Individuals and Institutions Making Progress against Abuse in Communities Together

Dr. Adams, Ed.D. is co-founder as well as Co-Director of Emerge, the first counseling program in the nation for men who abuse women, established in 1977. Dr. Adams has led groups for men who batter and conducted outreach to victims of abuse for 42 years He has led parenting education classes for fathers for 18 years. He is one of the nation's leading experts on men who batter and has conducted trainings of social service and criminal justice professionals in 48 states and 26 nations.  He has published numerous articles and book chapters, and two books, including Why Do They Kill? Men Who Murder Their Intimate Partners, published by Vanderbilt University Press. Dr. Adams is a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Sexual and Domestic Violence and was founding director of the National Domestic Violence Risk Assessment and Management Training Project between 1999-2016. David serves as an Expert Witness on criminal and family court cases involving allegations of domestic violence and is a legal consultant on the effects of domestic violence on children. 

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David is a longtime member of Grace Episcopal Church in Newton where he is the Co-Chair of the Social Action Committee. This committee works to promote racial, gender and environmental justice initiatives within the Grace Church community, the Episcopal Diocese and in collaboration with other organizations such as Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries, the Justice Network, GreenNewton, and the Newton Brookline Asylum Resettlement Committee, an interfaith partnership that assists immigrants and refugees.  David was a past Board Member of Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership on Domestic Violence and is current partner with Safe Havens in training interfaith leaders on responses to those who abuse intimate partners. This includes the recent publication of Between Compassion and Accountability: Guidelines for Faith Leaders Responding to People Who Abuse Intimate Partners. Besides helping to heal perpetrators of domestic violence, another of David’s ministries is working to promote greater awareness and stewardship of the environment. David also uses humor as a vehicle for social justice in his sideline as a stand-up comedian. David was the recipient of the 17th Annual Spirituality and Justice Award given by All Saints Parish in Brookline. Past award recipients have included Marian Wright Edleman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr. Paul Farmer, and Bishop Barbara Harris.