Steven Botkin founded the Men’s Resource Center (MRC) of Western Massachusetts in 1982 and received his doctoral degree in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts several years later. For 20 years, as executive director, he guided the MRC from a grass-roots group of volunteers into a successful non-profit organization, whose programs have become a model for community-based men’s groups around the world. These programs included the Men Overcoming Violence (a batterer intervention program), the High School Education Project, and the Young Men of Color Leadership Program.

In 2004, Steven founded Men’s Resources International (MRI) to “mobilize networks of men as allies with women for violence prevention and positive masculinity.” Through MRI, he leads workshops and trainings, and provides consultations for organizations throughout the United States and around the world. Recent trainings have been conducted for the YWCA in Zambia and the United States, community leaders in Nigeria, CARE International, the Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre and coffee farmers in Rwanda, the International Rescue Committee in Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire, the Liberian Ministry of Gender and Development and the Women’s Peacemakers Program of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Dr. Botkin teaches a course on “Women and Men as Partners in Peacebuilding” at the School of International Training summer peacebuilding institute.

MRI has been instrumental in the creation of the Men of Color Health Awareness initiative in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts in the United States, and is a founding member of the Global MenEngage Alliance Advisory Committee.