Our Team

Cynthia Kling is the co-founder and co-director of Transforming Lives. She has worked for publications ranging from Newsweek to Conde Nast, volunteered for the Bard Prison Initiative where she became aware of how much more support people behind walls needed and began the program when her partners were still incarcerated. She is the recipient of the The Jean Marzollo Reading Award and 2022 WESPAC Award.

Alelur “Alex” Duran is a Program Director at Galaxy Gives overseeing its Criminal Justice Reform portfolio. He previously served as a program specialist with the Open Society Foundations supporting grant-making efforts tackling mass incarceration in the United States. Alex’s entry point into philanthropy began at the Ford Foundation as a business associate advancing its mission of addressing inequality in all its manifestations. Prior to joining Ford, he worked at the Center for Community Alternatives, where he provided counseling for men and women involved with the justice system and helped the agency execute its broader justice reform strategy. At CCA, Alex became a spokesperson in support of efforts to raise the age of criminal responsibility for adolescents in New York State. His passion to dismantle systems of oppression come from having been impacted by the criminal legal system at a young age and being sentenced to 14 years in prison. He has a BA from Bard College. His thesis, “Gang Exportation and the Reproduction of Violence: The Trinitarios in the Crucible of Mass Incarceration,” provided a case study on how mass incarceration in the United States contributes to deviance amplification and the expansion of gangs to other countries. A lover of history, Alex grew up in the boogie-down Bronx, New York.

Cat Adler-Josem is a writer of the magical and the messy and lives similarly in New York City as the co-director of Transforming Lives NY, and professor at St. Joseph’s University. She was the graduate coordinator and instructor at Right to Write, a creative writing course at Westchester County Correctional, and tutor and teacher at The Mary J. Blige Center for Women in Yonkers. She earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, and her B.A. in Neuropsychology and Writing from the same institution. If lost, you can find her at catadler-josem.com, but mostly she exists in some liminal space between reality and strands of cat hair.

Clifton "Skye" Williamson, a co-founder of Transforming Lives, brings a wealth of personal lived experience to his journey in criminal justice reform. During 15 of his 26 years of incarceration, Skye tirelessly created outlets for both his and his peers' humanity to thrive. In the confines of prison, he initiated math tutoring, theater programs, and a trauma-related rehabilitation effort, all of which resonated with the power of the individual to bring about change (several of these programs are still operating today).

Released from prison in 2021 through a pardon from the NYS Governor, Skye embarked on a path of grassroots engagement within the Criminal Justice Reform community. His dedication led him to an Associate position at the philanthropic foundation, Galaxy Gives, operated by the Novogratz Family. He also delivered inspiring talks at prestigious universities and small liberal arts colleges, sharing his lived experiences and insights.

Currently, Skye wears multiple hats in the realm of criminal justice reform. As a Project Manager and Advisory Council Liaison for the REFORM Alliance, a parole and probation reform advocacy organization, he actively contributes to various technical and non-technical projects, including a Court Watch Application and the Welcome Home Initiative for individuals reentering society on parole or probation.

At the dawn of 2024, Skye co-founded the Ma’at Institute of Artificial Intelligence. Here, he collaborates with grassroots advocacy organizations, equipping them with the tools and knowledge to harness the potential of data and AI effectively.

Skye's educational journey has been one of continuous growth. He holds a BA in mathematics from Bard College, with a focus on logic, algorithms, and machine learning. To further his skills in data analysis and machine learning, Skye has pursued online courses at esteemed institutions like Columbia University and MIT.

Beyond his professional pursuits, Skye finds fulfillment in training at The Shaolin Temple in downtown Manhattan, concocting nutritious fruit and vegetable drinks with his blender, exploring philosophical concepts relevant to his work, and immersing himself in podcasts and interviews on AI and evolutionary biology.

For those who know Skye, two things define his unwavering passion: his commitment to leverage data and AI to support marginalized communities seeking to ameliorate the harms caused by our criminal legal system, and that average people are enough to transform