Mary Ann Scali serves as the Executive Director of The Gault Center, where she works with youth defenders and advocates dedicated to promoting justice for all children by ensuring excellence in youth defense. After working as a summer law clerk for the National Juvenile Defender Center in 1996, Mary Ann became the deputy director in 2000 and the executive director in 2017.

In partnership with The Gault Center team and youth defense leaders, Mary Ann delivers youth defense training and technical assistance, conducts state-level youth defense assessments, and facilitates cross-disciplinary reform efforts aimed at developing resources and policies to strengthen youth defense and access to justice for all youth.

Prior to joining The Gault Center, Mary Ann defended youth in the juvenile division of the Office of the Public Defender in Baltimore City, MD; spent two years teaching high school in Pohnpei, Micronesia; served in the Jesuit Refugee Service in Rome, Italy; and taught Baltimore City boys at the Baraka School in Nanyuki, Kenya. Mary Ann holds a JD and MSW from Loyola University Chicago, where she was a CIVITAS Childlaw Fellow.

Ebony Howard is the Deputy Director for The Gault Center, where she works to serve youth defenders and advocates so that they may seek justice for children and adolescents and provide excellence in youth defense.

Prior to joining The Gault Center, Ebony was a Senior Supervising Attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she developed, implemented, and managed litigation and policy campaigns to combat injustice and systemic racism in the criminal and juvenile legal systems. She also defended individuals charged with federal crimes in District Court as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Northern District of Alabama. Ebony serves on the boards for Redemption Earned, an Alabama-based organization that assists incarcerated people seeking parole, and Youth Towers, a Birmingham, Alabama-based organization dedicated to supporting homeless youth ages 19 to 26.

Ebony graduated from Howard University and Georgetown Law. While at Georgetown, Ebony was a student attorney in the Juvenile Justice Clinic, where she represented young people before the District of Columbia Superior Court.

Ebony lives with her husband and two sons in Birmingham, Alabama, where she spends her days listening to Beyoncé and convincing her children to attend Howard University.

Jimmonique is the Director of Operations for The Gault Center. In this role, she manages the organization’s operations, including all remote operations, finance, and human resources, to ensure The Gault Center maintains effective and efficient financial and operational systems.

Before joining The Gault Center, Jimmonique served as interim director and deputy director for the State of Georgia’s indigent defense agency, the Georgia Public Defender Council (GPDC). The agency has more than 900 state employees and contracted private attorneys representing clients in 43 of the state’s 49 judicial circuits.  Prior to working at the agency executive level, Jimmonique led its statewide appellate division, working with staff and contract appellate attorneys to zealously represent both adult and youth clients in post-conviction proceedings.

Jimmonique is a proud graduate of Fayetteville State University and North Carolina Central School of Law. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University, focusing on youth justice, correlates of delinquency, and justice system policy.

Amy Borror is the Senior Youth Policy Strategist at The Gault Center, where she manages the organization’s policy and communications portfolios.

Prior to joining The Gault Center, Amy worked as a youth defense consultant; spent 13 years at the Office of the Ohio Public Defender, where she led the agency’s Policy & Outreach Division and managed its legislative and media efforts; and worked at the Ohio State Bar Association and the Ohio General Assembly. Amy earned her BA magna cum laude with college and departmental honors from the University of Toledo.

Amy, her wife, and their numerous rescue dogs and cats call Columbus, Ohio home.

Tiera Brown is the 2022-2024 Gault Fellow at The Gault Center. Prior to joining the Gault Center, Tiera worked at the Colorado State Public Defenders Office, assisting with the defense of youth with felony and misdemeanor cases, and at the Colorado Juvenile Defender Center, where she represented young people in their expungement and deregistration hearings through CJDC’s Believe in Youth program and worked on legislative policy efforts related to youth restitution, fines, and fees.

Tiera serves on the Coalition for Minority Youth Equity, which aims to address racial and ethnic disparities in the youth justice system; she is a founding board member of BSWC LCA, an organization providing on-the-ground support and resources to sex workers and victims of trafficking; and she is a volunteer for LYRIC, Learn Your Rights in the Community, an organization composed of passionate attorney volunteers donating their time to empower Colorado youth to exercise their constitutional rights.

Tiera graduated from the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, where she was a student attorney in the Criminal Defense Clinic, and from Boston College.

Tiera lives in Denver, Colorado with her son and their growing collection of over 50 houseplants.

Stephen Goldmeier is the Justice Systems Manager at the Gault Center, where he works on implementing and improving processes, technology, and systems to serve the Center’s staff and our national network of youth defenders.

Before joining the Gault Center, Stephen worked both as a public defender and as a technology and systems expert. He spent five years as an appellate public defender at the Office of the Ohio Public Defender, where he litigated cases involving both adults and youth in courts ranging from local municipal courts to the Ohio Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He then worked in the Policy and Outreach department of that office, leading the design and deployment of a unified state-wide data-collection and case-management system. After that, he worked for the Bronx Defenders and the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at Southern Methodist University, managing many aspects of large-scale research, process-improvement, and technology projects.

Stephen has taught nationally about a wide variety of subjects, including legal writing, storytelling, systems design, data collection, and forensic science. He also serves in a leadership role in the Indigent Defense Research Association and works with many local activism and organizing groups.

Stephen received his bachelor’s degree in secondary education, with minors in chemistry and physics, from Otterbein University, and he graduated from DePaul University’s College of Law with a certificate in intellectual property law.

Stephen lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his cat, Lucky. He spends most of his time riding his bike around town, trying new restaurants, and visiting various local parks to look at birds.

Sarah Johnson is Senior Defense Counsel for The Gault Center, where she manages the provision of training and technical assistance to the youth defender community.

Prior to joining The Gault Center, Sarah was the Director of Specialty Practices, Director of Youth Defense, and head of the Children’s Defense Team for the Missouri State Public Defender System. Sarah began her work as a public defender in 2009 in St. Louis, representing both children and adults in the St. Louis Area. In 2017, Sarah became the Director of Youth Defense and Policy, and in 2019, the Children’s Defense Team (CDT) opened its doors. The CDT is a specialized group of attorneys, mitigation specialists and support staff that represent children in delinquency proceedings in the St. Louis and Kansas City Area. Sarah has served on several statewide workgroups across her career as a public defender, looking at ways to raise the level and practice of youth defense and advocacy in Missouri.

Sarah graduated from Saint Louis University as an undergraduate and law student. While at Saint Louis University, Sarah played for the women’s soccer team, where she was a member of the first women’s team at the university to make it to the NCAA tournament! In law school, Sarah participated on the moot court team, trial team, and criminal defense clinic, where her dreams of advocating for individuals was realized.

Sarah lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband, two children and silver lab. In her free time, Sarah loves to be outdoors: running, hiking, and camping with her family and friends.

HyeJi Kim is a Senior Youth Defense Counsel at the Gault Center, where she works to strengthen children’s rights by ensuring that every child facing juvenile court stands with a zealous attorney fighting on behalf of the child. HyeJi focuses on developing policy and legal strategies to fight against the effects of structural racism in juvenile court systems and on transforming probation conditions to uphold positive youth development and racial justice. To that end, HyeJi engages in training, technical assistance, and policy advocacy for youth defenders to heighten a child’s right to counsel across the country.

Prior to joining the Gault Center, HyeJi worked as an Attorney for the Child (AFC) in child welfare and juvenile delinquency proceedings at the Legal Aid Society in New York City. As an AFC, HyeJi worked on an interdisciplinary team to directly advocate for the expressed wishes of young people, including those who are caught between the intersection of the family regulation and juvenile delinquency systems. Before working at the Legal Aid Society, HyeJi worked as a fellow at the Gault Center, where she focused on national reform efforts around supervision fees and youth probation orders.

HyeJi graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and summa cum laude from the George Washington University.

HyeJi grew up in Oregon and now lives in Brooklyn and is an avid fan of vegan ice cream and Korean cooking.

Alana S. Meyer is Youth Defense Counsel at The Gault Center, where she ensures youth defenders have the tools and resources they need to provide zealous advocacy for all children.

Prior to joining The Gault Center, Alana was the George Barrett Social Justice Fellow Attorney at The Children’s Law Center. In this position, she created and implemented a strategic plan to identify and provide education advocacy to children with disabilities in Kentucky’s detention centers and alternative schools. Following her fellowship, Alana was a public defender specializing in youth defense at the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. She occupied several positions including front-line defender for kids in juvenile and adult court, appellate attorney for juvenile appeals, and civil litigator on conditions of confinement for youth in long-term facilities and detention centers. Alana was also a part of the youth defense training team where she developed and presented training for all new and existing public defenders throughout Kentucky.

Alana graduated from Vanderbilt Law School, where she was the Garrison Social Justice Scholar for her class and was awarded the Damali K. Booker Award for her keen dedication to legal activism. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Sociology.

Alana grew up in South Florida and now lives in Lexington, KY with her husband, daughter, and bulldog. She enjoys traveling, yoga, and running after her toddler.