COLUMBIA - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Executive Director and Founder, Justice through Code
• Executive Director of JTC
• Staff

Job Titles:

• Development Operations Associate, Department of Psychology
• Staff
• Student at the School of General Studies

Ava Kamdem is a student at the School of General Studies at Columbia University studying psychology, Social Impact Fellow and Global Thought Scholar with Columbia World Projects. For the Center for Justice Ava is the Development Operations Associate, managing and optimizing organizational development to increase funding revenue and streamline systems and processes. Ava is a formerly incarcerated survivor of human trafficking that has devoted her academics to studying disenfranchised groups to cultivate capital and change narrative. Ava has used her lived experience to advocate for others who share her lived experiences, by assisting federal agents in recovering victims, and consulting with homeland security to have alternatives to incarceration for women engaging in prostitution. Ava publicly shares her story, teaches and consults with NGO's, has created outreach programs and served on the Human Trafficking Survivor Leadership Council of Texas. Ava plans on going onto graduate school to study ways to create organizational economic opportunities for disenfranchised groups.

Job Titles:

• Social Worker
• Staff

Cameron is a social worker, educator and facilitator, and the Program Director at the Center for Justice at Columbia University where he supports a variety of programmatic efforts to advance individual, institutional and societal transformation for a more just and safe world. He is committed to reimagining our responses to human behavior and pathways to social justice and to contributing towards the larger movement of an anti-oppressive social work practice. At the Center for Justice his work is focused on ending the punishment paradigm and advancing approaches to justice rooted in prevention, healing and accountability. Cameron is currently a PhD student in the CUNY Graduate Center's Social Welfare program. He is an adjunct lecturer at Columbia School of Social Work and received his Masters degree in Social Work from Columbia University.

Job Titles:

• Co - Director
• Co - Founder
• Co - Founder and Co - Director at Columbia University 's Center for Justice
• Staff

Cheryl Wilkins is the Co-Founder and Co-Director at Columbia University's Center for Justice (CFJ) where her work is committed to ending the nation's reliance on incarceration, developing new approaches to safety and justice, and participating in the national and global conversation around developing effective criminal justice policy. She is also an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University School of Social Work and director of Women Transcending. In the community, Cheryl is a board member with the Women's Community Justice Association, a co-convener of the Justice 4 Women's Task-Force, an advisor with the Survivors Justice Project and the formerly incarcerated Women's International Commission, a senior advisor with the Women & Justice Project, and co-founder and executive team member with Women Building Up. She holds a graduate degree in Urban Affairs and is the recipient of the Brian Fischer Award, Davis Putter scholarship, the Sister Mary Nerney Visionary Award and the Citizens against Recidivism Award.

Job Titles:

• Associate Director of Operations and Evaluation
• Staff

Claudia is the Associate Director of Operations and Evaluation at the Center for Justice where she is responsible for developing a framework for evaluation for the Center's programs and initiatives, and for formulating, developing, and implementing strategies to ensure the sustainability of high quality programs. She also manages the Prison Education Program, supports the Justice Ambassadors and Justice Through Code programs, and mentors undergraduate and graduate students. Before joining the Center, Claudia worked at the Girl Scout Research Institute, part of Girl Scouts of the USA, where she led a team that conducted the evaluations of grant-funded initiatives and sponsorships and provided evaluation support and resources to the national office and staff at its 112 national affiliates. This work built staff members' capacity to appreciate the value of systematic data collection and program evaluation, design sound evaluation plans, collect and analyze information, and share findings in ways that inform program development and improvements and future strategy. Over the years, Claudia has also worked with a number of national and international organizations in the areas of needs assessment and program development and evaluation, as well as in academic research. Much of her work has focused on identifying and understanding factors that promote and interfere with individuals' abilities to access and utilize internal and external resources in a manner that allows them to lead healthy and productive lives. In her work, she seeks to understand the implications of program evaluation data in the context of local communities, socio-economic realities, and public policies that may affect programs goals, content, implementation, and impact.

Job Titles:

• Staff
• Student Success and Reentry Manager

Job Titles:

• Assistant Program Manager & Research Staff Assistant, Department of Psychology
• Staff

Job Titles:

• Niven Professor of Humane Letters, Department of Psychology

Professor Downey has been chair of the Columbia Psychology Department, Vice-Provost for Diversity Initiatives, Vice-Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Dean of Social Sciences. She is a member of the Faculty Working Group of the Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity, the Faculty Steering Committee of the Holder Initiative for Civil and Political Rights, and the University Task Force on Just Societies. She is a recipient of the American Psychological Association Mentor Award.

Job Titles:

• Program Manager, Center for Justice Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social Work
• Staff

Greer Ellis is an Advocate for Human Justice and a Restorative Justice Practitioner. She leads support, healing, conflict and celebration circles. She is employed with the Center for Justice at Columbia University, where she is a Program Manager. She co-facilitates leadership training programs with the Beyond the Bars Fellowship and the Women Transcending Collective Leadership Institute. Ms. Ellis is also an Adjunct Professor in the Columbia School of Social Work. She is Seminar in Field Instruction (SIFI) certified and supervises graduate student interns. Additionally, Ms. Ellis leads a Restorative Support Circle for formerly incarcerated and directly impacted individuals at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, NY, where she is an active member. She moderates and speaks widely at conferences, panels and webinars on topics related to restorative practices, conflict resolution, harm and accountability, children and families of incarcerated parents and ending mass incarceration. She is a member of the New York Citywide Leadership Council on Restorative Justice, the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice-Restorative Justice Advisory Committee, a member of the Justice for Women Task Force, and a board member at Children's Haven, an organization dedicated to serving children of incarcerated parents. Ms. Ellis received her BA from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA and her MSW from Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.

Job Titles:

• Project Director & Community Management Liaison
• Social Enterprise Executive
• Staff

Jarrell E. Daniels is a Bronx, New York native, Truman Scholar and graduating senior at Columbia University's School of General Studies. In 2019, one year after coming home from prison, Jarrell Founded the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council (JAYC) at Columbia's Center for Justice. The Justice Ambassadors is an 8 week leadership and life skills development program for 18-25 year old, disadvantaged youth and local government officials to co-author policy proposals aimed at transforming systems, driving institutional change or addressing community challenges. Jarrell's commitment to youth development and policy reform led to him giving a TED Talk that highlights the factors that led to his incarceration and introduces an innovative approach to collaborative education between community members and public officials. Jarrell is Social Enterprise Executive and aspiring Civil Rights Attorney. His primary focus is bridging the divide between lawmakers, disadvantaged communities and businesses. As a lawyer and business owner, Jarrell will work to develop sustaining policies and best practices for effective community centered interventions. In 2020, Jarrell Co-Founded the Community Justice Alliance (CJA), an interdisciplinary social enterprise grass-roots led, adult-professional and community service organization that serves as a bridge between state and city governments, communities and higher education institutions. CJA has two primary focus areas: 1) we train and collaborate with adult-professionals (i.e. city/state agencies, service providers, academic institutions and other community organizations) through contractual service based efforts. 2) CJA works simultaneously to empower disadvantaged communities through volunteer services which including hosting food, clothing and toy drives and our annual Anti-Gun Violence rally. We offer no-cost life skills and civic awareness community workshops aimed at building social awareness and supporting emerging community leaders. CJA provides instructional programming, conducts professional trainings, organizes community events and collaborates with professional entities and serves as an advocate for vulnerable communities throughout NYC. Our ultimate goal is to address community challenges like gun violence, food insecurity, health care and access, food insecurity, police accountability, and advocating for policy change and community reinvestment.

Job Titles:

• Outreach Coordinator
• Outreach Coordinator & Research Assistant, Department of Psychology
• Staff

Jason Bostic is a community advocate, Outreach Coordinator and lead facilitator for the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council. He is also freshman in the School of General Studies at Columbia University. Jason is an aspiring Social Enterprise and Non-Profit Executive, whose focus is fostering healing services and economic and workforce development opportunities for low-income communities and focusing on mentorship with a variety of professions to inspire and inform the youth about professions that are possibly tailored to their skill set besides streets. Jason also serves as a credible messenger, working with gang-involved youth at ManUp Inc., a gun violence prevention organization in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

Job Titles:

• Director of the National Executive Council

Jay Holder is the director of the National Executive Council (NEC) at the Center for Justice, which supports communities simultaneously impacted by poverty and incarceration. The NEC uses an ecological approach to promote personal, community, and social change that supports life-long healthy, human development which is executed by bringing together neighborhood, business, and government leaders to co-design "community-centered" programming & policies around education, arts, economic mobility, and civic engagement.

Job Titles:

• Associate Research Scientist in the Faculty of Social Work and in the Department of Psychology, School of Social Work
• Staff

Associate Research Scientist in the Faculty of Social Work and in the Department of Psychology, School of Social Work

Job Titles:

• Policy & Communications Manager, Center for Justice, School of Social Work
• Staff

Job Titles:

• Operations Manager - CFJ, School of Social Work
• Staff

Job Titles:

• Project Coordinator, Center for Justice, School of Social Work
• Staff

Raphael Eissa is an Egyptian-USian with Bachelor's degrees in Political Science and International Affairs from the University of Georgia, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School's Global Institute for Human Rights. He currently supports the Justice Beyond Punishment Collaborative at the Center for Justice, which seeks to challenge the narrative that punishment and incarceration are effective responses to violent offenses. Raphael is a dedicated organizer who advocates for oppressed peoples around the world, from Ferguson to Gaza, and is also a self-identified writer and poet, who explores identity, belonging, and radical hope. He has attended the Red Clay Writing Project's Summer Institute, a site of the National Writing Project at the University of Georgia, Athens, and is a National Writing Project Teacher-Consultant.