Kalamazoo Defender Board Members

Robert Hill, M.D. BOARD President

Robert Hill, M.D. is currently a Physician Advisor for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Hill is board certified in Emergency Medicine. He practiced 25 years at Ascension Borgess Hospital where his career has touched many lives in the Kalamazoo area. Dr. Hill previously served as Chief Medical Officer at Ascension Borgess Hospital.

PEGGY KINGSLEY BOARD Treasurer

As a graduate of Loy Norrix/KAMSC and Kalamazoo College, Peggy has deep roots in the Kalamazoo community. She is a certified licensed accountant at KPMG, LLP, a global tax and accounting

firm. Previously Peggy worked on the global tax accounting team at Stryker Corporation. Peggy’s work with Stryker took her to the Netherlands for two years, where she and her family gained firsthand experience with differences between the US and European domestic and professional cultures. Prior to joining Stryker, Peggy worked as a CPA with KPMG in San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon.

Peggy lives in Kalamazoo with her husband and their two sons.

ZOANN SNYDER board Secretary

Zoann Snyder is an Associate Professor and Criminal Justice Studies Program Director in the Sociology Department at Western Michigan University. Originally from Nebraska, Dr. Snyder has called southwest Michigan home since 1992. Her teaching and research have focused on strengthening relationships between the university and the community. In the past 15 years, she has expanded experiential learning opportunities for criminal justice studies and sociology majors at WMU through service learning projects, internships, and community-based research. One notable collaboration brought together incarcerated students and university undergraduates to work on joint projects for social justice.

Babajide Daranijoh BOARD MEMBER

Babajide Daranijoh is a senior finance expert with over 25 years’ experience in all aspects of major corporate finance. His current position is Director of finance at Stryker Corporation. His prior experiences include finance & accounting roles with Princeton Financial Systems, Dow Jones & Company both in Princeton New Jersey and Arthur Andersen & Andersen Consulting in Lagos Nigeria.

Babajide lives in Portage with his wife and their three sons. Outside of family & work, Babajide is also a soccer coach, his love of the beautiful game keeps him busy all year-round coaching, watching, or playing soccer.

J. RICHARDSON ‘RICK’ JOHNSON
BOARD MEMBER

J. Richardson “Rick” Johnson served as a Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Kalamazoo County from 1993 to 2014 and as the Chief Judge from 2000 through 2007.  He is the original author of the “Criminal Proceedings Benchbook” published by the Michigan Judicial Institute.  Rick has served as chair of the Kalamazoo County Community Corrections Advisory Board and served on the boards of KPEP and the Kalamazoo Criminal Justice Council.  Before joining the Court, he was in private practice and helped organize several local non-profit corporations including the Family Health Center, Housing Resources, the New Year’s Fest and the Kalamazoo Film Society. 

Stacey R. Ledbetter BOARD MEMBER

Stacey R. Ledbetter is a community leader in Kalamazoo. After a career in law enforcement, Ledbetter retired and founded Black & Blue Networking & Consulting, LLC. Her consulting group teaches cadets about urban communities of color, and how to have honest conversations. Beyond her consulting work, Ledbetter is also the Law Design Team Lead and Racial Healing Practitioner Leader/Trainer for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation(TRHT) Kalamazoo. TRHT is a comprehensive, national and community-based process developed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) and 174 national partners to identify and address the historic and contemporary effects of racism — to help communities heal and produce actionable, sustainable change.

Kate Miller
board member

Kate Miller is a servant leader who focuses on creating and growing programs, teams, and cultures with a high importance on psychological safety.  She is a resident of Kalamazoo’s Douglas neighborhood and currently serves as the Director of Career and Continuing Education at Kalamazoo Valley Community College where she is charged with demand driven programming, removing barriers to accessing education, and empowering individuals to achieve success as they wish to see it through their own lived experiences and strengths.   She takes a collaborative approach and believes there is too much good work in our in our community to do to compete with each other.  But rather, through listening and inclusion, we have the opportunities to strengthen our local workforce by not leaving anyone behind.    Kate is most proud of her two children, Liz and Braxton who are working their way toward the Kalamazoo Promise by attending Kalamazoo Public Schools. 

JIM RODBARD
board member

Jim Rodbard has served as an attorney in Michigan for over 35 years. Having supported numerous local nonprofit organizations, he has also been a member of the boards of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at all levels, including the National Board of Directors, the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Michigan (serving in almost every leadership position in the organization, including four years as its President), and as member of the Southwestern Branch of the ACLU. 

He maintains a deep interest in indigent defense and was involved with the early investigations leading to Duncan v. State of Michigan. In thinking of the complete re-ordering of indigent defense in Michigan, as a consequence of this litigation and beyond, he is in awe of the Kalamazoo Defender office and its holistic approach to delivery of these services.

Sherry Thomas-Cloud, M.S.W., L.M.S.W.
Board MEMBER

CEO of Family & Children Services, a private, non-profit Human Services organization that provides Child Welfare, Behavioral Health, and Crisis Services in southwest Michigan.

Formerly, she served as the executive director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in Kalamazoo County. Additionally, Sherry has served as executive director of Douglass Community Association, NCADD, Michigan, and has held executive level positions in the areas of early childhood, prevention and community based treatment. Furthermore, Sherry has taught (1996-2013) as part-time faculty in the college of Health and Human Services at Western Michigan University.

Ms. Thomas-Cloud has a long record of community engagement and collaboration at the local, regional, and state-wide level.

Gary Voshell
Board member

Gary Voshell has practiced law in the Kalamazoo area for over 25 years. Although now semi-retired, he continues his legal practice with a focus on criminal defense work and plaintiff’s personal injury cases. Gary has been a proud member of the Kalamazoo community since 1980 and remains actively engaged in many local affairs. He previously served as an elected Trustee on the Vicksburg Community Schools Board of Education (12 years) and is now on the Brady Township Planning Commission. In his free time, Gary enjoys spending time with his family on Indian Lake and playing golf with his friends and neighbors.

Joshua c. hilgart
executive director

Joshua Hilgart was born and raised in Kalamazoo, the community first in his heart. He returned here after twelve years in Washington, DC, where he worked on issues including voting rights, environmental policy, judicial appointments and education.

Joshua returned to Kalamazoo in 2008, where he has engaged in legal advocacy for the under served, leading up to the organization of Kalamazoo Defender.

For Josh, the most rewarding aspect of the work ahead is that it confronts issues of equity both systemically and on an individual basis, permitting him to remain engaged with the communities and individuals Kalamazoo Defender will serve.