WJI Staff
Margo Kirchner - Executive Director
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Executive director of WJI, having previously held the roles of development director and general counsel. Prior to joining WJI in 2017, Kirchner was a career law clerk (similar to a staff attorney position) in the federal courts, providing legal research, writing, case management, and counsel for judges in the Eastern District of Wisconsin for more than 20 years and at the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals for one year (1996-1997 for Hon. Terence T. Evans). In 2018 and again in 2021 and 2024 she was elected as a State Bar of Wisconsin representative to the Wisconsin Judicial Council. In 2020 Kirchner was elected Village of Shorewood municipal judge; she was reelected in 2024.
Kirchner is a past president of the Association for Women Lawyers and the Concord Chamber Orchestra, and she currently chairs the Association for Women Lawyers Foundation board. |
Alexandria Staubach - Policy Analyst
Policy analyst and staff writer for WJI. Prior to joining WJI in 2023, Staubach worked for several years as an assistant district attorney in Colorado’s 4th judicial district and then as a commercial litigator here in Wisconsin. In addition to extensive institutional knowledge gained as an ADA and litigator, Staubach has dedicated her spare time to various nonprofit organizations. She has worked with the Kentucky Innocence Project, volunteers with Milwaukee Justice Center’s Pardon and Expungement Clinic, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee.
Gretchen Schuldt - Former Executive Director and Policy Analyst
Recently retired, Gretchen Schuldt served as executive director for more than six years and then as a part-time policy analyst. Her articles remain in WJI's blog archives and WJI is what it is today because of her. Schuldt worked for 20 years as a reporter and editor for the Milwaukee Sentinel and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where she covered a wide variety of beats, including federal courts and Milwaukee County civil courts. She also worked for 13 years for Milwaukee Public Schools as a fiscal policy analyst and grants development coordinator.