Our Team

Prior to joining Just City, Josh served as Director of the Defender’s Resource Network at the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office. He was a part of that office’s Special Litigation Team, which administers the Jericho Project, a nationally-recognized jail diversion program for people with serious and persistent mental illness and substance use issues. He spent several years in private criminal and insurance defense practices as well.

As an attorney in the criminal legal system, Josh saw that many people never get a fair shot at justice and was inspired, along with many others, to organize Just City. Today, he works alongside its staff, board, and many supporters to create a smaller, fairer, and more humane criminal justice system. Josh has degrees from Rhodes College and the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis.

Katie is a native Memphian who began her career in development fundraising with a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, DC., returning to Memphis to work for Community Alliance for the Homeless in 2012. Katie, equipped with seven years of development experience, joined Just City soon after its inception. She manages all operational aspects of Just City: leading fundraising strategy, implementing performance management, and taking on special projects as needed. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Certificate in Fundraising Management.

Yonée is a Bluff City transplant and loves her adoptive home as if she were Memphis-born and raised. Before joining Just City, Yonée worked in multiple Memphis-area nonprofits focused on addressing socioeconomic inequality and racial injustice impacting local families. Through counseling her students and families, she witnessed disparities in the Shelby County justice system. Now Yonée focuses her advocacy and volunteerism skills on bringing transparency and insight to courtroom proceedings, managing our Court Watch program and serving as Student Coordinator.

Yonée earned a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies (Linguistics and Educational Psychology ) from Mississippi State University and a certificate in Community Transformation from Memphis Center for Urban Theological Studies.

Originally from South Carolina, Ashley is proud to call Memphis her chosen home. She first came to Memphis for college and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Business. Upon graduation, she served with the AmeriCorps National Service program to address accessibility barriers in vision care and taxation for working families. Before joining Just City, Ashley served as the Program Manager for Impact America in Tennessee and co-chair of the organization’s inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Workgroup. She is passionate about advancing racial equity by ensuring access to financial stability and a better quality of life to all Memphians. Ashley oversees Just City's Clean Slate Program and Memphis Community Bail Fund.

In 2014, after finishing his M.A. in mathematics at UC Santa Cruz, Ryan returned to Memphis to start the first education program at the 2,813-bed Shelby County Jail in over a decade. Dismayed by the barrage of young students sentenced to life in prison for crimes they committed as children, he transitioned into criminal justice policy reform at Just City where he began his journey into the technology and data space.
Ryan took a temporary hiatus from working at Just City to serve as Executive Director of a local foundation and Data Scientist at the World Bank’s DE JURE (Data and Evidence for Justice Reform) project, and returned to Just City in 2022 to do the work that he loves most.

Raised in the metro Detroit area, Sydney Ortiz majored in English and creative writing at Loyola University Chicago before settling in Memphis. As a new Memphian, she dove right into public service by working at the Memphis Public Library Randolph branch. She is motivated to connect people with resources and build trusting relationships with the diverse Memphis population. As program coordinator, Sydney supports Just City’s Clean Slate Program and the Memphis Community Bail Fund.