Vivian Nixon, Executive Director

Vivian Nixon is an ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her current work includes fighting for the removal of barriers to reentry for formerly incarcerated people in the United States, and advocating for the inclusion of higher education in prison and in reentry. In 2004, she received the “Lifting as We Climb Advocacy Award” from the Correctional Association of New York. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Services Administration from the State University of New York, Empire College and is in the process of completing a Master of Liberal Studies, at the same institution.

Rev. Nixon is the director, and an alumna of the College and Community Fellowship (CCF). CCF is unique in that it uses higher education and leadership development as primary strategies to help formerly incarcerated women develop economic security for themselves and their families. As a recipient of a Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship awarded by the Open Society Institute in 2005, she founded ReEnterGrace – a project that employs the talent of formerly incarcerated women and men to reach out to African American faithbased communities and educate them about the disparate impact of United States criminal justice policies on people of color, to encourage them to help individuals resettle in the community, and to help them advocate for the elimination of systemic barriers to reentry. Rev. Nixon serves on the advisory boards of the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College, the Interfaith Coalition of Advocates for Reentry and Employment (ICARE), and Reentry Net. Rev. Nixon recently published an essay titled “A Christian Response to Mass Incarceration: Unbind them!” in the Beacon Press anthology “Getting on Message: Challenging the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel”.

Peter Bakstansky, Chairman

Peter Bakstansky recently retired as senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a member of the bank’s management committee after 30 years. During that time he was in charge of the public information area and also was responsible for the Office of Regional and Community Affairs. He served as the ombudsman of the bank and was the senior administrative officer for the executive group.

Prior to joining the Fed, Mr. Bakstansky served in several capacities at Chase Manhattan Bank starting in 1966, including six years in Europe, based in Paris and Brussels, and from 1972-74 as vice president and director of public relations at Chase’s head office. Before that, Mr. Bakstansky was a business news writer for several newspapers in New York, including serving as banking editor of the New York Herald Tribune from 1964 to mid-1966, when it closed. He received a bachelor of business administration degree from City College of New York in 1961. In addition, he has studied at the Graduate School of the University of Illinois and at New York University's Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Bakstansky is a member of the board of directors of The World Press Institute, St. Paul, Minnesota; a member of the board of advisors of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship at Columbia University, and chair of The College and Community Fellowship, an educational foundation in New York City. He also is a founder and a board member of The Alumni and Friends of LaGuardia High School Inc., a not-for-profit organization, which is assisting the New York City high school. Mr. Bakstansky is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is married and lives in Manhattan.