Our Team
MISSSEY is comprised of individuals who are exceptionally positioned to serve our youth and raise awareness of CSE by bringing to the anti-trafficking table a wealth of experience, knowledge, and insight centered on supporting CSEC survivors and similarly disenfranchised populations. Each person on our team wholeheartedly believes that with the right opportunities and non-judgmental support, domestically trafficked youth can overcome the circumstances of their exploitation and lead fully enriched empowered lives.
To reach a member of our team, contact via email or call the main number, 510-251-2070.
Executive Director
Jennifer B. Lyle, jennifer@misssey.org
For over twenty-five years, Jennifer has actively worked towards the well-being of youth and their families. Her education and work have taken place in the streets, across continents, with community organizations, government, schools, and academia. Much of Jennifer’s work over the past fifteen years has focused on the development of youth through viable programs for diverse populations: she recently held the role of Deputy Director at Alternatives in Action (AIA), an organization that serves middle and high school youth in extended day and after-school programming, supports families with their early childhood daycare needs, and runs a charter high school; held a variety of leadership positions at Building Blocks for Kids Collaborative (BBK) including the role of Executive Director, working with partners to elevate and address the well-being of African American and Latino families and youth living in Central and South Richmond; and launched her career in youth development at the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI) where she held various positions, the last being the Vice President of Education and Research.
As an African American woman, an educator, and an activist, Jennifer crosses many borders to create a platform that supports youth, expands their range of challenging experiences, and increases their opportunities for supportive relationships. It has always been her goal to support youth to become active in their lives by providing leadership and development opportunities and by helping to reveal their rights, their capacity, and their value. Jennifer received her Master of Social Work, Master of Sociology, and Ph.D. in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Evaluations & Data Manager
Kendra Edwards, kendra@misssey.org
Kendra comes to MISSSEY with over a decade of experience in youth development work in both New York and the Bay Area, serving youth in the child welfare system as well as homeless and low-income youth that have been disconnected from education, employment, and other support systems. Their personal experiences inform their work of resiliency and the positive impact that community and empowerment can have on success. Over the years, Kendra’s work has also spanned program development, research, and evaluation. Their lens for supporting staff is modeled from positive youth development practices, focusing on safety, relationship building, participation, community, and skill-building. Kendra received her Master of Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley, and is excited to build a healing community of youth and staff at MISSSEY.
Training Institute Manager
Andrea P. Diaz, andrea@misssey.org
As the Training and Prevention Manager, Andrea advocates and supports youth through education. She loves being in the community and working towards creating safer spaces for youth to navigate by offering outreach, information, and collaboration. Andrea is a certified domestic violence counselor and has served as a case manager, SFPD liaison, and education manager in that field. She is passionate about working with women and youth and learning how to best build support for and around them.
Operations Manager
Imani Lott, imani@misssey.org
Imani comes to MISSSEY with a strong administrative and youth development background. Most recently she provided administrative support for the McClymonds Youth and Family Center, where she maintained an active, fun-filled youth center on the McClymonds campus. Imani is excited about being a part of the team and offering support in building a strong foundation for healing work.
Clinical Manager
Michelle La Place-Watts, michelle@misssey.org
Michelle joins MISSSEY as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has worked thirty-seven of her sixty-three years with families, youth, and adolescents. First, as a teacher at the preschool, elementary, and middle school levels. For the last fifteen years, Michelle has been a practicing clinician serving marginalized, disenfranchised, and oppressed communities of color. For eight years Michelle worked with adolescents and families at a middle school in West Oakland. Michelle currently works as a program manager, supervising, culturally relevant, trauma-informed therapist, and restorative practitioners for a non-profit, faith-based agency in Oakland. Michelle’s clinical work is in the Crisis Response and Support Network, where she provides individual and group grief therapy for surviving families of homicide in Oakland. Michelle also works with survivors of human trafficking and Intimate Partner Violence. Michelle holds the hope, faith, and belief in the human capacity to heal from historical, intergenerational, pervasive, and complex trauma. Michelle sees the youth we at support MISSSEY and in the community as survivors of their at-risk environments living life at full potential. She is passionate about working with Black females to support their self-empowerment and determination. Michelle has trained at Victims of Crime Conferences on the use of Restorative Practices in grief therapy, and at School-Based Conferences on Trauma-informed and Restorative Practices, and its positive impact on the School-to-Systems Pipeline.
STAR Center
STAR (Sisters Transforming And Rising) Center serves as a transformative safe space and resource center for youth who have been impacted by commercial sexual exploitation. We offer a variety of opportunities and supports tailored to the needs of our youth: life skills workshops, political and cultural education, health and wellness, therapeutic arts and movement, restorative justice circles, field trips, and more. Our drop-in center staff is instrumental in helping youth who need support with basic needs, individual and collective healing, systems navigation, skill-building, career exploration, and school enrollment; or who simply need a place where they can be themselves.
Leadership & Advocacy Coordinator
Isha Rosemond, isha@misssey.org
Isha is a transnational healing facilitator who focuses on developing sustainable healing techniques for black-femme/non-binary youth. She uses her passion for the arts, non-religious spiritual fulfillment, and personal empowerment to collaborate with young people to create the world they wish to inhabit. Prior to MISSSEY, Isha created a movement that amplifies femme voices of the African Diaspora, organized resistance efforts in Brazil and Haiti, earned her B.A. from Texas State University, then spent a year in Haiti as a live-in director at a family home for 7 children who were victims of abuse. Through meditation, yoga, and holistic wellness education, Isha also worked with the school administration to incorporate trauma-informed approaches to curriculum development. Outside of healing facilitation, she is a multimedia creative, resistance organizer, and a sister too many. Isha’s work is driven by ancestral support and best summarized by Audre Lorde’s words: “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
Drop-In Center Coordinator
Carmel Hill, carmel@misssey.org
Carmel comes to MISSSEY with a family and community advocacy lens with a mindset of being the change you desire to see. Before joining, Carmel worked at McClymonds High School where she dedicated 6 ½ yrs with students and their parents assisting them in creating change within the educational system. With more than a decade of experience in youth development and parent advocacy, I strongly believe the family structure is most important and vital in today’s society. This is why she pushes her families to find and know the power of their voice.
Career Readiness Specialist
Nefertari Hawthorne, nefertari@misssey.org
Nefertari has more than 10 years of experience working with youth in the education and nonprofit sectors. She has served in various capacities in both Oakland and Berkeley Unified School Districts working specifically with marginalized youth of color and their families. She has a qualitative research background in African Diaspora history and culture, as well as the African American/Black Experience, and Black Female Subjectivity, which she uses to inform her work with the youth of color, particularly African American girls, to develop culturally relevant programming and curriculum with the goal of supporting youth with developing a sense of personal agency, self-awareness and the confidence to successfully navigate the world around them.
DIC Facilitator
Azania “Zain” Kane, azania@misssey.org
Zain strongly believes that we can not simply accept things as they are or wait for things to change. She understands that the only way to begin to dismantle the oppressive systems, mindsets, and structures of current society is for each of us to attach ourselves to a cause and give it our greatest effort. The jumping-off point is in our own communities. She is outraged that the sexual exploitation of black and brown youth does not get the media attention, time, concern, or resources it needs. Zain joined the Misssey team to be of service and add value to the best of her ability. She brings to the table 13 years of youth development experience, 5 years of construction and labor organizing, and 4 years of media technology experience. Her hope for the youth of Misssey is that they master the art of knowing who they are and are able to define themselves for themselves.
Tarchell Aaron, THRIVE Intern (DIC)
Tarchell joins MISSSEY staff as a THRIVE intern, with the hope of one day becoming a MISSSEY case manager. Tarchell is a former MISSSEY client and has come back to work along with her peers. Raised in Polk County, Florida, she moved to Oakland California when she was 12 years old. Her years in Oakland haven’t been easy but with faith, patience, and trusting herself and others she prevailed. She returns to MISSSEY with a strong work ethic, energized spiritual mindset, and ambitious drive on being a voice for her peers. As a former client, she recalls the uplifted energy, sisterhood, and inspiration to accept that change isn’t always bad. As a student in this work, she hopes to support her peers, gain a deeper understanding of youth development, and how to be a change leader in the conversation regarding CSEC. She is MISSSEY.
Erika Williams (SunFlower), THRIVE Intern (DIC)
Erika (Sunflower) joins MISSSEY staff as a THRIVE intern, with the vision of opening a herbal holistic clinic. Sunflower is a former MISSSEY client and has come back to share holistic remedies and spiritual techniques in the hopes of serving her peers. Born and raised in Oakland, California. She is a student at San Fransisco State and majors in broadcasting electronic communication of arts. She returns to MISSSEY with the mission to create a safe space for her peers to thrive and heal.
Case Managers
MISSSEY’s Case Managers provide one-on-one direct services to children and transition-age youth (ages 11-24 years old) who are on probation or within the foster care system, and are survivors or at risk of commercial sexual exploitation. Case Managers collaborate across a wide variety of systems and disciplines and are a critical part of Alameda County’s service delivery team. Through building a trusting relationship with the young people they serve, Case Managers are able to facilitate the next steps for youth such as improved personal safety, school attendance, employment, housing, healthcare, and dreaming bigger. Focus is always on the recovery from the trauma of their lives and moving out of “the life.”
Integrated Services Team Lead
Myeasa Allen, myeasa@misssey.org
Myeasa a Bay Area Native joins MISSSEY as a TAY Case Manager. She joins MISSSEY, with many years of experience and knowledge working with youth and young adults ranging from all walks of life with the expectation that they will become thriving adults. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from John F. Kennedy University, with the desire of becoming a change maker and thought partner for all she serves regardless of crisis and life achievements.
Integrated Services Team Lead
Jennifer Ajinga, jennifera@misssey.org
Jen joins the MISSSEY team with many years of personal and professional experience with foster care. She has a master’s degree in Education, Administration, and Leadership from the University of the Pacific and is working toward another in Marriage and Family Therapy. She hopes to combine her love of education and mental health to provide comprehensive support to the clients and community.
Transitional Age Youth Case Manager
Aisha Sabur Jarvis, aisha@misssey.org
Aisha joins the MISSSEY, Inc. team after living in the Midwest and Southern regions for the past twenty years and is glad to be back in her home state! Aisha has over thirty years of experience in social welfare advocacy, direct services, and program development. In 2016, Aisha retired from Social Work but was inspired by the mission and vision of MISSSEY, Inc. to resume her passion to inspire and motivate youth and families toward self-empowerment, spiritual and financial recovery.
Aisha is excited to return to direct services as a seasoned and skilled motivator and healing practitioner. In her capacity as Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Case Manager, she hopes to utilize her knowledge as a skilled person and centered motivator to ensure youth are empowered to discover pathways to economic and spiritual recovery.
Transitional Age Youth Case Manager
Marshelle Johnson, marshelle@misssey.org
Marshelle has worked with youth of all ages ranging from 5 days old to 25 years old. She has had the pleasure of working within so many different agencies in the Bay Area and Louisiana while obtaining her undergraduate degree.
Before joining the MISSSEY team, she worked with the YMCA of the East Bay for seven years as a Camp Counselor and then the Youth and Family Program Director. Her experience working with young people began when she moved to Louisiana in 2005 and became a resident adviser, where she supported young ladies who were away from home for the first time. Upon graduating and returning home, she worked with OUSD at Claremont Middle School, working with young people who were returning to school from juvenile hall and transitioning back into mainstream classes.
In 2016, she returned to school for her MSW, where she had the privilege of working with the Contra Costa County Public defenders office as a Forensic Social Worker and at Unity charter school as a school social worker. She has continued her relationship with Unity, and is running a girl group!
She is the product of a retired OUSD teacher and a UC Berkeley police officer, so as you see, social work is in her blood. She loves the work that she does with the youth. She has experienced life trauma, challenges, and life speed bumps growing-up, and there were a few people to help her navigate through those difficult times, so her work is rooted in paying it forward, and to top it off, She LOVES the work.
Foster Care Case Manager
Kenya Davis, kenya@misssey.org
Kenya comes to MISSSEY with you can do anything you put your mind to mindset and a passion for teaching young girls and women to use their voices no matter who is in the room. An Oakland Native, Kenya moved to San Bernardino in 2012 to pursue her B.A. in Sociology with a concentration of Social Services. After returning home to Oakland, she has committed herself to make a difference in her community as well as empowering young black girls to pursue any dream that they may have. With the hopes of obtaining her Masters in Social Work, Kenya is excited to grow with MISSSEY and work collaboratively with her clients to achieve their goals. On her days off, Kenya likes reading, attending music festivals, and exploring different parts of the world.
Intenstive Case Manager
Jewell Copeland, jewell@misssey.org
Youth Engagement Specialists
MISSSEY’s Youth Engagement Specialists provide critical prevention and intervention services on-site at the Alameda County Foster Care Assessment Center to youth in the foster care system who are highly vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation or who have already experienced exploitation. They also provide case support to child welfare workers, group home providers, foster parents, and individual agencies.
Youth Engagement Specialist
Alisha Murdock, alisha@misssey.org
Alisha Murdock comes to MISSSEY with a personal and professional connection to the work, with over 9 years of direct youth service and youth engagement work. Alisha has worked with young people ranging in age from 7-25 with a strong focus on youth who have been impacted by the criminal justice system.
Alisha is passionate about making sure that young people’s voices and stories are being brought to the table whenever there are decisions being made about them.