Announcing the 2025 ARC Award Winners
- 17 Sep 2025
- Jeremiah Sierra
Advancing Real Change, Inc. is proud to announce the recipients of our 2025 awards! Selected by a volunteer committee of accomplished criminal defense practitioners, these individuals represent the best and the future of the profession.
Muhammad-White Award: Randi Chavez
The Muhammad-White Award honors a mitigation specialist whose body of work has profoundly advanced the field of mitigation.
Randi Chavez is the Deputy Director and Head of Mitigation at Texas Defender Service (TDS). Through her unparalleled leadership, thoughtful mentorship, and deep compassion for her clients, Randi has made an enormous impact on the field of mitigation in Texas.
Randi has been a mitigation specialist for nearly 23 years, launching her mitigation career as an intern at the Gulf Region Advocacy Center.
In 2009, Randi joined the Texas Defender Service (TDS), where she has served as a mitigation specialist for over 50 clients and provided life-saving consultation on the cases of 25 trial teams.
In 2017, Randi formed a team of mitigation specialists to conduct mitigation investigations for clients facing the death penalty across the State of Texas. Before Randi established TDS’s Mitigation Unit, Texas capital trial and post-conviction teams struggled to find quality mitigation specialists. Texas capital-defense teams now have access to the highest-quality mitigation specialists. Due in large part to the work of her team, the number of new death sentences in Texas is in the low single digits annually. Her team has inspired District Attorneys to drop capital charges against 36 pretrial clients since 2018.
Randi walks the whole path with her clients, bearing witness and offering compassion. Her compassion is evident not just in her casework, but in how she mentors new mitigation specialists. She has actively sought to bring young people into the profession and nourish their careers and to increase the diversity of people doing mitigation work in Texas, and she has taken time to work closely with her mentees on all aspects of their work, from helping them navigate complicated interpersonal dynamics with Texas trial teams to finding the right expert to coping with the vicarious trauma that can result from doing mitigation work.
Randi’s career has exemplified a commitment to humanity and justice. Her work has, without a doubt, profoundly advanced the field of mitigation in Texas and the entire country.
Emerging Leader Award: Kaylyn Christian
The Emerging Leader Award is given to a mitigation specialist who represents the future of the profession.
Kaylyn Christian joined the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation (ACCR) as a Mitigation Specialist in 2018. When her mentor and the widely-respected mitigation specialist, Dana Cook, left ACCR for a new opportunity in 2020, Kaylyn became the Director of Mitigation. In the years that followed, she honed her craft and has become a standard bearer for the practice of mitigation and a support for those representing capital clients in Pennsylvania.
Kaylyn is a resource and mentor to others on her team and across the state of Pennsylvania, and regularly provides advice and counsel to other criminal defenders. She is known as a compassionate person who cares for those around her—and herself—so they can sustainably do their best possible work.
Kaylyn’s work has also helped educate others about how to effectively conduct a mitigation investigation, how to operate as a team, and how to put their clients first. Shortly after becoming Mitigation Director, the pandemic hit. She adapted the Center’s training response to the pandemic, and continues to organize trainings and conferences for capital case practitioners in Pennsylvania and other states. She is committed to following best practices and adept at educating others about why thorough, rigorous mitigation investigation is necessary. She enjoys bringing people together and fostering a capital defense community in Pennsylvania so that others feel connected and supported while doing such difficult work.
Perhaps most importantly, she forms strong relationships with her clients and their families, earning their respect and trust. Her care for her clients and dedication to high quality mitigation is an inspiration to others and leads to the best possible outcomes for the individuals whom she represents.
Award for Exceptional Service: Melanie Kalmanson
The Award for Exceptional Service acknowledges the tenacity and commitment of one of our partners in the capital and criminal defense fields. ARC staff members determine the winner of this award independently of the awards committee.
This year, ARC presents its exceptional service award to Melanie Kalmanson and Quarles & Brady LLP for their advocacy on behalf of individuals sentenced to death in Florida.
Thus far, Florida has executed 11 men in 2025, a record for the state, with more likely to be carried out this year. Many of the executed raised claims that merited review. Yet courts have failed to intervene.
In the midst of these difficult circumstances, Melanie has helped numerous organizations and individuals advocate for these men. She has represented those who have an interest in cases, filing amicus curiae briefs on behalf of individuals facing execution in both the Florida Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court.
At a time when courts are not considering valid legal claims, filing these briefs urging the courts to recognize the injustices perpetrated by the state can be challenging and, at times, discouraging. And yet, Melanie continues to provide this critical role for men like Jeffrey Hutchinson, who suffered physical and mental injuries during his military service rendering him unable to understand why he was being executed. And Victor Jones, who was abused as a child while attending a state-run reform school. This is not justice. Melanie has advocated for them when few others will, and helped others do the same.
In addition to her pro-bono work, Melanie is a Commercial Litigation Partner at Quarles & Brady LLP, where she represents businesses and individuals in all phases of litigation in state and federal court. Before private practice, Melanie clerked for retired Justice Barbara J. Pariente on the Florida Supreme Court. Each year, she devotes significant time to pro bono in capital cases. She also serves on the Steering Committee for the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project and teaches Florida Capital Punishment as an Adjunct Professor at her alma matter, the Florida State University College of Law.
We are proud to present this award to Melanie and her team for their exceptional advocacy and service to justice and humanity in Florida.
Join our free event
Join us at Together Towards Justice to celebrate our award winners!
Join us to celebrate our winners at Together Towards Justice, on October 23, 2025 at 1pm Eastern Time. All are invited to this free virtual event to recognize the incredible impact of our award winners. We will also hear from ARC founding board member, Chris Walters, who, as the former head of pro bono for Reed Smith, supported numerous capital and non-capital criminal cases. For his work, Mr. Walters was honored with the prestigious Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award.
This event is free and open to all.