Team
The Folks Making it Happen
We are grateful for our team of advisors, mentors, and volunteers. Indeed, these folks are doing the heavy lifting to turn a dream into a reality. As Pathways for LIFE grows the RPP, we hope to grow our team. Further, the more people we involve the more effective we become. Join us!
Board of Directors
Jeremy Tucker
Jeremy joined the PFL team after reconnecting with Peer Facilitators during a Kairos 4 day retreat at Joseph Harp Correctional Facility. After several weeks of Crime Sharing where he witnessed men express both regret and accountability for some of the most serious crimes, he felt something shift inside himself. He was able to empathize with them in a new way.
Having lost his own wife in a tragic car accident some years before, he had not previously been able to connect with the man whose actions led to her death.
Because of this positive impact of the PFL program, Jeremy is now an incorporator and founding board member of Pathways for Living In Full Empathy (LIFE) Inc. Also, as a crime receiver himself, he hopes his experiences may help our growing team in partnering with state agencies and victim’s advocacy groups to transform our criminal justice system through restorative justice agencies like PFL.
Jeremy is currently preparing to undergo training as a mediator for Victim Offender Dialogue in order to better support Pathways for L.I.F.Es Resilience Prison Project as well as crime victims who wish to undergo surrogate based Victim Offender Dialogue.
Board of Directors
Robin Meyers
Robin Rex Meyers is an American Christian minister, peace activist, philosopher and author of seven books on Liberal and Progressive Christian theology in Western society and the Christian left. He has been a syndicated columnist and a commentator for National Public Radio and was the Senior Minister of the Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City from 1985 to 2020.
He is a Distinguished Professor of Social Justice in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University, where he has taught since 1991. Meyers is currently the Teaching Pastor of First Congregational Church of Norman UCC in Norman, Oklahoma.
He began with Pathways for LIFE in 2019 after reading a compelling letter from an inmate inside ODOC who was seeking help with an empathy based program. After getting to know the man, becoming a prison volunteer, and developing a friendship, Robin became a founding board member of Pathways for LIFE. He continues to enter ODOC as a part of our team to support the Resilience Prison Project.
Board of Directors
Ellen Feaheny
Ellen Feaheny is an IT executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the sector. During the "covid years" (2020), Ms. Feaheny reached beyond the confines of IT to rediscover purpose, while working on the AlohaCloud distributed experiences platform. He background and skillset has been invaluable to the RPP team given the growing needs of technology to deliver our programs, communications, and objectives.
MEET OUR VOLUNTEERS
ODOC Volunteer
Jeff Tretsven
As a Mediator and teacher, Jeff has a passion for working with Compassionate Communication (AKA Nonviolent Communication) and mediation in the hope of creating a more peaceful world.
Jeff had his first chance at mediation when a friend told him that she wishes she already knew Nonviolent Communication. When he asked why, she said the neighbors were having a meeting the next day about her moving into the neighborhood. Jeff doesn't know why, but he asked her if she wanted him to mediate it. She did and at the end the neighbors were hugging his friend and welcoming her to the neighborhood. Jeff found he really enjoyed mediating and creating connection between his friend and her neighbors.
Jeff has spent most of his adult life in a teaching role. First as an electronics instructor in the Navy where he was acknowledged as a Master Training Specialist. Following that he was a trainer in both the semiconductor industry and aerospace industry.
As soon as he found out about Nonviolent Communication he knew he wanted to teach it. Nonviolent Communication works very well for mediation and from this Jeff got involved in mediation. Jeff has received over 500 hours of formal training by 25 certified CNVC trainers. He has taken NVC mediation training in the yearlong immersion and small claims/ family mediation with the Oklahoma Supreme court system.
Jeff is currently developing an online training in Nonviolent Communication to share what he has learned in an easily accessible and affordable manner. The idea is to create a community that can practice with each other to develop their skill level. https://www.elightenment.com/products/heart-centered-relationships. This training can hopefully be made available to prisons and other communities supported by the Compassionate People Foundation. He joined the PFL team in 2019.
Jeff is a passionate reader and his favorite subjects are spirituality, mediation, communication and web design. He also enjoys bicycling. He lives the philosophy of nonviolence to the best of his ability, embracing and enjoying a vegan diet along with Nonviolent Communication. "Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method.” Martin Luther King Jr. on nonviolence.
ODOC Volunteer
Lynn McLellan
Lynn’s joy in life is experiencing the love which Compassionate Communication brings into people's lives as they develop their skills at communicating in a connecting manner.
She also likes the self-awareness that comes with the practice of these skills. In addition to her personal faith, her yoga practice brings her calm, peace, balance and love. Compassionate Communication adds a mental, emotional depth to this experience. From this, she feels a deep profound love of life as taught and demonstrated by Jesus himself.
On a personal note she says "Using the skills of Compassionate Communication with my partner, three children, six grandchildren and other family members has brought so much joy into my life. Eventhough things are not 'perfect' they are much better than if I hadn't learned these skills."
Lynn has been a certified organic farmer. She enjoys growing her own food that contains no chemical additives. She leads an active lifestyle with bicycling, gardening and yoga. Her grandchildren keep her active and young at heart. She joined the PFL team in 2019 and is the CEO and founder of the Compassionate People Foundation.
ODOC Volunteer
Ellen Rohr
Ellen is the author of four un-fussy business books: Where Did the Money Go?, How Much Should I Charge?, The Bare Bones Biz Plan and The Weekend Biz Plan.And, she is an owner and COO of Zoom Drain Franchising Company, LLC. a new franchise concept operating across the country.
Ellen was once a typically broke and frustrated small family business owner. She nearly sank her husband’s plumbing company. With the help of great mentors, Ellen figured out how to fix and grow successful businesses.
Now, she teaches business planning and financial literacy, helping people make business simpler and more profitable. She is also a popular speaker, podcaster and an “in the trenches” contributor to many business and trade magazines, and a high-energy TV Celebrity who has been on over 150 news programs.
Ellen first entered Oklahoma Department of Corrections in 2010 at Davis Correctional Faciltiy (DCF) in order to advise, teach, and support the growth of a peer facilitated Bare Bones Biz Prison Program (BBBPP) inspired by her books. From among the mentors and peer facilitators of BBBPP at DCF, a small group transferred to Joseph Harp Correctional Center where they were able to make Pathways for L.I.F.Es Resilience Prison Project an important part of the peer facilitated programs there. Today, Ellen is proud to support the team both as an advisor and ODOC badged volunteer.
“My mission is freedom. It is my honor to work with the Pathways for L.I.F.E program. One aspect of freedom is financial. The surest way to financial freedom is a successful, profitable business. I’m happy to encourage, coach and teach business planning and financial literacy as part of this transformative program.” ~ Ellen Rohr
MEET OUR ADVISORS
Community Resilience Initiative
Rick Griffin
Rick (he/him) is the Executive Director for CRI. Rick holds a Masters degree in Education and uses his education to develop cutting-edge content and to deliver engaging presentations. He speaks to thousands of groups from all over the country and is widely recognized for his work with trauma-informed practices. His experience allows him to consult seamlessly with schools, businesses, and community organizations.
Rick began working with the Pathways for LIFE team when an adult in custody reached out with the hope of incorporating trauma informed care into the program he peer facilitated. Eager to help, Rick extended his support and took the man through the CRI certifications for Trauma Informed, Supportive, and Practitioner courses. He continues to support the Resilience Prison Project as needed for our mutual success in creating Community Resilience.
Compassion Prison Project CEO
Fritzi Horstman
Fritzi Horstman is the Founder and Executive Director of Compassion Prison Project. She is a Grammy-award winning producer for her work on “The Defiant Ones”, has been a producer and post-producer on dozens of television projects and documentaries and has directed several films. She believes it is urgent to bring humanity and compassion to those living behind bars and these acts will help transform our society. She has a Bachelor's Degree from Vassar College.
CNVC Certified Trainer
Kathleen Macferran
Kathleen Macferran holds a vision for a peaceful, just and sustainable world. She's a Certified Trainer and Assessor for the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) and offers communication and conflict resolution training internationally to organizations and individuals.
This includes businesses, schools, colleges, community groups, faith-based communities, hospitals, families, prison inmates and correctional and law enforcement employees. She's one of 40 assessors worldwide who supports CNVC trainer candidates.
For over 35 years Kathleen has explored ways to restore harmony to communities. Her experience includes nearly two decades as a music conductor and leader of a nonprofit organization, and seven years as a public school teacher. Kathleen enjoys exploring with communities ways to engage with conflict in life-serving ways, including developing restorative justice systems and exploring Restorative Circles. Kathleen is one of the lead trainers for the Freedom Project, an affiliate organization of CNVC that strengthens community safety through supporting the transformation of prisoners into peacemakers. Kathleen offers trainings in concrete skills of nonviolence leading to reconciliation with ourselves, our loved ones and the community.
Kathleen has continued to be an inspiration to us at Pathways for LIFE. Her trainings and support have helped guide the work we do and make it more effective.
You may learn more about her work at: strengthofconnection.com
Houses of Healing | Kathleen Macferran | TEDxMonroeCorrectionalComplex
Partnering for Success
Founded in 1998, PuddleDancer Press is the largest publisher of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) related books. Our small team is committed to developing the highest-quality NVC learning materials, and to help ensure continued access to these materials worldwide.
Each year, PuddleDancer invests significant resources into promoting the life-changing skills of NVC, world-renown peacemaker and founder of NVC, Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, and our other authors and titles. Through our monthly e-newsletter, NVC Quick Connect, we reach more than 15,000 people around the globe with valuable self-help articles and exclusive book specials.
Since 1998, PuddleDancer has donated more than 80,000 books to individuals and organizations in need around the globe. And, our promotion efforts help local NVC teams and trainers draw more and more people to this life-changing work.
We also remain committed to encouraging and supporting the translation of our NVC titles into every language. We support this effort in the following ways:
Partnering with established publishers in each country or language to make our NVC titles as widely available as possible.
Where an established publisher isn’t available, we work with local NVC supporters to translate titles and make these titles available locally.
We support the development of NVC learning communities by offering our NVC titles at the best wholesale prices available to trainers and organizers worldwide.
