Rita Linhardt, Chair

Rita Linhardt is the Senior Staff Associate with the Missouri Catholic Conference (MCC).  She is a registered lobbyist with the MCC, primarily working on corrections and death penalty issues in the Capitol.  She has given numerous workshops on the death penalty to different groups across the state.  She is one of the founding members of MADP. 

Sr Rose Rita Huelsman, Vice Chair

Rose Huelmann is a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame religious order. She grew up in Illinois but has lived most of her life in Missouri and has taught in elementary schools for 30 years. Presently Rose works as coordinator of volunteers for Criminal Justice Ministry, a program of St. Vincent de  Paul Society. The volunteers serve in prisons or jails or do support services to help house people reentring the community after time served in prison. 

Rob Schaeffer, CPA, Treasurer

MADP Board Treasurer, Certified Public Accountant, Springfield. Law degree from University of Missouri.

Dr. Laird Okie, Secretary

MADP Board Secretary, Professor of History at Moberly Area Community College. Ph.D., British History, University of Kansas, 1982. 

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Diann Burke

A William Woods University graduate, she has been involved with MADP for approximately four years. Since her retirement from the government, she volunteers in the office of the Criminal Justice Ministry at St. Vincent de Paul.

Rev. Dr. Cathleen Burnett

Dr. Cathleen Burnett teaches criminal justice at UMKC and is a founding member of the Kansas City chapter of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. In February of 1996, Dr. Burnett witnessed the execution of Jeff Sloan, CP #55, a person to whom she had been writing for a year and a half. In 1997 she was ordained a Deacon in the United Methodist Church. Her numerous publications include Justice Denied: Clemency Appeals in Death Penalty Cases (2002); “Restorative Justice and Wrongful Capital Convictions: A Simple Proposal” (2005); and Wrongful Death Sentences: Rethinking Justice in Capital Cases (2010).  

Rev. Bill Fasel

Bill Fasel has been an Episcopal Priest for 20 years. He is currently the Canon Missioner for the Northeast Episcopal Regional Ministry, a cluster of five small Episcopal Churches located in five rural county seat towns in the Diocese of West Missouri. Before that, from 1993 to 2001, he was Rector of Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church in Branson, Missouri; and before that, from 1990 to 1993, he was Vicar of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pleasanton, Texas and St. Matthias Episcopal Church in Devine, Texas. Prior to ordination in the Episcopal Church, he was a systems analyst for Valero Energy Corporation in San Antonio, Texas (1981-1987) and before that a junior officer in the U. S. Coast Guard (1976-1981).

Canon Fasel is a 1976 graduate of the U. S. Coast Guard Academy, with a Bachelor of Science in History/Government. He has also earned a Master of Business Administration from The University of Texas at San Antonio (1985), a Master of Divinity from The University of the South (1990), and Doctor of Ministry in Congregational Development from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (1998).

Hedy Harden

Missouri CURE

A long time activist for prison reform, she heads the Missouri chapter of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), which she started in 1990. She is a graduate of UMSL and is past president EMCADP.

Fr Paul Jones

Catholic Priest, Trappist Monk, Hermitage

Mary Ellen McDonagh, BVM

St Louis Chapter Representative

Wiley Miller

Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation, Columbia

Steve Mosbacher

Mr. Mosbacher is a graduate of University of Missouri, St. Louis with a B.S. in Business Administration.  Currently the owner and partner in several retail stores in Tampa, Florida, Memphis, Tennessee, Georgia and Minnesota.  Mr. Mosbacher is the Managing partner of Nexvac, a wholesale distributor of Oreck products. Currently a committeeman in the Queeny Township Mr. Mosbacher is also running for congress in the 2nd congressional district. 

Mary Niehaus

 2008 graduate of Truman State University with a B.A. in Communications. Before her involvement with the St. Louis chapter of MADP, she worked for Witness to Innocence, a peer support and advocacy group serving exonerated former death row inmates and their families.

Sr. Joanne Reuter

Affiliate Representative, Society of the Most Precious Blood.

Susie Roling

Ms. Roling is KC Chapter Vice Chair and a Social Worker at Operation Breakthrough.

Donna Walmsley

Donna is a former high school teacher who is concerned about human rights issues.  Donna is also Chair of the Springfield Chapter.

Bob Wilcox

A free-lance writer, actor and director in the St. Louis area, he holds a Ph.D in theatre and drama and has taught on the college level for 25 years. He co-produces and co-hosts a program of local theatre news and reviews on cable television and the web called Two on the Aisle.