Our Advocates

David Lightfoot is the CEO and Legal Consultant for Rights & Resolution Advocates, an international organization that uses resources and influence to assist those whose human rights are being violated.
David recently served on the Board of Directors for Water4, an international nonprofit headquartered in Oklahoma City that provides water to at-risk, impoverished areas and provides employment opportunities through inexpensive pumps and drilling methods. He served as the Vice President of Lee Properties, a commercial real estate investment and development company in Oklahoma City. David spent 15 years in site acquisition and development, where he gained extensive experience in retail development throughout the company’s southern territories. He also served as the legal counsel for the largest Sonic Drive-In franchisee.

David is a franchisee for Jimmy John’s, a quick-service deli restaurant that is headquartered in Champaign, IL,  a principal for TMH West LLC, and a franchisee of a new specialty meat house concept, The Meat House.

David holds a B.A. from the University of Oklahoma and a J.D. from Oklahoma City University.

 

 

Cathy owned and operated her own wedding consultant company, Cathy Johnson Weddings, known for its integrity and honest business approach, for nearly ten years in the greater Oklahoma City area. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Faithworks of the Inner City, which is designed to meet the needs of inner city children and their families in the Shidler community in Oklahoma City, OK,

Native to Oklahoma City, Cathy earned her BA in Criminal Justice.

 

 

Ron Nikkel serves R & R Advocates as our Senior Strategy Advisor. He is also the President Emeritus of Prison Fellowship International, the global criminal justice ministry that was initially founded by the late Chuck Colson. Under Ron’s leadership of 31 years the organization grew from being an organization in the USA into a global network of Prison Fellowship organizations in 127 countries. Ron’s work for justice and human dignity spans the globe and has taken him into prisons and parliaments in every region of the world.   His areas of specialty include Restorative Justice, Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation, Faith and Public Policy, and International Development.

In addition to his work with PFI, Ron has served as chairperson of the United Nations Alliance of Non-Governmental Organizations in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (1988-1996) and Vice President of the International Association of Volunteers in Criminal Justice (1983-1986). He currently serves on the Advisory Council of the Centre for Religion and Diplomacy in Washington DC as well as on the Boards of a number of other international and national non-profit organizations.

Ron is a Canadian citizen who has been living near Washington DC for more than thirty years. He holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology and English (BA) and a graduate degree in theology (MPS). A recipient of numerous awards for his work in Restorative Justice and Criminal Justice advocacy Ron also holds two honorary degrees – Doctor of Sacred Letters. (DSLitt) and Doctor of Laws (LLD).

 

REGIONAL ADVOCATES

Ivan Sotirov, born in Bulgaria, January 1944, his father was a political prisoner under the Stalinist regime, immediately after the World War II. He studied international relations in Sofia and Moscow and is fluent in Russian, English and French.

Ivan entered the Bulgarian diplomatic service back in 1970 and worked in the Bulgarian Missions to the United Nations in Geneva, and in New York. He also worked in Bangladesh, Burma, and Cambodia. He reached the rank of Deputy Chief of Mission

As of 1993, Ivan resigned from the diplomatic service and joined Prison Fellowship International (PFI) as Director for Eastern Europe. Together with PFI President, Ron Nikkel, Ivan was instrumental in building up prison ministries all over Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Using his diplomatic skills, Ivan created solid relations of cooperation with the national prison and justice administrations. The delivery of huge quantities of humanitarian assistance propelled PFI as primary partner of the administrations among the NGO’s involved in this area (220 second-hand trucks from the Swiss Army, delivered to the national prison administrations in 25 countries, over 3,000 hospital beds for prison hospitals in the region, over 100,000 pieces of warm clothes to the prisons in Russia, etc.)

In his service in PFI in the period of 1993-2014, Ivan demonstrated exceptional devotion to the ministry and ministry workers in the field. He retired at the end of 2014.

Upon recommendation of Rights & Resolution Advocates (R&RA) Senior Advisor, Ron Nikkel, former President and CEO of PFI, Ivan was invited to help the expansion of the R&RA network in Europe and among the United Nations bodies and NGO’s in Geneva and across Europe. Ivan organized an excellent and fruitful trip for R&RA President and Executive Director in early 2015.

His professional and language skills make him useful to R&RA international work. He is now currently serving as the R&RA European Liaison.

 

Arthur Wilson is chairman of Redemption Pakistan, advisor to magazine ‘Awaz-e-Silasil’(Voices Behind the Bars), an entrepreneur, activist, prison counselor striving for the prisoners’ welfare in Pakistan.

He studied Restorative Justice from Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Arthur believes in ‘Holistic’ approach. He got involved with prison ministry in 1982 at the age of 19 as a volunteer alongside started establishing his own business of interior decoration and furnishing called “Excellent Services”.

He started working with Prison fellowship Pakistan in 2004 as a board member and later he was elected as an Executive Director and served up till 2015. Through the Prison fellowship he introduced Restorative Justice in Pakistan and reconciled more than two dozen death row prisoners back to the society by the victim-offender families’ transformation. He assisted in providing legal aid, started education program for prisoners, their children and sustainable development projects for their families.

He joined International Prison Chaplain Association worldwide in Canada 2004 and was elected to be Asia Steering Committee in Sweden for 2010 to 2015. Working with IPCA worldwide, he managed to develop network of chaplains in Pakistan which help prisoners in their spiritual and social transformation.

Arthur joined the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network campaign of Amnesty International UK in 2007 and was elected as transitional group executive in Hong Kong 2012 and then was elected as an Executive committee of ADPAN in Taiwan 2014. He started different campaigns in Pakistan to raise awareness against death penalty and participated as speaker in different countries at International conferences through ECPM (Ensemble contre la peine de mort) and World Coalition against Death Penalty.

He has been consulted for UN Quaker offices, Amnesty International, European Union and many local organizations like Justice Project Pakistan and Human Right Commission of Pakistan. He has written a motivational book ‘Silakhon Kay Us Par’ [Behind the Bars] for prisoners and society containing reforming literature and success stories of reformed prisoners.

He has travelled nationally and internationally mobilizing people for grassroots implementation of restorative justice and welfare of prisoners in Pakistani jails. His work heralded in different local and international media, some links are given below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/multimedia/2011/04/110405_prisoners_rehab_as.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13035228