Board
Carl Steidel/Board Treasurer
Carl joined the RJIM Board as Treasurer in December 2020. Carl was previously involved with RJIM as a part-time facilitator starting in 2016.
As the Senior Associate Dean of Students at Bates College, Carl Steidel collaboratively develops programs that support students in all aspects of their college lives, and that connect the college’s academic and co-curricular missions.
At Bates, Carl coordinates the Student Support Advisor program, which connects every student, throughout their Bates career, to a Student Affairs staff member. Carl also oversees the community-standards and conflict-resolution processes that, while considering student development and community interests, address violations of the Bates Code of Student Conduct. Additionally, he oversees Counseling and Psychological Services, Campus Safety, and the Office of Accessible Education. He is coordinator of the Bates Intervention Team and a member of the Title IX Team and Academic Standing Committee.
Carl received his undergraduate degree in music education from Susquehanna University and has a master’s degree in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, he worked in residence life at Elmira College and in the West Campus House System at Cornell University. He came to Bates in July 2011.
Damaris Duarte / Board Member
Bio coming soon!
Jane Gallagher / Board Co-Chair
Jane has been involved in the nonprofit and philanthropic worlds for many years. As a Program Officer with Dietel Partners, a philanthropic advisory firm, she was responsible for grants management and assisted with strategy development in several program areas, primarily focused on: international corporate accountability and the rule of law in developing countries. Prior to joining Dietel Partners, Jane worked at the Maine State Energy Office/Efficiency Maine writing grants for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. While raising three sons, Jane spent many years volunteering and then working for Safe Passage, a nonprofit that helps at risk children and families who live in the community of the Guatemala City Garbage Dump.
Jane is a member of the Board of Directors of Mindbridge, is an Advisory Board member for the Make Shift Coffee House project, is an active volunteer for Maine Law School’s Justice For Women Lecture Series and serves as Co-Chair of the Casco Bay Friends of Safe Passage group. She was deeply involved in all five of Independent candidate Dick Woodbury’s successful campaigns for Maine State House and Maine State Senate.
Jane is a graduate of Amherst College and Cornell Law School, where she was an Articles Editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. After law school, Jane clerked for Hon. Joseph L. Tauro, a Federal District Court Judge in Boston, and then worked for several years as a litigation associate at Bingham Dana & Gould in Boston and Jones Day Reavis & Pogue in Pittsburgh. Jane lives in Yarmouth, Maine with her husband and various configurations of children and dogs.
Susan Rae-Reeves / Board Member
Susan was born in Lewiston, Maine, grew up in Auburn, and attended local public schools. After completing a BA in religion at Bates College, she left Maine for NYC and two transformative years at Union Theological Seminary. UTS at that time was a hotbed of feminism, black studies, and liberation theology. After UTS, Susan worked at Christianity & Crisis Magazine and then New World Foundation, which segued into a career fundraising for several community-based and city-wide not-for-profit organizations, including The Center for Children & Families, Goddard Riverside Community Center and Kingsbridge Heights Community Center.
Pursuing more direct involvement in services and programs, Susan completed a MSW degree at Hunter College School of Social Work in Administration and Community Organizing. At JBFCS, Susan was introduced to the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB) through their Undoing Racism Workshop. This gave traction to a previously unexpressed interest in racial justice, and led to involvement in several ongoing initiatives, including the JBFCS Confronting Organizational Racism leadership team, and co-facilitating two PISAB monthly antiracist discussion groups, one for white people and one multiracial.
Susan’s final two years in NYC were spent managing a clinical service coordination program for adults living with serious mental illness in the Bronx and Harlem, and working with a group to have Russell (Maroon) Shoatz moved from solitary confinement into general population in federal prison.
These experiences were the pivot to moving home to Maine, where she lives with Adam Rae-Reeves, 4 semi-feral cats and a rescue pup from Alabama. Retired in 2017, Susan is enjoying life off the employment treadmill, occupied with political activism, volunteer service, enjoying nature, listening to music and reading.
Joe Lasley / Board Member
Bio coming soon!
Oronde Cruger / Board Co-Chair
Originally from Ft. Lauderdale, Oronde Cruger graduated with a degree in neuroscience from Bowdoin College where he began to hone his deep curiosity about how humans work. After some years working in the medical field, he was inspired by some well publicized violent incidents in the news (Trayvon Martin and Sandy Hook, in particular) to realign his professional life to include work on complicated social matters. Oronde has worked as the Program Manager for the consent education group Speak About It for 6 years with a specific focus on bringing sex ed to under-resourced populations. As society has begun to allow more space for folks to be seen and heard when they share a story of trauma, Oronde has become increasingly interested in what the process is to move forward in a healthy and productive way. He is thrilled to explore this and other related topics with the powerful team at the Restorative Justice Institute.