Veronica Bard
Veronica Bard grew up on the Westbank of the Mississippi River and has lived in East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, Orleans, St. Mary, St. Tammany, and Terrebonne Parishes. Veronica has worked for nearly seven years in government offices, including district attorney’s offices in New York, NY and East Baton Rouge and Orleans Parishes, and as a contract attorney for the City of New Orleans Office of the Independent Police Monitor. Veronica has six years of experience working for nonprofit organizations, including serving most recently as Deputy Director of Court Watch NOLA, where Veronica helped identify sentencing discrepancies among different types of criminal charges and brought awareness to the Orleans criminal court’s inconsistent and inaccurate reliance on drug screen tests.
Veronica is a licensed attorney and received her J.D. from Tulane University Law School and her B.A. from University of Pennsylvania. Veronica is a 2021 New Orleans CityBusiness Leadership in Law recipient for her steadfast commitment to the community throughout her career. Veronica is the grateful life partner of Shane Bard, and together they are proud to share Deyana, Ethan, and Xander Bard.
Email Veronica at executivedirector@reentrymediation.org.
Executive Director
Karron Williams
A Louisiana native, Karron Williams has been serving the Greater New Orleans area community for many years. Karron Williams has worked in mental health at The Institute for Networking Community Service where she served as the Area Representative, for over 4 years, where she worked on setting case plans, assessing clients' needs and support systems, resolving crises, supervising workers, and performing home visits. Karron has also served as a professionally trained mediator with New Orleans Community Police Mediation Program since 2018. Karron also worked in education from 2004 -2009 at Metro Outreach Christian Academy and in 2020 became a case manager for the organization Shawdow’s for Life Journey, working with children with disabilities.
Karron Williams is attending Purdue University to receive her degree in Human Services.
Email Karron at mediationcoordinator@reentrymediation.org.
Mediation Program Coordinator
Emily Ewings
Outreach Coordinator
Youth Project
Emily Ewings was born and raised just south of the merging of the great Missisippi and Missouri Rivers in St. Louis, MO. She's always been an active and passionate person and is most happy focusing her energies on Community Service, Social Activism, Art, Mental Health, and Education.
As both a student and educator in America's public School's, Emily has encountered the beauty in inclusive and diverse thinking strategies. She is deeply passionate about impactful and realistic approaches to education and firmly believes that art is the DOPEST vehicle of commonality. She loves to disrupt the school to prison pipeline, one art project at a time. By recognizing the inherent beauty of personal and communal expression, respecting differences, and promoting change, art allows us to appreciate life from differing perspectives and work together to create the change we wish to see. Her work includes Arts as Healing projects in New Orleans, LA, Service projects in St. Louis, MO, as well as Environmental Advocacy work in Santa Fe, NM.
She is more interested in using her position and privilege as a New Orleans transplant, alum of University of New Orleans, and a current student at Xavier University to work alongside fellow activists and learn from cross-culturally lived experiences. She is a roller-skating enthusiast and is super excited to work with ReEntry Mediation Institute of Louisiana.
Anna Blohowiak
ReEntry Mediation Specialist
Americorp Member
Anna Blohowiak was born and raised in Wisconsin and is committed to lifelong learning and creating inclusive spaces for healing and empowerment. She completed a 3-month nomadic therapy intensive in Utah through Evoke, learning how to practice reflective listening, holding space for others, and radical inclusivity. It also strengthened her love for meditation and Mother Earth.
Anna has been a guest speaker, active member, and mentor at Evoke where she invested in her own self development and emotional growth as well as her community’s. Her experiences in a therapeutic boarding school led to her unwavering commitment to restorative justice and cultivating deep compassion for mental health and addictions.
Anna has volunteered internationally to support communities affected by natural disasters and will rarely decline physical work, so feel free to invite her to any event where extra hands are needed! She is honored to serve her Americorps year in the beautiful city of New Orleans with the Re-Entry Mediation Institute of Louisiana and is dedicated to serving and building up the community around her.
Andrea Bellini
ReEntry Mediation Specialist
Americorp Member
Andrea Bellini was born in New Orleans and is grateful to have been raised immersed in multigenerational conversations that continue to feed her soul and inform her growth. She is committed to cocreating accessible, radically inclusive spaces for us to heal, thrive, celebrate, play, honor, and deeply hear one another. She will always carve time to hear your stories and ponderings.
Andrea is an Integrative Art Therapist committed to community health particularly through building systems that cultivate tender care and dignity for our Mind-Body-Spirit. She has had the honor of working with youth, adults, and families directly impacted by the carceral system in a broad range of settings both nationally and internationally.
She weaves art and creativity into conflict resolution skills and currently enjoys being a Visual Scribe and Facilitator for community dialogues and conferences through the student-led initiative Peace in Education. Andrea is honored to serve her community this year as a member of AmeriCorps Reentry Mediation Specialist while also earning an additional Master’s degree in Peacebuilding, Conflict Resolution, and Negotiation.
Sydney Beard is a graduate student at California State University- Dominguez Hills studying Negotiation, Conflict Resolution & Peacebuilding. She is originally from Lacey, Washington, and moved to New Orleans to serve in AmeriCorps City Year. She worked alongside a group of dedicated corps members to teach intervention classes and coach cheerleading to empower students. Sydney is excited to apply her conflict resolution and youth development knowledge to REMILA’s new projects.
Sydney Beard
Graduate Student Intern