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Who We Are
Class Action Board of Directors
As of January 2010
Jacqueline Dyer, Board President and Treasurer
Jacqueline Dyer, LICSW, received her MSW from Boston College Graduate School of Social Work. She worked for over 15 years in the field post-MSW with adult female ex-offenders returning to the community and reuniting with their families; homeless families and the homeless mentally ill, African American adoptive-family recruitment, providing outreach, in-program and in-home therapy, independent clinical consultation, program development and was director of a federally funded grant program increasing mental health services at the Cambridge public elementary schools. She is currently in school for her Ph. D. at Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and will begin her third year as an Adjunct Faculty Advisor at Simmons College in fall of 2009.
Holly Fulton
I come from a wealthy area of the east side of Providence, Rhode Island, and have lived in New York, California, Colorado, Paris, and different parts of New England. I grew up with classism and racism as norms. My journeys geographically and internally have involved trainings and teaching around French language/culture, ESL and American culture, and diversity awareness. I have studied and discovered profound insights and horrors associated with racism, classism, the U.S. slave trade, slavery, white supremacy, and white privilege. In 2001, I participated in a life-altering trip with 8 cousins and one sister that retraced the slave-trading triangle business of my ancestors, the DeWolfs of Bristol, Rhode Island. Showing and facilitating dialogues with the documentary film “Traces of the Trade” about our trip and the needed discussions, history awareness, healing, and actions around race today are part of my work and life commitment under the heading of social justice. I also do pet therapy with my Golden Retriever at hospitals, nursing homes, and private homes.
Janet Kniffin
Raised in a small, rural Connecticut town, I grew up with a sense of privilege. However, upon entering a classic New England prep school, I quickly recognized that privilege was relative. I've married into (and divorced) the owning class, married into (and divorced) the low-wage working class, and have, at one time, lived as a single parent below the poverty line. The prep school experience, in the first class of girls in an all-boys school, provided firsthand experience in the complex intersections of classism, sexism, and racism and set the foundation for an undergraduate education in women's studies. I am currently the Director of Development at the Connecticut Food Bank, serving a network of 650 food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, and children's and senior programs in 6 counties. In a state with the highest per capita income in the country, we are distributing more than 30 tons of food a day to people in need, highlighting those great disparities between the rich and the rest of us.
Jerry Koch-Gonzalez, Interim Executive Director and Clerk
I grew up in La Habana, Cuba, until our family moved in 1961 to Queens, New York City, when I was eight years old. I witnessed how differences were treated and sought to assimilate. As a young adult I experienced myself as living on the bridge of identity between middle class and working class, Latino and white, heterosexual and gay, Catholic and atheist/Buddhist. I have observed both the personal aspect of how class background affects my capacity to dream and the societal impact of wealth concentration. How can we create safe space for all? I seek to bridge connections among all people seeking greater equity. I work now as a consultant. My primary interests are promoting Compassionate/Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and dynamic self-governance (Sociocracy).
Betsy Leondar-Wright
As a little girl in a middle-class family in a mixed-class suburb of New Jersey, I never understood why kids whose dads did different jobs went to different churches, socialized separately, and were tracked into different  classes at school. These questions propelled me into community organizing for economic justice, and to helping launch United for a Fair Economy in its first decade. With other UFE people, I co-authored "The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the US Racial Wealth Divide" (2006). Since writing my book "Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists" (2005), I have led more than 50 workshops on working together across class differences. Thanks to Class Action and its growing network, I get to work with other people who see class dynamics everywhere they look.
Rose Sackey-Milligan
I grew up on small island in the Caribbean in the 50s, and my parents always
told me that I grew up in prosperous times, a time when they could afford to
build their first home and own 8 acres of land. This was a huge deal! With
tremendous personal sacrifice, they sent me (and all my 6 siblings) to one
the best schools on the island, setting the foundation for my career as a
socio-cultural anthropologist. I've worked as a researcher and applied
anthropologist for 15 years in social change philanthropy as the former
Director of Programs of the Peace Development Fund. As an evaluator, I
served as the director of Special Programs and Senior Evaluator at the
National Center on Family Homelessness (NCFH).
My 25 year service to social
justice currently continues at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
as its Social Justice Program Director. I'm a writer and educator, and my
love of travel has taken me to many countries in Latin America, Cuba, the
Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and the U.S., including Hawaii.
Maynard Seider, Vice-President
I'm from a pro-union working class Jewish family in New Haven, CT. Attending public schools with the excitement of the Civil Right Movement around me, it seemed natural to study that field and to pursue it as a graduate student. I got more into class issues through my interest in organized labor and an experience working in a factory for a year, being involved in my local union and in strike activity. Now teaching at Mass. College of Liberal Arts in North Adams (MCLA), I'm involved in a research project looking at the structural and educational factors that impact students of different classes as they make decisions relating to their educational and occupational careers. As a new board member, I'm impressed with Class Action's work in popular education about class and fighting classism.
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