BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mirissa McMurray Franchi
Mirissa McMurray graduated from UC San Diego and received her law degree from UC Hastings. During law school and afterward, she worked for Latino Issues Forum in San Francisco working on utility issues for consumers with limited-English proficiency. After deciding she wanted to work directly with people, Mirissa worked at Bay Area Legal Aid as Project Coordinator/Staff Attorney for the opening of their Domestic Violence Restraining Order Clinic. She set up the clinic's procedures, coordinated volunteers and led daily workshops with litigants filing for restraining orders. She helped over 2000 people successfully obtain temporary restraining orders. In September 2007, Mirissa was hired as Staff Attorney for the San Mateo Superior Court's Family Law Facilitator/Self-Help Center where she currently assists self-represented litigants in Family Law cases including domestic violence, paternity actions, child custody and visitation, divorce, support issues and more.
Mirissa has proudly been a tutor for Each One Reach One's ADAPT program since 2004.
Mirissa’s personal interests include working with animals, signing, and arts and crafts.
Dennis Rojas
Mr. Rojas has considerable experience evaluating programs
for at-risk and underserved youth in areas of drug, violence,
pregnancy, and gang prevention. He also possess expertise
in understanding evaluating approaches that are both culturally
sensitive and cost-effective, as well as designing data collection
procedures that address cultural diversity. He earned a master’s
degree in Developmental Studies from the University of California,
Los Angeles, with a focus on how risk and protective factors
apply to youth of color.
As a research associate for WestEd, Mr. Rojas both participated
and lead numerous evaluations that covered violence prevention,
ATOD prevention, victim-youth offender mediation, community
capacity building, after-school initiatives, and school retention.
Many of the evaluations focused on how community-based interventions
influence broader community outcomes such as school performance,
crime, drug use, employment, and community pride. He was the
lead investigator for Connections, a drug and violence prevention
program targeting adolescent females of color on probation.
The program was funded by a grant from the Center for Substance
Abuse and Prevention (CSAP). Mr. Rojas not only evaluated
the program but also designed the program’s logic model
and worked with the CSAP field representative in establishing
the program’s benchmarks and outcome measures. He administered
both the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Cognitive
Test on Basic Drug Facts as instruments for measuring changes
in youth behavior.
Mr. Rojas served as lead evaluator and consultant for several
gang prevention programs run out of the Inglewood’s
Coalition for Drug and Violence Prevention. Services were
provided to youth through a collaboration of community-based
organizations and were designed to address risk and resiliency
factors of the youth, their parents and family, their peers,
and their environment. Services included family and peer mediation,
mentoring, counseling, tutoring, job placement, recreation,
and community service. He worked closely with program coordinators
in developing and reviewing data collection instruments and
procedures and provided technical assistance to the staff
of agencies on research and evaluation methods.
As a policy analyst for Social Policy Research Associates,
he participated on both the process evaluation and community
ethnography of the Department of Labor’s Youth Opportunity
(YO) Initiative. He visited four high poverty communities
and documented how community resources were mobilized for
a common effort to impact youths’ employment, educational
achievement, and social development, as well as enhance the
communities’ sense of well-being.
Joilene
Grove
Joilene
has served on our Board of Directors since August 2000, and
has been President of the Board since October 2004. Joilene
first became involved with Each One Reach One after providing
pro bono legal services, including helping EORO attain its
501(c)(3) status. She also participated in the pilot program
for ADAPT at Hillcrest Juvenile Hall. Joilene is the Program
Director at the Foundation of the State Bar of California
where she oversees the Foundation's grants, scholarships,
and civics education programs. Prior to joining the Foundation,
Joilene practiced corporate law for 8 years. Joilene loves
traveling and taking Bay area hikes and trips to Tahoe with
her husband David, her daughter and their dog.
Dan Shields
Dan Shields has been providing financial, operational and
tax services in the Bay Area for over 20 years. He has also
held senior management positions in technology, pharmaceutical
and manufacturing companies with responsibilities encompassing
experience finance, legal, operations, information systems
and human resources. Dan has worked for such companies as
Ernst & Young, Oracle Systems and other publicly traded
companies. He is a Certified Public Accountant and supports
other organizations including the Coastal Repertory Theatre
in Half Moon Bay, the Coastside Collaborative for Children
and the Marine Mammal Center.
Robin Sohnen
Before starting Each One Reach One (EORO) in 1998, Robin was a theater artist, an event producer and a marketing specialist. In 1987 she founded and directed Centre 4 Events, a Los Angeles-based group that specialized in designing, producing and marketing live theater as a unique and effective vehicle for companies to communicate their message to employees and clients alike. As the company's Director she produced over 50 theater-based programs designed to improve internal relations, boost employee moral, support recruitment efforts, and enhance company productivity for organizations such as the Unocal Corporation, Merrill Lynch Corporation, First Interstate Bank, Coca Cola, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau, SNK Home Entertainment Inc., Reebok, Sega, Mindscape, Electronic Arts, and the Missing Children's Foundation.
After moving to the Bay Area in 1991, Robin worked as a freelance producer, planning and staging public events ranging in size from the City of Los Angeles Marathon to the Richmond Neighborhood Community Festival, from the United Nation's 50th Anniversary dance and music concert in San Francisco's Union Square, to the first Alzheimer's Foundation Walk-a-thon in Los Angeles. Since 1986 Robin has been a mentor to young people through Soka Gakkai International, an organization dedicated to the development of peace, culture and education. In 1998 Robin decided to start a non-profit organization to address the escalating rate of incarcerating youth, especially youth of color by exploring theater-based strategies that could effectively break the cycle of violence and divert youth from the adult prison system. Robin is a member of the Skyline College Administration of Justice Advisory Committee and received the 1999 National Council on Crime Delinquency New American Community Award for EORO's creative efforts to reduce crime. She is Commissioner for the Commission on Status of Women of San Mateo County.
Krystal Kiremit (President)
Krystal Kiremit, Event Service Manager for Hilton Hotel, San Francisco where she services convention functions for up to 2,000 attendees. Graduate from San Francisco State University with a BA in Child Psychology and Nonprofit Management. Background includes work with various CBO’s, San Francisco Youth Commission, and transitional housing. A recent addition to Each One Reach One’s board of directors who enjoys working on Fundraising Events, Development and Public Relations as it relates to youth underserved and at risk.
Alysia Gonzales
For the past nine years Alysia has worked with organizations that provide services for families and children. Her commitment is to work towards creating supportive environments that provide empowerment for young children and families. She is currently the Site Director for one of the Children’s Centers at Google. She feels right at home in a program that values a strong image of the child, fosters partnering with families, and supports ongoing professional development for teachers and administration.
She began working in the rehabilitation field with organizations like EORO and The Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD.) Her experience with these programs inspired her to pursue a B.A. degree in Community Studies at UCSC.
Four years (2001-2004) in a state funded non-profit bilingual preschool in the Mission District confirmed her career choice. By 2004 she had become program director at Compañeros Del Barrio but took a one-tear leave of absence to strengthen her Spanish speaking skills and provide program support at a women’s clinic in Mexico. She returned to Compañeros Del Barrio as the program director in 2005 and fulfilled the responsibility for managing and coordinating both the family day care and the preschool program.
Advocacy is an essential element in the field of early childhood development and through providing services for low-income recent immigrant families, she has had the opportunity to critically analyze the needs of a diverse community and strategically set program objectives to meet a common goal.
Her extensive and varied experience with early childhood needs crosses continents, cultural borders and social/economic needs. From the outset of her career at Compañeros Del Barrio, she enrolled in ECE courses at CCSF and received her AA along with two Early Childhood certificates. She holds a Site Supervisor and a Program Director Permit and has experience working with State and local licensing agencies. Internationally she has worked on issues of empowerment and education with young children in Ghana, Africa; with adolescents in La Paz, Mexico; and with elementary school students in Madrid, Spain.
Gilbert Zaragoza
Gilbert Zaragoza serves as the founding Chief Technology Officer for Spartx Incorporated, a web-based company focused on networking literacy. In this position, he leads the execution of technology strategy which includes making decisions on technology platforms, partnerships, and future directions. He is currently also serving as the IT Director for Emanuel Pleitez’s Campaign for the 32nd Congressional District. In this capacity, he oversees the day to day technical operations as well as facilitates technology initiatives including social networking campaigns and partnerships with emerging technical start-ups. Prior to joining Spartx, Gilbert worked at several technology firms including Google and SunPower. Gilbert earned his B.S. in Symbolic Systems at Stanford University. This interdisciplinary degree combined aspects of Computer Science, Psychology, Philosophy, Linguistics, and Education towards understanding the potential implications of technology’s impact on the human condition. Gilbert’s experience and education provide him with the necessary skills to effectively leverage emerging technologies to promote social collaboration, community involvement, and education reform.
Frank Galea
Frank Galea is a Senior Compliance Manager providing oversight of Charles Schwab Investment Management, an investment advisor subsidiary of Charles Schwab & Co. Inc, managing over $240 billion in mutual fund and separately managed accounts. His duties include daily monitoring of investment guidelines and regulatory restrictions (Investment Company Act of 1940), configuration of trade order management systems, certain regulatory filings and various other departmental projects. In prior financial industry and technology related roles, he has led projects such as deployment of a departmental Intranet, design and roll-out of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for mutual fund wholesalers, information security planning, and business process modeling.
Frank's past non-profit affiliations include working as volunteer coordinator and office assistant for Earth Island Institute. Frank has worked as assistant director for a telefundraising phonebank that raised money and managed outreach campaigns for non-profits. In joining the board of Each One Reach One, Frank is reconnecting with his non-profit roots and hopes to contribute strong governance and oversight practices leveraging his corporate experience. Frank's long term goal is to serve on the boards of companies committed to sustainability, fairness, and impeccable corporate ethics, or as trustee for socially responsible mutual fund complexes.
Frank Galea has a B.A. in Economics from San Francisco State University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder.
Isabella Rosekrans
Isabella Rosekrans is a native of San Francisco. She graduated from Berkeley High School and attended SFSU where she earned a BA in Social Sciences. She met her husband Spreck Rosekrans at Whitewater Voyages where they both worked as river guides. They were married in 1982 and have three children.
Isabella began volunteering in California’s prison system in the early 1990’s, initially working with incarcerated men. At San Quentin, she helped facilitate a nonviolent training with prisoners awaiting parole and worked for a short period of time on death row. More recently she has focused on incarcerated adult women, including leading prayer groups sponsored by Grace Cathedral in the San Francisco County Jail.
Since 2008 Isabella has worked mostly in the Richmond jail where she has developed a creative writing program. The program initially focused on women from the general population but soon included a group in isolation. She has been instrumental in helping both groups of women develop and publish their own Chapbooks.
Isabella believes that the arts can be fundamental to the health and well being of the incarcerated. Artistic expression that is group oriented, she says, helps those behind bars gain confidence in their own voices. It helps them to develop a sense of personal control and deepens their appreciation for the universality of human experience. Writing, she believes, can be a cathartic experience.
ADVISORY
COUNCIL
Richard Kamler
Richard has been making issue-driven art since 1976 when
he made his first major installation, Out of Holocaust. Since
that time his public installations, sound pieces, actions,
events, drawings and public presentations have dealt with
a series of social issues and environmental considerations.
Richard has received many awards and grants for his work;
among them are two National Endowments for the Arts fellowships
and several California Arts Council Artist in Residence awards.
In 1981 Kamler spent two years as Artist in Residence in San
Quentin Prison. This experience dramatically changed the focus
of his art as well as his thinking about the way art might
be integrated into the fabric of our culture. Currently Richard
teaches at the University of San Francisco where he is responsible
for an outreach program placing artists into various communities.
Mario
Rocha
Mario Alberto Rocha is a 23-year-old Chicano prisoner
serving a sentence of two consecutive life terms at the Calipatria
State Prison in the southern California desert. In 1996 he
was arrested for murder and attempted murder. From 1997-1998
he was an originating member of the Inside Out Writers program
at Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles. There he was taught
by Duane Noriyuki, LA Times staff writer, and received acclaim
for his work from staffers and spiritual volunteers, including
from one of LA's great teacher-activists, Sister Janet Harris.
His contributions to the program served a significant role
in the publication of Inside Out's first book, What We See:
Writings from Central Juvenile Hall (Karen Hunt, ed.). During
this time he also participated in the institution's educational
theater program, where he wrote and performed scenes, eventually
writing and directing his own plays. In 1998, after getting
convicted of the crimes charged as well as sentenced, he wrote
and directed Beyond the Darkness, in which he worked under
the guidance of Create Now! volunteer David Johnson, a professional
screenwriter and co-director of the Hollywood film Riot. This
play was credited as the inspiration of Each One Reach One
(EORO), a theater arts mentoring program for at-risk youth
in the Bay Area founded by Robin Sohnen, a former actress
and production specialist who was among the invited guests
at Beyond's premiere in Central Juvenile Hall. Rocha has since
then become an advisory member of EORO (www.each1reach1.org),
and his continued work with Sohnen has appeared in several
Bay Area newspapers, including the San Francisco Examiner.
From 1998-2003 he has continued to write in prison. In 1999
the prestigious international law firm Latham & Watkins
accepted his case on a pro-bono basis at the request of California
appellate attorney Susan Nash, who was persuaded to review
the case by Sister Janet Harris. For the past four years a
team of five Latham attorneys have petitioned the courts for
Rocha's freedom. In fact, the story of his wrongful conviction
has been featured in Los Angeles-New Times (2001) and has
led to a documentary-in-progress by filmmaker Susan Koch for
MTV Films. In short, Rocha may well be the next Mumia Abu
Jamal: that prisoner whose case is so clearly unjust that
it ignites a nation in protest.
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