Who We Are
Peter Ellis is the founding partner of CCPA. Dr. Ellis has been involved in community organizing and building community capacity for the past 40 years. He continues to apply and research resiliency variables as they relate to the development of pro-social and successful youth development, particularly in community-driven programs. Dr. Ellis is a past member of the Golden Feather Union School Board, past president of the Butte County School Board Association, and the co-founder of the University of Phoenix. Dr. Ellis earned his Ph.D. in Community Education and Administration from the University of Michigan.
Shirly Lee White
Rachel Camacho has experience working with youth and youth-led programs in both northern and southern California. Ms. Camacho co-leads the youth evaluator component of CCPA’s work and works closely with community-based providers to build their capacity to conduct program evaluations. Ms. Camacho also has extensive experience in grant writing, program development, and strategic planning related to programs that assist young people. Ms. Camacho earned her graduate degree at Claremont Graduate School.
Tanya Maria Baker coordinates the activities related to program evaluations, including leading the recruitment, training, and oversight of a 30-member Youth Evaluation Team. Ms. Baker also works closely with community-based providers in collecting data, disseminating information, and scheduling site visits. Ms. Baker is language proficient in Spanish and completed her undergraduate degree from California State University, Hayward.
Mark Browne assists community-based organizations in Santa Clara County to build additional capacity to meet their missions. Mr. Browne served as the director of a residential treatment center. In addition to creating and overseeing the assessment center program, Mr. Browne was responsible for the design of the core behavior management systems in operation. These various programs were initiated as part of an effort to develop a continuum of care in children’s services and operate as an integrated service delivery system. Mr. Browne earned his graduate degree in psychology from the University of Rhode Island.
Wil Cason is a part-time faculty member at San Jose State University and has extensive experience developing youth programs. He worked as an education consultant for Casey Family Programs and Foundations and designed and facilitated career development workshops using the adult learning theory model. Mr. Cason has worked to develop community collaboratives and maximize partnership opportunities with community and youth-based organizations. He is also a motivational speaker working with Les Brown and hosts a weekly motivational talk show. Mr. Cason earned his graduate degree at San Jose State University.
Pat Dwyer has extensive experience in law enforcement and community policing. After working for the San José Police Department for 32 years, Mr. Dwyer served as the Chief of Police for the City of Palo Alto, as well as the Interim Chief of Police for the cities of Hayward and Sunnyvale. He has been a national leader in the community policing, crime prevention, and detention reform. He is the law-enforcement consultant to the Santa Clara County Juvenile Detention Reform effort. Mr. Dwyer completed his undergraduate degree from San José State University and is a graduate of the California Law Enforcement Command College and the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development program.
Andrea Flores Shelton has experience in law and juvenile justice public policy having worked for a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors for seven years. She works closely with the Probation Department and other juvenile justice practitioners to reduce reliance on juvenile detention, to increase alternatives for youth by building community-based capacity, and to improve rehabilitation opportunities within the system. Andrea completed her Sociology degree at San José State University.
Rex S. Green is the Principal of a consulting firm devoted to assisting health and human service organizations improve the effectiveness of their services. Dr. Green led numerous grant-funded studies of the effects of health and human services on recipients for several research organizations. He has written over 20 journal articles and book chapters on measuring and improving service effectiveness. Dr. Green works with health and human service agency managers to incorporate client monitoring systems and performance indicators into routine agency operations. Dr. Green earned his Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from the University of Southern California.
Steve O'Donoghue is the co-director of The Media Academy, a California State Partnership Academy he founded in Oakland 15 years ago. Mr. O’Donoghue taught in Oakland public schools for 29 years, and in 1990, was named the National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund. He was also named California High School Journalism Teacher of the Year in 1989 by the California Newspaper Publishers Association and a Distinguished Educator by the Marcus A. Foster Educational Institute in 1986. Mr. O’Donoghue is a faculty member at San Francisco State University and earned his M.A. at San Francisco State University.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eury Ramos develops, manages, and evaluates youth and family education programs. He has supervised the operations of five Head Start Centers and designed professional development curriculum. Dr. Ramos monitored the implementation of the Federal Performance Standards for the Head Start Programs and was the director of the first bilingual childcare center in California. Dr. Ramos has developed health education and risk assessment programs and delivered these programs at pre-school centers, church groups, and non-profit organizations. He is fluent in Spanish. Dr. Ramos earned his Ed.D. from the University of San Francisco.
Maria Elena Riddle specializes in assisting community stakeholders to collaborate partner across public and private sectors to address community problems. Ms. Riddle has organized and delivered parent education programs, professional development courses for teachers, and other education-related services ranging from pre-school through the university level. Ms. Riddle also served as an administrator at the National Hispanic University. She has dedicated her career to assisting parents and their children to maximize the educational opportunities available to them. Maria Elena is fluent in Spanish, and earned her M.A. in education from the California State University, Hayward.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carol “Annie” Sullivan conducts research on best practices related to violence prevention and intervention, resiliency, and youth development. Ms. Sullivan previously served as the Violence Prevention Coordinator for the State of Minnesota’s Department of Children, Families, and Learning during which time she was the author of the state violence prevention plan. She lead the implementation of various school reform and community improvement initiatives. Ms Sullivan also supervises the evaluation of state and federally funded projects.