Meet the Team

Johnsenia Brooks

Johnsenia graduated from Georgetown University (COL’ 20) with majors in Government and Psychology and a minor in French. She grew up in the Bronx, NY, and is a first generation Honduran-American. Johnsenia became interested in criminal justice reform after working as a volunteer intake specialist and interpreter at her local Public Defender’s Office. She is currently working as a Post Conviction Litigation Paralegal at the Innocence Project, and is submitting law school applications for Fall 2022.

Austin Riddick

Austin graduated from Georgetown University (COL ‘20) with a Government major and Spanish minor. His passion for criminal justice was ignited after interning for Centurion, an organization in Princeton, NJ, that represents wrongfully convicted people who are sentenced to death or life without parole. On the policy side of criminal justice reform, Austin was a key writer at the Justice Policy Institute of the strategic implementation plan for D.C.’s Youth Rehabilitation Act, a law that aims to give youth involved in the justice system in our nation’s capital a better chance of successful reentry. Austin will begin his second semester of Harvard Law School in the Fall of 2021.

Cecily Burge

Cecily graduated from Georgetown University (COL ‘21) with a major in Government and minor in African American Studies. Her own experience with the criminal justice system, her time spent helping citizens returning from incarceration secure employment, and her work with the wrongfully convicted community have confirmed that criminal justice is the path she will pursue. After taking Making an Exoneree as a student, Cecily became the 2021 Cohort’s teaching assistant, overseeing the reinvestigations and seeking to overturn the wrongful convictions of five innocent men. She is now working with Momolu Stewart, who spent 23 years in prison before coming home in 2019, to edit and publish his debut memoir.