The Team
Dr. Sherry Congrave Wilson
Founder/Executive Director/Practitioner
(she/her)
[email protected]
Dr. Sherry has worked within the education and social service sectors for her entire career. During her early work as a Social Science teacher, she saw her role more as a facilitator than a traditional teacher and her classroom as a space where students could become empowered and reflective learners. She eventually realized that students came to school with a myriad of issues that were too much for teachers and administrators to handle effectively. As a result, she became committed to making a broader impact on youth, families and the educational system. In order to pursue this career goal she earned a Masters in Educational Equity and Social Justice at San Francisco State and a second Masters, Administrative credential and Educational Doctorate at Mills College. Inspired in her graduate studies by the works of bell hooks, Paulo Friere, Jeff Duncan-Andrade and other critical pedagogical scholars, she developed a profound commitment to supporting organizations, schools, and educational programs in promoting equity and a deep commitment to social justice. As the School Services Director for SEEDS Conflict Resolution Center, she supported public and private schools, school districts and youth based organizations in adapting restorative justice practices and conflict mediation. She is The Town Project’s founder, executive director and a practitioner. In her spare time you can catch Dr. Sherry walking around Lake Merritt and skating at Brooklyn Basin in Oakland, CA (aka the Town). She also loves cooking, creating art (both big and small) , roller skating, swimming, camping, spending lots of time in nature and attending music festivals. She is the proud mama of a 27 year old son, a medical student at Charles Drew/ UCLA Medical School and a 19 year old daughter who is an undergrad at UCLA.
Maricela Aboytes
Program Coordinator/ Practitioner
(she/her/hers/ella)
[email protected]
Maricela enjoys providing restorative justice consultation, education, training and circle facilitation. She holds a Masters Degree in Organization & Leadership from the University of San Francisco.
As a collaborator and passionate about community based projects, Maricela intends to serve communities through empowerment and love. Embodying restorative justice practices allows her to show up to spaces authentically and such approach fosters and nurtures opportunities for healing, connection and deep empathy. Her professional background consists of working in Education (K-12), Community College and CSU, non-profit work as she currently manages a Resource Center that serves TAY youth (Transitional Age Youth), and held a Program Coordinator role with a Tribal entity. Her formal trainings include GONA Facilitator (Gathering of Native Americans), and Non-Violent Communication where she is trained to seek opportunities for relationship building. As a dedicated advocate for system- impacted youth and their family units, Maricela aims to cultivate spaces where RJ’s collaborative nature reduces distress and offers ways to heal to increase personal and collective efficacy that leads to a sense of belonging.
As an indigenous woman, Maricela is committed to reclaiming her narrative and empowering other BIPOC folx to do the same. She is the 5th in her lineage to carry forward traditional knowledge and continues to honor and heal for her community. She is a Danzante Azteca, daughter, partner, and enjoys quality time with her ceremonial community, family and friends.
Deb Brill
Practitioner/Curriculum Development Specialist
(she/her)
[email protected]
Deb Brill (she/her) is currently the Executive Director of Student Services for Albany Unified School District. Prior to her current role, she was the principal of Albany Middle School for nine years, she has been the Safe and Inclusive Schools Coordinator and a sixth grade teacher for thirteen years. Her desire to impact equity in education on a systemic level is what drives this work for her. In her role as principal, she initiated a schoolwide shift to embrace restorative practices. She has also directed after school and summer programs in a range of different communities, and has done extensive work supporting access for middle school students to athletics in Oakland.
Deb has also volunteered for the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program mediating conversations between youth offenders and their victims, and volunteered in crisis response for battered women’s shelters. She has two mediation certifications and has mediated in a range of different settings. She also has experience in organizational development and strategic planning.
Deb co-founded ASC (Aware Seek Communicate) a training and consulting business that focuses on intersectional identity, communication and equity. She has been committed to the Oakland community with a special focus on increasing access to regional parks for all residence and athletic equity.
She is excited to be part of The Town Project.
Suzanne Pegas
Practitioner/Curriculum Development Specialist
(she/they)
[email protected]
Suzanne is an educator, restorative justice practitioner, mediator, activist, and naturalist, with a deep commitment to attending to human and natural ecosystems.
Suzanne has a Master’s in Education and has been a classroom teacher and an RJ practitioner in Oakland Unified schools. Suzanne has decades of experience creating experiential learning opportunities for youth and adults, as well as facilitating group efforts toward consensus while holding diverging interests.
As a queer woman of Greek, Mexican, English, and German ancestry, Suzanne remains engaged in exploring the complexities, privileges, and liabilities of embodying Mexican ancestry and white skin privilege. She leads circles and ongoing educational experiences for white people who are working to increase cultural humility and decrease the ways we exhibit white supremacy culture. She loves singing and being on her bicycle.
Suzanne lived and worked in the Town for decades. Her heart is here.
eveline chang
Practitioner
(she/they)
[email protected]
eveline chang, msw, is grateful to offer over 30 years of experience designing and facilitating community- and campus-based programs rooted in social justice, anti-oppressive practice, community organizing, popular education, and community wellness. Eveline’s teaching and facilitation approach integrates restorative and transformative practices, cultural humility, emergent strategy, mindfulness, belonging and collective liberation.
eveline is a full-time Continuing Lecturer with UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare, teaching graduate courses in multilevel social work practice and foundations, anti-oppressive social work, community organizing, social work with groups, and grief, loss and bereavement. They have also served as a Restorative Practices Trainer with SEEDS Community Resolution Center’s School Services Program, and facilitation consultant with the Posse Foundation, a national educational equity organization.
Previous roles have focused on multicultural youth organizing, activism, and social change work with several vibrant community justice organizations in the Bay Area. Chicago, Detroit and Houston, centering the wisdom and leadership of young people from marginalized backgrounds.
Additional areas of practice include facilitating grief and loss, community wellness, and peer navigation programs with Women’s Cancer Resource Center and hospice and palliative care in the Bay Area.
eveline earned her MSW at the University of Michigan School of Social Work in interpersonal practice and community organizing, and has integrated these approaches throughout her career. Other formal training lineages include Restorative Justice Training Institute; Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, Cultural Humility Advanced Facilitation; Transforming Trauma, Grief and Loss; Center for Mind-Body Medicine, and Qigong Teacher Certification.
Throughout their practice, eveline recognizes that true social justice must integrate healing justice and structural change, center the leadership and solutions of communities directly impacted and marginalized by systems of oppression, and nourish the collective vision that “another world is possible.”
eveline and their family are proud Oakland residents!
Robin Pomerenke
(they/them)
Robin is passionate about growing our capacities for communication involving play and creativity. They are an experienced trainer, mediator, and coach with a background in gender studies, law, children’s entertainment, and conflict resolution modalities. Their work is grounded in the realization that holding space for others in conflict creates agency and leads to collective liberation. Through a focus on feelings and building emotional intelligence, they try to embody the concept of softness as power.
As a queer neurodivergent nonbinary person of Italian and Mexican lineages, Robin is often sitting in the mysteries of existing beyond binaries and welcomes humility in the lifelong journey of (un)learning holding intersecting marginalizations and privileges. Their work as co-founder of Moksha Healing Collaborative brings a somatic lens to conflict work, getting at the root of activators/triggers through a gentle and purpose driven approach.
Robin resides in Albany, though their work spans many cities in East Bay and Southern California.
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