Our Team

Staff

Board of Directors

SHERRI CALDELLIS, board chair

Sherri has worked in the telecommunications field for over 30 years. She has a son incarcerated in Washington State and first became involved with UBB in 2009. She was deeply impressed with the UBB program because it instills hope and inspires dreams for those incarcerated. Sherri co-chairs the UBB events committee.

Rachel oppenheim

Rachel is a Core Faculty member and the Director of the School of Education at Antioch University Seattle. She spent several years as a public school teacher in Compton, California and New Orleans, Louisiana. As a teacher educator Rachel is committed to preparing current and emergent teachers to foster rich, engaging, and responsive educational experiences for all students. For the past decade she has been involved in education in jails and prisons, first in New York City on Rikers Island and now UBB. Rachel co-chairs UBB’s Education Advisory Committee.

gary idleburg

Gary is co-founder of UBB and has served on the board since its inception. Gary has a B.S. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin and a M.A. in City Planning from Boston University. He works closely with the Snohomish County NAACP and the Black Prisoners Caucus, another organization that works inside Washington State prisons.

Martina Kartman

Martina is committed to the dignity, power, and agency of communities most impacted by interpersonal and state violence. Her work is shaped by her own experiences as a young person on various sides of harm and the criminal legal system, and by her involvement with movements for anti-violence, racial justice, and abolition. She is the co-founder and Capacity Coordinator at Collective Justice, where she supports healing and restorative justice work in community and behind prison walls.

Devon Adams

Devon is an alum of UBB who earned his Bachelor of Specialized Studies from Ohio University. He spent over fifteen years in prison contributing to the wellness and uplifting of the incarcerated community. Now as a member of the outside community he works as the Fundraising Coordinator at Collective Justice, a Restorative Justice agency based in Seattle, where he continues to focus on the wellness of and uplifting of all community members, in prison and out in community.

Anthony Blankenship

Anthony is the Senior Community Organizer with Civil Survival in the Policy and Advocacy Department. In his role at Civil Survival, Anthony helps to connect and empower people that have been impacted by the criminal legal system to build their collective and individual political power. Since being released from prison, Anthony has been working to undo the harms created by the criminal legal system and hold systems accountable to those they serve. He helped start an entrepreneurial program at Monroe prison, worked as a trauma-informed yoga trainer and fundraiser for Yoga Behind Bars, and most recently worked as a Coalition Organizer for ACLU of Washington. Anthony holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science from the University of Washington, as well as a dual Master’s in Social Work and Public Administration from Arizona State University.

Cinna’Mon Williams

Cinna’Mon is a passionate diversity and equity professional with decades of experience leading, coaching, and empowering others to reach their personal and professional best. She is the Chief Operating Officer with NAMC-OR (National Association for Minority Contractors). Prior to joining NAMC-OR, Cinna’Mon was a member of the Urban League of Portland’s Executive Leadership team in the role of Director of Education and Workforce Development. During that time, she oversaw the organization’s family empowerment programs; career and employment-focused efforts; and small business development. She also created and implemented the organization’s Entrepreneurship Academy and the Feed the Folks Initiative; redeveloped all elements of the agency’s youth and family services; acted as the primary event planner for the annual Career Connections Jobs Fair; and expanded its employment programs to serve and support upwards of 900 career seekers annually. Prior to the start of her nonprofit-focused work, Cinna’Mon advocated for communities of color as an equity advocate in the public sector for close to three decades. Cinna’Mon holds a bachelor’s degree in Business with a concentration in Leadership, and a master’s in Business with a concentration in Management.

E. Scott Williams

E. Scott Williams was born and raised in Portland Oregon, where he has worked professionally serving the community for 30 plus years. He earned his Undergraduate degree in Sociology (1992) and his Masters Degree in Social Work from Portland State University in 1999. He’s held multiple Social Service positions at Non profit, Academic and Government organizations. Scott is currently a Program Development Manager in the Direct Clinical Services program for the Multnomah County Health Department on the Behavioral Health Division team. In this role, Scott provides oversight for multiple programs. The programs include Preschool For All, Kindergarten through 12th grade(K-12), Gun Violence Behavioral Response Team(GVBHRT) and Child Abuse Response & Evaluation Services(CARES). Scott is a former Co-Chair for the Health Department’s Work Equity Strategic Plan (WESP) group in 2018 and the recipient of the Kaiser Permanente Village Welcome Individual Award in 2019. Scott was recently inducted into the Central Catholic High School Hall Of Fame in 2022 for Meritorious Service by leading courageous conversations about Equity and Inclusion that led to long term systemic change. Scott has been employed by Multnomah County for 20 years focusing on working with youth and families in the community and in congregate settings.

Founders