Menu
Dr. Kevin Bott is founder and executive director of Ritual4Return, Inc. He earned his master’s degree and his doctorate, both in Educational Theater, from the Steinhardt School at New York University. In 2006 Kevin began facilitating theater workshops in several New York State prisons as a volunteer for the non-profit, Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), and in 2007 became RTA’s first director of education. In 2019, Kevin was named the “Blade of Grass-David Rockefeller Fund Joint Fellow in Criminal Justice,” a fellowship that provided the financial support to undertake the first women’s R4R cohort in Harlem.
Kevin is trained as a community-based theater artist. In addition to R4R, his projects include The D.R.E.A.(M.)3 Freedom Revival of Syracuse, NY — a musical tent revival for freedom and democracy; and Every Time You See Me…, a Staten Island-based meditation on race, class, power, and privilege in the wake of Eric Garner’s death.
Kevin is the director of Rutgers Arts Online at Mason Gross School of the Arts. He lives with his wife and three children in Lambertville, New Jersey.
Dr. Ronald F. Day is the Senior Vice President at the Fortune Society. Ronald is passionate about reentry, promoting desistance, dismantling mass incarceration, and addressing the stigma of incarceration. He provides executive oversight to several departments including, the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy (DRCPP), which advocates to reduce reliance on incarceration, promote model programing for the incarcerated population, change laws and policies that create barriers for successful reintegration, and foster a just and equitable criminal justice system; The Center for Research, Inquiry, and Social Justice (CRIS-J), which conducts research to advance policy and practices that improve public safety and the welfare of our communities; Employment & Education Services program (EES), where individuals receive comprehensive education, vocational, and career development training, and its Transitional Services program, a partnership with the New York City Department of Correction (NYC DOC) and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ). The initiative provides pre and post release services to people incarcerated in NYC jails. Ronald has been the recipient of several awards, including the Citizens Against Recidivism Bridge Builder Award and the Justice Research Fellowship. Ronald has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the CUNY Graduate Center/John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and a Master’s in Public Administration from Baruch College (CUNY). Ronald is also formerly incarcerated and a member of the first Ritual4Return cohort in 2009.
Alexander Anderson (LCSW) served 15 years behind bars in New York State and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Syracuse University in the Auburn Correctional Facility. Upon release, Alex obtained his Masters of Social Work from Hunter College.
Alex was a member of the first cohort of R4R graduates in 2009. In 2019 he joined Kevin as the program’s first embedded social worker. Drawn to the artistic aspects of R4R, Alex cultivated his artistry and worked closely with participants as they worked to craft and stage their own stories.
In 2020, Alex founded The Reentry Theater of Harlem, which draws on many of the concepts he first learned in Ritual4Return. He continues to serve as lead social worker and arts consultant on various Ritual4Return projects.
Alexander was awarded the Patient Safety Champion Award at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx for supporting patients seeking cessation from alcohol and drugs in the emergency room. He lives in the Bronx, New York with his wife.
Cass Severe, BSW, is a devoted mother, student, survivor, activist, and change agent, committed to bringing transformative change to the Newark, NJ community. Her mission is to incorporate healing in her social work practice, focusing especially on crime prevention and supporting individuals in reentry.
Cass has a robust history in social work and case management, specializing in addressing compulsive behaviors often leading to incarceration. She is recognized for her ability to unveil the layers of these behaviors, contributing to a deeper understanding of them by individuals and service providers. She serves as a speaker for the ‘Faces of Women Imprisoned Speakers Bureau’ with Ladies of Hope Ministries and is a ‘Beyond the Bars’ fellow at Columbia University Center for Justice.
Cass has held pivotal roles in organizations like Newark Community Street Team and Integrity House and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC). She is an active member of organizations including Women Who Never Give Up (WWNG), New Jersey Justice Prison Watch (NJPJW), People’s Organization for Progress (POP), and All of Us or None (North Jersey Chapter).
She earned her associate degree in human & social services from Essex County Community College (2015) and a BSW from Rutgers University (2017). Cass is a current MSW candidate at Monmouth University and a newly appointed board of trustee for Edna Mahon Correctional Facility for Women.
Dr. Shadd Maruna is a Professor and Chair of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool. Previously he has taught at the University of Cambridge, the State University of New York, and Rutgers University-Newark, where he was the Dean of the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice. He has written extensively on the role of ritual in the process of reintegration after prison. His book Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives was named the Outstanding Contribution to Criminology by the American Society of Criminology.
Dr. Timothy K. Eatman is an educational sociologist and publicly engaged scholar, serves as the Inaugural Dean of the Honors Living – Learning Community and Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark. Prior to this current appointment his primary network of scholarly operation and leadership was with the national consortium Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life serving as Faculty Co-Director. Tim currently serves as Board of Directors Chair and Membership Committee Chair of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Also, with AAC&U, Tim serves as a faculty member of the Institute on High Impact Practices for Student Success (HIPS). Hs is national co-chair of the Urban Research Based Action Network, a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Carnegie Engagement Classification for Community Engagement, member of the National Advisory board for Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtP), and elected member at large of the American Democracy Project Steering Committee of AASCU. Tim has served as board chair of the International Association for Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE).
Pursuing a rigorous scholarly agenda, Tim publishes widely, serves on editorial boards and reviews for Academic publishing houses, scholarly journals and conferences. He has written several book chapters and research reports including the widely cited Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University, a seminal report on faculty rewards and publicly engaged scholarship. Tim is co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Service Learning and Community Engagement. He recently accepted an appointment as Guest Editor for the eJournal of Public Affairs.
A widely sought-after speaker, workshop facilitator, and collaborator who has earned local, national and international recognition for his leadership in advancing understandings about the multi-faceted impact of publicly engaged scholarship in the university of the 21st century, Tim was recognized by the University of Illinois College of Education with its 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award. For more information see his webpages at http://timeatman.com
Jonathan Brill is the founder and CEO of Infinity Drain, headquartered in Amityville, New York. Specializing in design-centric, decorative shower drains, Infinity Drain is renowned for its hand-polished grates and custom fabrication, synonymous with unmatched quality. A pioneer in architectural and decorative drain solutions for indoor and outdoor applications, Infinity Drain proudly manufactures its innovative products within the local New York community.
Committed to fostering positive change, Jonathan established Mission Belly Full in 2020. This initiative delivers one hundred home-cooked meals per day, five days a week, to Long Islanders in need. A graduate of Clemson University and the Harvard Business School OPM Program, Jonathan resides in Cold Spring Harbor with his wife, Rachel, and their two young sons. As a member of YPO since 2017, he is passionate about coaching his employees at Infinity Drain and peers in professional organizations. Outside of work, Jonathan finds joy in outdoor activities, including hiking, biking, surfing, and connecting with nature.
Dr. Dana Edell (she/her) is an activist-scholar-artist-educator. She has produced and co-directed 80+ original plays and 7 albums of music written and performed by teenage girls and nonbinary youth addressing social and racial justice issues and has worked as a theater teaching artist with people of all ages in public and private elementary, middle and high schools, adult prisons and youth correctional institutions in Rhode Island, California, Delaware and New York. She’s the co-director of The ART (Anti-Racism Theater) Project where she collaborates with multiracial groups of teenage girls and nonbinary youth in Wilmington, Delaware to write and perform activist theater> She is the Director of EmersonTHEATRE, a free afterschool theater and social justice program for Boston teenagers and directs the Performance & Social Change Fellowship with Jewish teens at Temple Sinai in Brookline. Dana was co-founder and Executive Director (2002-2012) of viBe Theater Experience and co-chair of the Girls’ Participation Task Force at the United Nations where she directed annual theater productions written by girls from 20+ countries. She has published chapters and articles in more than a dozen academic books and journals, and currently serves as Co-Editor of Youth Theatre Journal. Her first book, Girls, Performance and Activism: Demanding to Be Heard was published by Routledge in 2022. She has taught at New York University, the City University of New York, The New School, with the Bard Prison Initiative at Bayview Women’s Prison and is currently an Assistant Professor of Applied Theatre at Emerson College. She has been inspired by the work of Ritual4Return since its first Ritual and is thrilled and honored to support this urgent, innovative, creative work.
All rights reserved Ritual4return. Made with love ❤ Wp Beginner