David Anderson: David earned a master’s degree from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He was formerly an investment banker who practiced in many segments of the global aviation industry for more than two decades. David currently assists small businesses in the Boston area with financial management. David also assists those who, like himself, have taken responsibility for significant harm caused to others in the past and are now trying to live their best lives possible – for their own benefit as well as for the benefit of their families, friends, and society.
Emily Berg, MSW, is a graduate of Harvard University, Massachusetts College of Art, and Simmons School of Social Work. She is a retired social worker, who worked for many years in various capacities with homeless people. She was not surprised to learn that many of this population have criminal records and that in many cases those records are a primary reason for their homelessness. In particular, people who have been convicted of sex offenses were barred from employment, housing, and benefits and thus were condemned to permanent homelessness and complete rejection by society no matter how they changed or what they did. Fortunately, due to massive efforts of a coalition of activist groups, there have been some real positive changes in this area, but the changes are far from sufficient.
Retirement has allowed Emily to concentrate her efforts on further criminal justice reform as well as continuing to help individuals via BRN. She is a member of Mass Community Action Network and Sexual Offenses Policy Reform Initiative.
William Canavan – Founder & Executive Director: Bill assists men and women being released from civil commitment and/or from other federal, state and county correctional facilities with all their essential needs when returning to the community. Many of these individuals have served several years of incarceration and are homeless. Bill is uniquely qualified to assist because he too spent more than three decades in prison.
Bill is a paralegal primarily working on Sexually Dangerous Person (SDP) trials, assisting in all aspects of the trial and continues to provide his services as an expert witness. Finally, Bill also acts as the Massachusetts contact for the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL).
Erick Lans – Treasurer: Erick has volunteered in the past at Saint Francis House in Boston, as well as with the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition.
He holds a variety of advanced degrees, including a Masters of Science in Accounting and an MBA. He is an Enrolled Agent, providing tax and business advisory, preparation, and representation services to clients.
Forest O’Neill Greenberg, Esq.: Forest O’Neill-Greenberg is an assistant federal defender in the Federal Defender Office in Boston, MA and is licensed to practice in Massachusetts and New York. Previously, she worked as a trial attorney at the Boston criminal defense firm Hedges and Tumposky, LLP, and as a trial attorney with the Public Defender of Massachusetts (CPCS) and for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). She has defended clients against a variety of criminal cases, from simple misdemeanors like drug possession, assault and battery, and driving offenses to complex felonies like drug trafficking, sexual offenses and assaults, armed robbery, and rape. As an appellate advocate, Forest has worked on appeals of serious felonies ranging from murder, rape, and sexual assault to drug trafficking.
Forest specializes in issues related to sex offenses and collateral consequences, such as involuntary civil commitment and sex offender registry requirements. Additionally she has extensive experience working in the field of human rights and international criminal law, and has worked at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a United Nations Atrocity Crimes Tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as was a member of a legal team representing Cambodian victims in their allegations of Crimes against Humanity before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
She is a graduate of the National Forensic College (NFC) and the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC), and is an alumnus of Northeastern University School of Law and Brandeis University.
Michael C. Shimkin, Chair: Michael is a Summa Cum Laude Masters graduate in Business Administration from Northeastern University. With an under-graduate of Civil/Ocean Engineering from the University of Rhode Island in 1989, he pursued a consulting career in environmental engineering and in 1999 founded and remains Executive Director of the non-profit Global Village Engineers. In 2002, Mr. Shimkin was selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow.
Michael has been an invited speaker at Oxfam America; the World Bank; Boston University, Center for Energy and Environment; Tufts University; Roger Williams College; University of Massachusetts; Brandeis University; and Northeastern University’s Graduate School of Business Administration to speak about environmental professions and environmental impact evaluations. With regard to the engineer’s role in international sustainable development
Michael dedicates his volunteer efforts to the Arts, Environmental Sustainability and Criminal Justice Reform and is currently or a past board member of Village Theatre Project, Boston Network for International Development, North Shore United Way, and the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (current Vice-Chair), and Sex Offender Policy Reform Initiative of Massachusetts.