Sandy Hook Promise’s Board of Directors is a governing board which shepherds the organization toward a sustainable future. They provide strategic leadership, oversight, insight, and connections. The governing board is accountable for clarifying Sandy Hook Promise’s mission, ethos, and strategic direction. The board also ensures the organization’s overall financial performance and long-term viability is sound, manages enterprise-wide risks/legal issue, acts as brand stewards, adopts relevant and ethical policies as well as ensuring Sandy Hook Promise has adequate resources to advance its mission.
Board Secretary
Dr. Sonya Anderson is the Executive Vice President of United Way Worldwide’s International Network, responsible for managing and enhancing the growth and sustainability of United Way’s global strategy to expand its reach and impact.
Previously, Dr. Anderson was the founder and president of the boutique consulting firm, Embark Strategies, and has been a leader in the nonprofit sector for more than two decades. She’s worked to advance education, employment, and life opportunities for youth throughout the United States and around the world. Additionally, Dr. Anderson has supported local Chicago non-profits across a range of sectors, including K-12 education reform. Read her full bio.
Board Director
Jackie is a retired K-6th grade educator from the Pawling School District in New York where she spent more than 30 beloved years in the classroom. Jackie, along with her husband Mark, has been a national advocate and face of gun violence prevention, frequently serving as a spokesperson for the organization.
Jackie lives in Sandy Hook, CT with her husband Mark, her son James, and daughter Natalie. In addition to her work with Sandy Hook Promise, Jackie and her extended family have created a foundation called “What Would Daniel Do?” to honor the extraordinarily generous and empathetic spirit of her son Daniel who was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise, and Board Director
Mark Barden is co-founder of the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund (SHPAF). Since the tragic murder of his son, Daniel, during the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, Mark has dedicated himself to sparing other families the pain of losing children to gun violence.
Mark believes that thoughtful, sincere dialogue centered on protecting youth will lead us to shared common ground and nonpartisan solutions everyone can agree with. These include expanded background checks, secure storage of firearms, extreme risk protection laws, and other measures that are proven to prevent gun violence. Read his full bio.
Board Vice Chair
Colleen Barry is the Inaugural Dean of the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. Dr. Barry’s research focuses on how health and social policies affect outcomes for individuals with mental illness and substance use, including access to medical care and social services, health care spending, and mortality.
In addition, she conducts empirical research to understand how persuasive communication can influence public opinion about addiction, mental illness, food systems and obesity, and violence. A focus of this work involves identifying evidence-based approaches for reducing stigma. Dr. Barry has authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications in leading medicine and health policy journals. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Social Insurance. Read her full bio.
Board Chair
Matthew Bennett is Co-founder and SVP for Public Affairs, of the Third Way, in Washington, DC. His pursuit of center-left politics has taken Matt from the campaign trail to the White House, and from the pages of The New York Times to appearances on Meet the Press and 60 Minutes.
He worked on both of the presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton, his political hero. He served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs in the Clinton White House, where he was the principal White House liaison to governors and covered issues ranging from disaster response to Medicaid to immigration. Read his full bio.
Board Director
Jadine Chou is a partner at PAX Group, where she advances holistic safety strategies grounded in authentic community engagement. Prior to joining PAX, Jadine served as Chief of Safety and Security for Chicago Public Schools and previously led operations at the Chicago Housing Authority. Across senior leadership roles under four mayoral administrations, she worked at the intersection of education, public safety, and community trust.
Earlier in her career, Jadine spent two decades in corporate America before transitioning to public service, driven by a desire to make a broader societal impact. She brings deep cross-sector experience and a unique perspective on violence prevention and the safety and well-being of young people, families, and communities. Read her full bio.
Board Director
Karen Freeman-Wilson began serving as President and CEO of the Chicago Urban League in January 2020. She brings a passion for equity and social justice to the organization, which works to advance economic, educational, and social progress for African Americans through direct service and advocacy.
Having served in the public arena most of her professional life, Freeman-Wilson has deep experience in addressing issues that impact urban communities. She was mayor of her hometown of Gary, Indiana, from 2012 through 2019. She was the first female to lead the city of Gary and the first Black female mayor in Indiana. Read more.
Board Director
Alexander P. Heckler is an entrepreneur, attorney, philanthropist, and dedicated family man based in Miami, Florida. He is the Founder and Managing Partner of LSN Partners LLC, a full-service bipartisan consulting firm, and LSN Law, PA, a boutique law firm focused on procurement, administrative law, land use, and zoning.
Alex participates in and holds leadership roles in many charitable, professional, and political organizations, such as but not limited to: 2024-25 Harris-Walz, United States Holocaust Memorial Council, Aspen Ideas: Climate Miami Beach, Young Professionals Organization, Democratic National Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Governor Association. Read his full bio.
Co-founder & CEO of Sandy Hook Promise, and Board Director
Nicole Hockley chose to transform unspeakable grief and anguish into action after her youngest son, Dylan, was murdered in his first-grade classroom during the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. As the co-founder and CEO of the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation (SHPF), Nicole works every day to protect children from gun and school violence.
Nicole is a leading voice on school safety and gun violence prevention, rising above the political divide, focusing instead on helping young people get the help they need. She is sought-after for her expertise on recognizing the warning signs of someone who may be in crisis and how to safely intervene. Read more.
Interim Board Treasurer
Ed Lehrman was the Founder & Managing Partner (now retired) at Vine Connections, a national wine and Japanese sake importer focused on introducing emerging regions to the US market. After receiving his MBA at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Business, Ed had stints at Kendall-Jackson and Seagram Classics before beginning his entrepreneurial endeavors in 1994 with the direct-to-consumer company, Passport Wine Club. For the last 22 years, he had been overseeing all departments at Vine Connections.
Ed was on the board of the non-profit Beyond Differences for 6 years after his own children faced social isolation and bullying experiences in middle schools. During this time, Ed served as Secretary and chaired both the non-profit’s Fundraising and Finance Committee.
Board Director
Bradley Myles joined the founding team at Safe Childhoods Initiative in early 2025 and currently serves as Philanthropy Director where he focuses on donor engagement and resource mobilization. Prior to this, Bradley was Senior Advisor-Innovation at Panorama Global and helped to develop multiple new initiatives there including To Zero, a global field-building effort on childhood sexual violence prevention, and the Reclaim Coalition on addressing image-based sexual abuse.
Mr. Myles’ career has focused on combatting forms of gender-based violence, child sexual exploitation and abuse, and human trafficking. Bradley’s background also includes serving on the founding team and then as CEO of Polaris, one of the prominent anti-trafficking organizations in the United States. Read more.
Board Director
After serving almost 15 years in the Philadelphia City Council, Michael A. Nutter was elected the 98th Mayor of his hometown in November 2007 and took office in January 2008. With the support of an experienced, professional staff, Mayor Nutter made significant progress on every pledge: homicides were at an almost 50-year low at the end of his tenure.
In affiliation with the National League of Cities, Mayor Nutter and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu launched Cities United, an initiative aimed at creating partnerships between cities, non-profits, and other stakeholders to combat violence and crime among African-American men and boys. Read his full bio.
Board Director
Dr. Chethan Sathya, MD, MSc, is a pediatric trauma surgeon and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded firearm injury prevention researcher. He serves as director of Northwell Health’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention and serves as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. Dr. Sathya was awarded $1.4 million from the NIH to study gun violence prevention and implement a first-of-its-kind protocol to universally screen among those at risk of firearm injury. Furthermore, Dr. Sathya spearheaded the formation of the National Gun Violence Prevention Learning Collaborative for Hospitals and Health Systems.
In addition to being a surgeon, Dr. Sathya is trauma director at Cohen Children’s Medical Center and assistant professor of surgery and pediatrics at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine.
Co-founder and Board Director
As Co-Founder and Board Chair, Emeritus at Sandy Hook Promise (SHP), Bill helps lead, develop, and oversee strategy, program implementation, awareness building, and governance as well as serving as a spokesperson.
Bill’s wife Mary, a school psychologist, was one of the six adults and 20 first graders murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Bill believes in and is committed to programs and policy that create better mental health interventions and greater access to services. He also backs commonsense solutions to gun safety and access. Read more.
Stay informed on what Sandy Hook Promise is doing to help prevent gun violence in schools, homes and communities.
