​Steering Committee
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Suzanne Anderson, is Human Services Specialist and Career Connections Facilitator for the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance; and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Gerontology at California State University, Sacramento. She has spent the past twenty years involved with community and statewide organizations advocating for older adults and their families. 

Molly Davies is President and CEO of WISE & Healthy Aging. She is Vice President of the California Long-Term Care Ombudsman Association and chaired CEJC’s Ombudsman/APS Jurisdiction Workgroup.
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Jill Nielsen is Deputy Director of Programs for the Department of Aging & Adult Services for the City and County of San Francisco.  Jill also serves as San Francisco’s Public Guardian, Public Conservator, and Public Administrator. Prior to taking on her current role, she served as the director of the San Francisco Adult Protective Services program.
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Donna Benton, PhD, Chair, is a Research Associate Professor of Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. She is also the Director of the USC Family Caregiver Support Center (FCSC) and the Los Angeles Caregiver Resource Center (LACRC). Her research focus is on the development of online evidence-based interventions for family caregivers to improve mental and physical health and wellbeing and prevention of elder mistreatment. 

Nicole Howell  is Executive Director of Empowered Aging and is responsible for ensuring that the 13,000 residents of long-term care in her community have access to the highest level of care, respect and above all are able to live free of abuse and neglect. Prior to her role with OSCCS Nicole worked for nearly five years as the Director of Operations for Ombudsman Services of San Mateo County where she became a fierce advocate for senior and dependent adults and immersed herself in culture change initiatives and person centered care philosophies.

​James Treggiari is Executive Director at Legal Assistance for Seniors (LAS). Previously, he was a Staff Attorney at LAS and assisted clients in elder abuse and conservatorship cases.  He has spent his career focused on assisting clients from disenfranchised communities including seniors, homeless individuals and families, transgender youth in Los Angeles and dually diagnosed adults in New Hampshire.   

Leza Coleman, Vice Chair, is the Legislative Director of the California Commission on Aging.  Previously she was the Executive Director of the California Long-Term Care Ombudsman Association. Her career experience also includes working in an assisted living facility as a field Ombudsman and Volunteer Coordinator for Ombudsman Services of Northern California. 
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Donata Mikulik  is the Elder Justice Coordinator for Sonoma County with the non-profit Senior Advocacy Services.  Since January 2017, she has worked with community partners to improve systems responding to Elder Abuse while increasing public awareness and promoting elder justice. She earned her Bachelor’s in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco and has spent over 15 years working in the non-profit and public sector developing programs and promoting community engagement.

​Sil Vossler is the Founder and Principal at The Vossler Law Firm, a law firm focused on representing financially abused elders in predatory lending and wrongful foreclosure litigation. Previously, Sil worked as the Senior Elder Law Attorney at Open Door Legal in San Francisco and as an Assistant Attorney General for the City of Washington, D.C.

Staff

Lisa Nerenberg, ​Executive Director, has worked in the field of aging and elder abuse prevention for nearly 40 years.She was the founding director of the San Francisco Consortium for Elder Abuse Prevention and an instructor at City College of San Francisco where she taught classes in aging, ageism, and elder abuse. She has written extensively about elder abuse and related issues, including Elder Justice, Ageism, and Elder abuse and Elder Abuse Prevention: Emerging Trends and Promising Strategies.

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Carol Sewell, ​Policy Director, is the Coordinator of CEJC's A*TEAM. She previously served as the Legislative Director of the California Commission on Aging, where she supported the Commission’s advocacy work on a broad range of policy issues and helped secure passage of multiple laws promoting elder justice and  increase the Legislature’s knowledge and awareness of elder justice concerns.

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Christine Damonte, Coordinator, has worked for CEJC since 2015.  Prior to joining CEJC, Christine worked in the human resources field for 15 years.