STAFF AND BOARD  Together we make it happen
Our innovative approach and successful programs have gained us national and international recognition. And we have done it all with a staff made up entirely of young women 26 and under, primarily young women who have moved up through our programs into leadership roles. We have developed a new, gender-specific model that integrates youth-development principles, leadership, youth organizing, and advocacy.   READ MORE

Isabelle Felder Gillis has enjoyed a career that spans over 35 years as a registered and certified public health nurse, with hands on clinical expertise both in and out of the hospital arena. Isabelle's experience includes the development and implementation of in-house safety and prevention programs, quality assurance and improvement, new employee orientation and medical/nursing staff in-service education. A graduate of University of California – Los Angeles, Isabelle received degrees in the Science of Nursing and Public Health Nursing. She moved to the Bay Area in 2001 and managed the Native American Health Center in San Francisco and has spent the last 13 months with a bio-medical equipment company as the Clinical Application Specialist. Isabelle and her husband live in Sausalito. They have five children and four grandchildren.

Kerry Lobel is one of the nation’s most astute and respected leaders in the contemporary movement for social justice. A seasoned non-profit strategist and activist, Kerry has been on the front lines of progressive change for a quarter-century. As an organizational consultant, she has worked with more than 200 groups around the country to help them clarify purpose, raise funds and strengthen internal structures. As an author, she has written and edited groundbreaking books and reports. She currently serves as Executive Director at Puente de la Costa Sur, A Community Resource Center, and has worked for many years on issues related to HIV/AIDS, women in jails and prison and the LGBT community.

Raquel Mariscal was born in Los Banos, CA, and has lived in Santa Cruz County for 25 years. She graduated from UCSC with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and earned her J.D. from Monterey College of Law. She worked as a criminal defense attorney for eleven years and then worked as Administrative Assistant to Fourth District Supervisor Tony Campos. She has a history of community activism, which includes representing the Fourth District in supervisorial redistricting, and serving as a member of the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust, the Juvenile Justice/Delinquency Prevention Commission of Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz County and Watsonville L.U.L.A.C., and the Board of Directors for the W. Haywood Burns Institute for Juvenile Justice Fairness and Equity. She currently works with the Annie E. Casey Foundation on their Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) providing jurisdictions technical assistance to safely reduce reliance on secure detention.

Bilen Mesfin is the deputy director of communications for the Office of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris. Bilen has written for a variety of news publications and media outlets, including The Associated Press, East Bay Express and The Tennessean in Nashville, among others. Bilen received her Master's in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a Chips Quinn Scholar and received a Bay Area Black Journalists Scholarship in 2004. Her goals are to help the Center with developing messages and media strategies for communicating with the press and public issues related to young women involved in the court system and on the streets.

Monique W. Morris is the Director of Research and Senior Research Fellow at the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Monique has almost 20 years of professional and volunteer experience as an advocate in the areas of education, civil rights, juvenile justice and social justice. In addition to conducting research on social justice issues, Monique works closely with the Corrections Standards Authority and Contra Costa County on their efforts to reduce the overrepresentation of youth of color in the justice system. Monique is the former director of the Discrimination Research Center, a nonprofit organization that combined research and public education to discuss the prevalence of discrimination in access to employment and public services. Prior to that, Monique worked for several years with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, where she led projects to address racial and gender disparities in the juvenile justice system. Monique is the author of a novel, "Too Beautiful for Words" [Amistad Press] and a number of articles and book chapters on social justice issues. Her blog can be found at http://moniquewmorris.com.

Beverly Ng is the Senior Field Representative for California State Assemblyman Mark Leno of the 13th Assembly District, which consists of the eastern portion of San Francisco. Beverly conducts legislative policy and community outreach programs for issues encompassing: accessibility to arts and education, affordable quality health care, upholding civil rights and women’s rights, children youth & families and empowering the Asian Pacific Islander community. In addition, Beverly coordinates and implements numerous conferences for at-risk youth in the Bay Area; with innovative workshops focusing "how to deal with grief & loss" to maximizing higher education and vocational opportunities. A graduate of San Francisco State University, she received a degree in Political Science and Philosophy. She was also a legislative aide to former San Francisco Board of Supervisor Mabel Teng. In addition to serving on CYWD’s board, Beverly currently serves as a board member for CYC (Community Youth Center), Asian Pacific American Heritage Foundation.

Virginia Villegas left Centro Legal in 2001 to go into private practice, since then, she has continued her work on behalf of low wage, immigrant workers. In May 2001, Ms. Villegas joined Mark Talamantes to form Talamantes & Villegas. In July 2003, Karen Carrera joined the practice and they renamed the firm Talamantes Villegas Carrera, LLP (“TVC”). Since the inception of the firm, the partners have dedicated themselves to zealously representing the interests of some of the most vulnerable and exploited low wage workers such as farm workers, janitors, and restaurant and hotel workers. TVC exclusively represents workers in wage and hour and discrimination matters and the firm has enjoyed tremendous successes. Ms. Villegas has served as lead or co-counsel on significant claims filed on behalf of hundreds of workers and has recovered millions of dollars of unpaid wages for those workers. Ms. Villegas and her firm are committed to impact litigation. To that end they aim to not only recover the unpaid wages of workers but also to ensuring that employers comply with local, state and federal labor standards in the future.