BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF PARTAKERS, INC.

Robert Cadigan, PhD., Board Vice President, is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Sociology in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Metropolitan College, Boston University. He Coordinates the Sociology program for the College and teaches courses in Criminal Justice on campus and on-line. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he directs the Boston University Prison Education Program. He received his BA (Sociology) from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston University in 1981.  Bob became professionally involved in the study of the criminal justice system and alternative systems of social control in graduate school when he worked in community based corrections and community drug and alcohol treatment programs.  He began working with the Prison Education Program in 1997 and became Director in 2001.

June Cooper, M.Div., M.S.P., currently the Executive Director of City Mission Society of Boston, an urban social justice agency that has been addressing the educational, economic and social needs of impoverished area residents since the early 1800’s, holds a graduate degree in Social Planning from the Boston College School of Social Work as well as a Master of Divinity

from Andover Newton Theological School.  June founded and served as Executive Director of The Community Training and Resource Center, Inc. and has held key positions in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Division of Alcoholism, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Inc., Boston Healthy Start Initiative, and the Massachusetts Minority Council on Alcoholism, Inc.  She has also served on the faculties of Andover Newton Theological School, Boston College School of Social Work, Boston University School of Social Work and Simmons College.  Her commitment to community service is demonstrated by her participation on the Boards of the Institute for Health and Recovery, The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, and her work with Mothers Like Me (which she co-founded). She currently serves as the Minister of Outreach at the First Baptist Church in Framingham, MA. She lives in Boston and is a model train enthusiast.

Julia Goldberg, B.L.S., is currently a Database Designer at the Boston University Law School. After cultivating a successful thirteen year career as a gemologist & sales manager, in 1995, she embarked on a 7-9 year incarceration in MCI-Framingham for a first offense vehicular homicide/DUI. During this social sequester, Ms. Goldberg graduated Summa Cum Laude from Boston University. She worked for both B.U. and the Department of Corrections (D.O.C.) as the Education Clerk. Her software and graphic design talents were utilized by the D.O.C. to create various department specific programs. While living in the residential recovery unit, she served as a mentor to other women and always found time to tutor them in literacy, GED, and college courses. Ms. Goldberg believes education is pivotal to personal growth and empowerment. In thousands of journal pages, she has chronicled her journey for future publication. Ms. Goldberg plans to earn her Ph.D. in Computer Sciences from B.U. She remains committed to advocating for prison education and overwriting public perceptions of media myth with the reality of the humanity of prisoners.

Lynn Holbein, Board Clerk, is an artist and political activist.  A very early commitment to civil rights, peace and nuclear disarmament led to her protesting government policies and to a serious fifteen year investment in writing, fundraising, public speaking and organizing ordinary people to lobby their legislators.  During the 1980's and 90's she worked for the Piedmont Peace Project, raising money in Boston for economic justice work in rural North Carolina.  Since that time, Lynn has become increasingly concerned with the over-incarceration of Americans, particularly non-violent drug offenders.  As a volunteer for FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums), she currently coordinates a lobbying coalition at the State House to reform mandatory minimum drug laws.  Having become an artist and art teacher during the last decade, she has brought her talent as a former public school teacher and her skills as an artist to a men's prison in Massachusetts where, for the last number of years, she has been teaching a weekly class in art.

Lanny Kutakoff is a sociologist, social researcher and educator who has over three decades of experience in higher education, training, and organizational development.  He has taught on the faculties of Boston University, University of Massachusetts/Boston, Northeastern University, Pine Manor College and Dean College and has held administrative appointments including Academic Dean and Vice President and Dean of the College.  He was selected to be an evaluator for the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education and to be a member of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education.  During his tenure at Boston University and UMass/Boston, he taught at MCI-Cedar Junction, MCI-Concord and MCI-Norfolk.  Committed to experiential education, Lanny developed internship and co-operative education programs for numerous colleges and corporations.  Prior to his current job as Executive Director of Partakers, he worked for a healthcare information technology company where he served as Director of Organizational Development and as the Vice President for Corporate Learning.  A lifelong activist and advocate for the marginalized and disenfranchised, Lanny was a founder of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New England Wildlife Center.

Margaret King Saphier, R.N., B.S., M.Div., is a Unitarian Universalist minister. Prior to assuming her current position as the Associate Minister for Pastoral Care at First Parish of Concord, MA, she served as a Hospice chaplain as well as affiliate minister at United First Parish Church in Quincy, MA. Throughout her professional life, Reverend Saphier has been committed to those who are disenfranchised, helping them to "find their voice" as they struggle to meet their needs, as well as the needs of their families. This was true in the late 1960's, when she was a public health nurse in Schenectady, NY; as well as when she was a pediatric nurse practitioner in Boston, MA in the 1970's. For fifteen years, as editor of the Children In Hospitals Newsletter, she advocated for the needs of families when their children were hospitalized. Reverend Saphier has facilitated various programs offered by Partakers, Inc. in prisons.  Reverend Saphier is firm believer that education supported by compassionate mentoring results in positive transformation.

Abraham Waya, PhD, M.Div., the Pastor of Franklin United Methodist Church in Franklin, MA, also serves on the faculty of Boston University in its Prison Education Program.  Abraham has taught courses in World History and International Relations in colleges in his native Nigeria and has served as a Research Fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences and a Defense Analyst at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic studies in Nigeria.  Fluent in Russian, English and Hausa, Dr. Abraham has published numerous articles and essays on Religion, Foreign Policy, and Terrorism. 

Roswitha Winsor, LICSW, is a clinical social worker with a BA from Wellesley College and an MSW from Boston University. She has 38 years of experience in mental health and family service agencies and extensive involvement with a variety of peace and justice initiatives. For the past 10 years she has worked in prisons as a volunteer and has been active in criminal justice reform. In 1996, she founded the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition (www.cjpc.org) and served as its Chairperson until 2000. Her congregation sponsors two prisoners through the Partakers' College Beyond Bars program.