CAPA 2021 Summit Schedule & Speakers

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The 6th Annual CAPA Summit is coming this Friday, December 10.  Our theme this year is Reclaiming Our Power: from corporate interests, from disinterested legislators, from embedded systems that have for too long prioritized profit over health, safety, and life.

Join fellow advocates, community members, researchers, and organizers in a celebration of struggles past and inspiration for those to come.

The event is free and open to the public.

You can REGISTER HERE or click "read more" to see the schedule and speakers.

Keynote

Eunisses Hernandez is the Executive Director of La Defensa. A native of Los Angeles, Eunisses is a policy advocate and campaign strategist with nearly a decade of experience in working with communities most devastated by criminalization, the war on drugs, and mass incarceration. Eunisses has seen and experienced the detrimental impacts that criminalization and lack of access to resources has on families and on our most vulnerable community members. Eunisses has been a leader in helping develop and implement sentencing reforms. Her efforts have led to the repeal and reform of frequently used sentence enhancements in California. Most recently, she has been a leader within JusticeLA, a coalition that was successful in stopping Los Angeles County’s $3.5 billion dollar jail plan. Eunisses has extensive experience in developing alternatives to incarceration, and advancing successful budget advocacy campaigns. Most recently, she co-chaired the successful Measure J, a historic ballot initiative that will move millions of locally generated tax revenue into community reinvestment and alternatives to incarceration.

 

Panelists

Nicholas Freudenberg is Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the City University of New York School of Public Health and founder and senior faculty fellow at the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute. For the last 40 years, in partnership with community organizations, governments, social movements and others, Freudenberg has developed, implemented and evaluated programs and policies to promote health and reduce health inequities in New York City and elsewhere. He has published more than 150 articles and reports and 5 books. His most recent books are Lethal But Legal Corporations, Consumption and Protecting Public Health (Oxford, 2015) and At What Cost Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health (Oxford, 2021).  

Jill D. Sharkey, Ph.D. in Education, is a Professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, Associate Dean for Research and Outreach for the Gevirtz School of Education, School Psychology Program Credential Coordinator, and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist. Dr. Sharkey is heavily engaged in community-based research designed to understand optimal ways to support youth with learning and behavioral challenges who have not been served well in schools and are in juvenile justice, behavioral health, and child welfare systems. Her research has been funded by agencies including the California Board of State and Community Corrections, The California Department of Education, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) and is designed to transform systems to better serve vulnerable youth. In particular, Dr. Sharkey has focused on system inequities and racial and ethnic disparities in referrals, treatments, and outcomes for youth with diverse strengths and needs in Santa Barbara County. She is Executive Committee Member and Strategy Team Member of the South Coast Youth Safety Partnership (2011 to present); Elected Member of the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council of Santa Barbara County (2008 to present); and on the evaluation subcommittee of the Santa Barbara County Human Trafficking Task Force (2016 to present).

Natalie A. Larez is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (school emphasis) at UCSB. Natalie is interested in examining how publicly funded institutions support the educational and mental health care needs of youth who have experienced significant childhood trauma. Specifically, Natalie wants to examine better avenues in creating access for mental health services for minoritized, Spanish-speaking, under-resourced, and/or low-income communities. Natalie believes that interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration among policymakers, academics, and communities is essential in advancing the overall health of communities. Her work is centered around community-based participatory research methods that aim to work alongside communities for advancing equity in the areas of mental health, policy, and education.