Over the course of two afternoons, we will provide a best practices framework for mitigation and sentencing advocacy work during COVID and in more “normal” times as well. We will cover the history and development of the profession and highlight standards of practice and ethics. Specific skill sets will be addressed, including investigation, records collection, interviewing, writing, and story-telling. An exploration of race, ethnicity, and cultural issues will provide a wider lens for understanding and sharing the client's unique story.

The program provides training for participants from nationally recognized experts in the field. The small class size will ensure quality instruction, coaching, and hands-on learning. Participants will receive sample materials, organizational tools, sample reports, scholarly articles, and e-tools to assist their practices.

PROGRAM AGENDA

10am-10:15am: Welcome and Introductions Denise Smith, LCSW-C and Megan Leschak, LMSW

10:15am-11am: History and Significance of the Profession Cessie Alfonso, LCSW

11am-12pm:  Interviewing with Awareness to Gather the Story Sam Dworkin

12pm-1pm: Lunch

1pm -2pm: Importance of Cultural Humility in Defense Work  Cessie Alfonso, LCSW  and Stephanne Thornton, LCSW 

2pm-3pm: Safety in the Field Sarah Forte 

3pm-3:15pm: Break

3:15pm-4:15pm: Telling the Story: Persuasive Report Writing Shannon Keyes-Woodward, LCSW

4:15pm-5:15pm: Private Practice Rebecca Bowman-Rivas, LCSW-C and Kathrine Mayer

Thursday, June 15, 2023

9am-11:15am: Small Group Coaching (participants choose from a list of options)

(Click here to see what workshops are happening at our Holistic Conference!)

11:15am-12:30pm: Investigation, Collection, and Organizing Records Charity Laister, LCSW, JD

12:30pm-2pm: Lunch

2:15pm-3:15pm: Clients Returning to the Community Shannice Anderson-Kimpson and Joanie Shreve, LCSW. Open to all COD attendees.  

3:15pm-4:15pm: Elements of Effective Testimony Joanie Shreve, LCSW

4:15pm-4:30pm: Break

4:30pm-5:30pm:  Engaging Restorative Practices in Defense Work Vivianne Guevara, LCSW

Friday, June 16, 2023

9am-10:15am: Neuropsychology 101 Ellen Shultz, MSW and Dr. Jonathan DeRight Open to all COD attendees.

10:30pm-12:00pm: Vicarious Healing: Wellness for Defense-Based Advocates Megan Leschak, LMSW and Denise Smith, LCSW-C. Open to all COD attendees. This will be a plenary with other speakers (TBA)  

Shannice Anderson-Kimpson 

Shannice Anderson  began her service to the Maryland Office of The Public Defender (MOPD) as an Intake Specialist in Baltimore City. In this initial role, she witnessed the link between economic deprivation and criminalization. For the past 17 years, she has spent both her personal and professional  life collaborating with community partners, clients and colleagues to prioritize community engagement as a central way to build partnerships, educate the public and reduce recidivism. As the needs of the community persist, they require more direct attention. In response, Shannice Anderson currently serves in the inaugural position of Community Engagement Coordinator for the Maryland Office of The Public Defender. 

Cessie Alfonso 

Cessie Alfonso, LCSW, is a nationally recognized expert in forensic social work, domestic violence and organizational development in the area of cultural competence and valuing diversity. She is founder and president of Alfonso Associates. For the past 27 years, Alfonso Associates has provided social work and psychosocial assessments to the clients of civil and criminal attorneys throughout the United States, as well as internationally. As a mitigation specialist, she and her associates have conducted more than 1,000 mitigation investigations since she began providing services. Ms. Alfonso has testified as an expert social worker in the penalty phase of capital cases in state and federal courts throughout the United States. Cessie Alfonso has a Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology and Sociology from Hood College. Ms. Alfonso earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work from Rutgers University in 1977. Ms. Alfonso is a member of the National Academy of Social Workers, licensed clinical social worker in the State of New Jersey, and a certified social worker with her R in the State of New York. Ms. Alfonso is a bilingual (Spanish speaking), bicultural (Afro-Puerto Rican-Cuban) social worker who has trained attorneys and professionals to appreciate and integrate into their practices and organizations the ethnic diversity and cultural aspects of their clients' lives. She is also a nationally recognized domestic violence/battered woman's expert who has appeared on national television and BBC radio. She has conducted training in this area to professionals in the criminal justice system. As a valuing diversity/cultural competence trainer and consultant Ms. Alfonso has worked with large corporations like New Jersey Bell, Bell Laboratories, the New York City Legal Aid Society, The New York State Defender’s Association, and Social Security Administration. Ms. Alfonso’s appreciation and knowledge of group dynamics and perspective on how biosocial factors create barriers to effective communication, combined with her experience as a bicultural individual, make her uniquely qualified to design and implement cultural competence training for large and small organizations. She recently received the NLADA Life in the Balance Achievement Award. She was recognized by the Governor of New Jersey as a leading mitigation specialist and one who significantly contributed to the ultimate abolition of the death penalty in the state. Alfonso Associates custom-designs training programs using focus groups, one on one interviews, and training materials that can be utilized by key staff members at an organization who have been trained by Alfonso Associates for continuing cultural competency training for other staff members. Recently, Ms. Alfonso designed and implemented an Advanced Clinical Training for Mitigation Specialists, Investigators, and Attorneys for the state of Colorado Alternative Defense Counsel. 

Rebecca Bowman-Rivas 

Rebecca Bowman-Rivas is a clinical and forensic social worker, who has run the Law & Social Work Services Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore’s Carey School of Law for the past 18 years. The program provides social work services and support for the Law School’s Clinical Program, providing law and social work students the opportunity to collaborate and provide holistic services to their clients. Areas of practice include criminal justice, immigration, low-income tax payers, gender violence, and healthcare and HIV/AIDS. The program provided support and case management for individuals being released under Unger v. Maryland (2012), after serving decades in prison. Ms. Bowman-Rivas has also been in private practice for more than a decade through Bowman-Rivas Consulting, providing mitigation and sentencing advocacy in capital cases and other felonies, juvenile LWOP and transfer of jurisdiction cases. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland School of Social Work. 

Sam Dworkin 

Samuel Wiita Dworkin is a mitigation specialist and investigator with more than 15 years’ experience in capital and criminal defense, working on sentencing and merits investigations as well as juvenile re-sentencing cases, at the state and federal levels in all stages (pre-trial, habeas and post-conviction, re-sentencings, etc.). He is published as the lead co-author of the chapter “Capital Case Sentencing Evaluations” in the textbook Inside Forensic Psychology, and, from the Fall of 2013-2017, he was an adjunct professor, co-teaching the course “The Death Penalty and Mitigation” to graduate level students at Marymount University’s department of Forensic and Legal Psychology. Sam has worked on more than 40 capital murder cases, as well as numerous serious felony cases and juvenile re-sentencing cases. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” – Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Sarah Forte 

Sarah Forte is the senior investigator at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia. She joined SCHR in June 2006 upon graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism where she worked for the Medill Innocence Project investigating possible wrongful murder convictions and other miscarriages of justice. At SCHR, Sarah investigates death penalty cases at the trial level and in post-conviction proceedings. Sarah has been on the faculty of numerous national trainings for public defenders and other legal professionals engaged in criminal defense work. In July 2015, Sarah became a member of the Executive Committee of the National Alliance of Sentencing Advocates and Mitigation Specialists. 

Vivianne Guevara 

Vivianne Guevara is the Director of Client and Mitigation Services at the Federal Defenders of New York in the Eastern District and has been working as a Defender for over 13 years. Prior to joining the Federal Defenders of New York, Vivianne was an Investigator and Social Worker at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia, where she supported litigation that challenged conditions in juvenile and adult jails and prisons in Georgia and Alabama, the provision of indigent defense in Georgia, and the proliferation of debtor’s prisons in Georgia. She also worked with clients individually to reduce the impact of the collateral consequences that resulted from civil and criminal court involvement. 
 
Vivianne began working in public defense as a social worker at the Bronx Defenders, where she worked with clients charged in domestic violence and mental health courts. While working towards her Master’s Degree in Social Work, she was an Outreach Specialist at the Bowery Residents’ Committee where she worked one-on-one with homeless individuals on the streets and in the subways of New York City. Vivianne holds a certificate in Restorative Justice and Restorative Circles and received training from Kay Pranis, Planning Change, and the International Institute of Restorative Practices. She is a graduate of New York University and Columbia University School of Social Work. 
 
Shannon Keyes-Woodward 

Shannon Keyes Woodward, MSW, LCSW, received her BA from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and her MSW from the University of Maryland. Her areas of specialization are capital mitigation development, interviewing, mental health defense strategy, and community networking/outreach. Ms. Woodward has previously held positions in the Maryland Public Defender’s Felony Trial Unit (Baltimore); Capital Trial Assistance Unit (Chicago); and the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission (Alexandria). In 2016, Ms. Woodward started her own firm for mitigation and sentencing advocacy. She is currently working with public and private counsel in the development and integration of mitigation evidence and themes in state and federal capital cases, JLWOP resentencings, and other felony matters. Ms. Woodward was appointed to the NASAMS executive committee in 2014 and has presented at several local and national conferences. 

Charity Laister 

Charity Laister is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker in the State of Alabama. Ms. Laister has more than 10 years of social work experience. Throughout her social work career, she has practiced directly with individuals, served as a social work supervisor, and served as an administrator for social work and behavioral health programs. Ms. Laister earned a Juris Doctirate from the Birmingham School of Law, a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Alabama, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Work from the University of Montevallo. Ms. Laister previously served as the lead social worker at the Jefferson County Public Defender's Office in Birmingham, Alabama. She now develops mitigation and sentencing advocacy for capital cases in her private practice. 

Megan Leschak 

Megan is the co-owner of Context Mitigation, a firm that provides mitigation services for clients in both state and federal courts. Megan began her forensic social work career at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender in Baltimore City where she was awarded a Soros Open Society Institute Fellowship to highlight for the courts the impact of structural racism, poverty, and violence on defendants. She subsequently worked as a mitigation investigator in the Delaware Federal Defender Capital Habeas Unit and as the social work supervisor for the New Mexico Law Offices of the Public Defender. Megan earned her MSW from the University of Maryland where she co-created the course Racism and Racial Equity in Social Work Practice. Megan has trained attorneys, investigators, and social workers at forensic conferences across the country. 

Katherine Mayer 

Katherine Mayer is a death penalty mitigation specialist and Board Certified licensed private investigator in Austin, Texas. In 2012, Katherine established Mayer Consulting, which has grown to become a criminal defense consulting firm that employs social workers and licensed investigators in an effort to create a holistic approach and bolster communication within the defense team. She and her colleagues advocate for the appointments of both fact investigators and sentencing advocates in all criminal cases to ensure that the cohesiveness of their firm will improve the communication among the team. Katherine teaches an online criminal defense investigations course and serves as a mentor/career counselor for students trying to gain experience in the field of criminal defense. Katherine received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with an emphasis in Behavioral Forensics and a Masters of Arts in Forensic Psychology from Marymount University. 

Joanie Shreve 

A 2013 graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work, Joanie Shreve provides forensic social work services to Post Conviction clients, including mitigation investigations, sentencing advocacy, biopsychosocial assessments and comprehensive life history investigations, and offering expert testimony. She has expertise in long-term incarceration and Life sentences, institutional adjustment, and reentry planning. She previously managed the social work services provided on Unger cases, resulting in the release of over 200 people who served an average of 40 years in prison. She currently manages social work services in the Post Conviction Division, and referrals for clients eligible for review under the Juvenile Restoration Act.