Gidalthi is ASJ’s Manager of Grants & Contracts. Before joining Alliance for Safety and Justice, Gidalthi worked for various community-based organizations in the Bay Area. She received her BA in International Studies and her Masters in Public Administration: Public Management & Policy Analysis from CSU East Bay. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her children and husband, going to the gym, going on bike rides, and reading books.

Mary serves as our CSSJ Social Media & Community Associate. A few of her greatest passions include criminal justice reform, breaking down diet culture, house plants, and music. She and her fiance have four dogs who they love to take on hikes, walks, kayak trips, and camping trips. Mary lives in Milwaukee and enjoys the coastal beauty of Lake Michigan! She spends most of her free time devouring books – especially historical fiction – and writing. She teaches hot yoga and is passionate about making yoga accessible to everyone. She’s a big traveler and loves to immerse herself in the culture and history of a new place.

Priscilla joins ASJ as the MI CSSJ Statewide Manager and is a local and National sexual abuse advocate. She has been sought out, as a motivational speaker by numerous community organizations, such as, her Local Law Enforcement, The National Guard, Prisons across the United States, both Public and Private Schools all to discuss her story of overcoming incest and bring awareness through education in order to end abuse. She has been invited to speak before the Senate and House of Representatives. She was apart of the “Clean Slate Bill” her first bill, that was signed by Governor Whitmer.

Kristina is the Program Manager for CSSJ at the Alliance for Safety and Justice. In this role, Kristina continuously collaborates with team members to ensure the division meets their organizational goals and benchmarks.

Her career in social justice began when she was working with a nonprofit organization located in Washington, DC who provided trauma-informed art therapy services for youth, children, and families who were experiencing various forms of trauma including financial crisis, homelessness, and crime. As a passionate lover of the arts and serving the community, Kristina also served as program manager of a local arts agency who provided grants to local artists, schools, and community arts organizations to enrich the lives of others.

Felicia is a Los Angeles based queer Chicanx community organizer, strategist and social entrepreneur with over two decades of movement building experience within intersectional communities. As a person living with an old conviction they proudly serve their community as Alliance for Safety and Justice’s TimeDone Events and Community Manager.

Prior to joining ASJ they served as an impact consultant where their thought leadership has been instrumental in shaping dialogue around health and economic equity nationwide. Felicia also co-founded The Social Impact Center a hub for organizers working at the intersection of racial, health, economic, environmental and gender justice garnering international attention for their legal relief efforts.

They sit on several local and national advisory boards, mentor countless young people, love their wife, life and freedom.

Tali deGroot joins Alliance for Safety and Justice as the Director of Individual Giving after spending six years setting records fundraising for progressive political candidates and causes. In 2021, Tali served as Finance Director for Nina Turner’s campaign for Ohio’s 11th Congressional District. Under her leadership, the campaign raised $6.1 million in 7 months. Previously, Tali served as Director of Campaigns at Grassroots Analytics, a boutique progressive consumer data company where she helped hundreds of political campaigns and non-profits use data to supercharge their fundraising. In the 2020 cycle, Tali led Jessica Cisneros’ fundraising operation in her campaign for Texas’ 28th Congressional District.

Leah Sakala has over a decade of experience working on policy change to build better safety solutions. As State Policy Manager at ASJ, she supports campaigns through research, policy analysis, and strategy development. 

Before joining ASJ, Leah was a senior policy associate at the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center, where she developed research and provided technical assistance to advance adult and youth justice reform on the state and local levels, and to strengthen community safety strategies. She also previously worked as a senior policy analyst at the Prison Policy Initiative, where she led research and campaign work to document and mitigate the harms of mass incarceration.

Candace is our Ohio State Director and has had an extensive career in education as an Executive Director, Administrator, and leader of educational organizations and programs. She is a community organizer and has devoted herself to closing achievement, opportunity, and economic gaps. Candace serves in local government and political campaigns to improve communities and increase engagement, transparency, and access to resources. Additionally, Candace has worked in the non-profit sector with a focus on budgets, trauma-informed practices, and organizational development. Having a personal understanding of sexual assault and domestic violence, the systemic, interconnected effects of incarceration, and the everyday implications of legislative policy on communities and individual’s lives, working with Alliance for Safety and Justice’s collaborative, thoughtful, committed team has continued to fuel her desires to build statewide awareness of the importance of addressing policies that negatively and disproportionately affect specific communities and people of color. Candace is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University and the University of Mount Union and lives near Cleveland, Ohio with her family. She loves to spend time enjoying her family, being a mom, exploring all things creative, serving her community, traveling, and helping others. 

Nico is a nonprofit Information Technology (IT) leader who is passionate about transforming organizations through mission-driven IT strategic planning and currently serves as our IT Manager. He has dedicated the last twenty years of his career to a mix of IT management, nonprofit leadership, prison education and criminal justice reform. His previous positions include leadership roles with Arts Midwest, the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and Alternative Systems.

Nico has expertise in IT strategy, system architecture, business process improvement and automation, application development, technology analysis and forecasting, change management, relational database design, agile methodologies and nonprofit management and finances.