IMPACT Boston

 

Administrative Staff

Meg Stone, Director & Instructor

Meg began working with survivors of domestic violence in 1993, and since that time has served as a legal advocate, hotline counselor, overnight shelter worker, trainer of health care providers, research assistant, qualitative evaluator, event planner, and program manager. Meg earned a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University in 2004 with a concentration in long-term health effects of abuse and abuse prevention. Meg created the Take Your Power and Peer IMPACT curricula. As Director of IMPACT, Meg oversees training and prevention programs in schools, businesses, and community organizations. She also developed and coordinates the Project SAFE internship program for homeless parents.

Nina Romá Agvanian, Assistant Director
(Bilingual in Spanish)

Nina is a rape crisis counselor, and has a background doing violence prevention community education. At IMPACT, Nina serves as the primary liaison for trauma survivor programs. She coordinates the Project SAFE program, which aims to give people in homeless shelters safety skills and financial literacy as a means for ending homelessness, and supervises and trains Project SAFE interns completing IMPACT's trauma-informed job readiness program. She is a self-defense instructor and the lead facilitator for the Take Your Power program. She also developed and facilitates the IMPACT class assistant training, and serves as a resource for Spanish-speaking students and organizations.

Meagan Anderson, IMPACT:Ability Program Coordinator

Meagan is a licensed school counselor who has spent her career working with students with disabilities. She has worked as school counselor, family therapist, and teacher's assistant for special education programs. She is the coordinator and will be the lead instructor for the IMPACT: Ability program that teaches safety skills and self advocacy to people with disabilities.

Cara Pacifico, Registration Coordinator

Cara Pacifico coordinates IMPACT's class registration and is generally awesome.

 

Instructors

Julie Char

Julie has served as a volunteer assistant for IMPACT since 2001 and began training to become an IMPACT instructor in 2007. She is the most recent recipient of IMPACT’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service. As an assistant, Julie has worked in Women’s Basics, Teen Basics, and Take Your Power.

Paul Falcone

Paul holds a second degree black belt in Shotokan Karate and has studied many different martial arts. When not at IMPACT, Paul is a freelance videographer shooting everything from documentaries to weddings.

Sean Greene

(Bilingual in Spanish)

Sean has practiced martial arts including Kung Fu and Aikido since 1980. Having grown up in a neighborhood where he was a witness to and target of violence, Sean has always maintained a strong interest in learning and teaching self-defense. He is a former member of the Guardian Angels, and his professional experience includes security and law enforcement. Sean currently works as a Vocational Counselor at Triangle, where he helps people with psychiatric disabilities find and maintain employment.

Johanna Hattendorf

Jo has worked at IMPACT for 6 years and is IMPACT's coach trainer. She is an ordained United Church of Christ minister with over 20 years of experience in parish ministry. She is a second-degree black belt in Kung Fu and currently teaches Tai Chi. Jo is a member of the National Women’s Martial Arts Federation and is a certified Martial Arts Self-Defense Instructor. Additionally, as a survivor of childhood physical and sexual abuse, she has a deep understanding of issues of violence and trauma, how it is stored in the body, and how it affects all levels of our being. She has extensive experience working with survivors of trauma, as well as all those who are seeking to live in personal safety.

Amanda Hoeg

Amanda became involved in IMPACT in June 2007 when she participated in the Project SAFE internship Program while she was living at Crossroads Family Homeless Shelter in East Boston. Amanda was so successful that IMPACT hired for a permanent position. Since she was a teen, Amanda has dreamed of helping those who struggle with the effects of abuse and poverty by sharing both her struggles and her strengths. Amanda has served as a teaching assistant for IMPACT classes in homeless shelters and youth centers, provided computer and administrative training to Project SAFE interns, and led the process of adapting the Take Your Power curriculum to make it more relevant to teens and young adults.

Kevin Jacobus

Kevin is a photojournalist who has trained in Brazilian and Japanese styles of Jujitsu as well as Mixed Martial Arts. After over a decade of covering news stories for various Massachusetts and New Hampshire newspapers that sometimes involved victims of violence, he often found himself advocating self-defense training. Fulfilling a desire to convey simple, practical and effective self-defense skills, Kevin became an instructor in 2006.

Meron Langsner

(Bilingual in Hebrew)

Meron earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Drama and Dance at Tufts University, with a focus on representations of violence on stage. He has choreographed fight scenes for numerous Boston-area theater companies including Lyric Stage, New Repertory Theater, and Zeitgeist Stage. Meron’s 20 years of Martial Arts experience includes Karate, Jud, Kali, and Jeet Kun Do.

Antoria Lee

Antoria became involved in IMPACT in June of 2008 when she was a resident of Millennium House Shelter. Upon graduation from IMPACT's Project SAFE program she became interested in playing the role of an assailant so that other women could develop the strength to keep themselves safe. Her involvement in sports includes playing football as a child, soft ball as a teen, and boxing now as an adult. In addition to teaching IMPACT classes a schools, shelters and community centers she
volunteers for We Learn: Women leading through reading.

Aleks Nowicki

(Bilingual in Mandarin Chinese)

Aleks has studied and taught martial arts for over 10 years. He works as a preschool teacher by day and a bouncer by night. Aleks has been with IMPACT since 2005.

Mike Perry

Mike has 17 years of experience teaching IMPACT and is the primary trainer for new suited instructors. A 30-year veteran of martial arts with multiple black belts, he currently teaches grappling techniques. Mike developed IMPACT’s Defense Against Firearms and Defense Against Knives and Edged Weapons courses as well as IMPACT’s program for blind and visually impaired teens. Mike is the coach instructor in IMPACT’s Men’s Basics class.

Ana Reyes

(Bilingual in Spanish)

Ana is an experienced martial artist with a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo. She teaches Taekwondo and photography throughout Massachusetts. A freelance photographer and video editor, Ana is working on a series of portraits of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Rufus Royal

Rufus has taught IMPACT for over 10 years. He is a police officer with extensive experience working with individuals with both criminal backgrounds and psychiatric disabilities. He also serves as a mentor to formerly incarcerated individuals living in halfway houses. Rufus played a key role in the development of IMPACT’s Project SAFE homeless shelter curriculum and has extensive experience teaching IMPACT to abuse survivors and teens in low-income urban neighborhoods.

Jim Watson

Jim is a senior instructor who has been with Impact since 1996. He has a background in alternative healing and peer counseling. In 2003 he traveled to South Africa to teach IMPACT programs to women and children and served as the primary trainer of the South Africa Project’s suited instructor. Jim is one of the developers of IMPACT’s Take Your Power program and school-based programs. He assists in the training of new instructors and co-teaches most of IMPACT’s advanced courses. Jim has extensive experience teaching trauma survivors and is deeply committed to helping people regain their sense of power.

Keith Wick

Keith is a licensed clinical social worker with experience treating incarcerated sex offenders. He currently works with youth in an alternative school setting. Keith has been an IMPACT instructor since 2001.