Staff
Executive Director : Lael Elizabeth Hiam Chester became
the third Executive Director of CfJJ in March 2001, following five years of services on
CfJJ’s Board of Directors. Lael is a graduate of Barnard College and Harvard Law
School . Her prior work experience includes both litigating and researching juvenile
justice, criminal justice and civil rights issues. She was the Albert Martin Sacks Clinical
Fellow at the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School and an Assistant Attorney
General in the Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Division of the Massachusetts Office of the
Attorney General. In May 2004, she received the Jay D. Blitzman Youth Advocacy
Award for “her extraordinary commitment to protecting the rights of juveniles”. She
currently is a member of the Governor's Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (JJAC) and
serves on the JJAC's Executive Committee and chairs its Disproportionate Minority
Contact Subcommittee.
Director of Operations : Gale Munson joined CfJJ in January 2004. she is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School. Following a
clerkship for the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, she joined the Boston firm of
Palmer & Dodge. After twelce years of practice, focusing primarily in commercial real
estate transactions, she resigned from the firm to devote time to family and volunteer
projects. Prior to joining CfJJ, she worked for six years for the Henry P. Kendall
Foundation in Boston as a grants administrator and program associate. Since 2004, in
addition to working at CfJJ, she has worked for The Farm School, an educational farm in
Central Massachusetts whose mission is to connect children to the land.
Administrative/Program Assistant : Sarah Rubinton
joined CfJJ in July 2008. A recent graduate of Brandeis University, she holds a BA in
Politics and Sociology. As a student, she was active in Student Peace Alliance and
worked as an intern at Boston Mobilization.