Board Members & Facilitators
Alliance for Unitive Justice
Board of Directors
Clarence M. Dunnaville, Jr.
Clarence M. Dunnaville, Jr., now a Richmond, Virginia lawyer, has devoted his life to civil rights. He grew up in the city of Roanoke, Virginia during the Jim Crow era. He fought segregation as a child by refusing to use segregated toilets or to sit in the back of the bus. During college he was a civil rights activist, picketing segregated theaters and participating in numerous student demonstrations and sit-ins that opened lunch counters to black citizens in Baltimore, Md. In December 1953, Thurgood Marshall arranged for him to see the oral arguments of Brown v. Board of Education in the United States Supreme Court. That experience inspired Clarence to study law and work to end racial discrimination. He graduated with honors from Saint John’s University School of Law in Brooklyn, New York. In 1961, he was appointed an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York by Robert F. Kennedy. In addition to his work in law, he has been engaged in substantial community work, including his outstanding work on behalf of AUJ. For more information about his illustrious career, please see http://clarencedunnaville.com.
Cynthia Downing
Cynthia Downing created and now leads the Comfort Movement to help survivors of trauma become whole spiritually, mentally and physically. By sharing her passion and personal experience, and bringing attention to resources offered by various organizations, her aim is to heal the body, mind and spirit. Cynthia trained with Safe Harbor, Landmark Education, and in Unitive Justice and Circle Facilitation, but more important is what she has learned from life. When her son and daughter were children, she dedicated her life to their future. She now dedicates her life, her love and her passion to bringing justice to abuse victims.
Maire Taylor
Maire Taylor has had a career in the behavioral health field that now spans over 30 years. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she currently practices at, Be The Change Counseling Services, LLC, which she began in 2013. She is passionate about helping people close the gap from where they are, to where they want to be in life via individual, couples, family, group therapy, workshops, and retreats. She fully supports the Unitive Justice movement as being consistent with trauma-informed care and exemplifying a resolution to human rights and social justice for all.
Debbie STelmach
Debbie Stelmach has a passion for teaching. Her current position is teaching nurses to perform clinical laboratory tests at the patient bedside. Debbie has worked in hospital laboratories for over 40 years. While attending AUJ classes, she immediately realized that the principles of Unitive Justice are applicable to more than our broken criminal justice system. Unitive principles can be applied to education, parenting and business. Debbie lives in Chesterfield County and can often be found planning new projects for her yard.
Sylvia Clute
Sylvia Clute created Unitive Justice Theory over the past 30+ years, a journey that began during her 28-year career as a trial attorney. Sylvia continues to develop and implement the theory, to write, give workshops and teach at the university level. She is author of Beyond Vengeance, Beyond Duality: A Call for a Compassionate Revolution and Destiny Unveiled and will soon publish a book on Unitive Justice. She is a contributor to two recent books on the Integrative Law movement. Sylvia holds advanced degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Boston Univ. School of Law, and the Univ. of California/Berkeley. She formerly served in the Peace Corps in Nepal, as Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Women’s Bank in Richmond, and as President of the Virginia Women’s Attorneys Association. She teaches various aspects of Restorative Justice at Virginia Union Univ. and Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Sylvia is President of the Alliance for Unitive Justice.
Jodi Smith, Esq.
Jodi Smith is a non-profit leader and a leadership trainer. She took Sylvia Clute’s Unitive Justice Training in January 2017, then took several more training classes, and was hooked. Jodi has been working to create what started as Unitive Business and has developed into Unitive Leadership. She has created materials and conducted a pilot training on Unitive Leadership.
Jodi’s background is in law—she received her Juris Doctorate from University of Richmond School of Law in 1996—and she has worked in non-profit leadership for the past 14 years. In addition to serving on the AUJ board, Jodi is currently the National Program Director for Mended Hearts and Mended Little Hearts, the nation’s largest peer-support program for people of all ages living with heart disease, their caregivers, and their families.
