Tera Agyepong collaborates with the Prison Public Memory Project on scholarship about race, gender, and the history of confinement of women and girls in New York and Illinois. Tera is a historian and Assistant Professor at DePaul College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences in Chicago, Illinois. She has a J.D. and Ph.D from Northwestern University and her research and teaching interests are African American History; Race, Gender, History and the Law; Legal History; Criminal/Juvenile Justice Systems; and Urban History.
Frankie Bailey collaborates with the Prison Public Memory Project on scholarship about the birth and evolution of the House of Refuge for Women and the NYS Training School for Girls in Hudson, NY. Frankie is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the University at Albany (SUNY). She serves as the director of the school’s Justice and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century project. Her areas of research and writing are crime history, and crime and mass media/popular culture.
Robert Bressner is a part-time program associate with Prison Public Memory Project in Pontiac, Illinois. He is a current resident of Pontiac and grew up in Illinois. He graduated from Pontiac Township High School in 2016 and enjoyed working on environmental projects there. Rob is currently employed part-time in landscaping. His work with PPMP involves research, digitizing, image processing, and helping to create and produce a pop-up prison museum in Pontiac.
Brian Buckley is a digital media consultant to the Prison Public Memory Project. From 2014 - 2016, Brian served as Site Coordinator for PPMP in Hudson, NY. In that role, he coordinated events, community programming, and research projects and worked with the Project to integrate new media technology and more conventional methods of history and storytelling. Brian is now a digital content consultant for a variety of companies and organizations across the United States.
Emily Chameides is a member of the advisory committee for the Hudson, NY site. Emily lives in Hudson and has served as the director of the Hudson Area Library since 2011. Emily has co-hosted the Bound By Books radio show on WGXC 90.7FM with local tweens and teens since the station’s launch in 2011. Previously, Emily was the Director of Media Education and Exhibitions at the Children's Media Project in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Quintin Cross guides the Prison Public Memory Project's activities with the African-American community in Hudson, New York. Quintin has a long history of service to his community including as Vice-President of his local NAACP chapter, founder of the Hudson African-American Leadership Alliance, and Majority Leader of the Hudson Common Council. Formerly incarcerated, Quintin is now President and CEO of the Staley B. Keith Social Justice Center.
Karen Davis is a member of the advisory committee for the Hudson, NY site. Karen is co-director of the Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson, where she curates exhibitions of photography, mixed media, and photobooks. Karen’s own creative interests include photography, book arts, and word and image art, and her subject matter includes visual memoir, the social landscape, and children. She has taught classes related to these interests at the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Hudson Opera House, and the Davis Orton Gallery.
Tracy Huling is Founder/Director of the Prison Public Memory Project. She also writes for and edits stories for the Project's website. Tracy works at the convergence of culture and public policy with a long history of using storytelling, new media, filmmaking, research, policy analysis and coalition-building to achieve change. She is best known for her work on prisons and communities and has published widely on this subject. She is also a Soros Justice Fellow with the Open Society Foundations. Tracy lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York.
Russ Immarigeon conducts archival research and writes about the history of the girls' training school in Hudson, NY for the Prison Public Memory Project. He also contributes stories for the Project's website. He has written for numerous publications on community corrections, prison management, and restorative justice and has edited several books on crime desistance, women and girls in the criminal justice system, and, most recently, prisoner reentry. Based in Columbia County, NY, Russ is also a local town and village court justice.
Michala Matuszewski is a 2018 intern with Prison Public Memory Project in Pontiac, Illinois. She is a rising junior at Pontiac Township High School and an officer with the Pontiac chapter of Future Farmers of America (FFA), a national student-led leadership organization that develops students' leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. Her work with PPMP will involve research, community interviews, and an article for PPMP’s website.
Sumayyah Shabazz is a member of the advisory committee for the Hudson, NY site. Sumayyah has lived in Hudson since 2001 and is currently working on her bachelor's degree in psychology. Her earlier life experience includes many years of employment with institutions serving at-risk youth across the state, and a brief stint as a resident of the Training School for Girls in Hudson. She is a member of Hudson City School District Board of Education.
Peter Tenerowicz is a member for the advisory committee for the Hudson, NY site. Peter was born and raised in Hudson and served as a NYS Corrections Officer from 1980 until 2007, much of his career spent at Hudson Correctional Facility. Peter is also a drummer, performing locally in Hudson. He is on the Town of Greenport Comprehensive Plan Committee and is a board member of the Hudson Power Boat Association. He has three children and a sailboat.
Geoff Ward collaborates with the Prison Public Memory Project on scholarship about the history of race and juvenile prisons. He also writes stories for the Prison Public Memory Project website. Geoff is Associate Professor of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of an award-winning book, The Black Child Savers: Racial Democracy and Juvenile Justice, published by University of Chicago Press.
Community Partners
We thank the following organizations and funders for their support of our work:
