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.
Kelen Laine
Practitioner
(she/they)
[email protected]
As a facilitator, trainer, and coach, Kelen is honored to support and companion others in the courageous, sacred work of transforming self, relationships, and systems through rupture and healing. Kelen brings a highly compassionate, trust- and empowerment-based, trauma-knowledgeable approach to conflict transformation and harm repair for individuals and groups. Her approach imperfectly weaves together restorative and transformative justice, interest-based mediation, conflict coaching, anti-supremacy, consent, ritual, conflict psychology, ‘right use of power,’ polyvagal theory, somatic abolitionism, Kingian nonviolence conflict reconciliation, nonviolent communication, grief work, deep ecology, and intergenerational healing.
Kelen’s experience is extensively multi-cultural and includes support and accountability for those who have been involved in sexual and domestic violence, as well as public education, youth care, human resources, and consulting. She’s a graduate of Duke University.
Kelen is a white, queer, cis-ish-gendered, 35 year-old woman grown on the lands and waters of the Salish Sea, in the traditional territory of the Coast Salish Lummi and Nooksack people (in the Pacific Northwest). She comes from Finnish, Swedish, Polish, and French ancestors.
She deeply values integrity, friendship, bodies, music, genuine soulful presence, plants, the rawness of winter ocean storms, the subtleties in peoples’ faces, exploring the world by bike, dancing from the inside out, and anything that liberates the inner creature in each of us.
Kelen is based in Oakland, CA.
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.
Andrew Greenia
Practitioner
(he/him)
[email protected]
Andrew Greenia (he/him) is a facilitator, coach, and barber striving to cultivate meaningful connection and tend to our collective growth – inside and out. A bridge builder by nature and community organizer by training, Andrew brings nearly a decade of experience in social justice education and organizational development to his work. Andrew currently works as a consultant and holds inter-related roles as a facilitator at Stanford University and barber at Dax Lee’s Barber & Apothecary, each rooted in values of service and community.
Andrew holds a B.A. in Sociology from Loyola University Chicago and an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he was an Equity & Inclusion Fellow. Andrew earned an Associated Certified Coach (ACC) credential from the International Coaching Federation in 2022, was selected as a Fellow in the Oakland Chapter of New Leaders Council in 2020, and was awarded the Tina Tchen Ally Award from the Harvard Black Graduation Committee in 2018. Andrew lives in Oakland, CA with his partner.
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!
Jodi Lewis
RJ Practitioner/ Mediator
(she/they)
[email protected]
Jodi is a non-profit attorney, mediator, and consultant with over two decades of experience advancing social justice, facilitating dialogue, and supporting individuals and communities through conflict and transition. Her work is grounded in the belief that mediation and restorative practices can foster empathy, build trust, and lead to meaningful, equitable outcomes.
Jodi’s professional background includes leadership roles in both direct legal services and systemic advocacy. She has served as Senior Managing Attorney at the Family Violence Appellate Project in California and as Legal Director at the Women’s Resource Center in Pennsylvania, where she provided holistic, client-centered legal representation to survivors of domestic and gender-based violence, advocated for legislative reforms, and led statewide trainings on trauma-informed and equity-based practices.
Her approach centers transparency, respect, and deep listening. Whether navigating the legal system, leading community-based trainings, or holding space for difficult conversations, Jodi is committed to creating environments where people feel seen, heard, and empowered to make decisions aligned with their values.
Originally from the East Coast, Jodi is a queer outdoor enthusiast and proud Bay Area transplant, now living in the area with her wife, who grew up in Berkeley and Oakl and. She finds joy and grounding through play and in hiking, biking, running, kayaking, and playing soccer, Jodi is passionate about reading, writing, and activist work that challenges systemic injustice and uplifts collective liberation.
Ava Stone
RJ Practitioner/ Mediator
(she/her)
[email protected]
Ava Stone (she/her) is a conflict resolution specialist, facilitator, and restorative justice practitioner with a deep commitment to weaving healing, equity, and strategy into transformative practice.
Ava has a Master’s in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University and is trained in mediation, Indigenous peacemaking, restorative practices, trauma-informed engagement, and strategic management. She is also a DISC-certified behavioral consultant and organizational coach.
With a professional background that includes leading resilience-focused initiatives at the U.S. Department of the Interior and facilitating cross-sector collaborations across federal and nonprofit spaces, Ava brings humor, clarity, and deep presence to the rooms she’s invited into.
A multiracial, neurodiverse woman with Caribbean and Mediterranean roots, Ava is currently planting roots in the Bay Area. Her approach is relational, humble, and nonjudgmental—she walks alongside people on their healing journeys, not ahead of them.
Outside of facilitation, she is a community wellness guide, yoga teacher-in-training, lover of movement, and seeker of joy. The Bay Area’s breeze reminds her of home.
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.
Register to our Restorative Justice courses now!
