For Immediate Release

March 1, 2010

For More Information

Jené O'Keefe Trigg

jeneot@ip-no.org/504-943-1902

Nonprofit Communications and Management Expert Hired as

Communications and Development Director of the Innocence Project New Orleans

New Orleans - The Innocence Project of New Orleans (IPNO), a nonprofit organization providing legal representation to the wrongfully convicted of Louisiana and Mississippi, has hired Jené O'Keefe Trigg as the organization's first ever communications and development director.

O'Keefe Trigg brings more than 15 years of strategic nonprofit management and communications experience to IPNO. Before joining IPNO, she was the managing director of Pro-Media Communications, a bicoastal social issues pr agency, where she was based in New York City and managed a staff of 12 leading impactful strategic communications campaigns for numerous nonprofits and social change authors across the country.

"Nearing its 10th year, IPNO saw the need to more effectively communicate what we have learned from our cases to date and to ensure that the perspective of the area's wrongly convicted is a part of the regional dialogue on the criminal justice system," explained Emily Maw, IPNO's director. "Jené's vast experience, combined with her passion for justice, made her the perfect fit for IPNO - the ideal person to communicate our work to the public."

Prior to Pro-Media, she lived in New Orleans and oversaw The Moratorium Campaign, a national nonprofit led by Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking," that worked to educate the country on the need to halt the death penalty.

"New Orleans has been in my heart since my move to New York in 2004," explains O'Keefe Trigg on her return. "To be able to return to a city I love and bring my skill set to an organization I believe to be one of the most important justice organizations in existence, I couldn't be more excited."

O'Keefe Trigg has a deep understanding of the work IPNO does on behalf of its clients and will work with staff attorneys both on communications and development-related activities, ensuring that the critical work done by IPNO is communicated to those who need to hear about it most.

"Pro-Media grew stronger and more effective in countless ways under Jené's outstanding stewardship," notes Pro-Media's president and founder Rochelle Lefkowitz. "We'll miss her and wish her well."

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Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO) represents innocent prisoners serving life sentences in Louisiana and Mississippi and assists them with their transition into the free world upon their release. IPNO works in the states with the country's highest incarceration rates and the highest rates of wrongful conviction. By identifying and remedying cases and causes of wrongful conviction, IPNO engages in high-impact, frontline advocacy in the courts of law and public opinion, and leads community-based responses into the mistakes made by our criminal justice system.

Since its inception, IPNO has achieved the release of 15 wrongfully convicted prisoners. For more information visit www.ip-no.org.