Susan Burton is the founding Executive Director of A New Way of Life Re-Entry Project, which operates homes and programs in South L.A. for women recently released from prison to enable them to stay sober, get jobs and obtain life skills. Burton herself overcame a personal history of decades of incarceration and struggled with re-entry. After her release, she earned enough money working as a home health aide to purchase a modest home in 1997, which she shared with her first clients. Today ANWOL operates three residences and has helped hundreds of women start new lives. She also plays an important role both statewide and nationally advocating on behalf of women with prison records.
Sister Terry Dodge is the Executive Director of Crossroads, Inc. which provides housing, education, support and counseling in a homelike environment in Claremont for women who have been incarcerated. Since 1989, Dodge has provided women with the tools to lead self-sufficient lives so that they can avoid the substance abuse, homelessness and isolation that often lead them to cycle back into prison. Dodge is also an active advocate for structural changes within the criminal justice system.
William “Blinky” Rodriguez is the Executive Director of Communities in Schools in North Hills, which has been named a model program for gang intervention by the State of California and the City and County of L.A. Working directly with youth and young adults, their families and the LAPD, Communities in Schools reduces gang-related violence through education, job development and mentoring athletic programs. Rodriguez is a world-class kick-boxer who also worked as a fight manager until the death of his son from a drive-by shooting in 1990 caused him to dedicate himself to the abolition of gang violence.
Laurie Schell began her career as a dancer and teacher, and is now the Executive Director of the California Alliance for Arts Education, a statewide advocacy group based in Pasadena. The Alliance played a major role in the successful campaign that resulted in the largest known state-funded expenditure for arts education in public schools nationwide. At a time when many school districts have lost an institutional memory and practice of arts education, the Alliance is currently playing a central role in creating a strategic arts education policy agenda and local advocacy networks of education and cultural leaders, local education agencies and public citizens charged with advancing high quality, standards-based arts instruction for all students in California.
Debra Suh is the Executive Director of Center for the Pacific Asian Family, which opened the first multi-lingual and multi-cultural domestic violence emergency shelter for Asian Pacific Islander women and their children in the nation. CPAF operates the only rape crisis center in the nation dedicated to serving API survivors. CPAF also operates a transitional shelter, children’s programs and a multi-lingual 24-hour hotline for violence survivors. An immigrant herself, Suh is particularly dedicated to serving non-English speaking immigrant women with her legal training and her commitment to eradication of the root causes of violence.
Arturo Ybarra founded Watts/Century Latino Organization in 1990, and serves as its Executive Director. WCLO is the only Latino multi-cultural nonprofit organization specifically serving Latinos and African-Americans in South L.A., even though Latinos represent more than 50% of the residents in the area. Long known for his ability to work well with both the Latino and African-American communities, Ybarra has been a tireless organizer and activist on housing, violence, education reform and local environmental issues. WCLO recently hosted its 15th annual Watts Latino/African-American Cinco de Mayo Celebration, which celebrates the different ethnic groups in Watts.
Sabbatical Program