STAFF NEWS

Jack Payden-Travers
Jack became VADP’s first full-time, paid director shortly after Henry’s retirement and contributes a wealth of experience to the development of the organization. He has been involved in the anti-death penalty movement since relocating to Virginia in 1984.  Jack graduated with a BA in History from Iona College, where he spent his junior year abroad in Tokyo, Japan. He gained an MA in Liberal studies from Hollins University and has also attended various national and international language institutions, studying Chinese, French, Latin, Japanese and Spanish.

Before coming to us, Jack was an Assistant Professor in the History Department of Lynchburg College and also Director of the Lynchburg Peace Education Center.  In 2002 he was awarded the Lynchburg Peace Prize. Jack has worked as national staff for the Fellowship of Reconciliation and taught at Community School in Roanoke.

Community activities, both local and global, have been central to Jack’s life. He has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity International as a work project leader in Nicaragua, assists at the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen & Gateway Men’s Shelter in Lynchburg, and has also served as a mediator with the Conflict Resolution Center. He has gained numerous awards for both his civic and academic work including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Seminar for College Professors (2000), and the Virginia Rural Leadership Development Program Fellowship (1992-93).

Jack loves to spend time canoeing down the various surrounding rivers (work and floods permitting.) His depth and breadth of experience can only strengthen and further VADP’s influence and scope, as it strives to end the death penalty.

Becky Davey
Becky joined us in July 2001 and worked as office administrator until March 2003. A writer and UVA graduate, she was vital in maintaining VADP, especially during the two-month period between Henry leaving and Jack starting, when she ran the office alone. Before Becky left Charlottesville to move to Washington DC for the summer with her husband Brad, who is preparing to take the Bar exam, she tutored for the adult literacy program. The couple plans to move to Vermont in the fall. 

Becky and Brad are expecting their first child in November and are spending as much time as possible preparing for the new arrival.

Laurie Miller
Laurie came to us in March this year and began by conducting an immediate and comprehensive re-vamping of the filing system and restricted office space.  She has spent the past twelve years working for non-profit organizations and will be leaving VADP on July 18 to take a full-time position with The Nature Conservancy.  Laurie is extremely sensitive to the work and history of VADP.  She was already a committed member before joining us, and a personal friend of Henry’s.  She has proven herself to be an invaluable asset for the short time she has been at VADP.

Ben Soesman
Ben arrived in Charlottesville in June and is VADP’s first intern. Ben is from London, England, and he graduated from the University of Sussex with a BA in American History last summer. As part of his undergraduate degree, Ben was able to study at the University of Michigan for a year.  There he assisted in establishing a research project designed to compare historically black colleges or universities in the U.S. with universities in South Africa that had been solely black prior to the end of apartheid.  Ben was given a scholarship to continue this project in Cape Town, South Africa, where he also taught English and assisted in other educational projects in the surrounding townships.

Ben has always been an opponent to the death penalty wherever it is carried out.  His degree in American history, as well as his time spent here studying, served to ignite his interest to the point that he wanted to come to the U.S. and help the cause for abolition first hand. Ben will be with us until September, when he will return to England to begin a Masters in International Human Rights.

Mikhaela Payden-Travers
Mikhaela graduated from the College of William and Mary in May with a BA in English Literature.  Although issues of equality and social justice are not raised as often as they should be in most university English Departments, her involvement with Amnesty International and her family both ensured that she kept informed of current events, especially those dealing with the death penalty.  As the last name indicates, Mikhaela is Jack’s daughter.  She will fill in as the office administrator for the rest of the summer.  While she never expected to be working with her father after graduating from college, she is happy to have found fulfilling and meaningful short-term work.  She hopes to move to Central America in the fall, volunteering with community programs.
   VADP Newsletter Late Summer 2003