In March, we deepened our long-term commitment to state capacity building by establishing our first Field Office and hiring Celeste Fitzgerald to run it. She is a talented organizer who emerged from the moratorium movement in New Jersey. Celeste provides technical assistance in organizing, strategic planning, message development, lobbying, and organizational capacity building to a Northeast cluster of state organizations moving moratorium initiatives in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, and Delaware. At the same time, she brings an extra set of capable hands to state organizing initiatives. She has quickly become a beloved and respected ally and resource for state activists. “Celeste has been an invaluable asset to our work,” says Jeff Garis, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty. “She is accessible and enthusiastic. We wouldn’t have had such success with our moratorium week in October without her assistance.”
In 2002, the Northeast Field Office’s priority states will be NEW JERSEY and PENNSYLVANIA, where we are eyeing victories in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Funding permitting, we look to duplicate this regional organizing model in other parts of the country.
By Shari Silberstein
Since 2000, Shari Silberstein has dedicated her career to transforming the justice system from one that harms to one that heals. Under her leadership, and using campaign strategies she helped develop, Equal Justice USA has helped end the death penalty in nine states, built first-of-its-kind conservative and evangelical coalitions for justice reform, secured millions in state funding for healing services to families of murder victims, launched an innovative model for training and dialogue between police and communities on trauma and race equity, and strengthened dozens of local organizations across the nation working for justice, violence reduction, and healing. Shari has been a national voice in helping to break down the silos between criminal justice reformers and crime survivor advocates. Her expertise has been a source in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, and Harper’s Magazine, and she has written op-eds for an array of media outlets, including Fox News, the Marshall Project, and U.S. News and World Report. Shari has a bachelor's degree in film from New York University and a master's degree in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Texas at Austin.
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