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Staff
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Sara Mogulescu
Director, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3157
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Sara Mogulescu joined Vera in March 2002 as a senior program associate for the State Sentencing and Corrections and Youth Justice Programs. From September 2003 to May 2005, she served as the associate director of both programs. Before joining Vera, Sara was an associate at Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason & Silberberg, P.C., a law firm in New York, where she represented clients primarily in federal criminal matters. Previously, she was a litigator in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis. Sara has a B.A. in economics and American government from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
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Joel Miller
Director of Research, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3167
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Prior to joining Vera in 2007, Joel Miller spent two years as a visiting professor of criminology at the University of Malaga, Spain, where he conducted research on racial profiling, crime prevention, and victimization, and taught criminology and social research methodology. From 2001 to 2005, he worked as a senior research associate at Vera, overseeing studies on juvenile delinquency recidivism, alternatives to placement, and police/community relations. Before joining Vera, Joel was the head researcher for police-community relations at the Home Office Research and Statistics Department in London. He holds a B.A. in human sciences from Oxford University, an M.Sc. in social research methods from Surrey University, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Surrey University.
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Evan Elkin
Director, Adolescent Portable Therapy (APT)
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3036
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Evan Elkin joined APT in February 2001 as Vera launched the project and he became Director of APT in July 2005. Previously, he worked as a psychologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital's HIV family mental health clinic, where he developed psychotherapeutic strategies for working with children and adolescents infected with or affected by HIV. He completed a pre-doctoral internship in adult and child clinical psychology and a fellowship in the outpatient alcoholism and addiction treatment program, both at St.Vincent's Hospital in New York. Evan has a B.A. in psychology from U.C. Berkeley, and an M.A. in clinical psychology from New York University.
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Jenny Kronenfeld
Director, Esperanza/Hope
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e-mail:
tel: (646) 278-2000
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Jenny Kronenfeld first joined Vera as a staff attorney at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem in 1992. In 1997 she joined the newly created Bronx Defenders, working first as a supervising team leader, and becoming the deputy director in 1999. She recently returned to Vera to work on systemic issues within the juvenile justice system and to help develop and run a new sentencing option for young people facing placement out of family court. Jenny has a B.A. in sociology from Hunter College and a J.D. from the CUNY School of Law. Prior to becoming a lawyer Jenny worked in a variety of capacities with state prisoners, people addicted to drugs and alcohol, and runaway and homeless children.
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Paragini Amin
Program Analyst, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3055
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Paragini Amin joined Vera in March 2004. She earned her bachelor's degree in economics from Northeastern University. Prior to Vera, Paragini worked at a financial planning firm and interned at a number of social justice organizations, such as United for a Fair Economy and the Bank Information Center. She also organized with Desis Rising Up and Moving, a grassroots social justice organization led by low-income South Asian immigrants, on issues of racial justice and immigrant rights.
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Sarah Berch-Heyman
Research Assistant, Child Welfare, Health, and Justice Program
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3117
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Sarah Berch-Heyman joined Vera in October 2007 as a research assistant for the Clinical Trials project to provide administrative support to the team and assist with qualitative data analysis. Previously, she worked at the Institute of Education at the University of Stirling, Scotland, as a research fellow for a study examining young children’s development of e-literacy. She has a B.A. in psychology from Vassar College and an M.S. in childhood studies (with a focus on children’s rights) from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
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Gaspar Caro
Program Analyst, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3179
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Gaspar Caro joined Vera in August 2006 as a field interviewer and was promoted to program coordinator, then later program analyst, for the Center on Youth Justice. Previously he worked as a freelance film production assistant; as an academic tutor at El Puente Leadership Center, a social justice organization in North Brooklyn; and as a research assistant at Jigsaw Productions, a documentary production company. In May 2005 Gaspar earned his B.A. in liberal arts as an English major at Wesleyan University.
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Jennifer Fratello
Research Associate, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3116
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Jennifer joined Vera in May 2006. She received her B.A. in psychology from The College of New Jersey and her M.A. in criminal justice from Temple University, where she is currently a doctoral student in criminal justice. At Temple, she worked as a research assistant on an outcome evaluation of Philadelphia’s juvenile justice programs. Her work has focused on gender issues in juvenile treatment, systematic trends, and quasi-experimental designs in program evaluation. Her dissertation will be a multilevel study of juvenile recidivism designed to assess both programmatic treatment effects and neighborhood effects on delinquency.
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Amanda Gropp
Therapist, Adolescent Portable Therapy
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376--8151
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Seven Laracuente
Clinical Supervisor, Adolescent Portable Therapy (APT)
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3115
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Seven Laracuente joined APT in June 2004 to work as a therapist. She has worked with incarcerated males and females, first time offenders, recovering addicts, people affected and infected with HIV, families involved in the foster care system, and school age children and adolescents with chronic behavioral problems. She has worked in Massachusetts, California, New York, and Puerto Rico. Seven received her B.A. in social work with an emphasis in sociology from the University of Puerto Rico. She has an M.S.W. from Boston College with a concentration in community organizing, planning, policy, and administration.
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Michael Lens
Research Associate, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3044
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Michael Lens joined Vera in July 2005 to work on youth justice issues. Previously he was director of planning and development at the Community Health Care Association of New York State and as a research specialist at the Texas Department of Health. He has also conducted research at the Poverty Research and Training Center, the Urban Institute, and the Minnesota Department of Education. Mike has a bachelor's degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a master's degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, where he concentrated on quantitative analysis and social policy. He will be pursuing his Ph.D. in Public Administration at New York University beginning fall 2005.
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Yumari Martínez
Senior Program Associate, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3138
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Yumari L. Martínez joined Vera in May 2007 as a senior program associate for the Center on Youth Justice. He just completed a Clinical Teaching Fellowship at New York University (NYU) School of Law, co-teaching the Offender Reentry Clinic. He previously worked as a senior project director at the Center for Community Problem Solving at NYU. There, he directed ambitious projects related to reentry and economic development and spearheaded efforts to address the unmet needs of New York City's youth. In 2003, Yumari received an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to implement the center's innovative and demanding Consumer Survey of Problem-Solving Resources. Before joining the center, Yumari worked as law guardian at New York City's Legal Aid Society Juvenile Right’s Division representing juveniles in delinquency proceedings. He also represented death penalty clients in Alabama as a post-graduate fellow at the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama. He graduated from NYU Law School in 2001.
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Victor Marte
Case Manager, Adolescent Reentry Initiative
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e-mail:
tel: (718) 947-2729
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Prior to joining Vera, Victor worked for Graham-Windham as a family planner in the family reunification unit. Previously, he worked for the Harlem Children's Zone as a site coordinator in one of the youth development programs and later joined Kaplan Inc. as a part-time site coordinator in the SES program. Victor received his B.A. in sociology from the City University of New York and graduated cum laude.
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Alessandra Meyer
Program Coordinator, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3095
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Alessandra Meyer joined Vera in April 2008 as program coordinator. Prior to Vera, Alessandra was a producer at Charlotte Street Films. She was the associate producer and lead researcher on the award-winning documentary film Why We Fight. From 2005 to 2006, Alessandra also served as the director of the Eisenhower Project, an academic outreach initiative dedicated to the study of U.S. defense policy. Alessandra has volunteered extensively with youth and most recently tutored formerly incarcerated individuals through the College Initiative. Alessandra graduated from New York University with a B.A. in religious studies and politics.
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Sean Reynolds
Program Coordinator, Adolescent Portable Therapy
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-5203
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Before coming to Vera Sean worked at the Children's Aid Society as an operations assistant where he worked primarily with the WIA Teen Leadership program and the New York Times Summer Employment program. He graduated from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in economics.
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Annie Salsich
Associate Director, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3169
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Annie Salsich joined Vera in February 2003 as a project analyst for Affirm, a school safety demonstration project. Currently associate director for Vera’s Center on Youth Justice, Annie works on national issues of school safety and juvenile justice. Before coming to Vera, she was a program director of the Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Connecticut and, prior to that, a case manager for pregnant and parenting teens. Annie has also lived and taught in Oaxaca, Mexico. She received her B.A. at Vassar College.
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Joanna Santa
Therapist, Adolescent Portable Therapy
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-5204
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Joanna Santa joined APT in January 2007. Before joining APT she worked as a youth development program manager at New Door Ventures (formerly Golden Gate Community, Inc.) in San Francisco, CA, where she developed a mentoring program and a work experience program for high-risk adolescents. Joanna also provided case management and counseling to youth who were homeless or involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems as well as youth in recovery from substance use. Prior to that, Joanna worked in New York City at various nonprofit organizations providing services to youth and families also involved in family court and juvenile justice systems and did volunteer work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Joanna has a B.A. in psychology from Hunter College and earned her M.S.W. from the Hunter College School of Social Work.
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Theresa Sgobba
Senior Program Associate, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3069
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Theresa Sgobba returned to Vera in August 2007 as a senior program associate with the Center on Youth Justice after graduating from law school in May 2007. While in law school, she was employed with the ACLU of Southern California’s Racial Justice Project and the Gender Project of the University of the Western Cape, in Capetown, South Africa. From 2003-2004, she was employed as a program analyst with then-Vera demonstration Esperanza/Hope, where she was responsible for developing indicators for the program and for the city agencies working together to reduce the institutional placement of New York City youth. Prior to joining Esperanza, she assisted Vera’s Executive Department with its organizational development efforts and with the implementation, management, and performance measurement of Vera’s demonstration projects. Theresa holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University.
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Robert Sims
Case Manager, Adolescent Reentry Initiative
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e-mail:
tel: (718) 947-2724
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Robert Sims joined Vera in September 2007 as a case manager for the Adolescent Reentry Initiative (ARI). Before coming to ARI, Robert worked in the Bronx at Project Samaritan, Inc., as a case manager for individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Robert also mentors men and women returning home after serving lengthy prison sentences. Robert is currently a social work student at Lehman College, where he will attend graduate school in fall 2008. Robert also finds time to produce a weekly radio program on WBAI 99.5 FM that focuses on criminal justice and various other human rights issues.
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Jennifer Tsai
Senior Program Associate, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3117
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Prior to joining Vera in January 2008, Jennifer worked for two years in Beijing, China, at International Bridges to Justice (IBJ), a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that promotes the rule of law, good governance, and equitable legal rights for all citizens by ensuring the effective implementation of existing laws. As a senior program manager, Jennifer managed nationwide programming of the juvenile justice project. She designed and implemented training workshops for Chinese lawyers and roundtable conferences between juvenile justice stakeholders to build the capacity of the indigent defense system and develop reform initiatives that addressed early access to counsel and detention issues. Prior to her work at IBJ, Jennifer was an attorney in New York for over a decade at the Legal Aid Society and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, as well as at the Commission on Judicial Conduct and Proskauer Rose LLP. She earned her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from Cornell Law School.
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Bianca Van Heydoorn
FAO Schwarz Youth Development Fellow, Adolescent Portable Therapy
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-8154
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Bianca joined Vera in October 2007 as the FAO Schwarz Youth Development Fellow at Adolescent Portable Therapy (APT). Prior to joining Vera, she worked at the Center for Employment Opportunities assisting youth and adults reintegrate through transitional employment after periods of incarceration. She also worked with Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, a Harlem-based program that works with young women at risk for or involved in commercial sexual exploitation and violence. Bianca has a B.A. in correctional sociology from the City University of New York and is currently working toward her master’s degree in criminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
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Colin Worrall
Research Analyst, Center on Youth Justice
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e-mail:
tel: (212) 376-3058
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Colin joined Vera in January 2008. He earned his B.A. from the University of Delaware, majoring in criminal justice and history, and he earned his M.A. in criminal justice from George Washington University in 2007. While at George Washington University, he worked as a graduate teaching assistant for a number of criminal justice classes. His master'ss thesis examined college students’ perceptions of justified violence in relation to their sports media consumption.
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