The Steering Committee is composed of experienced reentry service providers, criminal justice reformers, and public sector representatives, and is the governing body for LARRP. While the Executive Committee guides the internal management of the network, the Steering Committee guides all of LARRP’s services and policy work.

Chair

Veronica Lewis, Division Director of the Homeless Outreach Program/Integrated Care System Division, Special Service for Groups

Veronica joined SSG in 2003 where she oversees more than seven million dollars in annual funding for mental health, substance abuse, reentry, homeless and housing and trauma-focused services; and a multidisciplinary team of more than 60 employees.

Veronica has worked tirelessly to improve and coordinate homeless services in Service Planning Area Six (SPA6) and is co-founder and Chair of the SPA 6 Homeless Coalition. She has played an intricate role in the development of the emerging new LA Continuum homeless systems of care as Co-Team Lead for SPA6’s Coordinated Entry System pilot for chronically homeless individuals and through her involvement with the region’s Family Solution Center.

Veronica also represents the interest of SPA6 and the LA CoC as a whole as an alternative representative as Chair of the CoC Coordinating Council, an advisory committee to the LAHSA Commission. Under her leadership, HOPICS has permanently housed more than 900 homeless families within the last five years.

Maria Alexander, Executive Director, Center for Living & Learning
Maria “Alex’ Alexander has served as Executive Director of Center for Living and Learning since 2005 and is founder of the organization as it is today. Under her guidance, CLL has grown to serve over 300 individuals annually with employment and supportive services. CLL specializes in serving those transitioning from drug treatment, incarceration, welfare to work and homelessness. All staff are former clients who have overcome these barriers.

Adam Siegal, Community Outreach Coordinator – Beit T’Shuvah - Adam began serving as a spiritual conunselor at Beit T’Shuvah in 2010 and currently oversees its social action and community service initiatives.   Originally from Cleveland, OH, Adam grauated from Miami University (OH) with a BS in Business Administration and began his career by working for Internet start-ups.   After a Taglit-Birthright Israel program in 2000, he decided to follow his spiritual path and his passion by working in the Jewish Community. Adam began this path by working to build community among Jewish college students and young adults in a variety of settings. In 2014, Adam was ordained as a Chaplain from the Academy for Jewish Religion-California, while also serving in the Skirball Hospice program. Today, in addition to counseling residents, Adam coordinates social action programs at Beit T’Shuvah, stressing the importance of service in personal recovery.

Walter L. Taylor Jr. HealthRight360, has been a part of the Los Angeles community since he migrated from Boston Mass in 1988. Forging his way into the Human Services and Mental Health arenas with AIDS Project Los Angeles, Community Counseling Services, San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Centers, Portals, Barbour and Floyd Associates/South Central Health And Rehabilitation Programs, his experience and skill set as a social worker and case manager were put to the test. In 1999 he became the Extended Services Manager at Phoenix House to implement the Female Offender Treatment Employment Program. In 2002 he went to Walden House (HealthRIGHT 360) to further his career in assisting reentering citizens, through several projects including the CDCR SASCA initiative, the federally funded Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program, the SPA 6 Los Angeles Children’s Planning Council as co-convener, and has been the HealthRIGHT 360 Director of Los Angeles County Probation’s AB 109 Post Release Community Supervision Housing and Employment Services component. Walter believes in maintaining a positive spirit in all circumstances - doing no intentional harm - giving hope - changing lives - and believes that quintessentially, when you get right down to it, there are two types of people – those who are part of the problem and those who are part of the solution……………

Rev. Dr. Larry W. Foy has an accomplished history in higher education, civil rights activism, congregational and community organizing, and public policy advocacy. He has served as a theology & religious studies professor at Elmhurst College, Elmhurst Illinois and Westmont College, Santa Barbara California. In addition, he has served as an adjunct professor at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. Rev. Dr. Foy is an ordained Baptist minister. He has served in leadership capacities in several congregations, denominational conferences, and para-church organizations. In addition, he has served in a key leadership role with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles (SCLC/LA) and as the Public Policy Director for A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL), where he was formally introduced to LARRP. Presently, Foy serves as the Regional Organizer for the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HI) and as Coordinator for Justice Not Jails, IM4HI’s Los Angeles based program dedicated to finding alternative solutions to criminalization and mass incarceration.

Amber Roth, LCSW, MS, Executive Director Worker Education and Resource Center (WERC).
Amber Roth has over 21 years of experience working with the transitional age youth, adults, older adults, families, and justice involved individuals, who experience homelessness and struggle with mental health conditions and/or substance use. She has 16 years of non-profit management experience, including 12 years of Leadership and Executive Team management. She also has extensive knowledge and experience in organizational management, strategic planning, leading organizational change, capacity building, developing systems and programs, cultural transformation, and leadership development. Ms. Roth currently serves as the Executive Director for Worker Education and Resource Center (WERC). Prior to joining WERC, she was employed with Homeless Health Care Los Angeles (HHCLA) for 8 years. She began her tenure with HHCLA as the Program Director for the Housing for Health program and quickly promoted to Director of Operations and Programs.  Prior to joining HHCLA, she served over 9 years at Pacific Clinics where she began her career as a mental health worker, promoting to Housing Coordinator, Supervisor and Program Director.  She also served progressively as a forensic counselor and social service designee at Foothill Mental Health and Rehabilitation Center for two years.
Ms. Roth earned her Master of Science in Criminal Justice at California State University Long Beach and her Master in Social Work at California State University Northridge. Ms. Roth also is a 2019 graduate of the Coro Women in Leadership program, a 2014 graduate of the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management ‘s Johnson & Johnson/UCLA Healthcare Executive Program and the University of Southern California, California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions Leadership Institute. Currently, Ms. Roth serves the local Emergency Food and Shelter Program, and the Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership Steering Committee.

Paul Seeman has 40 years of experience in criminal justice reform issues, as a former attorney, court commissioner, and judge in Alameda County. He was a founder and chair of the Alameda County Collaborative Juvenile Court, and served on the Judicial Council Task Force on Criminal and Mental Health Collaboration. In 2009 the Juvenile Court Judges of California recognized him with the Wilmont Sweeney Award as California Juvenile Court Judge of the Year. He has served on the board of directors of a number of non-profit organizations in related areas, including the California System-Involved Bar Association. At his own firm, Kanawha Consulting, he advises non-profits on governance issues. He also managed the Voter Protection Hotline for the Nevada State Democratic Party in 2016, 2018, and 2020, and currently advises on hotline issues at the state and national level. He became involved with the field of education for the reentry population, and connected with the LARRP community, after helping establish a chapter of the Underground Scholars Initiative at UCLA as part of his own personal reentry experience. He currently serves as co-chair of the LARRP Education Committee.

Pastor Brown

Sam Lewis

Vice Chair

Michael Graff-Weisner, Vice President of Strategy & External Relations,
 Chrysalis

Michael Graff-Weisner has served in this role since 2007 at Chrysalis - a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping economically disadvantaged and homeless individuals become self-sufficient through employment opportunities.  Michael brings more than 10 years' experience in the nonprofit, private, and public sectors to his position at Chrysalis.  Born and raised in Los Angeles, Michael received a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Amherst College and a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Mark Faucette, Project Management, Housing For Health, Office of Diversion and Reentry

Mark Faucette works with LA County's new Office of Diversion and Reentry where he oversees harm reduction based housing and health services for ODR's programs. Mark is the former VP of Amity Foundation, and is one of the co-founders of LARRP.


Lynne Lyman is an advocate and a policy expert working to reduce mass incarceration and end racial discrimination in criminal justice and other social control systems. Lyman served as the Policy and Strategy Consultant to Reform LA Jails/Measure R, an LA County ballot measure to reduce the jail population and enact real oversight of the LA Sheriff, which secured 72% of the vote in the March 2020 primary. Lyman was the California state director for the Drug Policy Alliance from 2012-2017, where she led the criminal justice reform portfolio, including the successful 2014 legislation to end the disparity between powder and crack cocaine sentencing under California law; as well as co-authoring and co-chairing the successful 2016 marijuana legalization initiative, Proposition 64. Lyman co-founded LARRP (Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership) in 2011 and continues to serve on its Executive and Steering Committees today. With an M.P.A. from Harvard and a B.S. from UC Berkeley, Lynne’s career has spanned community organizing, political campaigns, government service and civil rights advocacy, with a focus on system level changes that get more people free and build in reparative justice policies.

Doug Bond, Vice President, Amity Foundation: Mr. Bond joined Amity as an employee in 2008.  Mr. Bond has served in various roles for Amity Foundation including Housing Director, Facility Director, Jail in Reach Director, and Director of California Services and Operations, and COO for California. Mr. Bond currently serves as Vice President of Amity Foundation and oversees all services and operations in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. This includes five In-Prison Substance Abuse Services projects at various California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation prisons including: California Rehabilitation Center (CRC), California Institution for Women (CIW), Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), California State Prison Los Angeles (LAC), and Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJD). He also oversees three Teaching and Therapeutic Communities including Amistad de Los Angeles which is a 187 bed community located in Los Angeles, CA, a 60 bed facility in San Diego County, 134 bed facility and 39 unit affordable transitional housing site for men women and children in Tucson, Arizona, and outpatient services in Albuquerque, New Mexico for 200 women. Mr. Bond oversees projects that serve nearly 3,000 men and women a day.

Janie Hodge, Executive Director, Paving the Way Foundation

Janie Hodge is the Founder and Executive Director of Paving the Way Foundation formed in 2006 as a 501(c) 3 charitable organization designed to give a “Hand up for a Hand out”.  Mrs. Hodge facilitates and manages an inside the prison walls life skills program on the Honor yard and the Transition (C) yard for the California Prison Los Angeles at Lancaster.  Mrs. Hodge oversees an extensive re-entry life skills program for HealthRight 360 - AB 109 and Parole clients in Lancaster with two housing units one designed for mental health in collaboration with Special Services for Groups.

Jose Rodriguez, Director, Councilmember Gilbert Cedillo & Founder of the LA Re-Entry Roundtable
Jose Rodriguez has worked in the mental health and substance abuse treatment field with the offender population for more than 10 years. In 2008, he joined the Office of Councilmember Alarcon and in 2013, Councilmember Cedillo. He graduated from the Glendale College Addiction Studies Program and UCLA School of Public Health, Health Care Management and Leadership Program. Jose is the founder of the Los Angeles Re-Entry Roundtable.

Nicole Jeong, Los Angeles Site Director & Senior Staff Attorney at Root and Rebound. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 2011.
Prior to joining Root & Rebound, Nicole was a staff attorney in the Pro Bono Department at Legal Services NYC, the largest provider of civil legal services in the country. Nicole was also a general litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York and Morrison & Foerster in Los Angeles, as well as a law clerk to the Honorable Jesus G. Bernal of the Central District of California. During law school, Nicole participated in the Community Reentry Clinic, worked as a summer law clerk at the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, and served as an editor on the Yale Law Journal and Yale Journal of Law & Feminism.
Nicole received her B.A., magna cum laude, in Sociology from the University of Southern California. She is an attorney licensed to practice in California and New York.
Valerie Garcia, LCSW, Program Director of ReEntry services with Homeless Health Care Los Angeles
Has worked with vulnerable populations for over 8 years to provide comprehensive behavioral health and holistic care to support the health and well-being of the clients we serve and those in the community.
Works collaboratively with the Office of Diversion and Reentry as well as the Mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity to promote Harm Reduction and Housing based services for Justice-Involved populations reintegrating into the community.
Passionate and dedicated to criminal justice reform to help aid those with the injustices that they have observed and their families affected by the forces of incarceration so that all are treated humane.
Jose Osuna,  Founder Osuna Consulting and Restore INK  is the first ever Housing Justice Manager for Brilliant Corners, a statewide housing organization, as well as the Principal Consultant for Osuna Consulting and Co-Founder of Restore INK, a nonprofit in Long Beach, California targeted at serving gang impacted and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Prior to founding Osuna Consulting and Restore INK, Osuna was the Director of External Affairs at Homeboy Industries, a position he held as part of the executive management team with the organization. Jose is a current member of L.A. County’s Public Safety Realignment Team, appointed by L.A.County Supervisor Janice Hahn, as well as serving as a commissioner on the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Multicultural Advisory Commission. We are excited to have him part of our team.