Kaushiki is a career defender in both the criminal legal and family regulation systems. She is the current Founding Executive Director of Carolina Parent Defenders, a legal nonprofit dedicated to the representation of parents in the family regulation system. Prior to moving back to North Carolina, she led the development of the criminal defense practice and then the family defense practice at Still She Rises, Tulsa. Before working in mission driven holistic organizations, Kaushiki developed and honed her trials skills as a deputy defender in Jefferson County, Golorado. Outside of the courtroom, Kaushiki’s advocacy is informed by and with working in tandem with community members, grassroots organizers, and student advocates on how to dismantle carceral systems and create spaces of community care. Kaushiki has been invited to lead training in client led representation, litigation skills, and developing holistic practices. Kaushiki received her Bachelor of Arts from The University of Texas at Austin and her Juris Doctorate from The University of Cincinnati College of Law. In her spare time, she enjoys practicing yoga, reading, and trying to perfect The Bear-inspired omelette.

Sam Dennis is the owner and founder of Sam D. Dennis, P.C. in Valdosta, Georgia, a law firm representing injured people and citizens under attack by their government.

Sam is a lifetime resident of Valdosta, attending St. John Catholic School and Lowndes County High School. Sam graduated from Valdosta State University with a BS in Criminal Justice and a Masters in Public Administration. He also studied at the world-renowned Magdalene College in Oxford, England. He received his JD from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Sam began practicing law in 1995 and founded his law practice in 2001. He has won hundreds of cases for his clients, earning a reputation as one of Georgia’s top lawyers. He is passionately committed to justice and public safety.

Sam served as the President of  the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (GACDL) for two consecutive years 2014 and 2015. He has served as the Vice President of the GACDL off and on for many years and he is a Life Member of the association. Sam is also a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and Georgia Trial Lawyers Association (GTLA). Sam has served as former Chairman of the Judicial Council of Georgia, Board of Court Reporting. He is a board member of the Board of Directors for the Community Defender Organization for the Eleventh Circuit District Court.

In addition to teaching with the Bill Daniel Program since its creation, Sam has been a member of the National Criminal Defense College faculty since 1998 and has lectured and taught nationally and internationally on the topics of Cross Examination, Impeachment, Voir Dire, Opening Statements, Scientific Evidence,  Expert Testimony, and all aspects of trial advocacy.

Sam lives in Valdosta with his wife and four children. He is an avid hunter, angler, gun collector, and model airplane enthusiast. He is an active member at St. John’s Catholic Church.

John C. Ellis, Jr. is a National Coordinating Discovery Attorney for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Defender Services Office. In this capacity, he provides litigation support and e-discovery assistance on complex criminal cases to defense teams around the country. Before entering private practice, Mr. Ellis spent 13 years as a trial attorney and supervisory attorney with Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. He also serves as a digital forensic consultant and expert.

A native of Decatur, Ga., W. Devin Franklin is Movement Policy Counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights. His present work focuses on supporting local movements in Georgia and community education and base building in matters related to policing violence, jail overcrowding and the connectedness of carceral systems and the harms experienced by communities.

He joined SCHR in March 2022 after working as a Senior Assistant Public Defender at the Office of the Circuit Public Defender-Atlanta Judicial Circuit for over 12 years, zealously advocating on the behalf of nearly 1500 indigent, accused persons charged with felony offenses. Devin is a graduate of Gideon’s Promise trial advocacy training program for Public Defenders and currently serves as a faculty member for the organization’s Core 101 programming.

Additionally, he is a recipient of the 2020 Gideon’s Promise Foot Soldier Award, an honor given in recognition of service to make equal justice a reality, and the 2024 ‘Commitment to GACDL Award’ given by the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Devin has served on the faculty of the Georgia Public Defender Council’s Advance Practice Workshop during its existence and is also on faculty for GACDL’s Bill Daniel’s Trial Advocacy Program and the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC). He has also served as Co-Chair and curator for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ 2022 Winter Training, “Death to the Criminal Punishment Bureaucracy: The Evolution of Criminal Justice and the Revolution of Values in a Carceral Society”.

He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Hampton University (Hampton, Va) in Sports Management and a Juris Doctor from Mercer Law School (Macon, Ga).

Patrice Fulcher is the Director of Training for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender (OPD).  She joined OPD in 2015, and is responsible for heading the Agency’s Gideon’s Promise Certified New Hire Attorney Training Program, and developing/managing all other public defender training curriculum for OPD’s attorneys and core staff throughout the state. Prior to becoming OPD’s Director of Training, Patrice was a tenured Associate Professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. Her scholarship and other publications focus on issues surrounding the Prison Industrial Complex; private prisons, forced prison labor, and jail/prison video visitation.  She has lectured extensively on these issues as well as the erosion of the 4th Amendment, client-centered representation, and effective storytelling techniques for defense attorneys throughout the U.S.

From 1995-2007, Patrice successfully represented indigent clients as a public defender in Georgia.  She handled capital cases, major felonies, and fought against unconditional jail conditions.  She did so while serving as a Senior Staff Attorney for the Georgia Capital Defender and the Fulton County Public Defender offices; as Senior Staff Attorney for the Fulton County Conflict Defender; and while working with the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Patrice has served as a Core Instructor for Gideon’s Promise, Inc. since its inception, and is a faculty member for the National Criminal Defense College.  She has also been a litigation instructor for The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, The Kentucky Death Penalty Institute, The Mississippi Office of the State Public Defender Training Division, The National Association for Public Defense, The American Bar Association NACDL National Defender Training Program, The National Legal Aid & Defender Association, and is a faculty member of the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop. She received her J.D. from Emory University School of Law, and her B.A. from Howard University. Patrice is admitted to practice law in Georgia and Maryland.

Andrea K. George is the Executive Director of the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho. She has held this position since 2012.

Ms. George began her legal career in 1989 as an Appellate Attorney with the Federal Defenders of Minnesota. In 1992 she became a trial attorney with that office and was eventually promoted to Senior Litigator. This year marks her thirtieth with the Federal Defender system. She is currently the President of the National Association of Federal Defenders and is a member of the Board of Regents for the National Criminal Defense College. Ms. George is on the faculty of NCDC and speaks regularly for the Federal Judicial Center and other Defender programs.

Callie Glanton Steele has devoted her career to the defense of indigent clients for the past 32 years. Since July 25, 2022, she has been the Chief Trial Deputy for the Santa Barbara County Public Defender’s Office (South County). Prior to that position, for 30 years, she worked at the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California. She was the Senior Litigator from for 7 years, primarily handling complex cases. Prior to that time, she was a Supervising Deputy Federal Public Defender for 13 years, and a Deputy Federal Public Defender in the trial unit for 8 years. In 2000 and 2001, she was on a temporary duty assignment in Washington, D.C., where she was Special Counsel to the United States Sentencing Commission and a Visiting Defender at the Defender Services Division with the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, working in the Legal and Policy Division. She is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Terry J. Hatter, Jr., United States District Judge.

Ms. Steele represents clients in complex cases and has written and argued multiple appeals before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, she teaches Trial Advocacy at Loyola Law School.

Andres R. Guevara has been a trial attorney since graduating from the George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. Out of his Denver office, Andres handles both private and court-appointed criminal work in various
Colorado state courts (through the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (“ADC”)) and in federal courts (through the CJA Panel). Since starting his own law firm in 2007, Andres has handled and tried every type of criminal case, from
homicides, to sex assaults, human trafficking, federal drug and gun cases, and large conspiracy cases. He has also handled post-conviction cases (including a State death penalty case) and has presented oral arguments before both the
Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court.

Andres is a long-time instructor with ADC and the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar and has been on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College for the past seven years. He has presented and trained attorneys
throughout the country, including presentations at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) annual conferences, trial training of lawyers with the U.S. Marines, and regional trial advocacy programs. Andres has
presented on different topics including opening and closing arguments, direct examinations, cross-examinations, federal criminal law, trial practice, jury selection, evidentiary topics, and RICO cases. Andres is also an author having
published in the areas of federal law enforcement, marijuana laws, and most recently in the area of cross-examining child witnesses (for The Champion, the official magazine of the NACDL, published June, 2022).