Who We Are

Rev. Dr. Anne Marie Hunter

Executive Director and Founder

amhunter@interfaithpartners.org

617-951-3980

Anne Marie Hunter is an ordained United Methodist pastor. She received her Master of Divinity from Harvard University in 1986 and a PhD in Religion and Society from Drew University in 1991.  While attending Harvard and Drew, Anne Marie worked for domestic violence service providers in Massachusetts and New Jersey.  She also served for six years as pastor of East Saugus United Methodist Church in MA.  In 1991, Anne Marie linked her pastoral, seminary, and domestic violence services experience and founded Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership Against Domestic Violence.  

A national leader on faith community responses to elder abuse and domestic violence, Anne Marie has testified at national legislative hearings on the Violence Against Women Act and attended White House events on domestic violence.  Anne Marie has taught at Drew University and Tufts University and published locally and nationally on both domestic violence and elder abuse.  In 2011, Anne Marie was selected by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women as one of the Commonwealth’s Unsung Heroines.  She received the Humanitarian Award from the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore in 2010 for “furthering interfaith understanding” and “extraordinary efforts to build bridges between different faith communities.”  Anne Marie also received the 2002 Heinz Family Foundation R.O.S.E. Award in honor of her innovative efforts and dedication to breaking the silence surrounding domestic violence in communities of faith.

Alyson Morse Katzman

Associate Director

amkatzman@interfaithpartners.org

617-951-3980

Alyson Morse Katzman earned her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from New York University. Alyson creates, coordinates, and implements Safe Havens’ local and national outreach, advocacy, and education regarding sexual and domestic violence and elder abuse. Alyson also provides national technical assistance on domestic violence and faith, elder abuse and faith, and domestic and sexual violence and faith in rural communities through Safe Havens’ national Technical Assistance projects, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.

Alyson is actively involved in Greater Boston’s Jewish Domestic Violence Coalition as well as in Jewish Women International’s Interfaith Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Alyson has worked in public and non-profit management for 26 years and with Safe Havens since 2002.

Catherine Oidtman

Program Coordinator

cmoidtman@interfaithpartners.org

617-951-3981

Catie Oidtman attended the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with Minors in Spanish and Public Leadership.  Catie first became interested in mitigating gender-based violence during a semester in Peru, where she conducted a study with survivors of domestic violence to explore correlations between experiences of violence and mental health outcomes.  Catie continued to foster her passion to end violence against women during her graduate studies at UMD, where she received her Master of Public Policy, specialized in Health Policy. For her thesis, Catie partnered with the Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC) to evaluate NVRDC’s process measures to improve outcomes for sexual assault survivors engaging in support services, post-trauma.  Catie also worked as a Philanthropy Fellow at the Healthcare Initiative Foundation (HIF), a nonprofit working to mitigate health disparities.  Post-graduation, Catie continued to work at HIF in the role of Grants Administrator, where she administered a $3 million annual grant portfolio, evaluating grant proposals, providing technical assistance, and monitoring grantee projects, budgets and outcomes.  Catie is excited to continue her journey towards mitigating gender-based violence through her work at Safe Havens.

Sarah Mattea (she/they)

Life Together Fellow

They are a recent graduate of New College of Florida, with a double major in History and Gender studies. Through her work and classes in college she developed a passion for supporting marginalized youth and dismantling oppressive gender roles. Sarah Mattea is excited for their work at Safe Havens to learn more about supporting survivors of domestic violence and to gain knowledge about the inner workings of a non-profit.

Board Chair

Reverend Traci Jackson

Director of the Domestic and Sexual Violence Project, Urban League of Eastern MA; Consultant and Team Leader, The Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community (IDVAAC) 

Vanessa Bishop, M.Ed, Ed.S

Director of Programs, Citizen Schools Massachusetts

Barbara Burnside

Mission Coordinator and Disaster Volunteer Coordinator, New England Conference of the United Methodist Church (Retired)

Timothy P. Fitzgibbons

Senior Director of Actuarial, Delta Dental of Rhode Island

Honorable J. Thomas Kirkman (Ret.)

First Justice, Edgartown District Court; Member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Barnstable County Bar Association, the Nam Vets of Hyannis of Massachusetts, the Cape Organization for the Rights of the Disabled, the Town of Falmouth's No Place for Hate Committee, Governing Board of the Upper Cape Chaplaincy

Liz Marshall

Trafficking Intervention Project Advocate at Beth Israel Medical Center; Domestic Violence Advocate at Massachusetts General Hospital; Postulant for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

Dr. Nancy Nienhuis

Adjunct Faculty, Boston University School of Theology

Kay Larholt Silverman, ScD

Director of Integrated Knowledge Solutions, NEWDIGS at MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation

Kathryne Tenney

Masters of Public Health Student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health