Trustees

Rev. Brant S. Copeland
Brant Copeland was the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee for 35 years retiring in 2020.  He holds degrees from Rhodes College, the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, the Presbyterian School of Christian Education, and Union Theological Seminary in Virginia.  He serves on several boards of directors, is active in state-wide social justice causes, and co-chairs the Tallahassee Interfaith Clergy.

Mary Anne Hoffman
Mary Anne Hoffman has worked on death penalty issues since 1982. Her work and volunteer life have centered on affordable housing, homelessness, adult literacy and public benefits issues in both state government and non-profit organizations. In 2014 she retired from the State of Florida Office on Homelessness where she was a program coordinator. Mary Anne is the current chairperson of Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty. She also serves on the boards of Kindred Spirits Charitable Trust, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and Graceful Solutions for Housing, Inc.

Kerry Rivers Laird
Kerry recently retired after 32+ years in the Office of the Clerk of the Florida House of Representatives.  She graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. degree in Social Sciences.  She learned through her mother and founder of Kindred Spirits, Audrey Rivers, of the very basic, and often unmet human needs of Florida prisoners under sentence of death.  Kerry and her husband Glenn have long been committed to supporting the compassionate and faithful work of Kindred Spirits.

Sheila Meehan
Sheila Meehan is retired from a varied career.  She has worked in the legal arena for many years.  Sheila was a corporate researcher at the national headquarters of the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C. and as a labor organizer for the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. She was the Administrator of the Community Services Team, the national pro bono department of Holland & Knight LLP where her work on a death penalty case made her aware of the hundreds of men and women on Florida’s Death Row. Since then she has been an advocate on behalf of prisoners on Death Row and is the current Chair of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (fadp.org).

Paula Saunders, Esq.
Paula Saunders is a retired attorney, having spent over 30 years as an assistant Public Defender in Tallahassee handling capital and non-capital trials and appeals. She is a past president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (FACDL) and a founding member of the Holocaust Education Resource Council. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of FACDL, the Innocence Project of Florida, and Congregation Shomrei Torah.

Audrey Rivers – Founder
1934 – 2018
Audrey was a Florida native born in Hosford (Liberty County) who moved to Tallahassee as a teenager. Audrey became acutely aware of conditions for prisoners on Florida’s Death Row through her work on the support staff of a nonprofit law office which provided postconviction representation for many of the prisoners.  She was involved with and committed to the work of Kindred Spirits since its beginning. Ms. Rivers and her husband, Lee, were married for fifty years until his death.   They were blessed with three children and two grandchildren. The Trustees are committed to continuing the important mission founded by Audrey Rivers.