We Are Responsible Parties
Janet Connors is a longtime community and social justice activist who brings over 50 years of experience working with youth and families in community based organizations in Boston neighborhoods. As a restorative/transformative justice practitioner she has done Survivor Support work with Survivors of Homicide Victims at the Louis Brown Peace Institute; and currently still does this work through the Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery at BIDMC and through the community grown Survivor Support organization known as Legacy Lives On. Through her own deep love of Community; all of the above mentioned opportunities and as a Community Fellow at the Center for Restorative Justice and UNITY Circles, she has brought restorative justice to schools as both a direct practitioner and trainer. She has past experience as a Circle Keeper in Juvenile Justice, and currently through the RISE Federal Court Program, several MCI Prisons, as well as in many beloved grass roots community settings.
A Survivor herself, Janet lost her son Joel to homicide in 2001. Her own personal journey in meeting in restorative dialogue with two of the young men responsible for her son’s murder brought about a change in policy to the State of Massachusetts which now offers victims the option of calling for and participating in Victim-Offender Dialogue.
Janet is a frequent public speaker; panel participant locally and nationally; is on the faculty for MOVA Advocate Academy, was interviewed by HUMANKIND NPR and ALL THINGS CONSIDERED Radio Shows; is the subject of the documentary CIRCLE UP. She is the recipient of a National Award for Leadership in Community and Restorative Justice; Chomsky Peace and Justice Award, Mothers of Courage Award, and UNITY Circles Community Impact Award.
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Ramona Jones is A mother, grandmother, and survivor of homicide. She is active in her Legacy Lives On community, and involved in Restorative Justice Work. Ramona works in the area of youth literacy in the Boston public school system. She does this work in memory of her son Anthony, because reading was very important and he wanted his mother to use her special connection with young children to help them learn to read.
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Kilra Hylton is a mother, grandmother, and activist. Before July 2nd 2015, the day her beloved son Raheem Ramirez was murdered, I took so many moments for granted. Moving forward she has tried to be aware of memories & moments and how important they are because in a matter of minutes life can change drastically with no warning.
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Canada, Europe and Africa. His experience, includes about a third of that time
working with start-up companies: both directly and as part of a venture capital
firm, a third with large companies in management roles and the third with small to
medium sized mature businesses as owner and advisor. Since 2021, he has
focused the majority of this time pro-bono on assisting a select set of founders of
very small profit or start up non-profit organizations. Throughout his career Doug
has always been focused on growing a business to meet the needs of its
Stakeholders. In the small business segment his focus is on ensuring the
Founder or Owner is able to work on their business, not in their business.
Crisman is also a private investor, has participated in various Angle Groups in
NJ, NY and CT, and served as a mentor at Tech Launch, a New Jersey Incubator.
He has participated in committees and as a board member for various
professional groups including ACG and SIM. He currently continues to serve on
the Board of Advisors for Einstein's Alley.
For over twenty-five years through Oldhorses, Inc., a Transition Partner business
consulting firm he founded, Mr. Crisman helped dozens of owners of small
businesses grow their businesses to meet their personal visions; several with
exits producing high returns for the owners and investors. In addition, he
personally bought two businesses, quickly grew them and then sold them for
over 3X revenues; one of them to a public company now owned by IBM.
Doug is currently residing in Kansas City, MO and is the Founder and Chairman
of Friends of AFRISOS LLC in Kansas City, MO as well as Vision Growth Impact
(VGI) Ltd in Arusha Tanzania (East Africa).
Amanda co-creates and facilitates inclusive, collaborative, often transgressive spaces through reflexivity, ritual, play, and trauma-informed practices. As someone with mostly dominant identities and who has been impacted by trauma, Amanda partners with people working through trauma healing, social identity development, active allyship, and collective responsibility for harm and joy in our great big human family. A work in progress like us all, Amanda is obsessed with belonging, healing, and collective liberation.
An Instructor in Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School, Amanda supports the next generation of religious and ethical leaders. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and for general audiences, including in two collaborative book projects on trauma- informed yoga. She is currently working on a book entitled From the Inside: Personal Transformation and Spirituality in American Corrections, a critical religious prison ethnography about the lived and historical connections between incarceration and preoccupations with personal change in the United States. Standing in solidarity with people living in carceral systems, Amanda is committed to people working in them, too: liberation is an infinity-sum game.
Amanda received a PhD in Religious Studies and a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Boston University, an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School, and a B.A. in religion from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is currently pursuing a Conflict Mediation Certificate through the Community Dispute Settlement
Center.
Noble is responsible for TPP’s business pipeline, program management, developing programming, and fundraising. Also, a lead facilitator and circle keeper for TPP, Noble brings over seven years of Restorative Justice Circle Keeper and facilitation experience. He has worked with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, students, law enforcement officials, attorneys, community members, and business professionals. Noble leads restorative justice circles, speaks publicly, volunteers, and mentors' youth through Communities for Restorative Justice, Everyday Boston, and Roxbury District Court’s CHOICE Program. Noble is a Teaching Assistant at Columbia University’s School of Social Work where he has been leading circles for the past four semesters. Noble Co-founded Men Exploring Their Own Obstacles, a curriculum that aims to address toxic masculinity, rape culture, and sexism within organizations, schools, institutions, and government.
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Armand is the Executive Director of Transformational Prison Project, where he is also a lead facilitator and circle keeper. A former coordinator of Everyday Boston’s Bridge Project, Armand has nearly a decade of experience developing and leading Restorative Justice (RJ) programming. While incarcerated, he founded the Youthful Offender Coalition for those who committed their crime under age 18 and Men Exploring Their Own Obstacles, which addresses toxic masculinity, rape culture, and sexism. In addition to his work with TPP, Armand leads restorative justice circles and mentor’s youth through Roxbury District Court's CHOICE Program and is Volunteer Development and Community Outreach Coordinator at Communities for Restorative Justice. He is also a member of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Roundtable on Racial Disparities in Massachusetts Courts and facilitates circles for first year law students at Harvard Law School.
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Honorably known as Rickey McGee, is a Roxbury native. Well known for his leadership as an organizer, educator, and crisis manager in the Massachusetts Correctional Institutions. He has served in many leadership capacities throughout the last 26 years in various institutions, before becoming the founder of The Harriet Tubman Project, a legal advocacy class for incarcerated men. Fu-Quan has dedicated his life studying law, with the goal of dismantling the structural racism that engineers and exploits our most marginalized communities.
Through his leadership, Fu-Quan has mentored and assisted in the rehabilitation of many incarcerated and formerly incarcerated men. His mission is to show his community that positive education always corrects error. Most importantly, freedom begins in our mindset, and nothing will change until we change ourselves.
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Richard Smith is a nationally recognized expert on trauma and healing for survivors of interpersonal and systemic violence. Richard has over two decades of experience developing and leading community-based programs. He has helped organizations throughout the country build their capacity to heal and empower BIPOC folks and marginalized communities. Richard also is an assistant professor at LIU Brooklyn's Social Work Department. Richard has guest lectured at numerous colleges and universities on issues such as systemic racism, mass incarceration, and trauma and healing. Richard is a sought after keynote and plenary speaker for national victim services, restorative justice, and criminal justice conferences. Richard previously served as the National Director of United for Healing Equity, Common Justice, where he led their national policy and organizing work. Richard is the co-founder of Alignment Global LLC, a social enterprise that's mission is to cultivate cultural reclamation, restorative practices, healing justice, and system reform. He holds a master's degree from the University at Albany in Africana Studies and is presently a doctoral candidate at SUNY Albany's School of Welfare. His research focus is on the intersection of the trauma to prison pipeline and the male survivorship of childhood sexual abuse. Richard is a Wood Johnson Forward Promise Fellowship for Leadership Fellow. He is the proud father of Kaden and Kaleb.
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Born and raised in Dorchester to immigrant parents, Jacqueline Fonseca is a dedicated entrepreneur, passionate social advocate, and committed community organizer. As the Co-Executive Director at The Harriet Tubman Project and the Intake Coordinator at The New England Innocence Project, Jacqueline leverages her background in criminal justice and sociology to champion the cause of wrongfully incarcerated individuals.
Furthermore, as a licensed realtor adept at navigating Boston's affordable housing market, Jacqueline's extensive knowledge of community resources positions her as a valuable resource for marginalized families. Jacqueline's lifelong mission is to foster equitable opportunities for all, even if it means creating them ourselves.
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Hilary Binda is the Founder and Executive Director of the Tufts Education & Reentry Network program MyTERN. This is a program of the Tufts University Prison Initiative (TUPIT) that provides college and reentry resources as part of a restorative justice program for returning citizens.
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Don Ike Jones was sentenced at the age of seventeen to life without the possibility of parole and 27 ½ to 55 years consecutively. Don is originally from South Carolina and moved to Philadelphia with his young mother and older brother when he was seven. Don only remember meeting his father twice in his entire life.
Don was recruited at age eleven by local drug dealers to be their lookout, which lead to Don selling drugs and being placed in three juvenile facilities from the age of thirteen to seventeen before being convicted of murder and related charges in 1992. While incarcerated Don achieved what he was unable to achieve in free society, becoming a loving and caring man. Don attended college and was president of the Graterford branch of the NAACP and created several other projects that lead to awards from the PA Senate, House of Representatives and Philadelphia City Council.
Don also received a citation from the United States Justice Department for his work on changing the criminal mindset. Don was an active Graterford think tank member since 2006 and assisted in trading over 150 Inside/Out instructors from all over the world. Don was released in 2019. He created the nonprofit GROWN and has been mentoring youth and returning citizens since his release. Don currently work for the Philadelphia District Attorney office as the Crime Intervention Specialist.
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