CONSULTANTS

Kathryn Burroughs

Natalie Oleas

Natalie, a California native, has worked as a survivor advocate for over a decade. She graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 2011, where her studies centered around victim advocacy, criminal procedure, and civil rights. While living in Massachusetts, she worked as a Legal Consultant for a local Rape Crisis Center. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Santa Barbara, where she double majored in English and Sociology and worked as a Speaker for the Rape Prevention Education Program. She was a Certified Rape Crisis Counselor in California and Massachusetts. She has worked at the Contra Costa Family Justice Center for the past three years and is the Central Center Director. She is proud to be taking on her new role with the Alliance. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her spouse and her 4-year-old border collie.

Deborah Son

Deborah Son is a consultant for the Alliance to End Abuse. She oversees development and implementation of the Alliance's train-the-trainer program, an initiative that works to raise the capacity of community members and allied professionals to more broadly address and enhance awareness of issues relating to interpersonal violence. Deborah has over 10 years of systems changes, advocacy, training, and program development experience. Her work spans across various fields including trauma-informed care, anti-violence, children and family services, and public and behavioral health. Deborah received her Master in Social Work from California State University, East Bay and her B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is an active leader with the National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter, recently served as a Commissioner on the Contra Costa County Commission for Women, and as a national technical assistance provider in gender-based violence issues. As a second generation immigrant raised in California, she is inspired daily by the experiences of local communities in the East Bay whose voices she works diligently to lift up and represent when advocating to positively impact socio-political change.

Kristin Bodiford

Kristin believes that magic can happen when people come together around issues they care deeply about. Kristin is Principal of Community Strengths, working with organizations and communities to support generative possibilities. Kristin serves as a project consultant to The Contra Costa Alliance to End Abuse and the Families Thrive initiative. In this role, she supports efforts to create a more trauma-informed system through training, evaluation, and communications. Kristin serves as a representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council for Generations United advising on family and intergenerational policy. She is an adjunct professor at Dominican University School of Social Work and faculty with the Taos Institute. Kristin has developed and taught classes on trauma and healing, collaborative and relational process, restorative justice, conflict transformation, family-centered policy, intergenerational community building, and research practices. One of her favorite classes is taking students to learn community-based participatory research in collaboration with older persons in Uganda. Kristin holds a Ph.D. from Tilburg University and an MBA from University of California, Davis. Kristin’s doctoral research focused on the power of engaging voices that may be marginalized in communities through collaborative dialogue that leads to personal and collective social action.