessary pretrial detention.  Prior to joining Harris County, she served as the lead site coordinator for the Public Safety Assessment (PSA), a pretrial assessment, in eleven jurisdictions, including Harris County and Cook County.  As the site coordinator for implementing the PSA and pretrial justice reform initiatives, she collaborated with stakeholders for strategy development, operationalizing the strategy, and sustaining fidelity. 

Natalie comes to us from Ohio and has a broad criminal justice background with a focus on the front-end of the system.  She held positions as a law enforcement planner, justice affairs coordinator, pretrial supervisor, and Chief of Probation for Canton Municipal Court.   During her tenure with CMC, she expanded the capacity of the department beyond probation supervision.  She operationalized the first pretrial diversion program for the Court, entitled the First Offender Program.  Additionally, implemented two cognitive behavior programs for the Court.  These programs were frequently court-ordered requirements for specific charges and bringing them in-house allowed the Court to waive the fees if a person was unable to pay an outside vendor. 

Natalie holds a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts both from the University of Akron.

Erika Ramirez currently serves as Judge of the Harris County Criminal Court at Law No. 8, and the Presiding Judge of the County Criminal Courts at Law. A native Houstonian, she has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas-Austin and JD from South Texas College of Law. While in law school she was recognized by the Pro Bono College for her volunteer work with Child Advocates, where she served as a guardian ad litem for children in protective custody. Judge Ramirez is the first woman  and Latina to be elected to County Criminal Court No. 8.

Judge Ramirez began her career working as a teacher with elementary and middle school students, and then served as a Caseworker Assistant with survivors of domestic violence at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. This time working with advocates and attorneys inspired her to return to law school and become the first attorney in her family.

Judge Ramirez returned to the District Attorney’s Office to serve as an Assistant District Attorney. She worked in many divisions, including misdemeanor, felony, juvenile, domestic violence, and financial crimes. She has tried a multitude of cases, from Class C traffic tickets to Aggravated Sexual Assault and Capital Murder. Judge Ramirez was elected to Criminal Court No. 8 in 2023 and has brought her unwavering dedication to justice and fairness,  ensuring that every person who comes before the Court is treated with dignity and respect.

During her time serving as Judge she has presided over one of the four SOBER Courts (Saving Ourselves By Education & Recovery), an intensive treatment probation for high-risk DWI offenders, and Co-Presiding Judge of the County Criminal Courts. She serves as a member of the Mexican American Bar Association- Houston, Association of Women Attorneys, Hispanic Bar Association, Texas LatinX Judges, and is on the Houston Bar Association HAY Center and LGBTQ+ Committees.

Matt Simpson has served as a senior policy strategist at the ACLU of Texas since 2008. He advocates for civil rights and civil liberties at the state legislature and assists with local campaigns related to criminal justice reform, such as prison and jail policy, law enforcement information sharing, and ending the school-to-prison pipeline. Matt holds a J.D. from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon and a B.A. in political science from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

During Texas’ 83rd Legislature in 2013, Matt worked with legislators and coalition partners to end the ticketing of students for minor misbehavior, to increase accountability for police officers stationed in schools, and to push for smart-on-crime reforms that increase rehabilitative services and reduce the need to incarcerate individuals for long periods of time. In particular, the ACLU of Texas along with key partners helped pass a review of the use of the psychologically damaging and recidivism-inducing practice of housing individuals in solitary confinement.

Through his work in the Texas legislature, Matt has fought to stop the passage of Arizona-style, anti-immigrant legislation, helped outlaw the dangerous and unnecessary practice of shackling incarcerated women during delivery and childbirth, and helped ensure the continuation of smart criminal justice policies. Outside his in-session advocacy, Matt has worked with local activists and the Austin City Council to develop city policies regulating the newly created Austin Regional Information Center, a law enforcement intelligence-sharing hub; those policies have provided a model statewide.

As the Chief Executive Officer of one of the largest behavioral health organizations in the nation, Wayne Young is passionate about the planning and delivery of large-scale behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disabilities services to a population who rely upon safety net systems of care. Wayne previously served as the chair of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Behavioral Health Advisory Council and was recently appointed by the Supreme Court of Texas to the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health. Wayne was honored to have received the Charley H. Shannon Advocate for Justice Award from NAMI Texas in 2019 as well as to have been named to Modern Healthcare’s list of Top 25 Innovators in 2019 and again 2021. In 2023, Wayne was recognized as one of Houston’s Most Admired CEO’s. While honored by individual recognitions, Wayne is most proud to have been a part of The Harris Center as it received the Excellence Award for Innovation from the National Council on Behavioral Health and was named as a Best Place to Work by The Houston Business Journal who also honored them with a Diversity in Business Award in 2023.

The Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD is the state-designated Local Mental Health Authority and Local Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authority for Harris County, Texas.

Senator John Whitmire represented the 15th Senatorial District of Texas. He was elected to the Texas Senate in 1982 after a decade-long tenure in the Texas House of Representatives. Accumulating over 40 years of service in the Texas Senate, Senator Whitmire held the top senior position and the esteemed title of "Dean of the Texas Senate."

During his tenure, Senator Whitmire served as the Chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, actively pursuing essential reforms within both adult and juvenile criminal justice systems. He also functioned as a member of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, overseeing critical areas such as electric grid reliability, broadband accessibility, and safeguarding consumer rights. Additionally, as a participant in the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Whitmire dedicated himself to identifying viable funding solutions for numerous state agencies and local programs.

Beyond his prominent role in criminal justice and public safety, Senator Whitmire fervently advocated for various causes, including quality education, affordable higher education, minority and women's rights, LGBTQ+ equality, access to quality affordable health care and mental health services, animal welfare, and fostering sound business and economic development policies.

In 2023, John Whitmire was elected Mayor of Houston.

Originally hailing from Hillsboro, Texas, Mayor Whitmire relocated to Houston, where he graduated from Waltrip High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Houston and pursued studies at the Bates College of Law. Mayor Whitmire has been a practicing attorney in Texas for over 43 years. He enjoys spending free time with his two daughters and two grandsons, who all live in Houston.