Phyllis Pautrat

Phyllis Pautrat "is a licensed clinical social worker, who has worked for several years as a psychotherapist in community mental health in Philadelphia, specializing in trauma treatment, specifically Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Additionally she has managed her own forensic consulting business, providing capital mitigation assessments and investigations in death penalty defense for more than ten years. Since her initial involvement with Amnesty International USA, in 1983, she has served as a local group member, a country specialist group member specializing in human rights work in Central America, and as state and regional death penalty abolition coordinator. She served two elected terms on the AIUSA National Board of Directors from 1995-2001, and was elected again to a three year term in 2004. She has been a trainer and speaker on human rights work in general, and on death penalty abolition work specifically since 1989. She is a recipient of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's Community Service Award (1999) as well as having received special recognition for her work on behalf of Pennsylvania?s death row prisoners from Amnesty International's Mid Atlantic Region and from Pennsylvania Abolitionists United against the Death Penalty. She has testified numerous times in Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania as an expert witness in death penalty mitigation. She has traveled extensively throughout the U.S., Central America, and Western Europe. Ms. Pautrat is a first generation American citizen, a daughter of a refugee from the former Soviet Union."