Policy Advisory Council

Alyson Messenger is the Managing Staff Attorney of Jenesse Center, Inc.’s award-winning Legal Services Department.

Anisa joined Futures Without Violence in 2014, and has a decade of experience working to ensure survivors have access to trauma-informed, culturally-responsive health care. As a Program Manager at FUTURES, Anisa provides training and technical assistance for National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence, including the Survivor Leadership Cohort and California state policy work. She was a fellow for the Solís Policy Institute-State, through the Women’s Foundation of California.

Carolina Najera-Magana is the Clinical Director for Domestic Violence Solutions (DVS) for Santa Barbara County. Over the past 20 years, she has worked with domestic violence survivors for a total of 14 years, split between two periods with DVS, while also gaining experience at other organizations. She began her career with DVS in 2004 as a trainee, and her professional experience includes working with both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence, as well as clients with severe mental illness, dual diagnoses, and sexually offending teens. Carolina earned her B.A.

Catherine Connor is a staff attorney at Pro Bono Project Silicon Valley where she provides family law legal services to protected and restrained parties of family and criminal domestic violence restraining orders. Many of her clients are immigrants, currently and recently incarcerated individuals, as well as individuals who are at the beginning of their substance-abuse recovery journeys. By working with both survivors and perpetrators, Catherine has the unique opportunity to see how the legal system’s ever-changing procedures and priorities effect California’s diverse communities.

Halona Alexander is a Public Policy Educator at the Strong Hearted Native Women’s Coalition and a member of the Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California. She holds a BA in Psychology with a minor in Native Studies from California State University San Marcos. Halona has extensive experience in advocacy roles, including serving as a Parent & Youth Advocate, Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Case Manager, and ICWA Expert Witness.

Minty Siu-Kootnikoff is the Legal Services Director at Sojourn, the second oldest domestic violence shelter in California, which serves residential and non-residential clients and their children with emergency and transitional shelter, 24 hour hotline, support groups, children’s empowerment programming, education and outreach.  As Legal Services Director, Ms.

Paméla Michelle Tate, Ph.D., is a San Francisco native. She is an author, domestic abuse advocate, preventionist, serial entrepreneur, speaker, and survivor. She is passionate about policy and speaking out for the voiceless. She is a multidimensional professional who specializes in culturally responsive care that best serves the needs of survivors.

Ruth Rivera is a graduate of Richmond, The American University in London, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has also completed her Graduate studies in Globalization and Latin American Development from University College London. She is the Coordinator of Wellness Programs for East Los Angeles Women’s Center and coordinates the Crisis Intervention and Response Program at Los Angeles Medical Center; providing services to sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking survivors at the medical center.

Shabana Ansari has been an advocate and working for gender justice for over 2 decades. For the last 10 years she has been part of Maitri – a domestic violence organization and working for Immigrant survivors of domestic violence. 

Tyffanie Wedding-O’Con is passion filled, systems change, and policy implementation professional who holds nearly a decade experience advocating for survivors of human trafficking (HT), domestic violence (DV), and families with Child Welfare (CW) involvement after learning of the long-lasting impacts on both the survivor and their families firsthand.