Sheneka Mckenzie-Sage, LMSW, Director of Social Work, The Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Practice (JRP). She has over 20 years of experience working in the field and has worked with JRP for 20 years thus far. Sheneka is currently responsible for the overall administration, management, case management, and therapeutic practices of the social work program in all five borough offices in New York City. She is passionate about integrating macro and micro-level analysis into the social work practice, by naming all forms of structural bias as it directly impacts the lived experience of clients involved in social systems. Sheneka has served as faculty and presented on national platforms at the National Juvenile Defender Center and the National Association of Counsel for Children. Sheneka is an active member of both the National Organization of Forensic Social Work and the Association of Black Social Workers. Sheneka received her Master’s Degree with a clinical concentration in Children and Families from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service in NYC. Prior to that, Sheneka received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, from Norfolk State University in Norfolk, VA.

Natalie Peeples is the Director of Youth Justice Policy and Training at the Juvenile Rights Practice of the Legal Aid Society. Natalie began her Legal Aid career, in 2004, in the Brooklyn office of Juvenile Rights Practice. She transferred to their Criminal Practice, in 2008, where she advanced her litigation skills representing clients in serious felony and misdemeanor cases from inception to disposition, for over a decade. Many of those cases were litigated as jury trials and suppression hearings in Criminal and Supreme Court in Brooklyn.    Natalie’s passion for juvenile justice began during her clinical experience as a student at Georgetown University Law Center. There, she represented children charged with delinquencies, and that experience sparked an interest in representing young people in the juvenile legal system.  Natalie is passionate about juvenile justice and is deeply committed to bettering the lives of the children in the juvenile legal system.