MEET THE TEAM

Director of Organizing

Email: edwin@ecmteam.us

The Rev. Edwin Daniel Johnson is an enthusiastic and lifelong lover of Jesus and Episcopalian. Walter and Vilma, his loving parents from Montserrat and Costa Rica respectively, sought out diverse and loving communities in which to raise him which included St. John's and St. James's Church in Roxbury. Edwin experienced the call to ministry at age five during baptism and got his first taste of community organizing and collective power at age 11 with the Roxbury Church Collaborative. It was then he gained clarity around the nature of his call to Gospel Joy and Justice. Edwin attended Tufts University and later Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Since then his parish ministries at both St. James's Episcopal Church and later as Rector St. Mary's have been deeply rooted in inviting and equipping God's people to follow Jesus into working alongside the most marginalized. Most recently this has included his work with Prophetic Resistance Boston, an affiliate of the Massachusetts Community Action Network. He is also the Chair of the Episcopal Church’s group on Beloved Community and a member of the Working Group on Truth, Reckoning, and Healing.

Edwin has a deep love and passion for the music, dance, and cuisine of Latin America and the Caribbean. He is an avid dancer and teaches and performs Latin, Brazilian and African Dance with Moves and Vibes dance company. He also enjoys training and participates in weightlifting competitions. He spends the rest of his time with friends, family, his wife Susan Lenn Johnson, and their sons Francisco and Santiago. Susan is the campus minister at Matignon High School, a creative liturgist, and a lover of winter sports and the outdoors. Francisco is a budding athlete and linguist and Santiago has caught the dancing bug from his dad.

Lead Organizer

Email: hannah@ecmteam.us

Hannah Hafter is excited to join Episcopal City Mission in October 2022 following seven years organizing nationally around immigrant justice at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. During that time, she worked closely with UU congregations and State Action Networks to advance both community-based harm reduction efforts (such as immigrant accompaniment, asylum-seeker sponsorship, stop deportation campaigns, and sanctuary) and policy advocacy to decriminalize immigration and enable fair access to the U.S. asylum system. Previously, Hannah lived and worked in Arizona on the U.S.-Mexico border with the humanitarian aid organization, No More Deaths/No Más Muertes, and in Guatemala as an accompanier to genocide case witnesses with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA). Hannah has an undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College and a Masters in Public Health from the University of AZ. Hannah lives in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston with her daughter, Jade, and their elderly pup, Gremlin. In their free time, Hannah is an avid mushroom forager and grower, and will eagerly geek out about the radical mutual aid networks modeled by fungi.

Administrative, Technology, and Finance Coordinator and Associate for Episcopal Organizing

Email: derek@ecmteam.us

Derek was born in Newton, Massachusetts steeped in the Episcopal community of Grace Church. While at Oberlin College, Derek majored in History, focusing on Asian-American history and its intersectionality with the Civil Rights movement. Diploma in hand, Derek wondered what he could do to serve a community. Interning at the Boston Symphony Orchestra had given him a glimpse of nonprofits, and at the suggestion of a family friend, Derek applied and joined City Year Boston as a corps member, mentoring and tutoring at-risk students in the Boston public school system. Along with his team of 6 other corps members, he served 8th graders at the Timilty Middle school. After his year of service, Derek became the center manager for Mathnasium Newton—a franchised math tutoring facility that focuses on building math skills through discussion and rewards.

With his hands in many projects, he supports the rest of the team to do what they do best. While not working, Derek loves to bake and experiment with food. In lieu of pets, he has a sourdough starter and kombucha scoby that receive his time and attention.