Carole McKindley-Alvarez, PsyD

Carole is an expert trainer in Motivational Interviewing who offers Oakland Unite over 15 years of experience training and coaching numerous non-profit organizations, as well as probation and law enforcement agencies. A core focus of her work is on cultural relevancy. She is a professor of Psychology at Contra Costa College of San Pablo, Saint Mary’s College of Moraga, and Argosy University of San Francisco within the Clinical Psychology Doctorate program. Dr. McKindley-Alvarez is the Director of Innovation and Integration at Felton Institute.

Leslie R. Brown, MPA, PCC

Leadership that Works

Leslie is a Coach and Trainer at Leadership that works. Leslie uses her unique mix of analytical and creative skills to support new and seasoned next generation leaders – those who are working to design innovative systems of support for communities. She believes that moving beyond traditional leadership approaches will revolutionize the way that people work and thrive. “I have dedicated my life to support communities to identify new leadership, increase diversity of voice and choice, incorporate empowerment strategies and promote best practices that support transformation.”

Belma González, PCC

Blooming Willow

Belma has been providing assets based, culturally aware coaching to nonprofit and social justice leaders since 2004. Some of the complex social issues her clients tackle includes: racial, environmental and economic justice, health reform and equity, educational access, early childhood development, foster care youth, and domestic violence. Prior to coaching, Belma worked for over twenty-five years in the nonprofit sector, including five years as an Executive Director for a free women’s clinic that serves low-income, homeless and/or substance using women and six years as a program director of a women’s leadership development program for primarily women of color and immigrant women new to identifying as leaders. Belma is a bicultural, somewhat bilingual Chicana/Latina, living in Oakland, California.

Cat Willet

Catholic Charities

Project Aware Project Director and Trainer, has been with Catholic Charities since 2014 and has served in a various capacities related to community mental health and restorative practices. Prior to moving to the East Bay, Cat earned a dual Master's Degree from Loyola University-Chicago in Social Work and Social Justice, where she worked with youth involved in community violence and researched how faith-based groups could more effectively support those impacted by community violence.

Ivan Villasenor Madriz

Catholic Charities

Ivan joined the Experience Hope team at Catholic Charities of the East Bay as Restorative Practices Coordinator and Project AWARE Instructor in June, 2017. Ivan is originally from Mexico and migrated to California's Central Coast in 2005. He relocated to the Bay Area to attend school and received a Bachelor of Arts in Peace and Conflict from the University of California, Berkeley.

Melvyn Hayward Jr.

H.E.L.P.E.R. Foundation

As Co-Founder and Executive Director of H.E.L.P.E.R Foundation, Melvyn’s commitment to affecting positive change with youth and young adults from low income communities plagued with violence has made a difference in the lives of hundreds in Los Angeles County. Mr. Hayward bring 18 years of experience working with high-risk youth, adults and families who have been associated with gangs and crimes.

Gabriel Kram

Applied Mindfulness

Applied Mindfulness founder GABRIEL KRAM has a deep and abiding interest in and practice of mindfulness, emotional self-awareness, and somatics work. Over the past eighteen years, these modalities have transformed his life, and he is committed to training organizations and individuals in these tools to transform quality of life and organizational culture. He previously directed The Mind Body Awareness Project, whose innovative mindfulness-based interventions for incarcerated youth are being scaled into new national models of rehabilitation and are the subject of both dissertations and peer-review journal articles. He studied neurobiology at Yale College, and narrative at Stanford University. He brings a reverence for indigenous culture, eighteen years of mindfulness practice, ten years of mindful movement, and a lifetime of wilderness exploration, nature awareness, and creative expression to his work. He is the author of the Inner Life Skills Curriculum for Youth and Transformation through Feeling: Awakening the Felt Sensibility.

Glynn Washington

Snap Judgement, Host & Executive Producer

Before creating Snap Judgment, Glynn worked as an educator, diplomat, community activist, actor, political strategist, fist-shaker, mountain-hollerer, and foot stomper.

Glynn composed music for the Kunst Stoff dance performances in San Francisco, rocked live spoken word poetry in Detroit, joined a band in Indonesia, wrote several screenplays, painted a daring series of self-portraits, released a blues album, and thinks his stories are best served with cocktails.

Marilyn Ababio

Executive Director, Comfort Homesake

Marilyn Ababio is a skilled administrator with over 25 years of experience managing complex systems infrastructure projects. Ms. Ababio’s specific expertise have been applied to Alameda County’s Health Care Services Agency’s Advance Health and Hospice Program called “Getting the Most Out of Life”. She is serving Alameda County by working to integrate County systems to include advanced care planning services and then to ensure equitable access to advanced care planning and hospice services. A graduate of UCLA, Yale University and Occidental College, Ms. Ababio is a presenter and participant with prestigious organizations such as the National Academies of Science, Transportation Research Board (TRB), Stanford University I Sage Program, Conference of Minority Transportation Officials and Harvard University Civil Rights Project on issues of Environmental Justice.

Wanda Ferguson BSN, MSN, PHN, RN

Alameda County Health Care Services Agency

Wanda G. Ferguson, born and raised in Chicago, earned her BSN in nursing from Emory University School of Nursing in Atlanta, Georgia, after completing her BS in cultural anthropology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. In May 2017, Gail completed her Master’s Degree in Nurse Leadership from Loyola University in New Orleans and her Clinical Practicum at Stanford University, where her academic excellence was recognized by admission to the Sigma Theta Tau national honors’ society. Wanda currently serves as Director of the County of Alameda, California Health Care Service Agency Care Partners program, an innovative community-based in-home health services program intended to enable seriously ill residents in their homes. Wanda earned a reputation as a highly skilled, compassionate and emotionally intelligent clinical nurse leader with extensive experience in recruitment, orientation, training, as well as performance evaluation and processes to ensure successful development of clinical staff. In her 25+ years in nursing Wanda has demonstrated a unique capacity to utilize her management and authentic leadership style to effectively manage people, processes, and problems. In addition to her nursing practice, Wanda has maintained her interest in social justice work and urban gardening as a solution for the problem of urban food deserts and alternative medicine healing.

Macheo Payne

Lincon Child Center

Dr. Macheo Payne serves as Lincoln’s Senior Director of Equity and Educational Initiatives, overseeing the training department and Oakland Freedom Schools program. Macheo is also an assistant professor at Cal State University, East Bay in the Department of Social Work. Macheo was a national trainer for the Children's Defense Fund's Child Policy Training Institute, training thousands of teaching interns nationally. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Macheo also holds an MSW from CSUEB and earned his Ed.D. from San Francisco State University. Macheo has experience working directly with youth as a coordinator for Leadership Excellence. Later, he served as the Oakland Youth Commission coordinator for the City of Oakland. Macheo also served as a founding director of Youth UpRising before coming to Lincoln. Macheo lives in Oakland with his wife Kafi and two sons, Elijah and Cameron.

Holly Joshi

MISSSEY

Holly is an Oakland native who has been committed to the issue of commercial sexual exploitation for over a decade. She is currently the Executive Director of MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting, and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth) an organization committed to providing direct services and advocacy to commercially exploited young people. Holly is also a national trainer with the National Criminal Justice Training Institute and has trained service providers and government agencies across the country on trafficking prevention, recognition and response. As the supervisor of the Oakland Police Department’s Child Exploitation Unit, she crafted victim centered department policy and worked closely with advocates and survivors on the successful passage of important legislation. She served on Kamala Harris's Task Force on 21st Century Policing and Harris's Task Force on Human Trafficking.

Holly sees education as an important leverage point in our fight for equity. She holds a Master’s Degree in Leadership for Social Justice from St. Mary’s College. Her thesis looked at internalized oppression and its impact on the lives of Black women. She is currently a doctoral student in Educational Leadership with plans to focus her research on exploring and developing best practices in serving trafficked girls of color. She believes in the resiliency and brilliance of young people and the transformative power of an informed and engaged community.

Earl Simms

Roots Community Health Center

Earl is a Program Coordinator with Roots Community Health Center. Earl’s hometown is Los Angeles, but he came to Oakland after serving 22 years in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “Now here in Oakland, I’m trying to battle the disease of violence… a disease that I had myself, but that has designed me to be effective in providing a solution to others who are also battling it.” Earl is a leader in the Timelist Group, which provides rehabilitation courses for those impacted by incarceration. He is a member of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) and sits on the Formerly Incarcerated Advisory Board (FIA) in San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon’s office. In his free time, Earl is an artist and aspiring screenwriter.

Richardo Garcia-Acosta

Oakland Unite, Violence Prevention Network Liaison

Kevin Grant

Oakland Unite, Street Outreach Coordinator