Prison Fellowship’s Advocacy and Public Policy Team

Sr. Vice President, Advocacy & Church Mobilization

Heather Rice-Minus serves as senior vice president of advocacy and church mobilization at Prison Fellowship, the nation's largest Christian nonprofit serving prisoners, former prisoners, and their families. She is a powerful, knowledgeable voice articulating the case for restorative criminal justice solutions and how churches play a critical role in meeting the needs of those impacted by crime and incarceration.

Rice-Minus provides strategic leadership to several teams at Prison Fellowship, including grassroots and policy staff, to advance campaigns on pivotal criminal justice issues. She spearheads Prison Fellowship’s efforts to build new church resources and deepen church partnerships through programs like Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree. Additionally, she directs Prison Fellowship’s outreach to and partnerships with foundations.

A valued shaper of the criminal justice reform debate because of her wide-ranging policy expertise, Rice-Minus has contributed to Christianity Today, Slate, CBN News, the Marshall Project, PBS' Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, and WORLD Magazine, among others. She is the co-author of Outrageous Justice, a multimedia Bible study curriculum and companion book produced by Prison Fellowship. She maintains a vested interest in justice reform as someone who has both been a victim of crime and walked alongside a family member during his incarceration.

A native of Virginia, Rice-Minus resides in Washington, D.C., with her husband and daughter. They welcomed another child as foster parents in 2020. Prior to her tenure at Prison Fellowship, she managed advocacy efforts on behalf of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. She is a graduate of Colorado State University and George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. She is a member of the Virginia State Bar and a Colson Fellow.

Director, Policy & Research

Kate Trammell serves as the director of policy and research at Prison Fellowship, the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit serving prisoners, former prisoners, and their families. She is well-versed in criminal law and has expertise conducting state and federal issue advocacy campaigns and equipping local churches for political engagement.

Trammell oversees the development of Prison Fellowship’s policy positions on criminal justice issues. She directs the organization’s state and federal lobbying initiatives designed to bring justice that restores to those impacted by crime and incarceration across America. This work includes negotiating strategic partnerships, building and maintaining national and statewide coalitions, and directing policy staff and lobbying activities.

In addition, Trammell directs Prison Fellowship’s research and technical writing to build a data-based, values-centered approach to justice that restores. She serves the policymaker members of the Faith and Justice Fellowship, a bipartisan body of members of Congress, governors, and state legislators motivated by their faith traditions to advance restorative values in criminal justice reform. Trammell has contributed to stories on criminal and juvenile justice reform in the Christian Post and Business Insider.

Prior to joining Prison Fellowship, Trammell worked directly with law enforcement, victims of crime, and criminal defendants as a magistrate for the Supreme Court of Virginia. She is a graduate of Liberty University School of Law, with added studies in international law and comparative criminal procedure, and is a member of the Virginia State Bar. She resides in Northern Virginia with her husband and their two children.

Senior Manager, Grassroots Program

Sammy Perez leads Prison Fellowship’s grassroots program to build and mobilize a network of Christians who are passionate about justice that restores. Perez manages a team of staff to equip Prison Fellowship’s Justice Advocates and Justice Ambassadors in the U.S. to raise awareness and improve the criminal justice system through digital advocacy, constituent lobbying, media engagement, and storytelling. After rediscovering faith in Christ, Perez, who has spent time in prison, overcame his past and began to serve others impacted by crime and incarceration, including volunteering as a Prison Fellowship Justice Ambassador before joining as a full-time employee. His writing has been published in Shared Justice as well as several regional Virginia outlets, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch and NoVa News. Perez was reappointed by Gov. Ralph Northam to the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice and Prevention in the Commonwealth.

Perez graduated from Liberty University with a degree in psychology, specializing in addiction and recovery, and is currently completing graduate studies in clinical mental health counseling. He enjoys life with his lovely wife and four children.

Advocacy Relations and Project Manager

Olivia Schoffstall serves Prison Fellowship’s advocacy team by cultivating and managing strategic relationships among external partners and within the ministry to advance justice that restores. In addition, she provides the comprehensive project management required for successful advocacy campaigns at the state and federal level. Schoffstall previously served as the assistant editor of Shared Justice, an initiative of the Center for Public Justice in Washington, D.C.

Schoffstall completed undergraduate studies in economics and religion at the University of Virginia, then participated in the Falls Church Fellows Program, a leadership and Christian formation program focused on vocation, theological studies, and service. She resides in Arlington, Virginia, and is a member of the Falls Church Anglican, where she serves in youth ministry and on steering committees for the Fellows Program as well as neighborhood and global engagement.

Grassroots Engagement Manager

Elizabeth DeMeyere serves Prison Fellowship’s advocacy team by creating strategic content and advocacy campaigns to activate the organization’s growing advocacy network at the federal and state levels. DeMeyere views political engagement as important for every American and believes that Christians have an even higher calling to live out the Gospel by advocating for Christian values. Her goal is to make this as easy as possible for Prison Fellowship’s advocates by clearly communicating about the issues and how their actions can make a difference in criminal justice reform.

Prior to her time with Prison Fellowship, DeMeyere worked in government relations in Washington, D.C. She also spent time working on the Romney for President campaign and the last three Republican National Conventions, where she helped manage backstage operations and the line by line script. Elizabeth started her career as an event planner for the Council for National Policy. She is a proud graduate of Hillsdale College, where she studied political science. DeMeyere lives in Virginia with her husband and daughter.

Legislative Research Manager

Chelsea Friske serves Prison Fellowship’s advocacy team by managing the tracking of criminal justice trends at the state and federal levels, authoring technical writing pieces in support of justice reform campaigns, and producing resources that raise the profile of values-based criminal justice reform.

Friske is a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law and Bay Path College, where she studied criminal justice and psychology, with a research focus on the experience of children in the courtroom and the treatment of those convicted of sex offenses. She completed internships in probation and police departments during college and gained experience in the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Commonwealth Attorney’s Office during and after law school. Friske and her husband reside in Northern Virginia.

Angela Kim serves Prison Fellowship’s advocacy team by planning and executing national-, federal-, and state-level events to advance justice that restores. She manages the advocacy team’s participation in conferences and speaking engagements and oversees event logistics for Prison Fellowship’s major initiatives like Second Chance Month. She also provides the strategic operational support required to ensure efficiency for all advocacy programs and internal logistics, with an eye towards holistic outcomes. Kim’s lived experience with the criminal justice system and her faith in Christ motivate her to help those who are marginalized and work to advance criminal justice reform.

Kim completed her undergraduate studies in crime, law, and justice at Pennsylvania State University. In addition to her work at Prison Fellowship, she frequently volunteers in the community through special needs ministry and outreach to those who are homeless.

Senior Legislative Strategist

Andrew Brashier serves on the state policy team as the senior legislative strategist, representing Prison Fellowship on issues of adult and juvenile justice reform before lawmakers, partner organizations, and members of the faith community. He is committed to encouraging lawmakers to model legislation on the biblical values of justice, equity, mercy, and restoration. Brashier’s areas of expertise include incarceration, reentry policy, and other issues related to criminal law.

Prior to joining Prison Fellowship, Brashier was a partner at Beasley Allen, one of the nation’s most prestigious plaintiff’s law firms, and was named 2018 Fraud Section Lawyer of the Year. He graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University with a Juris Doctor and certificate in trial advocacy and earned a double major in political science and history from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. An Alabama native, Brashier resides with his family in the Birmingham metro area.

Federal Legislative Strategist

David Jimenez serves as a federal legislative strategist for Prison Fellowship’s advocacy and public policy team. His background is in public policy advocacy and institution building, most recently as one of the primary managers for the American Enterprise Institute’s outreach to college students, faculty, and administrators. As an undergraduate at Bowdoin College in Maine, Jimenez studied history and political theory. After graduating, he participated in the Hudson Institute’s Political Studies Fellowship and was a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Romania.

A proud alumnus of Prison Fellowship’s internship program, he first became passionate about criminal justice reform while serving urban youth in New Jersey, where he saw up close the urgent need for restorative approaches to incarceration, law enforcement, and violence. He is passionate about theology, social policy, ethics, and culture. A Pittsburgh native, Jimenez lives in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Senior Legislative Analyst

Angela Inglett serves Prison Fellowship’s state advocacy team by identifying legislative opportunities, informing policy priorities, and investigating campaign impact. As senior legislative analyst, Inglett provides information necessary to execute effective public policy campaigns. Prior to joining Prison Fellowship, she managed and developed educational programming opportunities for local government officials in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She also spent four years on Capitol Hill, where she managed a diverse portfolio of legislative issues ranging from labor to agricultural policy.

Inglett’s educational background centered on politics and public policy, a choice spurred by her interests in philosophy, morality, and culture. A lifelong citizen of Virginia, Inglett and her husband reside in Richmond.

Justice Ambassador Specialist

Steve Gordon serves Prison Fellowship’s advocacy team by building and mobilizing a network of people passionate about justice that restores. He equips Prison Fellowship’s Justice Advocates in the western U.S. to impact the criminal justice system through strategies including constituent lobbying, media engagement, and storytelling. He previously directed the Oklahoma Partnership for Successful Reentry and was the founder and president of the Strategic Reentry Group, a consulting firm specializing in community reintegration for people returning from incarceration.

Gordon is the author of five books, including Purposeful Neighboring: Creating Reentry-Ready Communities. He studied computer science and systems analysis at Oklahoma State University and resides in Fort Worth with his wife Karen.

Justice Ambassador Specialist

Krista Ortiz serves Prison Fellowship’s advocacy team by building and mobilizing a network of people who are passionate about justice that restores. She equips Prison Fellowship’s Justice Ambassadors in the eastern United States to improve the criminal justice system using strategies like constituent lobbying, media engagement, and storytelling. Ortiz’s passion for seeking justice and serving others is founded upon one of her favorite quotes from Winston Churchill: “I never worry about action, but only inaction.” Her faith in Christ and belief that change is possible when Christians act on behalf of others motivates her to help individuals find and raise their voice to advance justice that restores for all.

Ortiz holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in social work, with specialties in community mobilization, research, advocacy, and public policy. She currently resides in Northern Virginia and cherishes life with her husband.

Administrative Assistant

Kathy Scherrer serves Prison Fellowship’s advocacy team by providing administrative and scheduling assistance in a fast-paced environment. She studied business management at the University of Phoenix.