Mend Collaborative

Mend Collaborative

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Advisory Board

Mend’s Advisory Board brings decades of experience in organizational development and transformational social justice work.

Andrea Steele

Board Member

Andrea Steele

Board Member

Andrea Dew Steele is a social entrepreneur, political expert and philanthropic leader. Her career started off in the political world where she worked on campaigns, Democratic committees and in government in Washington, D.C. for many years. She was wooed to the West Coast by noted philanthropist and democratic activist, Susie Tompkins Buell, for whom she worked for 8 years as her Political and Philanthropic advisor. During her time with Susie, she was struck by the incredible lack of women holding elected office at the local level in San Francisco and co-founded Emerge California in 2002 to lead the fight to get more Democratic women elected to office in Northern California. Andrea worked tirelessly to develop a top-notch training program, and in 2005 she founded Emerge America to replicate the model across the country. Emerge currently has affiliates in 27 states across the country with plans to expand in the future. Andrea continues to be a passionate advocate for increasing the number of Democratic women in elected office at every level and is motivated by a life-long commitment to progressive politics and change. In addition to being fervent about electing Democratic women to office, she is also a human rights champion with a particular passion for criminal justice reform. She ran the Northern California office of Human Rights Watch (HRW) for several years and currently serves on the Northern California Committee for Human Rights Watch as well as the board of City Youth Now, a local organization dedicated to supporting at-risk youth. Andrea holds a B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University and a M.A. in International History from the London School of Economics.

Linda Sanchez

Board Member

Linda Sanchez

Board Member

Linda Sanchez is the Field Building Director of Youth Organize California, and the former Director of Programs for Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice. Linda has a wealth of experience in youth organizing, program management, grant writing, social entrepreneurship, and curriculum development. Born in Oaxaca, Mexico and raised in Anaheim, CA Linda is a UC Berkeley graduate where she received a dual degree in Political Science and Chicano Studies. She created the first Undocumented Student Resource Program and co-founded UC Berkeley student housing for undocumented students. Her experiences of being undocumented and indigenous propels her to be deeply rooted in community advocacy and social justice.

Kim Jordan

Board Member

Kim Jordan

Board Member

Kim Jordan is the daughter of a mother who was murdered in 2001. In 2021, Kim met the man who caused this harm in a brilliantly-facilitated VOD by Rebecca Weiker and Miguel Quezada. A survivor as well as a practitioner of restorative and transformative justice, Kim knows the delicate balance required of this work. Kim is currently the Director of the SafeSpace Anti-Violence Program at Pride Center of Vermont, where she leads a statewide team that provides advocacy, resources, and support in distinct and trauma- sensitive ways for LGBTQ+ survivors of violence, abuse, bias, discrimination, and harm, as well as for LGBTQ+ people who cause abuse and harm. She has been a victim services coordinator and victim liaison for restorative justice processes at Vermont’s Burlington Community Justice Center, a domestic and sexual violence advocate for incarcerated survivors at Vermont’s only women’s prison, and a legal advocate at Steps to End Domestic Violence. She serves on the Board of Vermont’s Women’s Justice and Freedom Initiative, on the Board Executive Committee of the Vermont ACLU, and on the ACLU National Board as Vermont’s affiliate representative.

Elizabeth Calvin

Board Member

Elizabeth Calvin

Elizabeth Calvin

Board Member

Elizabeth Calvin is the senior advocate in the Children’s Rights Division and an attorney with experience in youth justice, foster care, and education rights. At Human Rights Watch she focuses on children, youth, and emerging adults in conflict with the law. Her work includes research and writing on human rights violations against children, policy and legal advocacy, and building partnerships with community and national groups. She relies on the leadership of people directly impacted by human rights violations to determine the direction of her work. Since 2012, her leadership of coalition-based efforts in California has resulted in 11 significant laws being passed, many with first-in-the-nation strategies to reduce incarceration and promote the potential of young people. As a result of these changes in law, California youth are less likely to be prosecuted as adults; 14- and 15-year-olds who commit crimes now can never be tried in adult court and must be provided the rehabilitative services available in the youth system; children under 16 facing police interrogation are protected; young adults have increased access to educational opportunities in prison; the use of life in prison without parole sentences for people under age 18 has effectively ended; and young people under age 26 have special opportunities and protections if sentenced to prison. These laws have changed the lives of thousands of young people, families, and communities in California and beyond. She is the author of Human Rights Watch reports on youth sentenced to life without parole, foster care and homelessness, and the effects of prosecuting children under 16 as adults. She works in partnership with youth activists, faith groups, family members of youth who are incarcerated, survivors of crime, people in prison, and advocates.

Philip Melendez

Board Member

Philip Melendez

Philip Melendez

Board Member

Philip Melendez is the Director of Special Projects at Smart Justice California, where he leads the organization’s Get Proximate Program. Through prison visits and other gatherings, Phil works to bring people with power and influence into proximity with mass incarceration and in conversation with currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. As a formerly incarcerated individual himself, Phil is a staunch advocate for prison and sentencing reform, and hopes to bring home many of the good people he left behind. After nearly 20 years of incarceration, Philip returned home September of 2017. Today, his work with SJCA builds on Phil’s extensive experience coordinating events – during and after his incarceration – to connect community leaders, survivors of harm, and incarcerated people to reimagine justice. In addition to prison visits, Philip has led and participated in many coalitions advocating for numerous prison and sentencing reform bills in the California Legislature.

Mend Collaborative

P.O. Box 292544

Los Angeles, CA 90029

[email protected]

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~bell hooks

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