Kristin Houlé Cuellar, Executive Director
Kristin has served as TCADP’s Executive Director since December 2008. From 2007-2008 she was a Soros Justice Fellow and conducted research and public education around the intersection of the death penalty and severe mental illness in Texas. Kristin served for five years as the Program Associate for Amnesty International USA’s Program to Abolish the Death Penalty in Washington, DC. She has been involved with the human rights and anti-death penalty movements since 1995 and held several volunteer leadership roles with Amnesty International, including Student Area Coordinator and State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator for Kentucky. She also was active as a board member and local chapter leader for the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and later became involved with the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in Chicago. Kristin graduated from the University of Kentucky and resides in Austin. Contact her at Kristin@tcadp.org.
Tiara Cooper, Deputy Director
Dallas native Tiara Cooper is an award-winning social justice leader committed to mobilizing marginalized people, uplifting their stories, and utilizing grassroots efforts to impact policy change at the municipal, state, and federal levels.
Fueled largely by her own experience being handed a felony conviction as a teen, she answers the unwavering call to liberation through advocacy that centers dismantling historical systems of white supremacy, ending mass incarceration, and shedding light on felony disenfranchisement.
Tiara was previously the Live Free Texas Organizer with Faith in Texas and has also organized with Texas Organizing Project, OakCliff Chamber of Commerce, and Outreach Strategists, to name a few. She is a founding member of In Defense Of Black Lives (IDOBL) coalition and formerly chaired the Live Free National “Street Certified” Decarceration advisory committee. Tiara will continue to amplify efforts to end extreme sentencing, center those with lived experience, and promote alternative responses to violence in her new role with TCADP.
Amongst other distinctions, Tiara’s commitment to justice has earned her a seat at the table of multiple statewide initiatives, the Juanita Craft Humanitarian Awards – Catalyst Award (2021), being deemed Next Generation Action Network’s Organizer of the Year (2020), and a resolution from Texas House District 109 in recognition of her outstanding leadership advancing civil and human rights. Her organizing efforts have been featured in KERA News, Dallas Morning News, Dallas Observer, FOX 4 News, and PBS.
Tiara is an alumna of Howard University’s Theology, Radicalized Policing and Justice Reform cohort where she earned a certificate in Divinity, an Emerging Leaders fellow, and a CUNY fellow. In her downtime, she enjoys cooking, singing, and meditating with her daughters. Contact her at TCooper@tcadp.org.