Leadership Team
We are a small and dedicated team. Our team has a background in software development, prison reentry and prison policies in addition to both direct and indirect experience with long-term incarceration.
Briane
Executive Director
Briane is a lawyer and a public interest technologist. Briane has over 10 years of experience in criminal justice reform and reentry policy. Briane received her Juris Doctorate degree. She previously supervised the development of CleanSlateDC.org, Enarahealth.com, DCRefers.org, and the first launch of the Law4BlackLivesDC.org website.
Edmund
Full-Stack Lead Developer
Edmund is an engineer with a strong passion for using software to empower global economic and social justice. He has over half a decade of experience in myriad industries building diverse projects including data extraction systems to reduce FOIA burden on police departments, mobile point-of-sale systems for restaurants, case-management systems for bail funds, B2B marketplaces, financial lending tools, and real-estate back office systems.
Nathan
Operations Manager (Product and Finance)
Nathan received his BA in American Studies and has experience in advocacy, qualitative research, and nonprofit administration. During undergrad, he completed a Senior Honors Thesis titled “Beneath the Surface”: Community and Family Narratives Regarding Formerly Incarcerated People, adapting his ethnographic research into a documentary film.
Board Members & Advisors
Joe R.
Secretary, Board Member
Joe Robinson is the founder of Mindful Money, LLC, an online personal finance education company that helps clients develop healthy money habits and build wealth. Since 1995, Joe has taught hundreds of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people personal finance and how to develop a wealth mindset and entrepreneurship. He is the author of the nationally recognized book “Think Outside the Cell: An Entrepreneurs’ Guide for the Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated.” He is most active on his personal finance YouTube channel.
Mark S.
Vice Chair, Board Member
Mark Shervington is a New York City native and current NYC Community Organizer at Release Aging People in Prison Campaign. During Mark’s 29-year prison experience he earned Paralegal and Legal Research Specialist certifications. An experienced jailhouse lawyer, Mark was instrumental in successful challenges to the New York State Parole Board’s denying parole to deserving candidates. Mark is a 2016 NLG Haywood Burns Fellow and 2018 Code Cooperative summer program and he currently serves on the Advisory Board for Parole Preparation Project.
Justin M.
Principal Technical Advisor
Justin is originally from NYC and received his BS in Computer Science and Engineering from Washington Adventist University. He has 13 years of professional experience as a full-stack developer, working with clients creating web applications to meet their business needs and solve client challenges. Justin also helped in the development of the CleanSlateDC.org record expungement eligibility tool and other various volunteer projects creating systems for public good.
Our History
2019: The idea of finEQUITY.org emerged out of community conversations in the summer of 2019. Those conversations were centered around what was missing to support more community members, who are leaving or have already left a prison facility after decades behind bars. And those conversations were specifically had with formerly incarcerated community members in New York State and their loved ones. These community conversations were facilitated by Eric, Maddie and Brittany.
2020: Soon after, Keri and Briane joined with Brittany to further validate finEQUITY’s focus with stakeholders in both the justice and finance sectors. And then, Keri, Brittany and Briane launched and founded what is today: finEQUITY.org (with funding from Blue Ridge Labs).
2021: Under Briane’s leadership, and through guidance from our first governance board (Joe and Mark), finEQUITY.org launched its first financial tool, with the support of the Financial Health Network, and in partnership with the Hebrew Free Loan Society. finEQUITY.org expanded its staff and also expanded its board to include Justin, Carl and Nathan.
2022: To be continued. To keep up with finEQUITY.org’s progress, join our Mailing list / Monthly Newsletter.