Leadership Program Welcomes New Class of Youth Justice Leaders

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has announced its fifth class of Juve­nile Jus­tice Applied Lead­er­ship Net­work (ALN) par­tic­i­pants. The expe­ri­ence is root­ed in Results Count^®, the Foundation’s approach to lead­er­ship devel­op­ment. Dur­ing the rig­or­ous 14-month pro­gram, teams from Puer­to Rico; San­ta Cruz Coun­ty, Cal­i­for­nia; Shel­by Coun­ty, Ten­nessee; and Westch­ester Coun­ty, New York will pur­sue mean­ing­ful change on behalf of young peo­ple who are involved or at risk of being involved with the legal system.

“This pro­gram is about equip­ping lead­ers with the nec­es­sary con­fi­dence, skills and rela­tion­ships to take their work to the next lev­el and become cat­a­lysts for real and sus­tained progress for young peo­ple,” says Bar­bara Squires, direc­tor of Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment at the Casey Foundation.

Meet the 2023–2024 Juve­nile Jus­tice Applied Lead­er­ship Net­work Participants

Puer­to Rico

• Aman­da Baer­ga-Ortiz, CIP coor­di­na­tor, Judi­cial Branch of Puer­to Rico
• Ruben I. Colon Del­ga­do, restora­tive mentor
• Maria del Mar Ortiz, assis­tant gen­er­al coun­sel, Office of the Gen­er­al Coun­sel of the Gov­er­nor of Puer­to Rico, La Fortaleza
• Six­to Mar­rero, deputy sec­re­tary, Puer­to Rico Depart­ment of Corrections
• Jes­si­ca Melen­dez, region­al direc­tor, Mayaguez, Sociedad para Asis­ten­cia Legal de Puer­to Rico
• Natalia Rios, pro­gram director/​juvenile jus­tice spe­cial­ist, Office for Socioe­co­nom­ic and Com­mu­ni­ty Development

San­ta Cruz Coun­ty, California

• Caitlin Beck­er, direc­tor, Holis­tic Defense, San­ta Cruz Coun­ty Office of the Pub­lic Defender
• Glo­ria Car­roll, direc­tor, the Fam­i­ly and Children’s Ser­vices Divi­sion, Coun­ty of San­ta Cruz Human Ser­vices Department
• Sarah Emmert, direc­tor, Com­mu­ni­ty Impact, Unit­ed Way of San­ta Cruz County
• Jose Flo­res, juve­nile divi­sion direc­tor, San­ta Cruz Coun­ty Pro­ba­tion Department
• David Rodriguez, police cap­tain, Wat­sonville Police Department
• Maria Rodriguez Castil­lo, Alcance pro­grams direc­tor, Com­mu­ni­ty Action Board of San­ta Cruz Coun­ty, Inc.

Shel­by Coun­ty, Tennessee

• Toria Brown, man­ag­er of the Pur­suit Cen­ter, Mem­phis-Shel­by Coun­ty Schools
• Rebec­ca Davis, chair, Coun­ty­wide Juve­nile Jus­tice Consortium
• Jessie Dry­den, direc­tor, Research and Data Visu­al­iza­tion, Mem­phis and Shel­by Coun­ty Juve­nile Court
• Car­ni­ta McK­ei­then, attor­ney super­vi­sor, Law Office of the Shel­by Coun­ty Pub­lic Defender
• Kim­brell Owens, inter­a­gency manager/​JDAI coor­di­na­tor, Mem­phis and Shel­by Coun­ty Juve­nile Court
• Ali­cia Wash­ing­ton, chief assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney gen­er­al, Shel­by Coun­ty Dis­trict Attor­ney Office

Westch­ester Coun­ty, New York

• Rashi­da Cartwright-Thig­pen, senior assis­tant coun­ty attor­ney, Westch­ester Coun­ty Attor­ney’s Office
• Sade Gilcrest, YMCA peace mobile direc­tor, Yonkers Fam­i­ly YMCA
• Gre­go­ry Joyn­er, My Brother’s Keep­er pro­gram coor­di­na­tor, Yonkers Pub­lic Schools
• Matthew Kauf­man, Fam­i­ly Court pro­gram coor­di­na­tor, CLUS­TER Com­mu­ni­ty Services
• Tara Linh Lea­man, pro­gram direc­tor, Westch­ester Coun­ty Depart­ment of Social Services
• Ernest L. McFad­den, pro­gram admin­is­tra­tor, Westch­ester Coun­ty Government

How Is the ALN Pro­gram Structured?

Begin­ning in Octo­ber 2023, par­tic­i­pants will attend a series of six mul­ti-day sem­i­nars designed to strength­en their abil­i­ties to make data-dri­ven deci­sions, col­lab­o­rate, strate­gize effec­tive­ly and under­stand sys­tems. In between ses­sions, cohort mem­bers will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inte­grate ALN learn­ing into their every­day work to help young peo­ple with jus­tice sys­tem involve­ment thrive in their homes, schools and communities.

“ALN is an avenue to help juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ties work in part­ner­ship to under­stand — and sat­is­fy — the basic needs and aspi­ra­tions of young peo­ple who encounter the legal sys­tem,” says Gail D. Mum­ford, a Foun­da­tion senior asso­ciate. ​“ALNers work to rec­og­nize and dis­man­tle the struc­tur­al bar­ri­ers in the way of young peo­ple hav­ing the sup­port, con­nec­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties they need to succeed.”

About the Juve­nile Jus­tice Applied Lead­er­ship Network

ALN aims to devel­op lead­ers capa­ble of achiev­ing pow­er­ful, mea­sur­able and equi­table results that are essen­tial to mak­ing a last­ing dif­fer­ence for young peo­ple who face steep bar­ri­ers to suc­cess — espe­cial­ly young Black and Lati­no men — who are involved or at risk of being involved with the legal system.

Since 2008, the pro­gram has pro­duced four class­es of ALN lead­ers, now 53 alum­ni across 21 states. As ALN alum­ni, these lead­ers con­tin­ue to draw on peer sup­port to employ a results-dri­ven frame­work in their home organizations. 

Read about Casey’s approach to lead­er­ship development