Erin Parish Mitchell

Erin is HKF’s Executive Director. She has twenty years of experience working with people rebuilding their lives and communities in the aftermath of war and incarceration. Erin has worked with victims and combatants of violence in Colombia and Northern Ireland. In North Carolina, she’s designed peer support reentry programs and transitional jobs programs for people coming out of prison and driver’s license restoration programs to help people avoid incarceration. In all of her work, she seeks to create the conditions that allow others to realize their full power. She has a PhD in Cultural Anthropology and a Masters in History from Duke University and an MPhil in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation Studies from Trinity College Dublin. In her free time, she loves cooking and throwing dinner parties, discovering new music and playing outside with her family.

Sita Lozoff

Sita and Bo Lozoff started the Prison-Ashram Project with Ram Dass in 1973, which has grown into the largest interfaith prison ministry in the world. She is currently HKF’s Spiritual Director and has been cited for numerous humanitarian awards, including the prestigious Temple Award for Creative Altruism from the Institute for Noetic Sciences. Her sincerity and commitment have earned the respect of hundreds of thousands of people in prisons and others around the world who feel inspired to follow a similar path of living simply and joyfully caring about others.

Kristen Domeracki

Kristen serves behind the scenes as HKF’s Operations Manager. She helps with shipping, ordering, and maintaining the website. Kristen has a Bachelor of Science degree from NC State University and a Masters of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School. In her free time, she likes sitting quietly and contemplating why the world doesn’t have more introverts.

Many Volunteers

HKF depends upon volunteers to continue its work. Some people volunteer several hours each week, others come once a month. A typical workday may involve office work such as data entry, packaging of books & CDs, or working directly with mail from people in prisons. If you are interested in volunteering with us, please contact us. Volunteering with HKF takes place in our office, but if you are interested in volunteering in prisons, we recommend reading this PDF Guidebook for Volunteering in Prisons: Sacred Gates: Bringing Mindfulness to Prisons, a Volunteer Guide.

Our Board of Directors

Our Spiritual Advisory Council

JARVIS JAY MASTERS Buddhist and author of the beautiful book Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row. Masters lives on California’s death row.
VENERABLE ROBINA COURTIN Founder of the Liberation Prison Project, worldwide teacher, and Buddhist nun of the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition and lineage of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
GARY ZUKAV 
Spiritual teacher. Gary has been a guest on Oprah more than 30 times and is a four-time New York Times bestselling author. His books include The Seat of the SoulSoul Stories and The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of New Physics.
MIKE THUMM Retired Superintendent of Orange Correctional Center, a prison in Hillsborough, NC. Mike served for more than 30 years in the North Carolina Department of Corrections.
DENNIS GADDY Founder and Executive Director of Community Success Initiative (CSI), where he draws from his own experience to help others transition from incarceration to success.
PATCH ADAMS Physician, social activist, and the subject of the 1998 movie starring Robin Williams.
FATHER THOMAS KEATING (IN PERPETUITY)

Founder of the Centering Prayer movement, spiritual guide of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., and Trappist monk at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, CO.