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Staff
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Merrick Bobb
President, Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC)
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e-mail:
tel: (213) 797-1101
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Merrick Bobb is president of the Police Assessment Resource Center, a project Vera developed and launched in Los Angeles. A lawyer, he was the first person to occupy the role of police monitor and has become a nationally recognized expert on police oversight and reform. Merrick Bobb has monitored the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for seven years and has consulted with jurisdictions around the country and with the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Michela Bowman
Project Director, Washington DC Office
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e-mail:
tel: (202) 347-5194
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Michela Bowman is a Ph.D. candidate in New York University's (NYU) Law and Society Program and a Soros Fellow graduate of NYU School of Law. She joined Vera in March 2005 as counsel to the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons and is now a project director in Vera’s Washington DC Office, where she is working with states and counties to learn more about the most effective models of oversight for prisons and jails and to promote stronger correctional oversight. She is also working with the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission to develop standards.
Michela has worked at the Prisoners' Rights Project of the New York City Legal Aid Society and has done research on Hepatitis C care in Georgia’s prisons for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. Michela has also taught an undergraduate seminar at NYU on race and the criminal justice system.
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Jean Callahan
Director, The Guardianship Project
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e-mail:
tel: (347) 296-1874
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Jean Callahan is the director of the Guardianship Project. She joined Vera in September 1999 to plan and eventually direct Vera's Adolescent Portable Therapy demonstration project, which she did until December 2004. Previously, she served as a White House Fellow with Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala. An attorney, Jean worked at the Legal Aid Society for four years and was co-counsel on two class action lawsuits to ensure the right to adequate home care for elderly and disabled Medicaid recipients. In 1998, she served in South Africa as an international monitor for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She is also a social worker and spent three years as a counselor at a methadone clinic. Jean has a B.A. from New York University, an M.S.W. from Hunter College School of Social Work, and a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law-Newark.
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Wayne S. McKenzie
Director, Prosecution and Racial Justice Program
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3057
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Wayne S. McKenzie joined Vera in May 2005 as the director of the Prosecution and Racial Justice Project. Prior to joining Vera he was a prosecutor in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office where he held several supervisory positions, the last being Deputy Bureau Chief of the Crimes Against Children Bureau. He is a past president of the National Black Prosecutors Association. Wayne is also a trial advocacy faculty instructor at the Ernest Hollings National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina. He has also appeared as a legal analyst on Court TV and Fox TV’s cable news and has presented on criminal justice issues in the United States and the United Kingdom. Wayne graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from The City College of New York and was in the master’s program in microbiology. He received his J.D. from George Washington University School of Law in Washington, DC.
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Jim Parsons
Director, Substance Use and Mental Health Program
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3043
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Jim Parsons joined Vera in March 2003 to work on the evaluation of Adolescent Portable Therapy (APT). Previously he worked at the Criminal Policy Research Unit in London evaluating a program offering services to offenders with dependency problems and multiple other needs. In the past his research has looked at the provision of harm reduction services, and especially needle exchange, to injecting drug users in the UK and studies of drug dealing markets. Jim has a B.A. in sociology from London Guildhall University and an M.Sc. in social research methods from the University of Surrey.
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Timothy Ross
Director, Child Welfare, Health, and Justice Program
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3139
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Timothy Ross directs the Child Welfare, Health, and Justice Program. Dr. Ross is the principal investigator for the Clinical Trials Project, which examines issues related to the enrollment and monitoring of foster children in HIV/AIDS clinical trials—one of the largest research projects in Vera's history. From 2002 to 2006, he served as Vera's research director. Since coming to Vera in 1999, Tim has led Vera's child welfare research projects including studies of the overlap between child welfare and juvenile justice, the prevalence of children in foster care whose parents are incarcerated, and how the police and child protective workers coordinate responses to allegations of severe maltreatment. He has also edited a book on crime mapping and taught at Hunter and Baruch Colleges. He has undergraduate degrees in political science from Williams College and the University of Kent at Canterbury and a Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland.
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Nancy Smith
Director, Accessing Safety Initiative
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e-mail:
tel: (718) 360-4700
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Nancy Smith joined Vera in June 2003. Currently, she is the director of the Accessing Safety Initiative, a program to help federally funded communities improve their ability to serve women with disabilities and Deaf women who have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. She previously directed an initiative to help New York City officials understand why families become homeless and what strategies can be developed to prevent this from occurring. Prior to coming to Vera, Nancy directed a collaborative research and planning initiative to prevent family violence, including abuse of people with disabilities, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also worked with numerous communities across the country on research and policy initiatives designed to end homelessness and has a long-standing history of working for women’s rights. Nancy has a master's degree in women's studies with a concentration in feminist policy studies from the Ohio State University.
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Monica Thornton
Altus Regional Representative, International Programs
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3091
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Monica Thornton joined Vera as the Altus Global Alliance regional representative in August 2004. She is an attorney who recently served as senior director of Criminal and Supreme Court Programs at Safe Horizon, an organization that had its origins at Vera in the 1970s. At Safe Horizon, she oversaw domestic violence/felony centers, restitution programs, orders of protection services, and assistance services with applications to the Crime Victims Board. Monica has also practiced international corporate finance at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt and Mosle and at Morgan Stanley. Her international experience includes work with the Harvard Institute of International Development in Bangkok, the Center for Haitian Rights in Port-au-Prince, the Family Life Movement of Zambia, and the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund. She received her BA from Smith College and her JD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. As a native of Mexico, Monica is fluent in Spanish.
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Zachary Addison
Case Manager, The Guardianship Project
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e-mail:
tel: (347) 296-1874
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Prior to joining the Guardianship Project in March 2007, Zachary worked as a counselor in a domestic violence shelter in Manhattan. His previous work experience includes interning with the Crisis Unit of the Chapel Hill (North Carolina) Police Department and assisting with research projects on the quality of child care. Zachary received his B.A. and M.S.W. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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April (Hyo Eun) Bang
Research Associate, Substance Use and Mental Health Program
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3132
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April (Hyo Eun) Bang joined Vera in January 2008 to serve as a research associate for the International Justice Indicators Project and Substance Use and Mental Health Program. Previously she worked with HIV/AIDS communities in Africa and served as a government relations fellow at International Justice Mission. Prior to that, she worked for the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Executive Session on Human Rights Commissions and Criminal Justice and co-authored a paper on the history and development of human rights commissions in the United States. April received her B.A. in economics from Smith College and her M.P.P. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Before attending graduate school, she worked as an assistant economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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Sherice Campbell
Project Coordinator, Prosecution and Racial Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3060
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Sherice joined Vera’s Prosecution & Racial Justice Program in September 2007. She previously interned with Safe Horizon where she worked with victims of domestic violence. She also interned at the Kings County Family Court. Sherice is a graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice where she received a B.A in forensic psychology.
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Jacki Chernicoff
Senior Program Associate, Accessing Safety Initiative
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3145
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Jacki Chernicoff joined Vera in September 2007 as a senior program associate for the Accessing Safety Initiative. Prior to joining Vera, Jacki worked at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, New York, where she assisted victims/survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence in navigating the criminal justice system and acted as a bridge between them and the prosecutor. While there she also co-developed and coordinated an alternative to incarceration program for youth arrested for prostitution. Jacki has a master’s degree in social work from New York University.
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Farrah Dormeus
Project Assistant, The Guardianship Project
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e-mail:
tel: (347) 296-1874
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Prior to joining Vera in October 2007, Farrah worked with the New York State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Bureau of Tuberculosis Control. She worked closely with the human resources and budgeting departments aiding in pre-screening candidates for hire, modifying contracts, creating spreadsheets to monitor budget activity, and aiding in other financing and human resources related matters. She graduated cum laude from the City College of New York in 2007 with a B.A. in psychology and minors in Jewish studies and sociology.
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Betty Dutton
Intake Interviewer, Adolescent Portable Therapy
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-5210
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Betty joined Vera in November 2006 as an intake interviewer for Adolescent Portable Therapy. She currently interns with the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), coordinating daily activities for youth in terms of job placement and weekend activities. She has also assisted in counseling sessions with the youth and staff at OCFS. She received her bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Monroe College and intends to pursue a master's degree in criminal justice.
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Elizabeth Farid
Senior Program Associate, Prosecution & Racial Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3131
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Elizabeth Farid joined Vera's Prosecution & Racial Justice Program as a senior program associate in 2006. As senior program associate, she is responsible for managing the development and implementation of internal management systems among the project sites. Before joining Vera, Elizabeth worked as an associate attorney in the fields of medical malpractice defense and insurance coverage law. Prior to that, she was an assistant district attorney at the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney's Office. Elizabeth has a B.A. in political science from the University of North Texas and a J.D. from the University of Maryland.
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Tania Farmiga
Research Analyst, Child Welfare, Health, and Justice Program
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3042
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Tania came to the Program on Child Welfare, Health, and Justice to work as part of the Clinical Trials Project in February 2005. Currently as a research analyst she coordinates the project's qualitative data analysis, specifically interviews with clinical trial participants and their caregivers. Prior to coming to Vera Tania worked for several years at the Center for Children and Families at Rutgers University as a research assistant primarily for the Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon HIV Health Services Planning Council. Tania has a B.A. in sociology from Rutgers University.
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Sandra Harrell
Associate Director, Accessing Safety Initiative
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e-mail:
tel: (917) 478-4590
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Sandra joined Vera's Accessing Safety Initiative in November 2006. Prior to joining Vera, Sandra worked on the training and technical assistance team for Project Access of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She has been working in the area of ending violence against women for 15 years. Originally from Louisiana, Sandra began working at her local crisis line and volunteering at her local shelter while still in high school. Upon earning her undergraduate degree, Sandra worked for Turning Point Battered Women’s Shelter. After receiving her master’s degree from Goddard College where she focused on radical feminist analyses of sexual and domestic violence, Sandra became project director for Vanderbilt University’s Grant to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campuses. She worked for nearly five years to establish a comprehensive program to both respond to violent crimes against women and to prevent them from happening. The program—Project Safe—was institutionalized at Vanderbilt in 2004.
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Jason Hyde
Team Supervisor, The Guardianship Project
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e-mail:
tel: (347) 296-1874
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After receiving a master’s degree in special education, Jason taught in Kenya for several years as a member of the United States Peace Corps. He later moved to New York City to work in the field of social justice. Jason initially counseled people who are Deaf struggling with substance use in Manhattan. In December 2000 Jason joined Vera as a family case manager at the former Vera demonstration project, La Bodega de la Familia, where he worked with individuals returning home from prison, their families, and parole officers to reduce the incidence of substance use and reincarceration. After La Bodega, Jason worked at the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center as a mental health therapist providing individual and group counseling. In 2005 Jason rejoined Vera after earning a master's degree from the Hunter College School of Social Work.
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Juliene James
Senior Research and Policy Associate, Washington DC Office
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e-mail:
tel: (202) 347-6046
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Juliene James joined Vera's DC office in 2007. She earned her B.A. from Harvard College and her J.D. from New York University (NYU) School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the NYU Law Review. While in law school, Julie clerked at Lawyers for Children in New York, which represents children in foster care, and at World Association of Newspapers in Paris, France, which advocates for freedom of the press worldwide.
After law school, she served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Charles R. Wilson in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Prior to joining Vera, she practiced law in the DC office of Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis, litigating civil rights cases with a focus on employment discrimination class actions. In addition, Julie represented trafficking victims in obtaining their T-visas. She is admitted to the state bars of New York, Florida, and the District of Columbia.
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Aysu Kirac
Program Coordinator, Accessing Safety Initiative
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3142
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Aysu joined Vera’s Accessing Safety Initiative (ASI) in January 2008. Prior to Vera, she worked at Onvia as a researcher. Aysu has also worked on projects with the Columbia University Libraries, the Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA), and the Bad Fruit Foundation. Aysu graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle where she received her B.A. in history with an emphasis in Middle Eastern studies.
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Janet Lessem
Director, Guardian Assistance Network
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e-mail:
tel: (347) 296-1948
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Prior to joining the Guardian Assistance Network (GAN) in October 2006 as the program's full-time director, Janet served as associate clinical professor and social work supervisor in Bet Tzedek Legal Services at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. Janet’s familiarity with guardianship stems from her 10 1⁄2 year tenure as director of the Community Guardian Program at Selfhelp Community Services, Inc. She has published articles on guardianship, interdisciplinary education (law and social work), and the collaboration of lawyers and social worker. She also has made numerous presentations on topics such as compulsive hoarding, elder abuse, and self-neglect at conferences, seminars, and workshops. Janet earned a B.S. from Minnesota State University Moorhead and an M.S.W. from Adelphi University.
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Sydney McKinney
Research Analyst, Child Welfare, Health, and Justice Program
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-5207
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Sydney McKinney joined Vera in February 2007 to work on an evaluation of a program designed to improve outcomes for youth aging out of foster care. She earned her B.A. in American studies and history from Tufts University and will receive her master's in public health from the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University in May. Prior to working at Vera, Sydney conducted an evaluation of a youth violence prevention program targeting adolescent girls. She also co-founded a nonprofit organization committed to promoting an equitable recovery of the Gulf Coast region post Hurricane Katrina.
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Jennifer Medina
Project Assistant, The Guardianship Project
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e-mail:
tel: (347) 296-1874
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Jennifer joined the Guardianship Project in February 2006 as an intern before joining full time in October 2006 as project assistant. She previously worked as a student mediator at the New York State Attorney General's Office mediating complaints in the Consumer Frauds Bureau and tracking businesses engaged in fraudulent and illegal business practices. She earned her B.A. in applied psychology and human relations with minors in art history and women's studies from Pace University in 2006.
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Christine Scott-Hayward
Research Associate, Center on Sentencing and Corrections
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3053
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Christine Scott-Hayward joined Vera in August 2006 as a research analyst for the Center on Sentencing and Corrections. She received an undergraduate degree in law from University College Dublin in Ireland and an M.A. in social science from the University of Chicago. She is also a member of the New York Bar. Christine previously worked for Vera as an intern on the Fragmentation and Ferment project. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at New York University’s Institute for Law and Society, focusing on desistance from crime.
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Heidi J. Segal
Senior Planner,
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3032
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Heidi Segal is currently working on a variety of projects including Prosecution and Racial Justice and the Center on Youth Justice as well as initiatives concerning indigent defense. Heidi joined Vera in July 2001 as associate director of the State Sentencing and Corrections Program, and from November 2001 through October 2003 she was the founding director of Vera's national Youth Justice Program. Previously, Heidi was a senior staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society's capital and criminal defense divisions. Heidi has a B.A. from Vassar College in political science and sociology and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
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Andrea Snelson
Deputy Director, The Guardianship Project
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e-mail:
tel: (347) 296-1874
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Andrea first joined Vera in July 2001 as a planning analyst for a project studying New York City's system for status offenders, Persons In Need of Supervision (PINS), and explored respite care as an alternative to foster care for families in need. Beginning in February 2004, Andrea led the planning of the Guardianship Project, which would ultimately launch in April 2005. Prior to joining Vera, she was a research assistant at the Bronx Veteran's Association Hospital, working with a grant-funded team that studied mood and personality disorders in adults. Andrea has a B.A. in psychology from Mount Holyoke College and a J.D. from the Cardozo School of Law.
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Elizabeth Stone
Senior Program Associate, Accessing Safety Initiative
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e-mail:
tel: (202) 755-1950
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Elizabeth “Liz” Stone joined Vera's Accessing Safety Initiative in March 2008 as a senior program associate to provide technical assistance to grantees. Liz has had a longstanding interest in social justice for Deaf and hard of hearing people. After receiving her bachelor's degree in social work from Rochester Institute of Technology, she spent half a year in Israel advocating for Deaf Israelis to gain employment opportunities. She then worked as an education coordinator at Abused Deaf Women's Advocacy Services (ADWAS), a pioneering agency in ending violence against deaf and deaf-blind victims and children. There, she was part of the National Justice for Deaf Victims Training, a grant that was funded through the Department of Justice, to train other cities to replicate the ADWAS model. She also developed and published training materials for the Deaf community and for transitional shelters serving Deaf clients. After receiving a master's degree in public administration from American University in Washington, DC, she worked as an assistant director for corporate and individual giving at Gallaudet University for three years.
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Sarah Tynan
Project Coordinator, Washington DC Office
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e-mail:
tel: (202) 331-1391
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In April 2008, Sarah joined the Oversight and Accountability in Jails and Prisons project in Vera's Washington DC Office. Previously, she worked as a legal assistant at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2006, with a B.A. in anthropology. She was a religious studies minor, concentrating in South Asian religion, and she also studied French and Italian. An interest in social justice issues lead her to participate in her college Amnesty International chapter as well as local efforts to implement an effective and judicious Civilian Oversight Board to receive citizens' complaints of police brutality and oversee investigations.
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Kaya Williams
Research Assistant, Substance Use and Mental Health Program
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3173
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Kaya joined Vera in November 2007 as a research assistant for the Substance Use and Mental Health program. She graduated from Harvard College, where she received her A.B. in social anthropology with a focus on human rights and social justice. Prior to joining Vera, she was an intern at the National Black MBA Association, and she spent the past year researching for and writing her senior thesis on women in Peru’s Shining Path.
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Rebecca Williams
Case Manager, The Guardianship Project
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e-mail:
tel: (347) 296-1874
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Prior to joining the Guardianship Project, Rebecca Williams worked for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now where she directed a free tax preparation program for low-income New Yorkers as well as coordinated a middle school counseling program for students in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Rebecca earned her bachelor's degree in human development and family studies from the University of Connecticut in 2004.
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Kim Wolf
Case Manager, The Guardianship Project
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e-mail:
tel: (347) 296-1874
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Before joining Vera, Kim worked as a project manager for state & national initiatives at AARP. She graduated from Colgate University in 2002 with a B.A. in political science and anthropology.
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Allon Yaroni
Research Associate, Child Welfare, Health, and Justice Program
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3162
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Allon joined Vera in March 2007 to work on the Academy program evaluation and the Clinical Trials Project. Prior to joining Vera, he worked at the Furman Center for Urban Policy and Real Estate on research examining the impact of subsidized housing on nearby property values and as a lecturer teaching master-level courses at New York University. Before immigrating to the U.S., Allon served as assistant to the civil service commissioner for the prime minister’s office, Israel, leading organizational change efforts. He has published several academic articles on issues related to organizational change and administrative reforms. Allon is currently a doctoral candidate the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, specializing in urban policy and research methods. Allon holds a B.A. in economics and statistics, an M.A. in public policy from Tel-Aviv University, Israel, and an M.Phil. in public administration from New York University.
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