Meet the Staff
STAFF
Kelly Brotzman (she/her) is the Executive Director of Prison Book Program. Kelly’s passion for supporting people in prison comes from her experiences teaching college classes in prisons and volunteering with incarcerated students.
Prior to joining PBP, Kelly spent 20 years in higher education, leading offices and programs dedicated to service learning and teaching classes about social justice, poverty, and inequality. Kelly has a PhD in ethics from the University of Chicago. In her free time, she likes looking at contemporary art and antiques and being outside, preferably with dogs.
Email Kelly
617.529.3442
Charlie King (he/him) is PBP’s Program Coordinator. He facilitates volunteer sessions, oversees scheduling, and manages our book inventory. When not working, he loves to cook and spent several years perfecting his brownie recipe. He is, of course, an avid reader whose favorite authors include: Mary Shelley, James Joyce, Ishmael Reed, Thomas Pynchon and Alan Moore.
Charlie is a former community radio station manager and librarian who began volunteering at Prison Book Program in 2023.
Email Charlie
213.290.6944
BOARD
Ellen Lubell, President has worked for over 30 years as an attorney for non-profit organizations and has a longstanding interest in the criminal law system. She represented a Guantanamo detainee pro bono for four years and now serves on the Board of Prisoners Legal Services of Massachusetts, as well as Prison Book Program. She has been an ardent supporter of PBP as a book donor, volunteer and advisor on many PBP projects. Ellen lives outside Boston with her husband and has two grown sons. She joined PBP’s board in 2022.
Tim Cross, Treasurer, spent 35+ years in academic leadership included serving as assistant to the dean at The Medical College of Pennsylvania, associate dean for finance and administration and acting dean for development and alumni relations at Harvard Divinity School, executive director of advancement services at Tufts University, vice president for advancement services at Brandeis University, and vice president for advancement at Lesley University. Tim has degrees from Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania and spends summers in Greece.
Judy Doctoroff, Clerk is a former television producer with many of her 30-plus years of broadcast experience working with Bill Moyers on public television. In 2015, she founded Public Square Media, a non-profit production company that produced content about issues vital to democracy, including mass incarceration. She is currently managing director of Covering Climate Now, an organization working to improve climate reporting throughout the world. Judy and her husband Jim have been consistent PBP volunteers since they moved to Boston in 2019. They have three grown kids.
Shehime Arshad has been actively volunteering at PBP since 2022. She can usually be found picking books or fulfilling special requests. She spent years working in luxury hospitality operations all over the world. She is grateful to the PBP community and for their commitment to literacy, advocacy, and philanthropy towards marginalized populations. She has served 2 terms as a Trustee of the Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation and joined the PBP Board in 2024.
Lee Rubin Collins used to be a big firm lawyer, then found fulfillment as a public policy advocate for people facing infertility, serving on numerous nonprofit boards. Since discovering Prison Book Program in 2017, Lee has introduced scores of new people to PBP’s work and has been amazed to see how PBP’s mission brings out the best in humanity. It was the letters containing pleas for legal help that led to the project of which she is most proud: working with Board President Ellen Lubell to create PBP’s new publication, the Insider’s Guide to Jailhouse Law, a free legal guide that will help people pursue their rights and even secure their freedom.
Amy Corbett is a technology specialist at American Prison Data Systems, an educational technology company that provides free tablets to incarcerated people. She is an advocate for quality healthcare in corrections, and is pursuing a medical degree to become a psychiatrist. She is an avid supporter of Prison Book Program and enjoys reading, exercising, and watching documentaries.
Alison Demong is an avid reader who believes in the power of books to change lives. She has been volunteering with Prison Book Program since 2010 and served as Board President from 2021-2024. She worked as an Environmental Planner for the MA Office of Coastal Zone Management and the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, and consulted on land use projects for municipalities. She was involved in local government for 18 years and served on the Norwell Select Board for six years. Alison is a freelance editor who also works with incarcerated writers pro bono.
Tim Riser is an entrepreneur, investor, and strategic advisor. He has led growth strategy consulting engagements with Fortune 500 firms and held a number of leadership roles at technology companies. Tim was named a board member of the Prison Book Program in 2021.
Charles Rosario works as the Program Coordinator for the Emerson Prison Initiative. He passionately advocates for higher education in carceral spaces as well as for creating more pathways for returning citizens to access higher education on traditional college campuses. As an alumnus of EPI, it is Rosario’s experience as a formerly incarcerated person that fuels his commitment to empowering others to pursue their educational and personal growth.
VOLUNTEER STAFF
Calvin Arey (he/him) directs the Albert Woodfox Memorial Mini-Freedom Libraries (AWMMFL), a fiscally sponsored project of Prison Book Program. Calvin spent several years incarcerated in Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He is the only surviving lead plaintiff from the landmark prisoners’ rights case Landman v. Royster, which de-segregated Virginia’s prison system, established basic due process rights for incarcerated people, and put an end, among other things, to bread and water diets for people in solitary confinement.
Calvin’s history-making life and his freedom libraries have been chronicled in Richmond Magazine.
Donate to support the Albert Woodfox Memorial Freedom Libraries!
Email Calvin
617.593.7339
In her role as Prison Book Program’s Director of Publisher Relations, Robin Johnson(she/her) solicits free book donations and negotiates discounts from publishers and book wholesalers. New books are especially valuable to PBP as prisons increasingly require that books be in pristine condition. Robin joined PBP in 2022 and like many volunteers, came for the books but stayed for the mission. Her business background is valuable when curating PBP’s business, entrepreneurship, trade skills, and technology sections. She is still an active and avid book fairy, her first role at PBP, and is always excited to see books she’s found fly off the shelves into the eager hands of incarcerated readers.
Michael Wood (he/him) is Director of Institutional Relations at Prison Book Program. He is the main liaison between PBP and prison and jail officials, and for this reason, he is also the primary editor of our restrictions database, which helps us keep track of what can and cannot be sent to individual facilities. Mike also provides expedited processing for requests from people incarcerated in New England.
Mike jokes that he is a full-time volunteer, having served over 8,000 hours with PBP since starting in 2017. He also enjoys volunteering at the American Red Cross and Common Art at Common Cathedral. Previously, Mike was mechanic, machinist and HVAC designer and engineer.
Email Mike
617.423.3298
