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Susan Prentice-Sao

Phone: 616-490-7567

PrenticesaoS@michigan.gov

Susan is an attorney who joined the MIDC in 2019 after practicing criminal and youth defense for 15 years. She is a 2024 graduate of the Youth Defender Advocacy Trainer’s Program at Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative. Susan is also a member of the Children’s Law Section, Criminal Law Section, NAPD, and NACDL.
She serves as a council member and co-chairperson of the Education committee for the Children’s Law Section of the Michigan State Bar. Susan is a Regional Great Lakes Advisory Board member for the Gault Center. She is a  member of ICLE’s Criminal Law Advisory Board. Additionally, Susan is currently the Program Manager for Byrne Jag’s grant’s Criminal Defense Trial Skills training program and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s grants for Youth Defense Trial Skills training. She also serves as the lead trainer for both of these programs. Susan is a nationally recognized presenter at conferences such as the Children’s Law Section’s Annual Conference and MIDC’s Leadership Conference.

Rebecca Mack

Phone: 517-281-4782
MackR2@michigan.gov

Rebecca Mack has been with the MIDC as the Grant Director since the summer of 2017.  Prior to working with the MIDC, Rebecca was employed by the Michigan Supreme Court for 23 years working in variety of capacities involving trial court funding and fiscal legislative analysis. She administered the Court Equity Fund, Juror Compensation Fund and other funding streams within the Judiciary budget. She was instrumental in a number of court structure and funding initiatives including the Judicial Crossroads project and the appointment of a Special Master team for the 36th District Court and City of Detroit bankruptcy proceedings. Ms. Mack provided direction for the budget and grant aspects of the Problem Solving Court programs within the Michigan Judiciary from their inception and expansion from Drug and Sobriety Courts to Mental Health, Veteran’s Treatment and Swift and Sure Programs today.

Melissa Wangler

Phone: 231-492-2427
WanglerM@michigan.gov
Senior Regional Manager 

Melissa Wangler joined the MIDC staff in November 2018 as the Regional Manager for Northern Michigan and was then promoted to Senior Regional Manager in October 2023, overseeing the Regional Manager team.  Prior to working for the Commission, Melissa was an attorney in private practice in West Branch where she accepted assigned cases in Ogemaw and neighboring counties.

Jonah Siegel

Phone: 517-275-1331
SiegelJ2@michigan.gov

Dr. Siegel is a researcher who has worked on issues related to the criminal legal system for more than fifteen years. He approaches his work through an anti-racist, abolitionist lens with the goal of eradicating the systemic and racialized harms of the carceral state while building pathways for restorative and transformative justice. He completed his doctoral research at the University of Michigan on the prevalence and implications of parole revocation among technical violators in the state of Michigan, and has conducted research for a wide range of institutions including the Vera Institute of Justice, Michigan’s State Appellate Defender Office, and the State of Michigan. At the MIDC, Dr. Siegel is responsible for identifying institutional research priorities, overseeing data collection and analysis, and translating research findings into best practices and policy reform.

Marcela Westrate

As Executive Director of the Michigan Campaign for Justice, Marcela led the successful effort to reform Michigan’s public defense system resulting in the MIDC’s creation. Marcela managed the Campaign’s coalition of more than 70 organizations and worked with members of the media to bring attention to the problems plaguing the state’s indigent defense system. She is an attorney with a wealth of legislative knowledge and experience. Marcela served as legal counsel in the Michigan House of Representatives and advised Democratic members on judiciary and corrections issues.

Marla McCowan

Phone: 517-388-6702
McCowanM@michigan.gov

Marla McCowan is the Deputy Director for the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission, overseeing day-to-day operations for the MIDC Staff which includes: statewide Regional Managers who provide ongoing assistance to court systems to comply with the MIDC’s standards for indigent defense; the Research Department, collecting data and analyzing impact of the MIDC’s work; the training department, which supports compliance with the MIDC’s continuing legal education and qualification requirements for approximately 1800 attorneys providing services statewide; and the Grants Department, responsible for distributing hundreds of millions of state dollars to local funding units for compliance with MIDC standards.  Prior to joining the MIDC, Marla served as a public defender at the appellate level for over sixteen years at the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office, nearly four of which included overseeing training for indigent defense practitioners around Michigan in her capacity as the Manager of SADO’s Criminal Defense Resource Center and Training Director at SADO.  While at SADO, Marla represented clients in cases in a variety of stages of appeals and post-conviction proceedings in Michigan and federal courts, including an argument in the United States Supreme Court.  Marla graduated from Eastern Michigan University (B.S. ’94) and University of Detroit Mercy School of Law (J.D. ’97).  She is a Fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation, a member of the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan, a member of the National Association for Public Defense, and a member of the Michigan Women Lawyers Association.  Marla was nominated to be part of Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s 2018 class of Women in the Law and was voted “Woman of the Year” by her peers that year and received the State Bar of Michigan’s “Champion of Justice” award (Sept 2019).  In 2024, Marla was re-appointed as the MIDC’s designee to the Michigan Commission on Well-Being in the Law.

Kristen Staley

Kristen Staley is the Executive Director of the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC), an autonomous agency housed within the Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. She supports 19 appointed commissioners and leads a dedicated team responsible for developing, implementing, and enforcing statewide standards on the delivery of public defense services. Kristen ensures the Commission’s work is appropriately resourced, meets all statutory and constitutional mandates, and is effective in improving and promoting best practices in public defense.

Outside of her work with the MIDC, Kristen has a decades long background in public policy development, advocacy, and technical assistance focused specifically on youth and adult justice initiatives at the federal, state and local systems. As Deputy Director for the Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency, she helped increase resources and technical assistance for evidence-based programming among Michigan’s courts; led public policy initiatives to limit the adultification of youth in Michigan’s legal system; and spearheaded legislative and grassroots campaigns to safely reduce reliance on incarceration. Kristen is an appointed Commissioner on the Michigan Supreme Court’s Justice for All Commission, was a member of the Gault Center’s national advisory board and consults as a peer reviewer for the U.S. Office of Justice Programs. She also worked as a legal advocate in the Vermont Legal Aid’s Health Care Ombudsman Office, was an appellate clerk with the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy’s Juvenile Post-Disposition Unit and is an experienced facilitator of restorative justice panels. Kristen received her B.A. from American University and J.D. from the University of Louisville.