BOARD

H. Michael Gray, Chair

Author of Drug Crazy and The China Syndrome, Mike Gray grew up in Indiana and graduated from Purdue University with a degree in engineering. In 1962, he formed his own film company in Chicago, which produced the award winning documentaries American Revolution and The Murder of Fred Hampton. Since moving to Los Angeles, he has been writing, directing, and producing feature films and series of television. Mr. Gray is also a noted speaker on the drug war, has appeared on several major news programs such as CNN and Nightline to discuss the drug war, and writes for Rolling Stone Magazine about drug issues.

Robert Edwin Field, Co-Chair

Graduate of University of California - Berkeley, BA '59 with major in economics after two years at Oberlin College and a semester at the National University of Mexico.

Semi-retired builder, owner and operator of apartment complexes and hotels( www.TheManorGroup.com). Assists son Richard who develops real estate and planned communities in Eastern Europe.

Executive producer for award winning motion pictures "Liquid Sky" (1983) and "Diamond Men" (2001), the documentary "Stalin's Wife" (2005), and the soon to be released motion picture "Perestroika."

Finance chairman of Arlen Specter's 1980 state wide senatorial campaign and campaign manager of Luzerne County referendum campaign - both successful. Co-founder with Melvin R. Allen of Project Forward Leap, a seventeen year program for providing five weeks of educational overnight summer camp annually to about 300 inner city youngsters of academic promise.

Founder of Central Pennsylvania Syringe Exchange.

Co-founder with Kevin B. Zeese and Melvin R. Allen of Common Sense for Drug Policy (www.csdp.org).

Cosponsor (2002 - 2005) of a state and federally approved prototype methadone program permitting local prescription fulfillment and medical care for stable clients while patients remain under aegis of a regional methadone clinic.

Publisher of NewsLanc.com.

Committed to the concept that an accurately informed public will make sound policy decisions over the long run.

Melvin Allen, Board Member

Melvin R. Allen, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Millersville University of the State System of Higher Education, PA. A.B., Millersville University, J.D., The Dickinson School of Law; Ph.D. candidate in philosophy, Temple University. Additional graduate study at University of Delaware, and research sabbatical at Harvard University. He is a licensed attorney in the state of Pennsylvania. He has considerable experience in labor relations and has been a social activist for his entire adult life.

Influenced by his experiences growing up in inner city Philadelphia, Mr. Allen co-founded Project Forward Leap fourteen years ago and serves as President. Project Forward Leap is a supplemental program for approximately 240 talented inner city youngsters which starts in the fifth grade and provides them with five weeks of overnight academic study on a unversity campus for three consecutive summers and tutorial and guidance assistance on weekends during the school year.

Mr. Allen is a co-founder of Common Sense for Drug Policy.

David Borden, Board Member

David Borden is founder and Executive Director of StoptheDrugWar.org (known for much of its history as DRCNet, the Drug Reform Coordination Network). Borden played the leading role in pioneering use of the Internet for education and organizing in drug policy reform after founding DRCNet in late 1993.

Since 2000, Mr. Borden has overseen DRCNet's work on the Higher Education Act Reform Campaign, an effort to repeal a federal law that denies students financial aid because of drug convictions, and he has initiated programs including the John W. Perry Fund scholarship program and the Out from the Shadows international conference series. In August 2003, Mr. Borden sent an open letter to the District of Columbia's chief judge, Rufus G. King, explaining his decision to refuse to report for jury service as a protest of the drug war, an action which was covered by the Washington Post. He has written over 160 editorials on drug policy, and publishes DRCNet's Prohibition in the Media blog.

Mr. Borden earned an A.B. with honors in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University in 1988, and completed an M.M. in Jazz Composition from New England Conservatory in 1990. He is a native of Englewood, New Jersey, one of the first communities in the state to achieve racial integration in its school system. Mr. Borden is also a member of the Boards of Directors of Flex Your Rights Foundation and the International Anti-Prohibitionist League, and of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Council of Advisors.

Bala´zs De´nes, JD, Board Member

Bala´zs De´nes is a Hungarian lawyer and drug policy expert.

He is the Executive Director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) (www.tasz.hu, www.drogriporter.hu), an independent non-profit human rights watchdog organization founded in Hungary in 1994.

Mr. De´nes obtained his law degree in 1998 in Budapest, Hungary, and since then has been working for the HCLU. He served as the Drug Policy Program Director of the organization, and since the fall of 2004, he has serve as the 2nd Executive Director of the HCLU.

Mr. De´nes is a 2003-2004 Columbia University/PILI Fellow, the founding secretary of the Hungarian Harm Reduction Association, a member of the steering committee of the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network and a Trustee of the Public Interest Law Foundation.

He has been a member of the Budapest Bar Association since 2002. He lives in Budapest, Hungary, and he is a frequently interviewed expert by the Hungarian media on drug policy, harm reduction and human rights issues.

Kris Krane, Board Member

Kris Krane is the executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the leading organization working to mobilize students to change punitive drug policies, with active chapters on 120 college campuses throughout the United States and Canada. Before joining the SSDP staff, Mr. Krane served as the Associate Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, where he organized NORML chapters and planned national conferences and seminars, including the organization's first ever student activist training workshop.

Mr. Krane graduated magna cum laude from American University in May 2000 with an honors degree in political science, culminating with an honors thesis entitled "The War on Drugs: A Case Study in the Escalation of Failed Moral Policy." While in college, he gained experience in international policy while interning for the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) in Rome and the Public Interest Law Initiative in Transitional Societies (PILI) in New York City.

Kris Krane has been quoted in national newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Roll Call, USA Today, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He has also been a featured guest on television news programs including Fox News Weekend Live and Today in New York, and has been featured on National Public Radio, Court TV Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio, and The WWRL Morning Show with Armstrong Williams.

STAFF

Jennifer Janichek, Assistant Web Editor / Policy Analyst

Ms. Jennifer Janichek received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the UW-Whitewater and Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Roosevelt University. Ms. Janichek also serves as a Research Consultant to the Institute for Metropolitan Affairs at Roosevelt University. Her research and advocacy work focus on the nexus of substance use, misuse, and addiction; drug, health and criminal public policies; drug prevention programming; and mental health and treatment practice.

During her tenure in Chicago Ms. Janichek co-founded the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, sat on the Midwest Harm Reduction Institute steering committee, served as co-chair to the advocacy committee and was selected for the National African American Drug Policy-Chicago Project steering committee. She has been honored with the UW-Whitewater College of Letters & Sciences Superior Writing Award, the 2005 Living the Legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt recognition, and a Raise Your Voice Presidential Fellowship. In graduate school, Ms. Janichek co-established Roosevelt chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and held Chapter Presidency for two consecutive years. She was later appointed to the SSDP National Board and served as Vice-Chair.

Doug McVay, Director of Research

Doug McVay is a writer, researcher, speaker and organizer with a long history in drug policy reform. He can regularly be heard via the radio and online on the DrugTruth Network's Cultural Baggage and Century of Lies programs. Mr. McVay is the editor of Drug War Facts and maintains the Common Sense family of websites, including: CSDP, Drug War Facts, Drug War Distortions, Managing Chronic Pain, and Addict In The Family.

Mr. McVay has been active in drug policy reform efforts since organizing a NORML chapter at the University of Iowa in 1983. He went on to work with the Oregon Marijuana Initiative/Ballot Measure Five campaign during the 1985-1986 election cycle as their petitioning coordinator and assistant director. Mr. McVay worked for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) as their Activists/Projects Coordinator from 1987 to 1990. In 1989, he co-founded and began working with the Cannabis Action Network (CAN); he is CAN's Vice President. McVay is also a member of the Board of Directors for Students for Sensible Drug Policy. He is a court-qualified expert witness on the subjects of marijuana use, sales and cultivation, and has testified in both State and Federal courts in the US.

An mp3 recording of McVay's speech at the 2006 NORML conference is available for download. The audio begins with an introduction by David Nott, President of the Reason Foundation.