Board

Kimberly Malone – President – Kimberly has been teaching with Rising Hope since 2018. During the 2020 pandemic she joined the board and stepped into the role of Sing Sing Facility Coordinator, where she helped the program pivot to correspondence learning during that time. Her background is in not for profit administration. During the course of her professional and volunteer experience she has worked in the fields of community development, addiction, homelessness, education, volunteer support, and incarceration. She is a certified Spiritual Director, and has a MA in Theology and a MA in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Seminary.
Kimberly loves cooking, swimming, flying trapeze, and has a goal to be one of the best versions of herself at 80 years old. She lives in Mahwah, NJ with her husband and two stepsons.

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Dario Peña – Vice President – Dario is an alumnus of the Rising Hope Certificate of Ministry and Human Services Program (CMHSP). He also graduated from the Hudson Link/Mercy College program with a Bachelors in Behavioral Science and a Master’s degree in Professional Studies from the NY Theological Seminary while incarcerated at Sing Sing prison. He now works as Student Success Manager for the Justice Through Code (JTC) program at the Center For Justice at Columbia University.

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Olivia Pocock – Secretary, Curriculum Coordinator – Olivia brings a varied experience in public school education.

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Primrose Sinclair Hammond – Treasurer – Primrose Sinclair Hammond’s professional career stems from over 30 years in the Global Financial Industry.  She is motivated by love, transforming lives and has a mission to assist individuals to identify and fulfill their divine purpose that affords them the opportunity to achieve their full potential and leverage their knowledge for success. Projects in which she has been involved include facilitation of financial literacy sessions, mentoring youths transitioning out of foster care, providing professional coaching/development, career empowerment, and life skills sessions for women, youths, and families. 

Primrose has earned her Doctor of Ministry, Master of Divinity, Master of Business Administration, and Bachelor of Science in Psychology.  Her affiliations include Advisor Boards and PTA Honorary Life Member. She lives in New York with her husband and has three adult sons.

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Dr. Mark Lindeman – Academic Records Coordinator– Mark is acting co-director of Verified Voting, a national non-profit organization that advocates for trustworthy election technology and practices. He has served on the Rising Hope board (and has managed grade reports) since 2014.

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Dr. Murthy Cheruvu – Coordinator, Fishkill Correctional Facility – Dr. Murthy Cheruvu is retired from IBM where he specialized in research and development. While employed at IBM, he helped juvenile offenders prepare for their GED at a local Community Transition Center. He also volunteered at Dutchess County Jail and Green Haven Correctional Facility, where he initiated and facilitated “Self Awareness Integration” groups for over a decade. Later, he taught pre-college mathematics in Shawangunk Correctional Facility. In 2017, he conducted several workshops on Personal Finance and Decision Making for the Rising Hope Alumni at Woodbourne. He has been the site coordinator of Rising Hope’s program at Fishkill Correctional Facility since 2018, where he has also taught World Religions, Ethics, and Creative Problem Solving.

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Bob Walker – Coordinator, Sing Sing Correctional Facility – Bob has been teaching courses for Rising Hope in the Greenhaven CF and the Sing Sing CF’s for the past 13 years. He is a retired United Methodist minister and has served as pastor of churches in Texas, New York and Connecticut. Before his retirement in 2021, he served as Assistant to the Bishop of the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He also served as a Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College (New Rochelle, NY) from 2008-2018. Bob has been married to Donna Henry for 45 years. Donna also retired in 2021 from a career in the investments field. Bob is an avid hiker, rower, and greatly enjoys traveling to new and wild places.

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Melissa Szobota – Melissa is a senior change management and strategic engagement leader with fifteen years of experience building teams and curating programming highlighting culture and community, organizational design, and overall engagement. As a leader at Twitter and as a nine-year member of Columbia University (previous Director), Melissa stewarded high performing groups dedicated to institutional vision and mission. Melissa considers herself an educator and social worker at heart. She completed her undergraduate work at Boston College and her graduate work in social policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Melissa has written policies and led program management for nonprofits, family funds, tech firms, and corporate businesses. She has also consulted with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s McNulty Leadership Program and as a media strategist. Melissa lives in Fairfield County of CT with her spouse Erik, son Erik, daughter Lenna, and three Chihuahuas.

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Wayne Atwell, CFA – Wayne Atwell’s working career was in finance for over 40 years and he has been involved in outreach and community service over the last twenty plus years. He is on two public service boards. He is on the board of Rising Hope, Inc. which provides college for the incarcertated in three houses of detention. He is head of the audit committee and on the board of Exodus Transitional Community, which helps those released from incarceration to reenter society. It helps with the creation of a resume, arranges employment interviews, provides an interview wardrobe, and offers anger management classes. He has been mentoring a formerly incarcerated man for five years.

Mr. Atwell was a member of the Mission and Outreach Committee at the Rye Presbyterian Church for twenty years and was chairman of the committee for three years. The committee made 30 grants a year totaling $150,000. He organized and lead two mission trips to under developed countries. One mission trip built a school for grade school children in Nicaragua in a village an hour and a half off a paved road. The other mission trip built a school for 3-5 year old untouchable caste children in India. He also went on a mission trip to Haiti to help rebuild a high school which was destroyed by a mud slide.

Mr. Atwell started and ran a Saturday morning program for homeless children which helped them with their reading skills, provided art projects and took them to museums and cultural sites. He started an after school STEM program for sixth graders in Yonkers, New York, which helped them build their STEM skills and appreciate the potential of a STEM education. He started a college scholarship program for children of color.

Mr. Atwell put together a lecture on personal finance which he has taught in prisons and colleges.

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Darryl Varlack-Butler – Reentry/Alumni Coordinator – MPS, MSW – Darryl is a native of Harlem, New York, and New York State. Darryl is a returned citizen having spent 25 years in NYS prisons. Darryl’s humble beginnings exposed him to poverty, poor education, gangs, and a myriad of crime generative factors. Darryl is a man of faith with ties to the Quakers, and Christian fellowship and services ministries. He proudly asserts that Jesus saved his life. He is a Veteran that supports military persons serving and returning home. Darryl is a graduate of the Certificate in Ministry program, now evolved into Rising Hope, Inc, and received numerous trainings in Non-Violent Communication, Conflict Resolution, and Crisis Intervention. Darryl has over 18 years of Restorative Justice experience including Victim-Offender Mediation and Dialogue for men in prison. He is the Co-founder of Worth Justice Inc, dba as WORTHshop Inc., a Social Worker, Restorative Justice Practitioner, and Reentry Consultant. Darryl brings experience as a Wellness Specialist on a New York ACT team, serving persons with severe mental illness and mentored youth and young adults on probation with FEDCAP. He graduated from Fordham University with an MSW, was a Children’s First Scholar and his work in higher education at Fordham University’s Beck Institute on Poverty and Religion included public speaking, fundraising, and supporting social justice using restorative practices for Veterans, persons impacted by Homelessness, Domestic Violence, and the Coming Home program for persons impacted by mass incarceration. Darryl is an International speaker traveling to Haiti to study the resiliency of a culture devastated by natural disasters, global racism, and social mapping. While in Haiti, he worked with orphanages and presented on childhood slavery. He also holds a Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor Trainee (CASACT). To expand his restorative practice, Darryl trained with Dr. Tom Cavanagh of Colorado State University, Restorative Justice Education with a focus on dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline in K-12; and with Elizabeth Clements, of Planning Change, located in New York City, focusing on peacemaking circles and healing harm. Darryl’s commitment to this work is exemplified in being a recipient of the Restorative Justice Facilitation and Leadership Professional Certificate scholarship at the University of San Diego. Darryl believes that affirming worth is the catalyst for changing lives. To be human is to know the pain and suffering that often leaves people without developing a healthy sense of self-worth. When a person cannot see a place for themselves in the world, it leaves them depressed, merely existing and marginalized. This contributes to high rates of drug/alcohol abuse, school dropouts, homelessness, violence, crime, PTSD, gang involvement, incarceration, and episodes that trigger mental illness. It is time to strip away the things that divide us and instill fear or indifference. We are all human beings, and when we connect at that place of humanity, we stop harm, we heal, and we make the world a better place. Humanity Now!

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Maureen Cameron has spent most of her professional career in the nonprofit space working on both the national and local levels, and is passionate about helping those in need. She has significant experience in fundraising to individuals, corporations and foundations, and has led successful philanthropy efforts in support of education, domestic violence, youth leadership, mentoring programs, and services dedicated to the elderly. She is currently Director of Resource Development at the Boys and Girls Club of Clifton, NJ. She earned her BA in Journalism and Media Studies from Rutgers University and is a proud first-generation college graduate. She lives in Bergen County with her husband Tom and has three adult children.

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Anthony Garrie Brown is a dedicated attorney with seven years of experience, he has consistently been motivated by a strong desire to have a positive influence on the lives of others. He obtained his B.B.A with a concentration in finance from Texas Southern University and went on to pursue his J.D. in law from the same institution. He is driven by a passion to reduce recidivism and has a sincere commitment to community transformation. Currently, he works as a corporate attorney in New York City, where he continues to channel his skills and dedication towards creating meaningful change.

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