The Braxton Institute Board of Directors
Rev. Joanne M. Braxton, PhD, M.Div. (she/hers), CEO and President of the Board of the Braxton Institute, is an ordained minister with full ministerial standing in the Eastern Virginia Association of the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ. She is also Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor Emeritus at William & Mary and Adjunct Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS). A graduate of the doctoral program in American Studies at Yale, the M.Div. program at Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, the M.T.S. program at Pacific School of Religion, and Sarah Lawrence College, Braxton is poet and a scholar whose books include Black Female Sexualities (2015), Monuments of the Black Atlantic: Slavery and Memory (2003), Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook (1993), The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1993), Wild Women in the Whirlwind: The Renaissance in Contemporary Afra-American Writing (1990), Black Women Writing Autobiography: A Tradition Within a Tradition (1989) and Sometimes I Think of Maryland (1977), a collection of poetry. She has also written online curriculum in spiritual practices for Pilgrim Press of the United Church of Christ.
At W&M Dr. Braxton founded and directed the W&M Middle Passage Project and was instrumental in the formation of the programs in American Studies, Women’s Studies and especially Africana Studies. She taught writing, courses about the Middle Passage, about Black women writers and African American community issues while also serving as United Church of Christ campus minister. She was PI for the W&M-EVMS Narrative Medicine for Excellence Project. More recently, Braxton spent a year as David B. Larson Fellow in Spirituality and Health at the Library of Congress John W. Kluge Center with her project “Tree of Life: Spirituality and Health in the African American Experience.” She has been a Wellness Consultant to the National Institutes of Health Office of Internal Training and Education and served as a pastoral and spiritual caregiver in clinical, congregational and movement settings. Dr. Braxton is a member of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, the Association of American Medical Colleges Fundamental Role of the Arts and Humanities in Medical Education (FRAHME) Initiative and a Fellow of the Hastings Center for Bioethics. She curates and moderates the Braxton Institute Community Dialogues on Resisting and Thriving and facilitates workshops and trainings in contemplative practice, reflective writing and the cultivation of moral resiliency. Dr. Braxton received the “Recognition of a Warrior” from the Weyanoke Association for Red-Black History and Culture, where she is known as Mama Sage, as she is also known in healing circles.
Richael Faithful, JD (they/them/theirs), Co-Vice President of the Board, is a multi-disciplinary folk healing artist and healing justice practitioner rooted in the African diasporic tradition of conjure. Before formal shamanic initiation, Faithful was a healing-oriented community organizer and peoples’ lawyer. Born in Washington DC and raised in Virginia, with a strong affinity to their family line in Georgia, Alabama and Texas, Faithful supports national and local activists of all backgrounds, particularly leaders of Black Liberation movements. They are known for creating spaces to help activists identify and process trauma and invest into healing justice frameworks. A graduate of William & Mary and American University Washington College of Law, their work has been featured in national publications, including Colorlines, The Root, Everyday Feminism, Huff Post, among others. Their words are also published in books and law review articles, including Land Justice: Re-Imagining Land, Food, and The Commons. Faithful is also a gifted teacher, workshop and retreat leader as well as a skilled mediator and negotiator whose grateful clients include the Unitarian Universalist Association and others.
Ari Pak (they/them), Co-Vice President of the Board, is a graduate of William & Mary and serves as the Programs Director at Asian American Youth Leadership Empowerment and Development (AALEAD), an organization that supports low-income and underserved Asian Pacific American youth with educational empowerment, identity development, and leadership opportunities through after school, summer, and mentoring programs. Ari, who completed the Nonprofit Management Certificate Program at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership, has contributed to the Braxton Institute by directing a season of the in-person Dialogues on Resisting and Thriving at the Potters House in Washington, D.C. and by serving as logistics coordinator for the historic 2017 Soul Repair Center-Volunteers of America-Braxton Institute jointly sponsored Moral Injury conference in Princeton, New Jersey. Ari joined the Braxton Institute board of directors in December, 2021.
Rev. Dr. Rebecca Ann Parker, D.Min. (she/hers), Founding Secretary of the Board, educated a generation of ministers, scholars, artists and civic leaders during her 25-year stint as President and Professor of Theology at the Starr King School for the Ministry, the Unitarian Universalist and multi-religious theological school in Berkeley, California. Through her leadership, the historically white liberal School was transformed to become a multi-racial, counter-oppressive institution. Now emerita, she is a noted feminist theologian and author, a poet, a musician and a composer, and a life-long advocate for social change. A graduate of Claremont Theological School, she is the author (or co-author) of several books, including Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire and Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering and the Search for What Saves Us, both with Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock. Dr. Parker, a fourth generation United Methodist minister, holds ministerial standing in the Unitarian Universalist Association as well as the United Methodist Church where she has been a life-long advocate for LGBTQ full inclusion and racial justice. A founding board member, Dr. Parker has been the primary architect of the Braxton Institute programs on Recovery from Moral Injury and with it, our collaborations with the Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School and Volunteers of America, leading seminars for teaching faculty during the 2017 “Moral Injury and Collective Healing” advanced training seminar in Princeton, New Jersey and the 2019 national “Recovery from Moral Injury” training seminar in Los Angeles. She was a keynote speaker at our inaugural “Recovering Human Sustainability in a Time of War” program in Williamsburg, Virginia in 2014 and more recently led a stimulating Braxton Institute Community Dialogue on “Grounding Resistance in Love and Joy” in Washington, D.C. In 2019 she also co-presented an online Dialogue on “The Human Ecology of Racism” with board member Richael Faithful.
On her work as a theologian and minister, Parker says "Legacies of violence, terror and trauma continue to bring anguish into the world. Now more than ever, people of conscience and love need to do the hard work of theological thinking that deconstructs religion that sanctions violence. We need to re-dedicate ourselves to the creation of life-giving theologies, justice-making religious communities, and joy-infusing spiritual practices. This is the calling to which my life is devoted and I’m grateful to be part of the work of the Braxton Institute which advances sustainability, resiliency and joy!”
Mary Williard (she/hers), Treasurer of the Board, is President of Three Rivers Consulting, serving select small businesses and nonprofit organizations and the newest member of the Braxton Institute Board of Directors. Williard studied at Virginia Commonwealth University and has decades of experience in accounting, finance and administrative services, having served as Senior Accountant for twelve affiliated small architecture firms, Senior Accountant for a printing firm, and Vice President of Administration and Finance for an engineering firm. Living in West Point, Virginia, Mary Williard has a passion for justice, equality, and community. Williard served as Treasurer for the West Point United Methodist Church for 5 years and is currently a board member of the Beverly Allen Historic Foundation. She and her husband David were the first donors to The Braxton Institute. Together they enjoy family time, meaningful friendships, gardening, spoiling their granddaughter and making the world a better place.
Jerome Carter (he/his), Founding Board Member, is an Honors graduate of William & Mary with a degree in Systems Engineering from The University of Virginia, and a certificate in Public Health from Johns Hopkin University. Carter is leader in the areas of Multi-Cultural Science Education and Wellness and a healthcare expert with over 10 years of experience leveraging technology to improve clinical outcomes. He is one of the founders of Henry Health, a teletherapy platform addressing mental health access issues for African Americans. Carter is also a founding board member of the Braxton Institute. He provides grounded leadership, oversight and support in many areas of our work, including design and implementation of The Braxton Institute Dialogues on Resisting and Thriving and other programs.
Nigel Hatton, Ph.D. (he/his), Founding Board Member, is Associate Professor of literature at the University of California, Merced. Hatton received the dual Ph.D. in Modern Thought & Literature and the Humanities with a political science (political theory track) minor from Stanford University. His MFA is from the Jesuit University of San Francisco and he has completed the program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. Dr. Hatton began teaching literature and writing courses at San Quentin State Prison in 2003 and has been instrumental in establishing a fully accredited community college program within the prison itself. He gives priority attention in his work to the ethical authority, struggles and witness of Black women, working with Black mothers who have lost children to gun violence, and teaching at the Central California Women’s Facility, Chowchilla.
Hatton’s commitment to incarceration issues, prison reform and Human Rights extends back to the days when he studied literature as a graduate student at W&M. During this time, as a reporter for a Virginia newspaper and a recent graduate of Virginia Tech, he was assigned to witness the execution of a Black man in a Richmond, Virginia jail. A founding board member, he was a was a keynote speaker at the inaugural Braxton Institute “Recovering Human Sustainability in a Time of War” symposium at the Williamsburg, Virginia Regional Library in 2014; faculty for our regional training on Moral Injury in Princeton, New Jersey in 2017; and a recent presenter at The Braxton Institute Community Dialogues on Resisting and Thriving in Washington, D.C. , where he spoke on community responses to violence and incarceration. Dr. Hatton’s scholarly research on how narrative theory and practice can help lower homicide and incarceration rates in impoverished communities has gained influence in both the U.S. and abroad.
Dr. Hatton’s publications include book chapters and articles on global human rights, James Baldwin, and the killing and incarceration of African Americans in California. He is the co-editor of the Critical Refugee Studies Book Series for the University of California Press.
Dr. Rehema Kutua, MD, FAAP (she/her), Board Member and Chief Wellness Consultant, received a B.A. in Psychology from Harvard and earned her M.D. from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. For 2 years before medical school, she taught high school chemistry, social psychology, and A.P. Psychology in the Middle East, in Jordan. She completed her pediatrics residency in the Community Health Track at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C. Since finishing residency, Dr. Kutua has worked as a community pediatrician in Los Angeles and Washington D.C., where she now lives and works. She has been a part of the faculty of 3 medical schools and continues to be enthusiastic about mentoring the next generation of health care providers. She has strong interests in global and public health and believes that high quality, empathic healthcare is a universal human right. Rehema served as lead Wellness Consultant for the Braxton Institute Tree of Life: Black Faith Matters initiative. She joined our board of directors in December 2021.
Sophie Bouwsma, MA, CMP (she/her), Secretary of the Board of Directors, is a musician and peacebuilder focused on addressing the roots of structural and cultural violence in the United States. She engages in collaborative peace and justice work through cultivating partnerships, program development, training design and facilitation, and compassionate relationship-building. Sophie is the co-founder and co-director of Transformation Collaborative, a peacebuilding and conflict transformation consulting and training organization. She is especially interested in the relationship between spirituality and activism, the role of music in healing, and peacebuilding in faith-based communities and in interfaith settings. Sophie has been connected with the Braxton Institute since 2019, collaborating on workshops, communications, and fundraising. She has an MA in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont and is a Certified Music Practitioner by the Music for Healing and Transition Program.