Arthur Bembury, Executive Director , Is the Co-Founder of Several Residential Treatment

Arthur Bembury, Executive Director, is the co-founder of several residential treatment facilities for disadvantage youths in Southern California. He is also a former Boston University student and database specialist with an extensive history in commercial and residential real estate. Arthur brings unique experience to the organization, helping address issues of recidivism and the need for rehabilitative and educational programming in Massachusetts prisons.

Margie King Saphier, R.N., B.S., M.Div. Chairperson, is a Unitarian Universalist minister. In 2011 she retired from her position as the Associate Minister for Pastoral Care at First Parish of Concord, MA, to devote her ministry to restorative justice for victims and their families of violent crime, and for offenders. She has been actively involved with Partakers since 2001. She also works with the Louis D Brown Peace Institute in Dorchester, MA, with survivors of homicide. 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 is firm believer that education supported by compassionate mentoring results in positive transformation.

Ray LaFrance, Vice Chairperson,is President of Founders Family Office, a company that works with the owners of businesses to plan and manage the personal and financial interrelationships between the business and their families. Prior to leading Founders Family Office, Ray was an international business consultant and a corporate executive. He is actively involved in Boston’s entrepreneurial community where he has advised several start-up companies. Ray is a mentor to a prisoner at MCI Norfolk Prison and Chairman of the First Parish Church of Weston Stewardship Committee.

Robert Cadigan, PhD., Liaison to Boston University Prison Education Program,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.

William F. McGovern.,Treasurer,William is a Certified Public Accountant, Financial Planner, and President of Acuity Wealth Management that provides tax planning and wealth management services to individuals and businesses. Prior to leading Acuity Wealth Management, Bill was Controller of a Boston Real Estate development company for many years, overseeing all financial aspects of real estate development projects in Boston and the surrounding area. He also worked as a manager in a CPA firm conducting audits of manufacturing, retail, and service businesses throughout New England. Previously, he was Treasurer of English At Large, a non-profit organization that teaches English to new citizens of the U.S.A. He is a graduate of Bentley College. Bill is married and has a son who was recently sworn in as an attorney in Massachusetts and is working for a Boston law firm.

Lynn Holbein, Board Clerk,is an artistand political activist.Avery early commitment to civil rights, peaceand nuclear disarmament led to her protesting government policies and toa 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, shehasbrought 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.

Sally Crissman was a science teacher for over 40 years in public and independent schools and has led professional development institutes and workshops for teachers throughout the country. She currently works for TERC, a not-for-profit research and development organization in Cambridge developing science curricula for children and courses for K-8 teachers who want to boost their ability to teach physical science. For 7 years Sally has mentored students at Norfolk MCI as a member of volunteer teams from Trinity Church, Boston. Prior to this experience, she had little knowledge of the criminal justice system but the mentoring experience changed that! She knows that Boston University’s and Partakers’ work to transform lives through education has enormous social and personal value that she would like to see more widely recognized. Sally and her husband live in Watertown and have three children and six grandchildren.

CHRISTINA HARMS, J.D.,Christina Harms has been a Partakers volunteer since 2008, mentoring first an inmate at MCI Norfolk (since released and about to graduate from BU) and presently an inmate at MCI Framingham. She holds her BA from Wellesley College and her JD from Harvard Law School. She was the General Counsel for the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (“DSS”, now “DCF”) from 1984 to 1989. She was then appointed to the bench by Governor Michael Dukakis. She served as a Probate and Family Court judge for 23 years, before taking an early retirement and becoming the Director of the Child and Family Psychological Evaluation Service at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, where she works with psychologists to conduct evaluations and write reports intended for use by attorneys and judges in cases that come before the courts.

Thomas B. Tufts, M.A., is a community activist. Upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, he interrupted his doctoral studies in English literature at the University of Illinois to join the Peace Corps. For 15 years he worked in agriculture, educational and industrial development in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Upon returning to the United States in 1979, he completed an M.B.A. from Boston University. For 25 years he worked as a computer programmer in the financial services industry in Boston. He has been active in St. James’s Episcopal Church in north Cambridge for over 30 years, serving on its board for many years and as Treasurer for 10 years. Over the years he has been active in many spirituality and study groups, including facilitating a mentoring group for Partakers’ College Behind Bars Program. Mr. Tufts has served on the board of the Helping Hand Food Pantry, which provides services to 500 families a month. For 15 years he has been a liaison between St. James’s and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, participating in campaigns for affordable housing, nursing home workers’ rights, universal health care, elder care, and health care reform.