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Dear John,
I am thrilled to announce that ARC has recently brought on three new Board Members to our ARC Board of Directors: Mara Sandler, Prophet Walker, and George Wells. They are distinguished members of their communities and bring a wealth of experience and compassion to our Board -- we will benefit greatly from their leadership.
ARC’s work is more important than ever before, and despite the challenges we face, we are deeply committed to ending mass incarceration. Our leadership team, staff, and formerly incarcerated Members are dedicated to transforming the criminal justice system so that it is more just and equitable for all people. Like the rest of our Board, Mara, Prophet, and George uphold these same values. Read below for more on our new Board Members!
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 Mara Sandler
Mara Burros Sandler is a dedicated mother, activist, philanthropist, and producer.
Mara is a graduate of UW Madison with a BA in psychology, and holds a MA/Ed.M. in counseling from Teachers College, Columbia University. In keeping with her educational focus on fostering strong emotional and physical health, Mara has dedicated a great deal of her time to non-profit work in the arenas of health and well-being. She has served on the boards of numerous organizations with health-related missions, including the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance; Casa Columbia, and Facing Addiction, and she served as the director and co-president of The Women’s Division of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Mara's special focus on women’s health was born of the loss of her mother to ovarian cancer at the age of 57 after a five-year battle with the disease. Mara co-founded the Janet Council of the Basser Institute at the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn and is a certificated Hospice Volunteer.
Mara also has a keen interest in philanthropic activities related to strengthening educational and artistic institutions, building community, and fighting bigotry. As such Mara has sat on the boards of The Hewitt School, The Women’s International Zionist Organization, Facing History and Ourselves, the 92nd Street Y, executive committee for Represent Justice campaign, and the Aspen Art Museum. She currently sits on the board of Afya foundation and is a member of the Art for Justice Fund.
In recent years, Mara has become a theater and documentary film producer, harnessing the power of this medium to galvanize public awareness and action around issues of national and international concern. The films she has produced or co-produced include the Peabody Award-winning Newtown, Race to Nowhere, I Voted, Killer Bees, Dark Money, The Great American Lie; and Hazing: How Badly Do You Want It? -- to name just a few. Mara supports bold films that shine a light on critical, social and political problems, and films that propose solutions to these complicated issues. Thus, Be Forward Productions was formed.
Prophet Walker 
Prophet Walker, Co-Founder and CEO of Treehouse, grew up in South LA, where amidst poverty, violence, and homelessness in his neighborhood, community was always at its core.
Prophet is deeply involved with both criminal justice and education reform and serves on multiple non-profit and civic boards. In 2014, Prophet ran for the California State Assembly, coming in second. This passion for reform was triggered by his personal experience of being incarcerated at 16 and sentenced to spend six years within an adult prison. While incarcerated, he started a state-wide program that allowed inmates to earn a two-year college degree, and today thousands of inmates participate in the program. Prophet was one of the program’s first graduates. He then attended Loyola Marymount University where he received a degree in Civil Engineering. In 2015 President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama invited Prophet to attend the State of the Union to honor his efforts to reform our criminal justice system and for his commitment to our children.
Prophet’s experiences surrounding community strength and human connectedness inspired him to create Treehouse, recognizing the power of community in proximity and shared property selection and investor relations. Prophet enjoys spending his free time with his daughter and friends.
George Wells 
George Wells is the Chairman of Wells Group of New York, a 15-person management consulting firm that specializes in working with high growth businesses in the consumer internet, healthcare, technology, and contemporary arts spaces, and the CFO of quip, an oral care startup. Mr. Wells also serves as interim CFO of Maisonette, a children’s luxury goods marketplace and business manager to contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas. His previous executive roles include serving as interim CFO of Draper James, a lifestyle clothing brand founded by Reese Witherspoon, and interim COO/CFO of Lehmann Maupin, one of the top ten art galleries in the world.
Through October 2017 George served as the CFO of Zola, the fastest growing wedding registry and wedding company in the country. As a member of Zola’s eight-person executive team, George was responsible for designing and implementing the finance, accounting, legal and HR administrative functions as the first finance executive hire. During his time at Zola, revenue grew from single digit millions to hundreds of millions in a two year timeframe.
Prior to founding his consulting firm and bit by his father’s entrepreneurial legacy, Mr. Wells was Vice President of Lieberfarb & Associates, an incubator and investment firm started by Warren Lieberfarb. Lieberfarb is known in Hollywood as the “Father of the DVD” due to his work evangelizing the format as the President of Warner Home Video for twenty years.
He began his career in 1999 as a Financial Analyst in Morgan Stanley’s Mergers & Acquisitions group. Mr. Wells also held roles as a private equity analyst in Goldman Sachs’ PIA group, and as an associate in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group.
Mr. Wells serves on the Out in Tech board, an organization committed to promoting diversity in the tech and startup community, and has pledged a $1 million dollar art donation to his alma mater, Morehouse College.
Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Mr. Wells received his bachelor’s degree in Finance & Accounting from Morehouse College in 2000 and his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2006. He and his husband, Manfred, maintain residences in New York, Los Angeles and Tirol, Austria.
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We are honored to have these three new leaders join the ARC team and are grateful for their partnership. Together, we will work to ensure our communities are safe, healthy, and whole. As always, thank you for your continued partnership during this new era for ARC.
Sincerely,
Sam
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