TRAINING FACULTY

Carlos Jackson

Lead Pathways Intervention Specialist, Youth ALIVE!
Oakland, CA

Carlos Jackson is the Lead Pathways Intervention Specialist at Youth ALIVE!, a community-based organization in Oakland, Calif. In this role, he mentors young people who are justice-involved or justice-impacted as well as those who have been impacted by community violence. Carlos is a proud native and resident of Oakland. He has associate degrees in psychology and the social sciences and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from California State University, East Bay. Carlos is also an International Coaching Federation (ICF) Certified Life Coach.

Jacqueline Kendrick

Clinical Project Manager, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Violence Intervention Program
Philadelphia, PA

Jacqueline Kendrick, LCSW serves as the Clinical Project Manager for CHOP’s Violence Intervention Program (VIP) which provides trauma-informed case management services to violently injured youth and their families. Throughout her career, Jackie has worked extensively with children, adolescents, and their families in a variety of community and site based settings. She has worked with child welfare agencies, community outreach and training, behavioral health, early intervention, and autism services.

Jackie received her Bachelor of Science in Human Services with a minor in Disability Studies from the University of Delaware and her Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University. During her time at Columbia, her focus was on advanced clinical practice with a concentration in health, mental health, and disabilities.

Nicky MacCallum

Healing Director, Youth ALIVE!
Oakland, CA

Nicky MacCallum is the Healing Director for “Youth ALIVE!” An organization dedicated to violence prevention, intervention, and healing, based in Oakland, CA.  She is also the founder of “Allies 4 Equity,” a training and consultation group committed to trauma informed healing centered care in service delivery and provider wellness. Nicky is a member of the Department of Justice Survivor Centered Action Team and is a Faculty member for the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention where she also co-chairs the network’s Mental Health Working Group.  She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Nationally Certified Counselor, and CAMFT Certified Clinical Supervisor. Nicky has more than thirty years of experience collaborating with victims of crime services, child protective services, family reunification, diversion programs, juvenile justice, community mental health, foster care, residential services, school-based programs and hospital-based programs. She also enjoys teaching and practicing Aromatherapy and Reflexology.

Michelle McDaniel

Program Manager/Outreach Worker, AIM
Denver, CO

Michelle McDaniel has been serving Denver’s most disenfranchised and vulnerable communities since 2007.  She began her work with at-risk youth at Gang Rescue and Support Project (GRASP), a place that once helped her as a troubled adolescent, as a community outreach worker, and was then hired in 2012, as an intervention specialist for patients presenting to Denver Health’s Level I trauma center emergency department with violent injuries.  

In 2016, due to her unique life experience and skill sets, Michelle was selected to manage Colorado’s only hospital- based violence intervention program housed at Denver Health, At-Risk Intervention and Mentoring (AIM). As a witness and survivor of violence, Michelle understands the impact trauma has on Denver communities.  She strives to stop the cycle of violence, at the hospital bedside, drawing from her own experiences and using the teachable moment, when youth and young adults can recognize the concrete consequences of their risky life choices.  Michelle also facilitates therapeutic and culturally sensitive healing circles for survivors of trauma as well as hospital personnel.  Michelle is a certified trainer and advisory board member for the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI), wherein she provides insights and support for providing trauma-informed care.  As AIM’s program manager, Michelle has successfully collaborated with the departments of Surgery, Pediatrics, Social Work and Adolescent Psychiatry to expand outreach services, incorporate transformative culturally relevant healing methods, and promote the philosophy of Cultura Cura (a.k.a. Culture Cures). In 2020, Michelle assisted with the expansion of the AIM program to the University of Colorado Hospital and in 2022 to Children’s Hospital Colorado. 

Despite facing many obstacles in her youth, Michelle has been able to not only transform her own life but use her past experiences to become the person “she needed when she was younger.”  In her current work with GRASP and AIM, Michelle provides mentorship and case management to Denver’s most at-risk youth—youth that she can often be heard describing as “her kids”.  And as a Latina woman working in a male-dominated profession, Michelle constantly reminds others of the needs of young women and the unique issues they face. 

Michelle leads with her heart and works tirelessly to end violence and heal those who suffer, so that like her, they can help heal others. Overall, Michelle exemplifies the belief that Healed People, Heal People. 

Carol Olson

Assistant Director, VCU Injury and Violence Prevention –Gender and IPV Initiatives and Counseling Programs
Richmond, VA

Carol Olson, MA, LPC, ATR, CSAC– currently works in hospital-based injury and violence prevention programs at VCU Health, managing three programs: Project Empower – Hospital-based sexual and domestic violence response, IVPP Counseling program, and Dateline Teen Dating Prevention. She has over 20 years of experience in sexual violence, d/ipv, and stalking program development; leading response and advocacy teams in two of the largest service areas in Virginia; which included multiple rural counties. She has served in executive leadership roles in local, regional, state-wide, and national organizations developing programs, designing policy, and training effective teams. She has developed and led coalition building. She is a liaison with the Center for Critical Care Education on collaborative projects and funding on training EMS providers on incorporating training on the intersection of d/ipv, mental health, and substance abuse. Olson is licensed in the state of Virginia and certified in substance abuse with expertise in screening, response, and treatment. She is trained in Motivational Interviewing and is a certified Mental Health Crisis responder.   

Dr. Joseph Richardson

Professor/Lead Epidemiologist, Violence Intervention Program University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center
Baltimore, MD

Dr. Joseph Richardson is the Joel and Kim Feller Professor of African-American Studies and Medical Anthropology at the University of Maryland and one of eight scholars selected as an inaugural University of Maryland MPower Professor. MPower is a collaboration between the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park to strengthen Maryland’s innovation economy, advance interdisciplinary research, and solve important problems for the people of Maryland and the nation. Dr. Richardson’s research centers on gun violence, community violence, violent firearm injury, mental health/trauma and violence reduction interventions for Black boys and young Black men. Trained as a criminologist and medical anthropologist Dr. Richardson’s translational qualitative research studies have been widely published in high impact journals and have been used to inform the development and implementation of innovative violence interventions. He is the Founding Program and Research Director of the Capital Region Violence Intervention Program (CAP-VIP), a hospital-based violence intervention program at the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center. He currently serves as the Lead Epidemiologist for the Violence Prevention Program, a hospital-based violence intervention program at the Center for Injury Prevention and Policy at the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, where he leads a research team to investigate the causes, collateral consequences and solutions to reduce repeat violent injury, gun violence and trauma in Baltimore. He is the Executive Director of the Transformative Research and Applied Violence Intervention Lab (TRAVAIL) a multidisciplinary gun violence research lab at the University of Maryland and is currently leading the Gun Violence Reduction and Research Initiative (GVRI) at the University of Maryland. Dr. Richardson currently serves as Co-Chair of the District of Columbia Violence Fatality Review Committee under the DC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. He is a member of the 120 Initiative sponsored by the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area to reduce gun violence in the National Capital Region. He was recently awarded a grant from Arnold Ventures to evaluate community violence intervention street outreach programs in the District of Columbia. Dr. Richardson is the Executive Producer and Director of the award-winning digital storytelling series Life After the Gunshot which explores the lives of 10 young Black men survivors of violent firearm injury in Washington DC.

Dr. Tolulope Sonuyi

Health/Medical Director, DLIVE
Detroit, MI

Tolulope Sonuyi, a graduate of University of Michigan Medical School, works as an Emergency Medicine physician and Assistant Professor for the Detroit Medical Center and Wayne State University, respectively. As an Emergency Medicine physician at the bustling Sinai-Grace Hospital, Dr. Sonuyi applied his belief in the ability of the health system to serve as a space to remedy the health inequities that render communities unhealthy and in distress.  After taking note of the alarming recurrent cycle of violence and premature death seen in the Emergency Department with Detroit’s young adult population, Dr. Sonuyi founded the health-centered Violence Intervention Program known as Detroit Life is Valuable Everyday (DLIVE). Dr. Sonuyi serves as the Director for DLIVE. DLIVE’s work is rooted in addressing Community Violence with a health-centered dynamic approach designed to improve the health outcomes of trauma patients injured from Community Violence. Dr. Sonuyi has received notable recognition for this work including Crain’s Health Hero Award, Wayne State University Spirit of Community Award, and Emergency Medicine Physician of the Year by the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians (MCEP). 

John Torres

Deputy Director, Youth ALIVE!
Oakland, CA

John Torres has been a leader in gang intervention and street outreach efforts in the Bay Area for over 25 years, first in San Francisco, where he led the City’s Department of Children Youth and Family’s Community Response Network (CRN) Initiative and worked at various community based organizations in the Mission District such as the Real Alternatives Program (RAP), Community Bridges Beacon and Arriba Juntos.   and since 2009, at Youth ALIVE!. As Associate Director, John oversees and supports the Intervention and Healing Departments that include the following programs: Caught in the Crossfire, Pathways, Relocation, Violence Interruption, Counseling and the Khadafy Washington Project.  Additionally, John supervises Youth ALIVE!’s Program Support Manager who is responsible for all agency data collection, reporting and evaluation efforts.  John is responsible for frontline strategy and the assessment of our organization at large. He is a crucial ear and a trusted voice for both frontline staff, management and city partners.

John received a B.A. from San Francisco State University in Psychology and a Masters in Counseling from the California Institute of Integral Studies.  In May 2022, John became a fully Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and continues to provide therapy to Youth ALIVE clients.  John has presented at several public forums such as the The California Wellness Foundation’s Violence Prevention Conference, the National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program (NNHVIP) conference, Healing Justice Alliance Conference, Boys and Girls Club Gang Symposiums, San Francisco’s Public Defender’s Juvenile Justice Conference, and organized and co-facilitated the On The Frontlines Conference in San Francisco.

David Wiley

Hospital Outreach Coordinator, Boston Medical Center VIAP
Boston, MA

David Wiley is a lifelong Boston resident, and has a degree from McIntosh College in Criminal Justice.

David has spent his entire career supporting youth, families, and adults with diverse needs to make positive changes in their lives, to achieve personal goals, and to achieve self-sufficiency and positive outcomes. Addressing social determinants of health, David consistently works to address mental health, addictions, child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and employment barriers.  David employs a highly collaborative team approach to providing services, and has deep relationships and working partnerships with providers in the Boston communities.  David is also a part of the City of Boston Neighborhood Trauma Team (NTT), a network of teams that provide a continuum of trauma response and recovery services. The NTT has built a system of care at the neighborhood level that strengthens resident’s ability to understand what trauma is, how to recognize its impact on their lives, the lives of their family and friends, and on their community. The NTT assists the community in knowing what they can do to recover and heal from exposure to traumatic events and to know how to access services. David has also been instrumental in implementing new initiatives within the VIAP, including a home visiting nursing component in addition to developing VIAP as an elective in the Emergency Department Resident’s curriculum.

David’s passion is working with urban youth and families, and providing services, opportunity, and hope to some of the most at risk individuals in the community. His belief is that all individuals should have access to opportunities to improve their lives, and that building healthy communities will provide environments where children and families can thrive and lead independent, productive lives.

Johnnie Williams

Executive Director, Denver Youth Programs, GRASP
Denver, CO

Johnnie joined GRASP in July 2008 and has over 25 years of experience working with youth in the community by supplying constructive alternatives to gangs and other destructive activities. Some of Johnnie’s other duties at GRASP are facilitating support groups and healing circles, managing a black and brown unity grant, managing the outreach team for a 2 million dollar OJJDP grant and managing a hospital based intervention program. He is actively involved in several non-profit organizations within the community that focus primarily on educating teenagers on gaining and preserving self- respect, finding a positive purpose in life, learning to be more responsible, learning to make good choices as well as becoming community contributors and future role models. 

Johnnie is skilled in crisis intervention, group facilitation, child abuse prevention, life skills, building communities, violence prevention, alcohol, and drug counseling, eventually becoming a criminal justice specialist and addiction counselor. Johnnie was instrumental in developing successful program curriculums and group activities for Faces (Family advocacy Care Education and Support), Shaka Franklin foundation, GRASP and The Gilliam youth program clients that contributed to the increased success rate for these organizations.  Johnnie also has exceptional skills in overall event management, coordination, marketing, public relations, financial management, and security implementation for the non-profit, local government and private sectors. 

Johnnie is a founder for the Violence Prevention Initiative (Peace-N-The Streets) and has collaborated with organizations including YouthRoots, Tony Grampsas Youth Services, Denver Foundation, Beehive Production, G.O.A.L. Academy, United Way, and Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center. He is the recipient of “The Citizen Award” from the Martin Luther King Day Commission, The Conflict Resolution Award from The University of Denver, and the Denver Foundation’s Swanee Hunt Individual Leadership Award. 

Mr. Williams has an extensive background working with gangs on the West and South sides of Chicago, IL As well as Gangs in Denver.  He published “Gangs From The Cradle To The Grave” in 2003. 

Given his extensive and varied experience, Johnnie quickly recognized the importance of working with the whole family when treating youth.  With this in mind he developed a curriculum to educate young people about taking responsibility for their actions. This curriculum helps youth to see which choices they have made in their lives that may have hurt their future; it also promotes healthy parenting and family support. However there is no greater reward for the work that he does than to see one of the youth that he has work with change their life for the better.