Essential Innovations for Justice-involved Women: The Promise and Impact of Center-based Models

KimberLee is a Director at the Oregon Department of Human Services and has served her community as a nonprofit administrator in an array of roles. This has included over 20 years of providing services for people who live life with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and leadership focused on mission-based work that is designed to create positive outcomes. KimberLee brings this powerful perspective, along with a unique organizational leadership and business management lens, to the Oregon Department of Human Services. As District Director since 2019, she provides leadership and collaboration across the agency’s Child Welfare and Self Sufficiency programs and focuses on building lasting community partnerships that support meeting the dynamic needs of families, children and communities. She is an inspiring and innovative leader and has worked with her team to leverage and develop the strengths and skills of the agency’s staff and bring critical and innovative perspectives to Child Welfare and Self-Sufficiency work. This includes impactful models and initiatives that address the needs of diverse communities and the staff who serve them.

Colette is an organizer, leader, student, mother, and grandmother. Her passion is to educate families to build healthier communities. She is the Director of the Women’s Justice Institute (WJI) Reclamation Project, the first initiative of its kind in Illinois to be led by-and-for system-impacted women. Colette worked to design and launch the Reclamation Center in the Pilsen Arts Corridor, which serves as the Reclamation Project’s home for arts and advocacy, mutual support, healing and connection, community building and leadership development among women with lived experience. She engages women directly impacted by the criminal legal system to become agents of change and create solutions to end the incarceration of women and girls. She is frequently featured as a speaker and moderator on topics ranging from the reunification of children and mothers, reproductive justice, mental health care, the need for increased programming in prisons, and barriers to employment for people with criminal records. She also provides expert testimony before legislative committees and has received several awards for her leadership, including Claim’s JoAnn Archibald award (2013), the Jane Adams Center for Social Policy and Research Community Leadership Award (2015), Safer Foundation’s Carre Visionary Award (2018) and the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW) 2020 Impact award for her dedication to improving the lives of women and girls in the Chicago area.

Leticia is the Executive Director of The Pathfinder Network, an Oregon-based nonprofit that provides justice system-impacted individuals and families the tools and support they need to be safe and thrive in our communities. She partners with team members to provide leadership, vision, community, and support to the organization to ensure the greatest impact with the communities they serve. She has worked in schools, prisons, community corrections and in community-based service settings leading and implementing change and innovation. At TPN, Leticia has successfully conceptualized, developed and implemented numerous innovative programs, curricula and training that is responsive to emergent needs in the field and is a driving force in the agency’s diversity, equity, inclusion and justice efforts. She is a skilled leader, practitioner, developer, trainer and evaluator of evidence-based programs and practices. Leticia leads powerful training and dynamic presentations across the country to various audiences that provide attendees with opportunities to broaden their skills and awareness. She is known for her enthusiastic and engaging leadership style, and vision for lifelong learning and guiding individuals, organizations, and systems through change.

Deanne is Co-Founder and Director of The Women’s Justice Institute (WJI), a Chicago-based, national “think and do tank” building transformational justice across sectors with-and-for system-impacted women with the goal of ending women’s mass incarceration. She is the co-author of the WJI’s groundbreaking report on ending women’s mass incarceration, “Redefining the Narrative;” and the Executive Producer and Director of the report’s powerful public awareness campaign video that confronts the deeply gendered false narratives that uniquely confront impacted women. A national leader on issues related to women’s mass incarceration, she the Co-Chair of the American Probation & Parole Association (APPA) Justice-Involved Women & Girls Committee and has engaged in global efforts as a member of the New York Vance Center for International Justice Women’s Prison Project, as an advocate for the successful passage of the United Nation’s Bankgok Rules for Women Prisoners and as a former member of the International Corrections & Prisons Association (ICPA). She has presented her work in several countries, including Colombia and Thailand. Benos is the author of several articles and publications, and has co-authored a Gender Responsive Practices Assessment (GIPA) report for the states of Illinois, Washington and Oregon. She was also the co-author of the U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections “Barracks Behind Bars'' reports on addressing challenges related to incarceration among veterans.

Alyssa is the founder and Executive Director of CORE Associates, and works across sectors to provide training and technical assistance to support implementation of gender responsive, trauma-informed and culturally responsive policies and practices, including multi-site statewide initiatives and specialized approaches in justice, behavioral health, and human service settings. She encourages international learning and engagement and has explored human service systems and individual and social trauma and resilience in the US, Canada, Thailand, Germany and South Africa. Alyssa has been a thought leader regarding critical issues affecting system-involved women and girls and the implementation of trauma and resiliency-informed approaches. She has served as a consultant and faculty member on various state and federal initiatives, and has authored and co-authored various publications, models and tools designed to support implementation of gender responsive and trauma-informed approaches, including dynamic staff training curricula, facility and community organizational assessments, and model approaches to building cultures of resilience and motivation. Alyssa has a sub-specialty in the neurobiology and ecology of trauma and is the lead author of Creating Regulation and Resilience (CR/2™). She is also co-founder of The Women’s Justice Institute (WJI), a national think and do tank that works to implement transformational policies with and for women throughout systems and communities, and has created dynamic tools anchored in cross-sector collaboration. The WJI’s work continues to help redefine justice for and with women and has been featured nationally and internationally.

Lindsay started her career in law enforcement in Southern Oregon working with Jackson County Community Justice as a Transition Center Coordinator approximately 9 years ago. She eventually transitioned to a role as a Community Justice Officer; then in 2019 a Parole and Probation Officer. As a Parole and Probation Officer, Lindsay supervised high risk adults on supervision and supervised adults on supervision with domestic violence convictions. She was also a training officer to new Parole and Probation Officers. In 2023, Lindsay was promoted to a Program Manager within Jackson County Community Justice and now oversees the Gender Responsive Unit, supervises Domestic Violence Parole and Probation Officers and Parole and Probation Officers who supervise high risk adults on supervision. Since her promotion to a Program Manager, Lindsay has become an active member of the Oregon Case Management Network and the Chairperson of the Supervisory Leadership Network.

Tiffany is the Peer Support Department Manager at The Pathfinder Network. Tiffany, who identifies as a person in recovery herself, has dedicated the last 5 years of her work life to advocating for the expansion of peer workers, not only in Jackson County where she currently resides but all across the state of Oregon. Tiffany is a compassionate, humble leader and hardworking advocate for system impacted individuals and their families across our state. She has worked at all levels of the recovery field, from walk-in clinics at treatment centers to the high levels of peer leadership in a variety of agencies. This experience gives her a unique perspective and qualification to advocate for peers and peer support at all levels. Tiffany is also a deeply skilled trainer and presenter and creates powerful and authentic spaces where staff can engage in deep learning and skills practice as they develop their strengths and skills.

Liz Cruz has worked in leadership positions throughout the field of mental health and substance use for more than one decade. This work recently led her to an appointment as the Lead Strategic Advisor to the Health & Well-being Working Group of the historic Statewide Women’s Justice Task Force of Illinois, a project of the Women’s Justice Institute (WJI), which united directly impacted women and over 100 other women leaders behind building a plan to reduce the women’s prison population by at least 50%. Since the appointment to the WJI, Liz has taken on a special role as Senior Advisor for the WJI and is currently working as a Care Coordinator for the Cook County Health/SAMHSA Women’s Reentry Initiative. Liz also provides support to partner agencies in relation to civic engagement, training and assistance of gender responsive/trauma informed policies/practices and providing quality improvement/assurance on several grants with the WJI.

Elizabeth earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a concentration in Criminal Justice from Argosy University in 2014, and her Master’s Degree in 2016 in Forensic Psychology. Liz desired to continue to educate, so much so that she was hired as an Adjunct Faculty and has been an instructor for over five years.

Liz continues her journey as a clinical professional, educator and advocate to provide guidance and support to women impacted by the legal system as well as students seeking to continue their educational journey, as she knows all too well the journey of both.