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Board of Directors
A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Ian Honore' graduated with his B.A. in Business management and M.B.A from the University of Phoenix, Baton Rouge Campus. He began his leadership career as Student Government President at the University of Phoenix. As president, Ian engaged his fellow students in the political process through streamlining the organization's operations and bylaws, increasing student participation and utilization of campus resources, and encouraging his fellow constituents to develop a love for lifelong learning. Ian is currently one of Brown and Root's up and coming "blue collar" leaders working as a supervisor of the TSE Unit. The effects of poverty, poor educational systems, and societal challenges are evident in the diverse workforce that Ian manages on a daily basis. Ian has a passion for mentorship and teaching others through real life experiences. He applies his skills and abilities to guide his co-workers in making good choices and taking active roles in the decision-making processes that affect their families and communities.
Ian Honoré
President
Jules Griff
Vice President
Jules Griff has served as the Director of the New Orleans Community-Police Mediation Program (CPMP), a program of the Office of the Independent Police Monitor since October 2017. She first began working with the CPMP in 2014, first as a volunteer and then as a mediator and as a contractor assisting with program operations. The program provides opportunities for community members and police officers to have facilitated face-to-face dialogues to be heard, build understanding, and resolve conflict they’ve had in their interactions with each other. In addition to her mediation work, Jules is a facilitator and trainer of Restorative Approaches and has worked with the Center for Restorative Approaches, providing conflict resolution in New Orleans schools and working to intervene in the school-to-prison pipeline.
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Previously, Jules’ work has encompassed issues regarding public health, human rights, and community education. She worked for four years for Breakthrough, a human rights organization that uses art and media to raise awareness on women’s rights, HIV/AIDS, immigrant rights, and racial justice in the US and India. She served as Program Director for the HeartRescue Project in Philadelphia and has worked on issues of food security and senior health at the The Elderly Project and Santropol Roulant in Montreal. She is a co-founder of the MoBo Bicycle Co-op, a community bicycle education project in Cincinnati. Jules received a BA in history and humanistic studies from McGill University in Montreal.
Lisa Ellis
Treasurer
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Lisa Ellis is a community servant, advocate for criminal justice reform, and a businesswoman. She is the lead facilitator of the Participatory Defense Movement New Orleans (PDMNola) Hub. PDMNola provides assistance to individuals facing prosecution by working with the family members of the defendant to positively affect the outcome a criminal case. Through the PDMNola platform Ms. Ellis encourages community and family support members to become informed about the criminal court proceedings, the rights of the accused, protecting those rights and holding court officials accountable if these rights are violated. PDMNola seeks to properly shift the power of the system back to the citizens it affects. The guiding principles of PDMNola is family and community strength with an overall goal of PDMNola is to influence systemic change to ultimately help end mass incarceration. Ms. Ellis is employed as the CEO of a Behavioral Health Outpatient Clinic. She supervises over a dozen Mental Health Professionals and three (3) licensed Mental Health Professionals. She coordinates the daily activities of two offices which provides services to clients in numerous parishes. She also is a liaison between her offices and health care providers to ensure clients in her underserved community continue to receive adequate mental health services. She also volunteers her time as a board member of the Rich Family Ministries. Her duties focus on finding innovative ways to shine light on the inequalities and injustices experienced by people in impoverished communities. Her goal is to see Mental Health decriminalized and her work there is a reflection of her passionate beliefs of equal justice for everyone. With over twenty-five years of Accounting, Management, and Consulting services, she has provided accounting services, billing support, and tax prep for businesses and individuals. Her educational background includes a B.A. in Accounting and her post graduate studies are to be completed in December 2020 with an M.B.A., with a concentration in accounting.
Akida Jones is a certified mediator in the Inclusive Mediation Process and the Re-entry Program Director. In this role, Akida coordinates and provides mediation services to incarcerated individuals and their loved ones on the outside. These reentry mediation services happen prior to the individual’s release from prison to help reduce recidivism. In addition, Akida has also taken advanced trainings that allow her to mediate statewide Parenting Plan mediations, Large Group Facilitations, and IEP Facilitations.
Akida Jones
Roderick Joseph
Roderick "Ricky" Joseph graduated high school in 2008 and pursued business management in local college for two semesters. It was until 2014 he decided to put to action what he learned and created an entertainment and marketing company by the name of Swag Crazy Coalition. Ricky is also an amazing chef with a culinary background that has expanded more than a decade. His hard work led him to managing at some of New Orleans premier restaurants ( Dick and Jennys, Couchon Butcher, Katies, and The Half Shell on the Bayou) Which provided him the financial backing to build out what his heart desired. Being a successful artist and music composer Ricky understood the importance of learning the business behind entertainment and now educate/mentor youth to be self sufficient individuals. Ricky Joseph is currently operating as marketing director of The Level Up Campaign a youth enrichment organization. During COVID-19, Level Up Campaign was awarded a proclamation from the Councilwomen of District E on their outstanding performance serving youth and families throughout the city of New Orleans, providing employment opportunities and skills training to individuals seeking any sort of employment.
Cawanna King began her career in the mediation field in 2014 as an AmeriCorps member with Community Mediation Maryland (CMM). Immediately following her AmeriCorps service, the native of Galveston, Texas was employed as a Mediation Program Coordinator at the Key Bridge Foundation Center for Conflict Resolution. In December 2017, she was promoted to the position of Director of Community Mediation where she remained until July 2020, when the organization discontinued all of its operations in the state of Maryland. Cawanna is a certified mediator and evaluator in the Inclusive Model of mediation. In addition to being a member of the Board of Directors at Community Mediation Maryland and a member of the Advisory Council at Prince George's Community Collaborative Resolution Center, she currently serves as an AmeriCorps Team Leader on Community Mediation Maryland's Quality Assurance team.
Cawanna King
Sarah Stickney Murphy (she/her) is a queer nonprofit consultant and recovering opera singer. Sarah is the founder and principal of Stickney Murphy Consulting, LLC. She lives just outside of New Orleans, originally called Bulbancha, on land stolen from the Houma with her husband, four children, three cats, two turtles, and innumerable fish. Sarah loves to cook ridiculously elaborate meals and runs a small home-based food business where she makes her own cheese.
Sarah Stickney Murphy
Advisory Board members include Alison McCary, Prof. Angela Bell, Arthur Hunter, and Leo Jackson.