OUR TEAM

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & LEAD COUNSEL

Jessica Van Dyke graduated from the University of Tennessee Law School, where, as a law student, she cut her teeth on post-conviction work in the university's Wrongful Convictions Clinic. She has remained passionate about wrongful convictions and after eight years at Parker Lawrence Cantrell & Smith, left the firm in January 2019 to help launch the Tennessee Innocence Project. Jessica is a proud graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and received her Master’s from Vanderbilt University. Jessica has served on the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors and served for several years as the organization’s Indigent Defense Chair. She has been the recipient of TACDL’s Workhorse Award and the Robert W. Ritchie Service Award. She is a member of the Nashville Bar Association, Tennessee Bar Association, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

DEPUTY DIRECTOR & SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL

Jason Gichner is Deputy Director and Senior Legal Counsel at The Tennessee Innocence Project. Jason is a veteran litigator who has spent his career fighting for clients in the courtroom. Jason received his undergraduate degree with Honors from Colgate University before graduating from Vanderbilt University Law School. Upon graduation from Vanderbilt, Jason joined the Office of the Metropolitan Nashville Public Defender. As a senior trial attorney and Team Leader, he represented thousands of clients and tried numerous jury cases to verdict. Jason subsequently worked in private practice for a decade at Nashville law firms handling complex civil litigation. He is a Fellow of the Nashville Bar Association, graduate of the Tennessee Bar Association Leadership Law Program and a member of the Harry Phillips American Inn of Court. He served as Counsel to the State Task Force on Indigent Representation and is a former member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the Middle District of Tennessee. Jason is consistently named to the annual list of Super Lawyers for the Mid-South and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School.

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Melissa Todd graduated from University of Memphis earning a Bachelor of Professional Studies degree with a concentration in Paralegal Studies. She started her career working as a paralegal in criminal defense law offices. She went on to become a criminal investigator working closely with criminal defense teams during both the litigation and mitigation phases of cases. Having a son with a disability, her dedication to non-profit work began when she volunteered and spearheaded the fundraising campaign to open a Memphis office of a national organization devoted to diversity and inclusion for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. With much success, she left the legal profession and became the Memphis Director and later was promoted to Tennessee State Director for this organization. Melissa also has a great appreciation for the Arts in the city of Memphis and eventually moved on to become the Vice President of Patron Engagement for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. She has served on many boards and fundraising committees including SRVS, the Orpheum, the Mid-South Fair Youth Talent committee and many more. She is a proud member of The Circle, a group of diverse, community investors who embrace a commitment to network and ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion as core values of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. After learning more about the injustice happening across the state and the impact of the Tennessee Innocence Project, Melissa knew she wanted to circle back to her legal roots and lead our development team to help the organization grow so that more innocent people can be released from prison.

STAFF ATTORNEY, MEMPHIS

Connor attended Carleton College and Vanderbilt University Law School, where he served on the Moot Court Board. While in law school, he interned for two years with the Nashville Office of the District Attorney, where he gained experience working with the Conviction Review Unit and assisting with criminal prosecutions. After graduating law school, he began his legal career in insurance litigation before coming to work with the Tennessee Innocence Project in 2022. Connor is a member of the Memphis and Nashville Bar Associations and is deeply committed to pursuing justice for his clients.

STAFF ATTORNEY & REENTRY FELLOW

Madison Lowery proudly serves as both a staff attorney and a reentry fellow for the Tennessee Innocence Project. Madison is a graduate of Central Michigan University in her home state where she taught high school English for three years before her passion for criminal defense law and innocence work inspired a career change. Madison received her law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2023 where she served on the executive board of Vanderbilt’s Journal of Transnational Law. During her years in law school, Madison honed her passion for public service through internships with Legal Services of South-Central Michigan, the Nashville Office of Public Defenders, and the Tennessee Innocence Project. Upon graduation, Madison was awarded the George Barrett Social Justice Fellowship which granted her the opportunity to assist the Tennessee Innocence Project in strengthening reentry services to clients as they transition back into the community.

INTAKE FELLOW

Margaret Wilson graduated with honors from Harvard University in May 2019 with a B.A. in History & Science with a Secondary Field in Global Health & Health Policy. She wrote her honors thesis on current mass tort opioid litigation, historically analyzing it against the Big Tobacco litigation of the 1990s, and the role of litigation in driving public health and policy change. After graduation, Margaret completed a two-year term as a Litigation Program Paralegal at Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston, where she served on case teams for matters ranging from investigations of electronic health records companies to a multibillion-dollar M&A trial matter, and on diverse pro bono work, including asylum intake, eviction clinics, and anti-trafficking legislation. Margaret served a two-semester term with the Interns & Fellows Program of International Justice Mission (IJM), which works to protect the global poor from violent injustice through justice system transformation. Margaret supported the work of the D.C.-based South Asia team and South Asia-based field offices focused on ending bonded labor slavery and sex trafficking, as well as expansion into an additional country with a programmatic focus on combatting commercial sexual exploitation of children. During college, Margaret interned with the CDC Foundation, Mercy Care, and Lawyers Without Borders.

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR

Amber Logue is the Practice Management Coordinator at the Tennessee Innocence Project. She graduated from Belmont University in 2020 with a B.A. in Social Entrepreneurship after following a track in Contemporary Social Issues. During her time as an undergraduate, she developed her passion for the liberation of the oppressed and institutional reform. Following graduation, she went into a career in animal welfare where she focused her liberation efforts from people to animals. She spent three years working for the placement of animals and made the decision to re-focus her efforts on supporting organizations whose efforts uplift justice of people. Amber is currently pursuing her Master of Divinity at Vanderbilt University, with the hope to promote liberation theology.

INVESTIGATOR

Marc Caudel proudly serves as the Investigator for the Tennessee Innocence Project based in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. After having been honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy where he served as a Hospital Corpsman for 10 years, he began his legal career with the Shelby County Public Defender’s office in Memphis. He subsequently worked for the Federal Public Defender’s office in the Western District of Pennsylvania as well as the Eastern District of California’s Capital Habeas Unit. Marc has over twenty years of experience in assisting in the representation of indigent clients and is devoted to the pursuit of freeing the innocent. As an investigator, he has worked on over 400 First Degree Murder cases in both State and Federal court and well countless number of other felony cases that include a wide array of crimes. While working in conjunction with the defense attorney, he has been instrumental in being able to create reasonable doubt in numerous cases that either resulted in dismissals, acquittals, or plea agreements for lesser offenses. Mr. Caudel is a member of the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (TACDL), National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), National Defense Investigator Association (NDIA), and an advisory council member of the Tennessee Innocence Project.