Meet Our Team

Meet the people driving our mission forward, dedicated to supporting communities with compassion and purpose.

Irvine Peck’s-Agaya

Program Administrator

Bio

Irvine Peck’s-Agaya, is the Program Administrator for the Children with Incarcerated Parents (CIP) Initiative at the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP). She plans, organizes, and coordinates the daily operations of the department.

Ms. Peck’s-Agaya’s commitment to advance equitable, inclusive public policies and restorative justice practices have largely been influenced by her experience with an incarcerated loved one at a young age. She co-founded Transforming, Reinventing, And Prospering (T.R.AP.) House, a business incubator seeking to help former incarcerated individuals establish legal ventures in Hartford, CT as an undergraduate student at Wesleyan University. At T.R.A.P. House, Ms. Peck’s-Agaya utilized social entrepreneurship and teaching as forms of progressive, humane, and research-based solution to recidivism. Her Bachelor’s degree is from Wesleyan University and she has a Master’s in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of Connecticut. While in graduate school, Ms. Peck’s-Agaya served on several committees including Anti-Racism Professional Development Committee and facilitated Race and Equity dialogues within the Office for Diversity and Inclusion.

Ms. Peck’s-Agaya is from Limoges, France, but finds her roots in Gabon and Haiti. Fluent in French and Haitian Creole, she was educated in Boynton Beach, Fl and currently resides in Hartford.

Andrew Clark

Director of the IMRP

Bio

Andrew Clark is the Director of the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP) at Central Connecticut State University. Mr. Clark is currently head of the IMRP project team administering competitive grants that aim to provide positive interventions for children of incarcerated parents. In addition, Mr. Clark is Acting Executive Director of the Connecticut Sentencing Commission, which seeks to review current and proposed legislation to promote effective, balanced, and responsible criminal sentencing policies. He is also Project Director for a grant from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration that is being utilized to implement the state’s Alvin W. Penn Racial Profiling Law. This project has been titled the Racial Profiling Prohibition Project. Mr. Clark is also assisting in the implementation of the Results First Initiative in CT.

Prior to coming to CCSU, Mr. Clark worked at the Connecticut General Assembly from 1999-2005. He served as clerk of the Appropriations and Transportation Committees, and deputy clerk of the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee.

Amjad Khan

Financial Analyst at the IMRP

Bio

Amjad Khan is a Financial Analyst at the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP) at Central Connecticut State University. Mr. Khan assists with the financial administration of IMRP grants, contracts and legislative appropriations. Additionally, Mr. Khan oversees data management and entry for the Children with Incarcerated Parents Initiative.

Mr. Khan is originally from Tanzania, East Africa and came to the United States for university. Before graduating from CCSU in 2005, Mr. Khan worked as a Student Worker at CCSU’s Grants Office, which maintains revenue and expenditure records for federal, state and local grants and prepares financial reports and statements for all external grant awards. After completing his Bachelors degree, Mr. Khan went on to work for a Manufacturing Company in Istanbul, Turkey and returned to the United States as a permanent resident in October 2008.

James M. Conway

Professor of Psychological Science at Central Connecticut State University

Bio

James M. Conway, PhD, is a professor of Psychological Science at Central Connecticut State University. He has been head of the evaluation team for the IMRP’s Children with Incarcerated Parents Initiative since 2008, evaluating a variety of interventions for CIP. His research is also focused on children of incarcerated parents, e.g., on community-level factors affecting children and families.

Dr. Conway has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from SUNY Binghamton and received his PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Connecticut. He has been on the faculty at CCSU since 1998, and prior to that was on the Psychology faculty at Seton Hall University for six years.

Kate Mazzotta

Policy & Research Associate

Bio

Kate Mazzotta serves as the Policy and Research Associate for the Institute of Municipal and Regional Policy. She recently graduated with her MSW from the UConn School of Social Work with a concentration in Policy Practice. Since graduation, she has also obtained her license from the CT Department of Public Health giving her the title of LMSW. Before getting her MSW, Kate graduated from Wagner College with a BA in Theater & Speech with a concentration in Design, Technology & Management.

Kate works closely with the Children with Incarcerated Parents Initiative on legislative policy initiatives / issues. Prior to working with the IMRP, she interned at the Connecticut legislature with CT House Democrats in their policy department. During her time with the legislature, Kate helped introduce House Bill 5430: An Act Concerning a Study of Migraine Treatment for Women and Veterans and testified in front of the Appropriations Committee on behalf of the bill.

Kate is also passionate about social and criminal justice reform, the impact of testifying, the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women epidemic, as well as working on policies impacting those with chronic disabilities.

Elizabeth Canavan

Educational Resource Coordinator

Bio

Elizabeth Canavan serves as the Educational Resource Coordinator for the Children with Incarcerated Parents Initiative at the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP). She is committed to creating comprehensive resources and professional development programs that equip educators with the knowledge, strategies, and tools needed to support children with incarcerated parents. By empowering educators with these materials, she aims to create more supportive learning environments for all students.

Elizabeth is a graduate from the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education’s Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s (IB/M) Program for secondary mathematics education. She holds a Masters in Curriculum & Instruction and undergraduate degrees in Mathematics & Mathematics Education. As a classroom teacher, Elizabeth combines her passion for education with her personal experience of having an incarcerated parent at a young age, driving her commitment to providing educators with resources to foster inclusive and equitable spaces for children.

Elizabeth is a Connecticut native and currently serves as a 7th and 8th grade mathematics teacher in a local middle school.

Anya McGlaughlin

Intern

Bio

Anya McGlaughlin is a student intern for Connecticut's Children with Incarcerated Parents (CTCIP) Initiative within the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP); and is currently in her second year of her master’s in public policy. During her time as an undergraduate, she received her associate’s degree in general studies at Harrisburg Area Community College and finished her bachelor’s degree at Arcadia University, studying criminology and criminal justice.

Her interest in working on criminal justice reform and social justice stems from witnessing the battle for preserving and obtaining civil rights during 2020 through the Black Lives Matter movement and all the other civil rights movements that emerged from that. For her senior capstone, she wrote her thesis on the impacts of current and past prison policies on incarcerated transgender women. Anya plans on pursuing her research on the impacts public policy has on different marginalized groups and changes that can be made.

In her role as CTCIP’s student intern, she supports the Initiative’s mission by researching federal and state resources available to children with incarcerated parents, their caregivers, and the parents themselves. Her work also draws experience from prior projects at IMRP, where she analyzed policing disparities in Connecticut’s juvenile justice system using data from the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee (JJPOC) dashboard.

Aubrey Zimmerman

Intern

Bio

Aubrey Zimmerman is a student intern for the CT Children with Incarcerated Parents (CTCIP) Initiative within the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP). She is an undergraduate Human Development and Family Sciences major and Human Rights minor at UConn. She is also pursuing a master’s in public policy through the MPP Fast-Track program.

During her undergraduate studies, Aubrey developed a passion for federal childcare policy. She has spent lots of time researching topics like the school-prison pipeline, the rights of a child, the functions of organizations like the Department of Children and Families or Child Protective Services, as well as the nuances of policy and legal writing. She hopes to connect all of these interests during her time working with and supporting CTCIP.

Aubrey will be assisting the initiative by researching ways to expand and improve visitation access for children with incarcerated parents (CIP), while also leading the curation of a virtual art gallery that exhibits artwork created by CIP.

Contact Us

University of Connecticut
Institute for Municipal & Regional Policy

School of Public Policy
Hartford Times Building, Suite 443
10 Prospect Street
Hartford, Connecticut 06103

ctcip@uconn.edu

Quick Links

IMRP Website
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Chip created by Jim Soyka

CT Children with Incarcerated Parents Initiative