Board and Staff
BOARD
Gary Idleburg
Gary is co-founder of University Beyond Bars and teaches African American History at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, WA. Gary has served on the board of UBB since its inception. Gary has a B.S. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin and a Masters in City Planning from Boston University.
Vik Bahl
Vik Bahl received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a faculty member in the English department at Green River Community College in Auburn, WA. His teaching and research interests include ethnic and post-colonial literatures, culture studies, and social movements.
Asif Esbhani
Asif is acting Treasurer of the Board of Directors for UBB. He is a information technology professional and advocate of UBB.
Carrie Matthews
Carrie Matthews is faculty in the Interdisciplinary Writing Program at the University of Washington and co-teaches College Prep English for UBB. A long-time consumer of public education, she received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and MA and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also sits on UBB’s Educational Advisory Board.
Raymond Maxwell
Raymond is a professor at the Department of Humanities and Sciences at the Cornish College of the Arts.
Haley Roberts
STAFF
Carol Estes – Executive Director
Carol is the co-founder of University Beyond Bars.
An award-winning writer and editor, Carol has taught writing and literature courses at the University of Kansas and Viterbo College in Wisconsin. For the last nine years, she has taught college classes at Washington State Reformatory. Carol has published numerous articles in a variety of magazines and served as managing editor of YES! magazine.
Between January to April, when the state legislature is in session, Carol also works as the policy advocate and legislative analyst for the Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy, a statewide Quaker organization that advocates for criminal justice reform.
In 2010, Carol Estes and UBB were awarded the Ecumenical and Interfaith Leadership Award by the Washington Association of Churches.
For the past six years, Carol Estes and Gary Idleburg have presided over the growth of UBB from a single business class with four students to a nationally recognized program that enrolls close to 200 inmates in two prisons. Through Ohio University, UBB has awarded more than 2,000 hours of college credit to prisoners — at no cost to taxpayers or to prisoners themselves.
Sarah Frost – Operations Manager
Sarah Frost received her Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington and has worked with several non-profits in a variety of capacities for over the last 15 years. She became passionate about reform when working at a homeless shelter in Portland, Oregon where she worked directly with men and women who couldn’t find work or housing due to a history of imprisonment. Sarah is now performing administrative duties in hopes that she can impact some of the lives society has locked up and thrown away by supporting the mission of UBB to provide higher education to a forgotten and vulnerable population.
Stacey Reeh – Program Manager
Stacey received her J.D. in 2008 and her B.A. in Psychology and Sociology in 2005. She has experience helping men and women transition from prison into the community, and her research in law school focused on the correctional system, prisoner needs, and alternatives to incarceration.
Amy Robertson – Volunteer Accountant
Amy is a commercial credit underwriter for Liberty Bay Bank in Poulsbo, Washington. She has worked in banking for thirteen years in almost all areas of the bank. She has an MBA as well as a masters in French horn performance.