KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
2013
Yvette G. Flores, PsyD
Univesity of California, Davis
Born in Colon, Panama and raised in San Jose, Costa Rica, Dr. Flores migrated to the United States in 1965. She was educated in the public schools of South Central Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Her interests in psychology emerged from the challenges the process of migration posed to her family.
Dr. Flores obtained a B.A degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1970, a Masters Degree in Community-Clinical Psychology from C.S.U. Long Beach and completed a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at U.C. Berkeley in 1982.
She is a Professor of Psychology in Chicana/o Studies at U.C. Davis. For the past two decades, Dr. Flores has worked as a research psychologist, university professor, and licensed psychologist. She has done postdoctoral work in health psychology, in particular substance abuse treatment outcome research and intimate partner violence. Her current research promotes family well being in rural California communities and examines the mental health impact of migration on Mexican men. She is also co-investigator of a National Science Foundation institutional transformation grant to increase the numbers of Latinas in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine [STEMM] careers. Her publications reflect her life’s work of bridging clinical psychology and Chicano/Latino studies, as she foregrounds gender, ethnicity and sexualities in her clinical, teaching and research practices. Her book Chicana and Chicano Mental Health: Alma, Mente y Corazon was published by the University of Arizona Press in March of 2013.
Dr. Flores is the mother of two young adults, grandmother of two girls and a passionate traveler.
2014
Judge CRUZ REYNOSO
California Supreme Court
University of California, Davis
The Honorable Cruz Reynoso is a trailblazer in the legal system and a champion of agricultural workers. He was California's first Latino Supreme Court Justice and one of America's first Latino law professors. President Bill Clinton appointed him as Vice Chair on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1994 and awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000.
Mr. Reynoso was born to a family of migrant farm workers in Brea, California. He had 10 siblings. His family often traveled north to pick crops, to make ends meet. At the time, many boys in migrant farm families quit school at age 16 to work in the fields, and Reynoso's mother expected the same for her children. But Reynoso pursued a different path: education. He won a scholarship to Pomona College and earned a law degree in 1958 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the only Latino to graduate in his class.
Reynosa became the first Latino lawyer at the California Rural Legal Association (CRLA), and later rose to become director in 1969. During this time, the farm workers movement was launched by Reynoso's former colleague Cesar Chavez. Reynoso insisted CLRA be lawyers, not organizers and he successfully battled to maintain CRLA as a federally funded organization where lawyers continued to adequately represent poor people in legal services.
In 1972, Reynoso began teaching law at the University of New Mexico becoming one of the nation's first Latino law professors, devoting tremendous energy to bringing more Hispanic students and staff into that institution. Then in March 1982, Reynoso was appointed to the California Supreme Court, by Governor Jerry Brown. Several of the court's subsequent rulings favored rights of employees, criminal defendants, consumers, and the poor.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton appointed Reynoso to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, then awarded him the Presidential Medal of Honor in the year 2000. Clinton remarked on Reynoso's remarkable journey from a poor childhood, to the top of his profession: "As a child, he loved reading so much, his elementary school classmates called him 'el profe' — 'the professor.' Later, some told him to put aside his dreams of college, saying bluntly, "They will never let you in." But with faith in himself and the values of our country, Cruz Reynoso went onto college and to law school but never forgot his roots."
Today, Reynoso is 80 years old and teaches law three days a week at the University of California, Davis. He remains involved in government and law in California. For example, he serves on one commission that is trying to improve the state government in California, and another that is investigating the fatal shooting of a farm worker by undercover police officers. "So I'm active in many fronts, and I'm very pleased to do that. It deals with the reality that in any society there are going to be people who have resources and political influence, and they like it that way. And there are many people who lack those important items in society. So it's up to us who have a little bit of training to try to equalize matters somewhat," said Reynoso.
LETICIA PEREZ
Kern County Supervisor, 5th District
Leticia Perez was raised in East Bakersfield. Leticia’s father and mother, the Rev. Victor and Susan Perez were married in Bakersfield (1975) and attended Bible College in East Los Angeles. Leticia was just a little more than a year old when her parents returned to East Bakersfield (1978) to serve the community as pastors. She attended local public schools, and was raised alongside a dozen foster children. Leticia graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara (2000) with a degree in Law and Society.
She began her expertise in community development by working at Wells Fargo as a Community Banker and as a representative of the Wells Fargo Foundation. It was while in Santa Barbara that Leticia became actively involved in the non-profit community–serving on numerous boards of directors and became engaged in many local city, county, and state campaigns for community development.
Leticia recognized that she wanted to serve her own community, so she attended law school in Indiana, attained a J.D., and then passed the California State Bar. She returned to Bakersfield in 2006 to serve her community at the Kern County Public Defender’s Office as an attorney, served as a member and as a Chair of the Kern County Planning Commission, and served as a consultant for Economic Development and the State Permitting Process for Senator Michael Rubio. Leticia volunteered on numerous boards locally, including Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Community Service Organization, New Life Recovery Training Center, and as an Attorney Coach for the South High Mock Trial Team.
Leticia is happily married to her husband Fernando and they have a son named Jude.
ELENA FLORES, PH.D.
Associate Dean and Professor, Counseling Psychology
University of San Francisco
Dr. Elena Flores is a Spanish-speaking, Latina Clinical Psychologist with several years of experience providing mental health and human services to adolescents and families from diverse cultural backgrounds. Her work in community health and mental health has involved direct assessments and psychotherapy, case management, program development and evaluation, clinical supervision, developing policies and procedures for comprehensive services, and developing culturally-specific interventions and psychological services. She has experience consulting with health and mental health community-based organizations, education programs, and county and federal agencies.
Dr. Flores is also a Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco where she is currently a Co-investigator of a NIH funded study examining parental influences on obesity among Mexican American children. Her research and publications focus on Mexican American family functioning and adolescent health risk behaviors, Latino adolescent sexual behavior, and discrimination stress. She has received NIH funding as a Co-investigator to study Latino adolescent relationships and condom use. Her publications have appeared in such journals as Journal of Counseling Psychology, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Health, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, and Journal of Marriage and the Family.
Education:Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, The Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA
Research Areas: Latino adolescent sexuality; family functioning and adolescent health risk behaviors; Latino mental health; multicultural psychology and counseling.
Courses at USF: Cross Cultural Counseling
Counseling Across Cultures
Individual and Family Psychopathology
Research interests and areas of expertise: Latino adolescent sexuality; family functioning and adolescent health risk behaviors; racial/ethnic discrimination and minority status stress, obesity prevention and intervention among Latinos.
More about Dr. Flores here -> http://www.usfca.edu/soe/programs/counpsych/sc_faculty/
2015
Judge Teresa Guerrero-Daley, J.D.,
Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County
Judge Guerrero-Daley is a graduate of both Lincoln Law School and San Jose State University. She is a Superior Court Judge serving in Santa Clara County. Judge Guerrero-Daley serves on the Executive Board of the Courts in Santa Clara County. She served as the Independent Police Auditor for the City of San Jose where her work received national, as well as international recognition. She was previously in private practice specializing in criminal law. Judge Guerrero-Daley was appointed to the Discipline Audit Panel of the California State Bar and graded the Bar Exam for five years. She is a former President of both La Raza Lawyers of Santa Clara and La Raza Lawyers of San Mateo County, formerly served on the Board of Trustees of the Santa Clara County Bar Association and chaired the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley
Teresa Guerrero-Daley has dedicated 25 years to the ethical and effective administration of justice. "As San Jose's Independent Police Auditor, she is known as a fair, honest, and impartial leader," former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer. She has earned international recognition for developing policing guidelines that improve effectiveness and safety in law enforcement. The San Jose Police Department credits Guerrero-Daley for systemic changes that have improved the delivery of police services to the public. Her recommendations have addressed such areas as greater accountability involving police shootings, higher professional conduct and integrity standards, and ongoing training in communication skills and courtesy to the public.
As a trial attorney, she tried complex cases and was co-counsel in a death penalty jury trial. She serves as Judge Pro-Tem in the Santa Clara County Superior Court. "Daley has the integrity, legal experience, character, and leadership skills necessary to ensure the rights of the community" says Judge Rene Navarro. Teresa Guerrero-Daley was the first female Special Agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration assigned to San Jose. As a Special Agent, she worked on numerous undercover operations which involved the enforcement of local, state and federal laws as they related to the illegal sale, possession, transportation, importation or manufacturing of dangerous drugs or narcotics.
Guerrero-Daley has a proven record of dedication to serving the people of Santa Clara County. She has won many awards for her commitment to public service, including "Woman of Achievement," "Portraits of Success," and "Breaking the Glass Ceiling" awarded by the National Center for Women & Policing.
Because of her diverse experience and excellent reputation, she is endorsed by numerous Superior Court judges, Chief William Lansdowne, Sheriff Laurie Smith, police officers of all ranks, Congress Members Zoe Lofgren and Mike Honda, Mayor Ron Gonzales, former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer, Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, and many other elected officials. Guerrero-Daley won the endorsement of her peers and members of the Santa Clara County Bar Association. In addition, she is endorsed by the following organizations: Santa Clara County La Raza Lawyers, National Latino Peace Officers Association, Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association (HAPCOA) and Milpitas Police Officer's Association.
Personal Background
Teresa Guerrero-Daley has been a resident of Santa Clara County for 26 years. She is married to a retired police officer and has four sons. She understands the value of hard work and the rewards of perseverance. She worked full time while going to law school and still found time to volunteer as Assistant Articles Editor for the Law Review and as Student Bar President at Lincoln Law School. After becoming a successful attorney, she joined the faculty at Lincoln and now serves as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Lincoln Law School. Teresa has also operated her own law practice and understands the challenges small businesses face.
COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
•Founding member, Silicon Valley Hispanic Foundation
•Past President, Arts Council Silicon Valley Board of Trustees
•Board of Directors, Child Care Coordinated Council
•Member, San Jose Downtown Rotary
•Board Member YWCA of Santa Clara County
•Advisory Board Member to the Publisher of the Mercury News
•04' class, American Leadership Forum of Silicon Valley
•Mentor, Role Model Program
•Exec. Board, La Raza Round Table
•Member, Silicon Valley Latina Coalition
•Graduate, HOPE Leadership Institute
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE •Judge Pro Tem for the Santa Clara County Superior Court
•Arbitrator, consumer vs. auto manufacturer cases.
•Certified Mediator, Conflict Resolution
•Professor, Lincoln Law School
•Lectured to local, state, and federal law enforcement officers in Mexico City at the first global seminar on external mechanisms to combat police corruption under the direction of the Mexican Attorney General.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS •Appointed by the Board of Governors to the Disciplinary Audit Panel of the State Bar of California
•Co-founder and past President, San Mateo County La Raza Lawyers Assoc.
•President, Santa Clara County La Raza Lawyers Association
•Chair, Lincoln Law School Board of Trustees
•Board of Directors, National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement
•Bar Grader, California Committee of Bar Examiners
•Santa Clara County Bar Association Board of Trustees and various SCCBA Committees
•Member, California Women Lawyers
•Member, Bay Area Compliance & Ethics Association
Jerry Tello
co-founder of the National Compadres Network
Director of National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute
Jerry Tello comes from a family of Mexican, Texan roots and was raised in South Central Los Angeles. He is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of fatherhood, family strengthening, community peace and mobilization and culturally based violence prevention/intervention issues. Over the last 30 thirty years Mr. Tello has dedicated his efforts to preventing and healing the pain of relationship/community violence, teen pregnancy, fatherless-ness and internalized oppression by speaking to over half a million people and training thousands of facilitators across the nation to address these issues. He is co-founder of the National Compadres Network (established in 1988) and the present Director of the National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute.
Mr. Tello has motivated, trained and mentored thousands of individuals, organizations and community groups in the various curriculum (see website jerrytello.com) that he has authored addressing the issues of Fatherhood, Male "Rites of Passage," relationship and gang violence prevention, teen fatherhood, pregnancy prevention, family strengthening, fatherhood literacy and community peace. He served as a principal consultant for Scholastic Books on International Bilingual Literacy curriculum focused at reaching low-income families, he is the author of "A Fathers Love," a series of children’s books, coeditor of Family Violence and Men of Color and a series of motivational CD’s.
He has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Latina and Lowrider magazines and has received many major awards including the Presidential Crime Victims Service award, presented by President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno, two California Governor’s Awards for his violence prevention and intervention advocacy work and the Ambassador of Peace award from Rotary International. As part of his continued work on peace, healing and violence prevention he is presently working in numerous communities integrating a trauma/healing informed approach to violence prevention. Finally, in collaboration with the American G.I. Forum, Mr. Tello is part of an effort of providing Domestic Violence awareness presentations and support services to Iraq, Afghanistan and Persian Gulf veterans and their spouses. Presently, he also directs the Sacred Circles Center in Whittier, California and is a member of the Sacred Circles performance group dedicated to community peace and healing. He is the proud father of three children Marcos, Renee, Emilio and grandfather of Amara.
Sara Haskie-Mendoza:
Developer of Xinachtli Program
Sara Haskie-Mendoza has worked 20 years as a grassroots community organizer, trainer and outreach specialist. Sara developed Xinachtli- an innovative youth health and rites of passage curriculum for young women and girls. She is a fellow of the California’s Women’s Policy Institute and a recipient of the 2007 Los Angeles Peace Maker Award. Sara worked as a fundraising trainer for Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training and currently is a consultant for the National Compadres Network. She has served as a field representative for the International Indian Treaty Council, working at the U.N. Commission for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. Her work is focused disseminating the Xinachtli Rites of Passage Curriculum, grassroots fundraising training, Indigenous leadership and capacity building – specifically for women and girls. Sara has extensive experience working with communities and organizations. Sara is member of the Organizacion Otomi California. She is the mother of Kelatztli, Miauaxochitl and Ryley Kaa'naaz'baa.
Maria Elena Ramirez
Teacher and Performer
Maria Elena Ramirez is a woman of Chicana, Puerto-Rican and Apache ancestry. Her multimedia performance includes teatro, rap, music and an oral presentation. She is a published writer and poet, performance artist and speaker. She has performed at numerous Youth Conferences, as well as for multicultural audiences and women’s conferences. Her activism began in the late sixties by supporting the farmworker’s struggle and the fight to open up the colleges and universities to Chicano , Native Americans, and African Americans. She was a founding member of the Chicano Student Union at Chabot community College and continued this kind of effort at UC Berkeley as an EOP student.
She was part of the coalition building at this time, in both the Third World Strike Movement, and the Anti-War Movement, and she began using teatro as a means to build bridges of understanding. She worked in many capacities with the Los Siete Organization, a community group that was formed in response to the arrest of seven (7) Latinos for the murder of a San Francisco policeman. She worked on their first newspaper, BASTA YA! She also worked at Centro de Salud (one of the first free health clinics in the predominantly Latino Mission District of San Francisco.) In 1972, with a group of mostly people of color activists, including Betita Martinez, she became one of the first Chicanas to visit the People’s Republic of China. For many years, she worked for a non-profit community agency before going back to college for her Master’s Degree in Counseling.
She has worked as a counselor at many community colleges for over 15 years. She was part of the Enlace Program for Chicano/Latino students at Evergreen Community College in San Jose, aimed at increasing retention and transfer rates, and resumed her teatro activities there as a way to reach the youth. Presently, she is a counselor at Ohlone College, and a member of the National Association of Chicano/Chicana Studies. Currently, she is Vice-President of the North for the Latina Leadership Network of the California Community College
Maria Ramirez performs a multi-media presentation of oral history, including teatro, music, rap and storytelling through the charac-ters of several pre-Columbian indigenous women .
Before Columbus, over 70% of the indigenous nations of the Ameri-cas were peaceful, and woman-centered. The majority of Native American nations thought that the primary potency in the universe was female and that understanding influenced all activities, both religious and social. The invasion of 1492 ushered in genocide, dis-ruption of native values, patriarchy, and a legacy of violence against women and children that haunt us to this day.
Learning Objectives
? Understand the significance of historical events to contemporary times.
? Learn ways to strengthen the Latino community through oral history.
2016
ROBERTO RODRÍGUEZ, PhD
University of Arizona
Roberto Rodriguez (Dr. Cintli) is an assistant professor at the Mexican American & Raza Studies Department at the University of Arizona. He is a longtime-award-winning journalist/columnist who received his Ph.D. in Mass Communications in 2008 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is the author of Justice: A Question of Race, a book that chronicles his 2 police brutality trials, and co-produced: Amoxtli San Ce Tojuan: a documentary on origins and migrations. He returned to the university as a result of a research interest that developed pursuant to his column writing concerning origins and migration stories of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. His current field of study is the examination of maiz culture, migration, and the role of stories and oral traditions among Indigenous peoples, including Mexican and Central American peoples. He has a forthcoming book (Fall, 2014 University of Arizona Press): Our Sacred Maíz is Our Mother (Nin Toanantzin Non Centeotl). He teaches classes on the history of maiz, Sacred Geography, Mexican/Chicano Culture and politics and the history of red-brown journalism. In 2013, a major digitized collection was inaugurated by the University Arizona Libraries, based on a class he created: The History of Red-Brown Journalism. He currently writes for Truthout’s Public Intellectual Project and is currently working on a project, titled: Smiling Brown: Gente de Bronce – People the Color of the Earth. It is a collaborative project on the topic of color consciousness. He is also writing a memoir on the topic of torture and political violence: Yolqui: A warrior summonsed from the spirit world. His last major award was in 2013, receiving the national Baker-Clarke Human Rights Award from American Educational Research Association, for his work in defense of Ethnic Studies
DR. LETICIA XIMÉNEZ, PsyD
LA County Dept of Mental Health
Founder of SANO
Dr. Leticia Ximenez has a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis on Couples Therapy, with many years of social service with counties in southern California and countless hours working one on one. I am fluent in English and Spanish and speak a little French. I have had the privilege of working in social services since 1989 and in mental health services since 1997. And, for almost a decade, I have had the honor of working at the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH), the largest and one of the most diverse county mental health departments in the United States! I have conducted trauma recovery, crisis intervention, psychological assessment, psychotherapy, rehabilitation services, and case management to individuals, couples, families, and groups in outpatient, school, day treatment, and juvenile detention settings. I have designed, implemented, coordinated, supervised, and assessed numerous mental health and other community service programs with LACDMH, Community Based Organizations (CBO’s), and other organizations. I have monitored and been a contract liaison to some of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health’s multi-million dollar mental health contracts. I have represented agencies and organizations in countywide and statewide administrative meetings, committees, initiatives, and efforts. Currently, I have the honor of working full-time at the Community and Government Relations Division (CGRD), Office of the Director (OOD) of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH), where I have the pleasure of doing the following… increasing the morale of the Department’s staff by coordinating and executing the Department’s annual employee recognition process and event, including serving as the chairperson of the Department’s Honors Committee. I assist with LACDMH’s innovative Spirituality Initiative Projects, including: the contractual and programmatic over site of the Clergy and Mental Health Roundtable Program; the development and rollout of the Spiritual Self-Care Manual and Toolkit; the creation and presentation of Clergy Academy courses; the contractual and programmatic oversight of the spirituality and mental health trainings and capacity building contract with the California Institute of Behavioral Health Services (CIBHS); the consultation of LACDMH’s annual Mental Health and Spirituality Conference and Faith-Based Advocacy Council monthly meetings.
SANDRA FLORES
Program Director, Fresno County Preterm Birth Collective Impact Initiative
Sandra Flores has been appointed the first program director of the Fresno County Preterm Birth Collective Impact Initiative, a collaborative effort to reduce the number of babies born prematurely in Fresno County. The Fresno initiative is part of the larger $100-million, 10-year Preterm Birth Initiative, led by the University of California, San Francisco, and funded by Lynne and Marc Benioff and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Central California Center for Health and Human Services at Fresno State serves as the backbone organization, helping to drive all major local efforts of the initiative. In Fresno County, one of every nine babies is born prematurely, one of the highest rates in
California. Preterm births can cause serious physical and mental disabilities or even death before the baby’s first birthday, causing emotional and financial distress for families, which affects the overall health of the community. In her role, Flores will hire and lead a team in reducing Fresno County’s preterm birth rate. More than 1,500 babies are born prematurely in Fresno County each year, which surpasses some undeveloped countries.
Flores, who began her role July 11, was previously the senior program officer for nine years at the Central Valley Community Foundation.
“Sandra Flores brings a profound understanding of the neighborhood, economic and service system challenges faced by women and families in Fresno,” said Dr. John Capitman, executive director of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute, which has been researching preterm birth
for the past 10 years. “Through her prior work, she has emerged as a key local leader around sexual health interventions in Fresno and the region. Her impressive understanding of how diverse interests come together to improve outcomes for women and families offers the Preterm
Birth Initiative increased opportunities for authentic community engagement." Flores said next steps for the initiative will be to develop and implement strategies and continue to connect organizations across Fresno County in order to support the collective impact efforts.
“As a highly complex issue with multiple contributing factors, there is not a single solution to the issue of preterm birth, making the collective impact approach necessary,” Flores said. “We’ll explore all these issues and convene work groups in Fresno focused on solutions that will improve health and education before pregnancy, care and support for women during pregnancy and coordination of health and social care services for women.” Fresno County is one of six sites selected for the Preterm Birth Initiative, and the only site implementing the collective impact model. Alameda County and San Francisco are the other two U.S. locations, with international sites that include Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
A native of Fresno, Flores attended Fresno City College and received her bachelor’s degree in history from Oklahoma City University. She is a member of the Adolescent Sexual Health Work Group, an organization through the California Department of Public Health that promotes and
protects the sexual and reproductive health of youth in California. The Central California Center for Health and Human Services, under the umbrella of the College of Health and Human Services at Fresno State, brings together University resources and community professionals, rganizations and agencies to improve the health and welfare of communities in the Central Valley.
2017
Judge Katherine Lucero
California Superior Court, Santa Clara County
Judge Katherine Lucero currently supervises the Juvenile Justice Court Bench of the Santa Clara County Superior Court. As well as deciding cases on the general docket, she presides over the Juvenile Justice Dual Diagnosis Court which she founded in October of 2014. From May 2006 until January of 2012 Judge Lucero was the Supervising Judge in Juvenile Dependency Court where she oversaw hundreds of cases involving abused and neglected children. In 2011 she was assigned as an Appellate Justice Pro Tem on the 6th District California Court of Appeals for the months of May and June. Judge Lucero sat for two tours in the Family Court for a total of five years. She was also previously assigned to the Santa Clara County Superior Court Appellate Bench and the Adult Criminal Court.
Before being appointed by the Governor in August of 2001, Judge Lucero had spent her legal career in the area of child abuse and neglect. She is a former Deputy District Attorney specializing in crimes against children and the elderly. After taking the Bench she has continued her work in the areas of justice for children and families by her leadership in a variety of court innovations.
In 2002 she started a Family Treatment Court in Dissolution Court to assist parents with substance abuse problems that had interfered with custody or visitation of their children. In Dependency Court she initiated the thriving Family Wellness Court for drug exposed infants and toddlers and established the innovative Girls Court which expanded into a Teen Court to include high risk teen boys. She also helped to start the Santa Clara County Middle School Education Court in 2010. In 2014 she initiated the Juvenile Justice PATH2s (Progress Achieved through Hope & Holistic Services) Court for dual-diagnosed youth struggling to get back on track and get off probation.
Judge Lucero has served for the last twenty-four years on numerous committees, panels, boards, councils and projects on behalf of the community. She has previously served as a member of the Santa Clara Child Abuse Council. She served as a member and Chairperson for the Santa Clara County Domestic Violence Council from 2000 to 2013. She served on the Santa Clara County Child Death Review Team for three years prior to taking the Bench. She has also served as the President, vice-president and treasurer for the Santa Clara County La Raza Lawyers Association.
She is a former Board of Trustee for the National Council of Family and Juvenile Court Judges (NCJFCJ). She was the former co-chair of the Santa Clara County Greenbook’s Cultural Competency Initiative with an emphasis on community engagement and served on the Project Oversight Committee of the Santa Clara County Greenbook Project from January 2000 to September of 2006. The Santa Clara County Greenbook Project implemented policy and procedural changes for how Law Enforcement, Social Services, Judges and Domestic Violence Advocates respond to families where there is a co-occurrence of Domestic Violence and Child abuse. She is a steering committee member of the Courts Catalyzing Change Disproportionality Initiative for NCJFCJ. She also previously co-chaired the Santa Clara County Blue Ribbon Committee on Foster Children and Youth.
Judge Lucero has trained other judges and child welfare professionals at local, state and national conferences on issues involving the Impact of Domestic Violence on Children, on Family Drug Courts, Immigration Issues in Dependency Court and on the Disproportionate Impact of the Child welfare System on Children of Color.
B.A. : University of California at Davis. 1986
Political Science/Public Service
J.D. : Syracuse University, College of Law. 1989
Editorial Staff, International Journal of Law and Commerce, 1998
Simon Silva
Artist and National Lecturer
Like many great Artists, Simón Silva, has worked hard and endured the challenges that go along with having a cultural background. Simon Silva was born in Mexicali, Mexico, and grew up in the Imperial Valley near the Mexico/California border. This served as a constant reminder of his ancestors. Silva’s family survived by picking fruits and vegetables -- yes, his roots are those of a migrant farm worker. Silva started helping his family work the fields from the time he was in elementary school. He spent his summers picking seasonal fruits and vegetables until he was twenty-three. The Silva family was on a limited income and there was no extra money for entertainment, so Simón took to drawing. He was a quiet youth; instead of talking he would draw; it was his release, which later became a means of communication for him.
It was the harsh working conditions of the fields that inspired Silva to go to college, something his father initially did not believe in. He wanted to paint--to be an artist. With the blessings of his family, he started at Imperial Valley College where he received his Associate Arts degree. In 1986, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from the Art Center of College of Design in Pasadena, California. This is a school infamous for its demanding course load, but Silva’s disciplined upbringing helped him to be successful. Simon Silva’s renowned artwork has appeared in many distinguished places around the world.
Simón Silva is a success in his everyday life as well. He has been married for 23 years and is a father to three sons: Josue, Francisco, and Emilio. He grew up tri-lingual, communicating in: English, Spanish, and through Art. He is now working hard to educate people how to communicate through art. These days, Simón Silva travels throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada offering a workshop called, “Cultivate a Creative Mind,” to educators and students of all ages. This seminar encourages adults and students to communicate using the artistic talent that resides within them. Silva believes honing your artistic talent provides society with an opportunity to move forward in the right direction, by having better communication and better problem solving capabilities. Silva tells participants of his seminar that a child has no self-imposed barriers or limitations in the communication process. A child will draw or say what they are thinking without hesitation; as we age, we are jaded by public opinion, and are critical of our artistic talent. Thus, we stop drawing, and stop creating. Silva realized that he could use his art as a means of expression when he found something important to say that words alone could not capture. The message he hopes to spread is that everyone is important, that all of our lives are important, each of us has a piece of the solution and it's our obligation to make a difference in the world even if our efforts feel insignificant. All positive efforts make a positive difference to someone and that is important.
Simón Silva has taken on this mission to educate others on artistic communication because he wishes someone had reached out to him in the same manner that he is reaching out. Silva says, “Employing artistic communication in our daily lives will create better professionals by making them better communicators, by getting them to ask the right questions. It also will provide individuals with the opportunity to find out who they are, what they feel, how they think.” Simón Silva wants to help create a society of critical thinkers and problem solvers, which will bring change to our world. Simón Silva is bringing creativity back!
2018
Vera Lopez, PhD.
Arizona State University
Dr. Vera Lopez is a professor of justice and social inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. She received an MA in Program Evaluation and a PhD in School Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. She also completed a one-year child clinical research internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago Institute for Juvenile Research, a two-year NIMH-funded research postdoctoral fellowship at ASU's Prevention Research Center (now REACH Institute), and a clinical internship at the Arizona Department of Juvenile Correction's Black Canyon Correctional School for girls.
Lopez has extensive research and clinical experience working in juvenile justice and residential treatment settings. Her research areas include adolescent delinquency, sexual risk taking, substance use, and prevention research with a major focus on Latina girls.
Lopez's work has been featured in a number of journals including the Journal of Adolescence, Youth & Society, Journal of Family Issues, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Feminist Criminology, Family Relations, and Criminal Justice & Behavior.
Her book "Complicated Lives: Girls, Parents, Drugs, and Juvenile Justice" was released in 2017 with Rutgers University Press. For more information about Lopez's book, please see: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071ZB152C/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
complicated lives lopez.jpg
Finally, Lopez is actively involved in the community. She served on the Arizona Girls’ Roundtable Steering Committee from 2008-2012 and has written in the popular press about girls’ issues. She was also recently selected to serve on the Board of Directors for the Maricopa and Pinal county chapter of Girls on the Run.
Sal Núñez, PhD
City College of San Francisco
Dr. Sal Nuñez is a tenured faculty member at City College of San Francisco and program director of the community mental health certificate program at the College.
Dr. Sal Núñez offers a training apprenticeship to clinical graduate students, licensed professionals, musicians, and other individuals committed to community service. He delivers medicinal drumming circles, trainings, workshops, and lectures throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to facilitating forums designed to restore community balance and health; a significant portion of his work focuses on using medicinal drumming to help individuals move through the process of recovery from traumatic stress and injury.
Sal Nuñez, PhD, is Director of the Healthy Drumming Institute in San Francisco and is a licensed clinical psychologist, consultant, researcher, and professor with interest in cultural healing practices, health and wellness, recovery, neuropsychology, indigenous and behavioral medicine, and medicinal drumming as a healing methodology. Over the course of a decade, he developed the medicinal drumming practice that integrates behavioral medicine, indigenous schema, and psychological principles. For the past 13 years, he has been investigating the curative properties of specific percussive patterns, songs, rhythms, and medicinal plants. In 2009, a review of the methodology (medicinal drumming) he developed was found to meet the standards of community defined evidence practices by the University of South Florida in a project funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Currently, Dr. Nuñez is training practitioners in the methodology, which has been integrated into local and state wide behavioral health clinics as a culturally congruent therapeutic approach for communities, groups, and families.