Board of Advisors
The Board of Advisors (BOA) are given invitations to sit from either a vote of the Board of Directors (BOD) or a vote of the membership. The BOA simply advises the BOD when it makes policy decisions and gives advice to the NYRA membership as a whole or to individuals. The current NYRA Board of Advisors (BOA) includes the following people, but be aware that this list may not be comprehensive:

Adam Fletcher Olympia. Washington
Adam has worked with young people for more than 13 years to promote community youth service, engagement, and empowerment. In 2001 he founded The Freechild Project, a training and consultation organization focusing on social change by and with young people. Currently Adam works with dozens of schools, non- profit organizations, and government agencies across the U.S. and Canada to emphasize the need for youth equality in all parts of society. Adam is also a leading advocate for education reform focusing on meaningful learning and student involvement throughout schools. Adam joined the BOA in 2002.

Dr. David J. Hanson, Ph.D. Potsdam, New York
Dr. Hanson is a sociology professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam. He has studied alcohol problems for over a quarter of a century and has authored more than 280 scholarly publications and papers. His research and opinion is frequently published in the New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Chicago Sun-Times and other papers and he has appeared on such programs as the "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw" and National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" and "To the Best of Our Knowledge." Dr. Hanson joined the BOA in 1998.

Bennett Haselton Nashville, Tennessee
Bennett, an Oklahoma native, is a graduate mathematics student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. In the summer of 1996 he created Peacefire to advocate freedom of speech for young people on the Internet. His organization was a plaintiff in the successful court challenge to overturn a New York state indecency law. Bennett has appeared regularly in national media to defend First Amendment rights. He served as a NYRA Director from 1998 to 1999. Hasselton joined the BOA in 1999.

Grace Llewellyn San Francisco, California
Grace Llewellyn is a former middle school English teacher. Her work in the school system led her to unschooling. Ms. Llewellyn has written numerous books on unschooling, including "The Teenage Liberation Handbook", "Freedom Challenge", and "Real Lives". Her company, Genius Tribe, sells books and other resources about unschooling and youth rights. She also runs a camp in Oregon, bringing together homeschoolers at her "Not-Back-To-School Camp." California. Llewellyn joined the BOA in 1998.

Mike A. Males Irvine, California
Mike Males is senior researcher for the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, and teaches sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He worked with youth programs for 12 years, including the Youth Conservation Corps. He now writes a regular column for Youth Today, serves on the California Wellness Foundation advisory board, and has published four books on youth issues: "The Scapegoat Generation," "Framing Youth," "Smoked," and "Kids & Guns." Males joined the BOA in 1998.

Dr. Roderic B. Park, Ph.D. Point Richmond, California
Dr. Park, an advocate of drinking-age reform, stepped down as interim chancellor of the University of Colorado's Boulder campus in 1997. While in that position, he worked with students and legislators to craft innovative solutions to the problem of alcohol abuse. The native of Cannes, France grew up in New York and Massachusetts. He received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Harvard in 1953 and his Ph.D. from Cal Tech in 1958. He taught and researched biochemistry at the University of California at Berkeley and later at Boulder. He served as dean of Letters and Sciences in Boulder from 1972 to 1980 and vice chancellor at Berkeley from 1980 to 1990. Dr. Park is also a world-class sailor and owns a Sonoma, Calif. vineyard. Dr. Park joined the BOA in 1998.

Nadine Strossen New York, New York
Nadine Strossen has served as the President of the American Civil Liberties Union since 1991, the first woman to head the ACLU. She is also a law professor at New York Law School. She has written numerous publications about civil liberties, including several books. She has been named twice as one of "The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America" by the National Law Journal. She has also been listed as among the "350 Women Who Changed the World," "100 Executives Leading the Digital Revolution," and one of "America's 200 Most Influential Women." Ms. Strossen has won awards from a diverse variety of organizations. She is a regular commentator on legal issues in the media and she writes montly columns for the E-zine, Intellectual Capital. Strossen graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College in 1972 and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1975, serving as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Strossen joined the BOA in 1999.

Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H
New York, New York
Dr. Whelan is president and a founder of the American Council on Science. She holds masters and doctoral degrees in public health from the Yale School of Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Whelan is also the author or co-author of over two dozen books. Whelan joined the BOA in 1998.

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