STAFF DIRECTORS

James O. Smith, MPsSc.
Volunteer Services Director

Mr. Smith retired in January 1999, after twenty-seven years with the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole. While there, he served as Parole Agent, Staff Development Specialist and Director of Staff Development and Training. He has instructed sociology and criminology at the Harrisburg Area Community College, trained privately in the fields of criminal justice, mental health, and drug & alcohol treatment and published papers on stress management and worker burnout.

He is currently the Director of Volunteer Services for the Pennsylvania Prison Society, a position he has held since 1999. In that capacity he manages a network of 450 official visitors to the Commonwealth’s prisons and jails and serves as a National Issues Forum moderator under the auspices of the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, OH. Mr. Smith also has a private practice in training and consulting.

Contact:
     James O. Smith
     (717) 582-2670

Catherine Wise
Development and Communications Director

Ms. Wise has been on the staff of the Prison Society since 1999. She first served in the capacity of Inmate Family Services Program Manager during which time she helped develop the SKIP (Support for Kids with Incarcerated Parents) program and implemented the Parenting Skills Education program, the Virtual Visitation and Transportation programs. She is responsible for all marketing, public relations, communications with the media and public, publications, and fundraising for the Prison Society.

Prior to her work with the Prison Society, she was a volunteer literacy tutor at SCI Graterford, an "outmate"of St. Dismas Episcopal Mission at SCI Graterford, an accounting associate, a parish administrator and a marketing communications assistant. She is a graduate of Skidmore College and has completed course work toward a master's degree in theological studies.

Contact:
     Catherine Wise
     (215) 564-6005, ext. 106

Betty-Ann Soiefer Izenman
Program Director

Betty-Ann Soiefer Izenman has been the Program Director at the Pennsylvania Prison Society since September, 2004. She is a frequent speaker and panelist on various programmatic and re-entry focused conferences.

Ms. Izenman has been involved with the Philadelphia Prison System in various capacities since 1998 when she was appointed Special Master to U.S. District Judge Norma Shapiro to assist on a case involving prison overcrowding. Ms. Izenman then monitored the prison for the City Law Department for three years working closely with Prison officials and its then-Legal Counsel, Leon A. King II. She has also been an Assistant U.S. Attorney, the director of a Task Force from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and counsel to Senator John Glenn and the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. Ms. Izenman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and the American University Law School.

Contact:
     Betty-Ann Soiefer Izenman
     (215) 564-6005, ext. 114