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About Us

Founded in 2016, Restoring Justice is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Houston, Texas that provides holistic and client-centered representation to marginalized members of our community facing criminal charges. This includes the provision of expert criminal defense legal representation, social services, trauma-informed counseling, spiritual support, volunteer connections, and more.

Our mission is to pursue Christ’s justice by ending mass incarceration one client and heart at a time. We take cases of those who are receiving inadequate legal representation and offer them client-centered, holistic representation, free-of-charge.

As a grassroots, human-centered organization, we also take community engagement seriously and routinely participate in educational endeavors and innovative collaborations that bolster the criminal justice reform movement. We strive to pursue all kinds of criminal justice reform, with a focus on removing racial disparities and reforming the indigent defense system.

Our Vision

A criminal justice system that acknowledges, respects, and upholds Constitutional rights and dignity for each and every human, taking significant steps towards ending mass incarceration – one client and heart at a time.

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Our Core Values

+ Fearless Love

To boldly stand with the people whom our systems push to the margins, we must not allow the disease of fear to affect any of our thoughts or actions. We strive to enact this belief in everything that we do, allowing love to drive our hearts, minds, and feet.

+ Expert Service

Our marginalized brothers and sisters deserve the very best services - legal, social, peacemaking, psychological, and more - that are equitable and empirically-based. We seek new opportunities to improve our systems so that we can better serve our clients’ needs, improving the lives of our entire community.

+ Holistic Reconciliation

Our individual lives and relationships often require heavy healing, especially for criminal justice system participants. With every interaction, we strive to guide each other through the hard road of reconciliation.

+ Embodying Jesus Christ

Our founders were motivated by the ideals of their Christian faith to start Restoring Justice. We strive to apply the meaning of Jesus’ example through his life, death, and resurrection. Regardless of their faith, our team members embody ideals of true justice, freedom, grace, forgiveness, mercy, and love. We open our arms to all who share these ideals to realize a new level of freedom, driven by and inclusive of the vast diversity of humanity.

+ Freedom for All

Inherent in defending marginalized people is the requirement to trust our clients and pursue what they desire. People of every economic level must be provided a humanized opportunity for liberty, respecting and protecting their inalienable rights as the top priority.

Team

The talented individuals who make up Restoring Justice’s dedicated and compassionate team each bring unique expertise and experiences to the organization. Though everyone serves a different role, each person is committed to helping end mass incarceration in the U.S.

Click on each person to read more about them!

KEVIN COKER
CEO, BOARD MEMBER
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MONIQUE JOSEPH
HOLISTIC SERVICES DIRECTOR
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CLAUDIA RODRIGUEZ
CHIEF OF STAFF
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JESSICA WILLEY
INTERNAL ACCOUNTING, CO-FOUNDER
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Board of Directors

At RJ, we are committed to our mission. In order to help us fulfill that mission, we have gathered a team of committed professionals that represent excellence and integrity in their field and are driven by a passion to end mass incarceration.

Photo: Chantel poses with two of her children in a studio setting. They wear similar clothing, white button-up shirts and jeans.

Chantel Mack, Board CHAIR

Chantel has served on the board of Restoring Justice since September 2021.

Chantel Mack is the Head of Community Relations and Development for The Whitaker Group- a national fashion and retail company- where she leads the non-profit arm of the company by brand partners to community initiatives across the country. She is the former After School Director for The FORGE for Families with 20yrs of experience working in youth and leadership development. Before moving to Texas, she was a Women’s Director for one of the largest Christian sports camps for inner-city youth where she led teams of college students and cultivated fun programing for thousands of campers from across the U.S.

Born and raised in Williamsburg, VA, Chantel holds a Bachelors in English Literature with a concentration in African American and Victorian Literature from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is also a certified Dynamic Communicator who loves connecting with audiences as a conference speaker, teacher, and emcee. Outside of raising two children with her husband of 14yrs, holistic community development and engagement is Chantel’s passion. Whether helping fashion brands be more authentic with community engagement, managing teams during Hurricane Harvey, championing academic excellence or being a supportive “basketball/football auntie” to teens in the community, Chantel has made non-profit work the vehicle with which she chooses to impact the world. Her life’s motto is “Don’t be a jerk. You aren’t leading if no one wants to follow you”.

Matt's relationship with Restoring Justice began as a client, when he initially infused James 2:13 into the mission.

Matt brunt, Board Member

Matt met Drew Willey in the midst of his own encounter with the justice system and credits the generous and compassionate work of Restoring Justice with practically saving his life.

It was in that first meeting that Matt and Drew reminded one another that in Christ’s economy, mercy really does triumph over justice. Now, what would it take to pry open the eyes of a system grown willfully blind to that truth?

Now, years beyond that initial meeting, having been the beneficiary of Jesus working through the flesh of another human, Matt is fueled largely by a hope of continuing that work of being the hands and feet and hearts and eyes and voices of Jesus to a population of folks desperate to encounter Him. The goal? A system anchored in holistic ideals of reconciliation and healing—mending broken hearts, fractured families, and disrupted communities through direct, compassionate, intentional, personal engagement—the Restoring Justice model.

When not serving on the Restoring Justice board, Matt is a graphic designer with Creative Element, doing Kingdom work from behind a computer screen for non-profits and churches all over Texas.

ELLIE ASHBY,
SECRETARY

Ellie has been involved with Restoring Justice since the summer of 2018.

Her passion for social justice and helping the most marginalized in Houston prompted her involvement in Restoring Justice, where she served first as a legal intern and then as the Volunteer Coordinator and then as the founder of Youth for Justice.

Fueled by the desire to pursue social change and criminal justice reform, Ellie is excited to be attending Harvard University in the fall of 2020 and plans on infusing love, empathy, and the acknowledgement of human dignity into the criminal justice system during and after college. She loves being a part of Restoring Justice and witnessing the exceptional work they do on a daily basis to those who have been overlooked and oppressed in society for far too long, and she hopes to involve her generation in the pursuit of fearless love and gracious justice.

KEVIN COKER, BOARD MEMBER

Kevin Coker is our CEO. As an attorney, he zealously represents clients charged with state crimes while advancing RJ’s mission of ending mass incarceration.

He executes a holistic and client-centered model for indigent defense by collaborating with clients and the entire RJ team to provide expert legal service. Kevin leads with a servant’s heart and places our client’s interests and freedom as his top priority.

He saw the criminal legal system’s disproportionate negative impact on black, brown, and poor people and knew that he could not be a bystander. He became a Gideon’s Promise LSPP Fellow after law school, and he spent the next three years defending indigent clients as an assistant public defender with the Metropolitan Nashville Public Defender’s Office.

When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

Kristen Ueckert, Board Treasurer

Kristen has been involved with Restoring Justice since it's creation, serving in her current role since September 2017, and as Board Secretary prior.

Her heart was opened to those we serve through volunteering at the Harris County Jail mentoring women on personal financial planning. She was further amazed at the power of love in our system when she served as the first Adelphoi to a brother client.

Kristen is Senior Consultant at BKD CPAs & Advisors. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Texas A&M University.

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