Board

Peter Stern is the Chief Financial Officer of the Brooklyn Nets, NY Liberty and Barclays Center.

Previously, Stern was Head of U.S. Investments at Alibaba Group. Earlier in his career, he held various banking and investing positions in New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Sydney.

Stern is known for his criminal justice reform work at San Quentin prison and as Senior Advisor at The Last Mile which prepares incarcerated individuals for successful re-entry through business and technology training. Stern currently teaches at Sing Sing prison through Hudson Link.

A Chicago native, Stern earned a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University and a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ann Jacobs has worked for over 50 years to advance social and racial justice through the reform of the criminal legal system and the creation of pathways to opportunity for people who have been impacted by it.

In December 2022, Ann retired from the City University of New York where, for 12 years, she served as the Executive Director of the John Jay College Institute for Justice and Opportunity which builds bridges between corrections and higher education. She is excited to continue this journey by joining the board of Hudson Link.

For 17+ years, Ann led the Women’s Prison Association, the oldest and largest non-profit in the US focused exclusively on justice-involved women and their families. Ann held high level positions in the New York City Mayor’s Office; worked in Washington, DC at the Pretrial Services Resource Center, National Institute for Dispute Resolution, and DC Dept of Corrections; and at juvenile and adult programs run by formerly incarcerated people in Baltimore, MD.

Ann is currently enjoying her part-time position as grant writer and strategic advisor to All Kings, a peer-led organization that supports healing from trauma and the emotional well-being of justice-impacted men and young men at risk of being impacted. She is a lover of bebop jazz, dogs, jigsaw puzzles and nature.

Dr. George Timmons, who has more than two decades of experience in academic support services, online education, and student affairs in higher education, is determined to make an impact on Hudson Link.

Dr. Timmons began his journey in 1996 at Old Dominion University, where he served as the site director of a satellite campus under the TELETECHNET program. He earned a bachelor's degree from Norfolk State University in financial management, a master's degree from Old Dominion in higher education, and a doctorate from Bowling Green University.

Later, Dr. Timmons was appointed to North Carolina Wesleyan College as an assistant dean of Adult Learning before being appointed to Excelsior College in New York as the founding dean of Online Education and Learning Services.

Now, as the President of Holyoke Community College in Western Massachusetts, Dr. Timmons is certain of the contributions he will make to Hudson Link as a board member:

"My extensive knowledge and understanding of higher education enable me to have a holistic perspective on academia," he asserts. "With regard to my diverse professional background, I am confident that it enables me to contribute to the board in its maximal capacity."

Mayo Bartlett is the Principal Attorney at the Law Offices of Mayo Bartlett, PLLC and he was a partner at the law firm of Young & Bartlett, LLP, a litigation law firm which focused on Plaintiff’s Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, and Civil Rights matters. He worked for the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office for more than ten years, and served as a litigator in the Superior Court Trial Division prior to his appointment as the Chief of the Bias Crimes Unit. Mr. Bartlett has provided hate crime training for the law enforcement community and he works with community organizations and schools to ensure that hate crimes are properly identified, reported, and investigated.

Mr. Bartlett is a co-founder of SAFE PASSAGE, a youth law forum that brings issues of law and policy to the classroom, and he speaks regularly on the topics of human rights and non-violent conflict resolution. Mr. Bartlett served on the Advisory Board of the Westchester Holocaust Education Center, assisting the Center in the development of an alternative educational sentencing program for young people who are believed to have been involved in non-violent hate crimes in Westchester, New York and adjoining counties.

Mr. Bartlett has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Pace Law School, where he taught Moot Court and lectured on Ethics. He was an active member of the New York State Hate Crimes Coalition, an organization that played a pivotal role in the passage of the Hate Crime Act of 2000, the first comprehensive hate crime legislation in New York State. Mr. Bartlett is a former Vice President and Director of the Westchester County Bar Association, where he served as Co-chair of both the Criminal Justice Section and the Membership Committee, is a member of the Judiciary Committee, and a former delegate to the New York State Bar Association. He served as a Director of the Westchester County Black Bar Association, and is the former Chair of the Westchester County Human Rights Commission. He is a convener of We Are Westchester, a coalition of not-for- profit organizations that focuses on social justice.

Mr.Bartlett is a former Director of the Legal Aid Society of Westchester County, a past Trustee of the Music Conservatory of Westchester, a past Director of (Congregations Linked in Urban Strategy to Effect Renewal), a Director of the New York State Civil Liberties Union, and he is a member of the African American Men of Westchester, and Co-Chair of the Organization’s Domestic Violence Committee.

Mr. Bartlett is a member of the White Plains - Greenburgh NAACP, and a Director of the Urban League of Westchester and he has served on the Advisory Board of the Westchester Children’s Association. Mayo serves as Co-Chair of the Westchester County Police Reform and Reimagining Task Force, and he works with the Westchester County Human Rights Commission addressing acts of hate and discrimination. Mayo is Chair of the Defense Counsel Committee for Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah’s Transition Team, and he serves as a policy consultant for police departments.

Mr. Bartlett is a Board member of Hudson Link, and he is a member of the Board of Visitors for the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Mayo was selected as a Super Lawyer, and as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers. He was also recognized as a member of the Westchester Power 50 by City and State.

For nearly a decade, Mr. Bartlett regularly appeared on the television news forum “Richard French Live” on WRNN as a member of the legal panel, discussing current issues concerning the law and society. Mr. Bartlett is the author of A Day at the Museum, and he frequently spends time working to strengthen communities.

Michael Zweig joined Hudson Link in 2007 after meeting a Hudson Link alumnus and hearing his story of transformation and redemption.

“My hope is that as the number of Hudson Link graduates re-entering society as productive citizens increases, we will begin to look at our prisons differently – as a place for transformation, not only for punishment, and as a place where vital human resources are developed and redeemed.”

Mr. Zweig is a partner at Loeb & Loeb, LLP, a national law firm with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. He has a diverse national litigation practice with an emphasis on complex litigation, business torts, entertainment, employment and advertising/media matters.

Mr. Zweig has litigated and arbitrated cases throughout the United States, frequently through trial, and has represented numerous clients in high profile, high-stakes litigation involving false advertising and deceptive trade practices (including Attorney General investigations), shareholder, partnership and accounting disputes, contract, right of publicity, defamation and a wide variety of employment-related litigation.

He is the recipient of Loeb &Loeb’s Third Annual Award for Community Service and Professional Achievement and is active in a variety of not-for profit and professional organizations.

Mr. Zweig’s interests include playing tennis, basketball, kayaking and hiking. He resides in Westchester with his wife, Michelle Gersen, also an attorney.

After Lisa Wells and her husband Peter attended the 2013 graduation ceremony at Sing Sing, they were hooked on the organization and its mission. She joined the Board a few months later.

“Hudson Link offers an opportunity, but it’s the students themselves who grasp that opportunity and use it to change their own lives and the lives of others,” she says. “That’s what is so inspiring about this organization – those who benefit from the programs we offer are the ones who work the hardest to achieve our shared goals.”

Ms. Wells is a native of Virginia but has spent most of her adult life in and around New York City. She is now retired after a 34-year legal career, most of it with JPMorgan Chase & Co. She holds a law degree from the University of Virginia, an MA in French Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a BA from Sweet Briar College. Before attending law school, Ms. Wells taught at the middle school, high school, and college levels. She chairs the Board’s Academic Program Committee and also serves on the Alumni Services Committee. She has taught in Hudson Link’s pre-college preparatory program at Sing Sing and serves as a coach for incarcerated speakers in Hudson Link’s Beyond the Block speakers series.