Who We Are

Shaun Ali is a Senior Justice Technical Assistance Specialist currently helping Second Chance Act grantees and state education agencies through the National Reentry Resource Center to Improve Social Emotional Learning and School Safety (CISELSS). Prior to joining WestEd, Ali supported two Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) grants focused on youth violence prevention. Ali started his career in criminal justice as a victim liaison for the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section. After that, he worked with state, local, and tribal justice agencies through the Bureau of Justice Assistance National Training and Technical Assistance Center. Ali served as a key consultant for a large-scale transformation project for all the justice agencies of Riverside County, California, and has volunteered in the prevention of radicalization and school discipline reform efforts in his local community. Ali received a master’s in sociology from Arizona State University and a bachelor’s in criminal justice from George Mason University.

Trent Baskerville is a Research Associate. He has an extensive background in qualitative analysis, data collection, community outreach, and information synthesis in criminal justice, inequality, and violence prevention. His research covers a diverse background that provides him with an in-depth understanding of the juvenile and adult justice system, school safety, violence prevention, and public health implications. Prior to joining WestEd, Baskerville served 10 years in the United States Army, including multiple tours in Afghanistan. During his tenure, he received various awards for his academic achievements: Commandants List, Basic Leaders Course (2016); Distinguished Leadership Awardee, Advanced Leaders Course (2016); and Commandants List, Recruiting and Retention College (2018). Baskerville graduated summa cum laude with his BA in political science with a concentration in international relations from American Military University. He also holds a master of public policy from the University of California, Riverside, School of Public Policy.

Ashley Boal is a Senior Research Associate. She brings experience directing and coordinating complex, multi-year projects that rely on collaboration and coordination with diverse shareholders. Dr. Boal is well-versed in the integration of quantitative and qualitative methodologies and has experience designing and executing mixed-methods projects. She has worked on projects that span diverse content areas, including criminal justice, violence against women, mental and physical health, substance use, and education. Boal is the co-investigator for two studies funded by the National Institute of Justice, one on state school safety centers and the second on law enforcement training related to internet crimes against children. Her work has been published in prominent academic journals, including Psychological Assessment, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, American Journal of Community Psychology, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, and Violence and Victims.

Trevor A. Fronius is the Director of Justice and Prevention at WestEd. He brings more than a decade of experience conducting research and evaluation projects in justice, school safety and climate, violence prevention, and public health sectors. These projects include experimental and quasi-experimental studies focusing on issues such as school-based law enforcement and threat assessment, chronic absenteeism, community-based violence, reentry, and systems-involved and opportunity youth. In addition, his past work includes research on social capital and community violence as well as published research reviews of restorative justice in schools, school-based policing programs, and community-based violence prevention strategies. Fronius received his master of science in criminal justice studies from Bridgewater State University and his PhD in criminology and criminal justice studies from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Sarah Guckenburg, MPH, is a Senior Research Associate. She has led and collaborated on various research and evaluation projects focusing on violence prevention, juvenile justice reform, school safety, and other public health issues. Guckenburg’s current projects include the evaluation of the Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education (AWARE) project in Vermont, a grant working to support system-level improvements for school-based mental health services in three school districts, an evaluation of alcohol and drug prevention programs in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and case studies of youth advisory councils in juvenile justice settings funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Kerwin Henderson, MS, is a Senior Justice Technical Assistance Specialist specializing in technical assistance in violence prevention and reform of justice systems. He has more than 10 years of experience addressing critical issues and implementing reforms across the criminal justice system. Henderson has managed the implementation of evidence-based programs and practices in juvenile and adult justice systems and addressed issues in reentry, including race and gender disparities in treatment. At national and international conferences, he has presented on juvenile justice and the issues of military veterans. He has also worked directly with state and local leaders to improve decision-making and reduce incarcerated populations. Henderson received his BS from Quincy University, Illinois, and his MS from the University of Cincinnati, both in criminal justice.

Arena C. Lam is a Senior Research Associate. Lam works on evaluations related to criminal and juvenile justice, teen pregnancy prevention, human trafficking, school-based health services, college affordability, and teacher preparation. She has extensive experience analyzing complex criminal justice and education data of various research designs (randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and cross-sectional). Lam utilizes analytic techniques such as survival analysis, regression, hierarchical linear modeling, structural equation modeling, and person-centered approaches as part of her work in evaluation studies and publications in peer-reviewed journals. Lam received a master’s degree and PhD in education from the University of California, Irvine.

Jennifer Loeffler-Cobia is the Justice and Public Health Policy and Practice Director. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Bovard College at the University of Southern California where she teaches system thinking to solve complex public health and criminal justice issues. She has over 20 years of experience conducting evaluation studies, particularly in areas relevant to juvenile and adult criminal justice evidence-based practices, substance misuse prevention and intervention, violence prevention, and public health. She is an experienced technical assistance (TA) provider and has directed numerous TA centers, such as the National Reentry Resource Center and Children Exposed to Violence TTA Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. She has served as a subject matter expert and researcher on studies funded by various organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She has also conducted Capitol Hill briefings for the U.S. Congress regarding the application of criminal justice and public health policy reforms in real-world settings. She received both her Bachelor of Science in Public Health and Master of Science in Health Research and Evaluation from Utah State University and Doctorate in Public Health from University of South Florida.

Derek Lowry is a Senior Justice Technical Assistance Specialist. He has a diverse background working on a range of justice-focused issues with federal and state agency partners and he is an experienced project manager, technical assistance consultant, and policy analyst in extensive systems-based and stakeholder focused work. He has a rich history contributing guidance to federally funded projects. Lowry has been a project manager and implementation specialist on many notable reentry-focused and public safety projects. He led a Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) funded Buffalo, NY project that included a technical systems approach and concluded with a sequential-mapping report delivered to the county. He has worked with many grantees receiving funding through the Second Chance Act (SCA), and he has worked in partnership with sites awarded Second Chance Pell (SCP) waivers to expand post-secondary education into carceral settings.

Lowry has written reports for the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), created products that document racial equity, and been the co-director of a direct-service reentry nonprofit organization. Derek has an MPP in poverty alleviation from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management in Brandeis University and holds a BA in English from the University of South Carolina. He was also a Peace Corps volunteer and educator.

Pamela MacDougall is a Senior Program Coordinator. She works closely with project teams to ensure that deliverables are met. She monitors budgets, organizes and monitors field research, schedules interviews and project activities, develops online questionnaires, analyzes and synthesizes survey data, contributes to evaluation reports and proposal writing, and conducts background research as well as quantitative and qualitative data analyses. MacDougall also works with projects to develop and maintain databases to organize, manage, and present information and data. She received a bachelor of science in liberal arts with a concentration in legal ethics from Salem State University.

Jonathan Nakamoto is a Senior Research Associate. He is the director of an evaluation of Project With, which is a teen pregnancy prevention program that is implemented with justice-involved youth residing in Los Angeles County Probation Department facilities and group homes in Southern California. The evaluation uses a quasi-experimental design to rigorously examine the program’s impact on the participating youth. Previously, Nakamoto led a cost analysis of another teen pregnancy prevention program, Healthy U, which our team helped implement in juvenile justice facilities in Oregon. Additionally, Nakamoto co-authored a peer-reviewed publication on the impacts of Healthy U based on a rigorous cluster-randomized controlled study. Nakamoto has used experimental and quasi-experimental research designs to evaluate the impact of various education interventions. His published work in peer-reviewed journals has employed several analytic techniques, including hierarchical linear modeling, structural equation modeling, multiple imputation, and meta-analysis. Nakamoto received a master’s degree and PhD in developmental psychology from the University of Southern California.

Sarah Russo is a Research Associate. Ms. Russo leads and conducts a variety of research and program and evaluation activities in the areas of justice, education, and healthy communities. Responsibilities include but are not limited to project management, qualitative and quantitative data collection, data analysis, and reporting. Her projects include evaluations of teen pregnancy prevention and other initiatives for justice-involved youth, programs addressing human trafficking among transition-aged youth, training for law enforcement investigating technology-facilitated crimes against children, and state school safety centers. Prior to her work at WestEd, Ms. Russo served as the lead data analyst for the Community-Based Crime Reduction grant initiative in Los Angeles to develop violent crime prevention and reduction strategies in MacArthur Park. Ms. Russo earned a BA in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Andre’ Spence is a School Safety Technical Assistance Specialist at WestEd. Prior to WestEd, he served as a School Safety Readiness Program Manager at the Texas School Safety Center where he provided oversight on center operations related to resource development and technical assistance pertaining to school safety and security audits and emergency management procedures for school districts in Texas. Spence led several state-wide initiatives which included the establishment of the Texas School Safety and Security Consultant Registry. Additionally, He has held leadership positions for various state/government entities with regulatory oversight in the state of Texas which included the Department of Family and Protective Services and the Office of Inspector General.

With 20 years of progressive leadership and expertise in operational efficiency and regulatory oversight, Spence brings a wealth of experience in conducting physical security and compliance audits across educational settings. He holds a Doctoral degree in Administration of Justice from Texas Southern University, complemented by a MS in Family and Child Studies from Texas State University and a BS in Psychology/Criminal Justice from Prairie View A&M University.

Alexis Stern is a Research Associate. She contributes to research and evaluation projects in areas including juvenile justice reform, school climate, and public health. Her work at WestEd has included supporting a case study of a juvenile justice youth advisory council, a report on school climate and suspensions in California schools, and an evaluation of a framework for school-based law enforcement in Texas. Stern received a master’s degree in urban education policy from Brown University.

Hannah Sutherland is a Research Associate. Sutherland’s responsibilities include various research and evaluation tasks for studies within the areas of justice, public health, and education—including qualitative data collection, survey development and implementation, data analysis, and reporting. These studies focus on violence prevention, drug and alcohol prevention, adult recidivism reduction, school safety, disconnected youth, restorative justice, teen pregnancy prevention, juvenile drug courts, and other programs protecting at-risk youth. She received a BA with double majors in psychology and political science from Westfield State University and an MS in criminal justice from Salem State University.

Lori Toscano is the Director of Technical Assistance. She works to expand and deepen the JPRC’s technical assistance and training work and impact. Her areas of expertise include technical assistance, training development, program development and implementation, strategic development, and systems change. She has over 20 years of experience in community-based violence prevention and intervention. Previously, Toscano was the Executive Director of Program Innovation at Cure Violence Global. She has provided technical assistance to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) as part of their Supporting Male Survivors of Violence and Advancing Hospital-Based Victims Services demonstration projects. She has worked both nationally and internationally with cities and communities disproportionally impacted by violence. Toscano received her bachelor’s degree from Towson State University and her master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Baltimore.

Angelia Turner is the Senior Equity Lead in Justice. Turner works on projects related to the intersection of structural racism and health equity in the justice system. Before joining WestEd, she was the Director/CEO of a consulting firm where she secured and managed over $24 million in contracts. Several projects included conducting evaluative studies focused on law enforcement training, policy reform, and alternatives to incarceration. She also served as a Research Analyst with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, where she developed and directed an offender baseline survey administered nationwide throughout federal correctional institutions. Turner also provided training for corrections personnel on conflict resolution, de-escalation tools, and report writing. She also spearheaded a Criminal Justice Leadership Advisory Council to serve as a platform for bridging gaps between shareholders, educational units, and the criminal justice system. Recently, Turner led efforts to develop a diversity, equity, and inclusion manual for criminal justice practitioners. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice from the University of South Carolina.

Justine Zimiles is a Research Associate. Her work focuses on program evaluation activities, including coordinating data collection, developing data management systems, online survey administration, statistical analysis, and report writing. Zimiles’s current projects relate to juvenile justice prevention, victims of human trafficking, and health equity technical assistance. Before joining WestEd, she worked in a mental health research setting and taught statistics and English as a foreign language. She received a BA in psychology from the University of Rochester, New York and a master’s degree in applied psychology from San Diego State University.