Our Staff
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Katherine DiPiero
Social Worker, Criminal Defense PracticeKatherine DiPiero
Social Worker, Criminal Defense Practice contactKatie DiPiero (she/her/hers) earned her Master’s in Social Work and Social Policy from the University of Chicago, where she concentrated in the Transforming Justice Program of Study. While earning her degree, she interned at the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission and the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. There, she worked with the Center on Wrongful Convictions, supporting clients through individual counseling and by writing clemency petitions and reentry plans. She also supported the work of the Final 5 Campaign, an effort to close the five remaining youth prisons in Illinois. Before graduate school, Katie worked for five years at a school in Englewood and another five years at Chicago Jesuit Academy, where she supported a caseload of alumni from 14-26 years old through academic transitions, court-based advocacy, career counseling, responses to community violence, and offered trauma-informed support. Katie co-leads the local chapter of Abolition Apostles and volunteers with the Envision Freedom Fund. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Psychology from Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana, and currently holds her LMSW in the state of New York.
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Rosa Jaffe-Geffner
Director of Social Work, Civil Action PracticeRosa Jaffe-Geffner
Director of Social Work, Civil Action Practice contactRosa (she/her/mx) received her Master of Social Work from Columbia University School of Social Work. Since graduating, she has been a social worker in defense settings, including the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice and the Urban Justice Center’s Mental Health Project. As Director of Social Work at the Mental Health Project, Rosa oversaw and provided direct advocacy services and community education for individuals with mental health concerns. Her work focused on systemic advocacy for housing and public benefits. Rosa is a New Yorker who is passionate about practicing social work from a social justice lens. She graduated from SUNY Purchase College in 2010 with a B.A. in Sociology and a double minor in Global Black Studies and Women Studies.
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Sarah Knight
Director of Social Work, Criminal Defense PracticeSarah Knight
Director of Social Work, Criminal Defense Practice contactSarah received her M.S.W. from the Columbia University School of Social Work in 2013, concentrating in social welfare policy. While at Columbia, Sarah interned with the Correctional Association of New York, monitoring conditions of confinement in New York State prisons and advocating for progressive, systemic change. Sarah also interned with the Legal Aid Society Juvenile Rights Practice, collaborating with attorneys for children in child protective and delinquency cases, and at MFY Legal Services, which provides pro bono civil legal services to New York City residents. Sarah previously worked as a member of an ACT team at Pathways to Housing DC, providing outpatient mental health and housing services to people experiencing chronic homelessness in Washington, DC. She was born and raised in Minnesota and is fluent in Spanish. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and holds a B.A. in Sociology.
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Samantha Pumar
Social Worker, Criminal Defense PracticeSamantha Pumar
Social Worker, Criminal Defense Practice contactSamantha received her Masters in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice in 2016 where she concentrated in Macro Social Work with a specialization in Criminal Justice. While in school, Samantha interned at the Pennsylvania Prison Society as well as the University of Pennsylvania’s Goldring Reentry Initiative. She also assisted the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Reintegration Services in formalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill Benefit Pilot Program. Before entering graduate school, she was a counseling intern at Community Education Center’s Tully House facility in New Jersey. Samantha graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a Bachelors degree in Forensic Psychology with minors in Corrections and Criminology in 2014.
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Elizabeth Williams
Social Worker Supervisor, Adolescent Defense ProjectElizabeth Williams
Social Worker Supervisor, Adolescent Defense Project contactElizabeth earned her Masters in Social Work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at the Washington University in St. Louis. While at the Brown School, she established the first social work internship at the Missouri State Public Defender St. Louis City office. Additionally, as an intern, she created the first employment-readiness program at the St. Louis City Justice Center with the Transition from Jail to Community Initiative. Prior to joining The Bronx Defenders, Elizabeth served as a criminal justice social worker advocating for alternative sentencing options for youth at the Center for Court Innovation’s Midtown Community Court. She has experience researching, developing, implementing and evaluating reentry programs for criminal justice-involved adults. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Elizabeth earned her Bachelors of Arts degrees in Sociology and Africana Studies from Pitzer College.
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Carolyn Strudwick (Managing Director, Social Work)
Carolyn Strudwick (Managing Director, Social Work)
contactCarolyn Strudwick (she/her/hers) is a social worker with over 27 years of experience working with homeless and at-risk youth. Her area of specialty is working with youth who have suffered traumatic experiences stemming from societal violence and victimization. She approaches the work within a social justice harm reduction framework utilizing a trauma informed and anti-oppression lens while addressing structural and institutional racism as it shows up in social work practice and with communities served.
Carolyn began her career in social services at Safe Horizon in 1993 as an Outreach Worker and Case Manager at Safe Horizon’s Youth Program, the Streetwork Project. Carolyn last role was that of Associate Vice-President for youth program where she also served on the organization’s Program and Senior Team. In this role, Carolyn’s development of youth programming utilizing an anti-oppression framework and a Transformative Justice approach with youth addressing violence and abuse, served as the model for the organization as it moved in its strategic plan towards anti-racism work. Carolyn served as a leader and mentor during this phase using the perspective and experience from her intersecting identities to center the voices of BIPOC young people and staff.
Through her commitment to anti-racism practice, she mentored many, sponsored the People of Color Having Courageous Conversations for Connections Affinity Group, and was a founding co-chair of the People of Color in Leadership Affinity Group. During this time, Carolyn collaborated with many Safe Horizon programs to implement Client-Centered Practice and tailor the trauma-informed practice model, ARC (Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competency), with an anti-racism and anti-oppression framework with young people. Carolyn exemplified in the expansion of mental health services at Streetwork by becoming a satellite of the Counseling Center. This opportunity opened new possibilities of funding for the program which resulted in two consecutive awards from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide harm reduction services to vulnerable youth.
Carolyn has been a prominent voice and figure within the Runaway and Homeless youth committee serving on various advocacy groups such as Coalition for Homeless Youth providing testimony to City Council and addressing legislative advocacy and policies around the needs of youth. As a Harm Reductionist, she participates in championing the rights of drug users and sex workers to prevent marginalization and criminalization. Carolyn also participates in the Downstate Racial Justice Committee which reviews policies and legislation brought to the larger Downstate legislative body from Albany to ensure there are no potential racial impacts on communities of color.
Carolyn graduated from Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work 2006, where she earned a Masters in Social Work specializing in Community Organizing and Planning. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor in the social work department at Hunter College.