center for council staff
Jared Seide
Executive Director
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Jared Seide is the Executive Director of Center for Council. He has designed, piloted and coordinated council-based programs in prisons, assisted living facilities, youth groups and a variety of non-profit, faith-based organizations, social service and law enforcement agencies, including the "Co-Mentoring Project,” for emancipated foster youth, the "Organizational Wellness Project,” for the staff of scores of community-based organizations, the “Council for Insight, Compassion & Resilience” active in more than twenty prisons throughout California and winner of the American Correctional Association’s Innovations in Corrections award, the "Trainer Leadership Initiative," supporting emerging council leaders serving impacted communities, and the council-based "Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy & Resilience” (POWER) Training Program for law enforcement and correctional officers. “Compassion, Attunement & Resilience Education” (CARE) for Healthcare Professionals is a program he developed with Dr. Ann Philips Seide that focuses on burnout and dysregulation amongst physicians, nurses and other first responders and utilizes innovations mindfulness science and compassionate communication techniques like council to support a culture of professional wellness in healthcare.
Jared has coordinated, mentored and facilitated council programs at over a dozen schools in Southern California and has led trainings and retreats focusing on reconciliation and community-building throughout the U.S., and in Poland, Rwanda, France, Colombia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Jared directed the "Center for Council Practice" initiative of The Ojai Foundation, the antecedent of Center for Council. He co-led the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Conference on integrating Council and SRM in California and Rwandan prisons and was a Resident Fellow at the Bellagio Center. He has been a presenter at conferences and seminars, speaking on the integration of Council into varied arenas, including South by Southwest, International Association of Chiefs of Police, California Rehabilitation Oversight Board, Association of Change Management Professionals, Bellagio Fellows Gathering, Monterey Restorative Justice Commission and the Restorative Justice in Motion Conference, at Eastern Methodist University. Jared’s educational background includes a BA with high honors from Brown University. Prior to his work with Center for Council, Jared led careers in the entertainment industry and the corporate world. He is a member of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, a graduate of the Upaya Institute Chaplaincy Program and has been a Spirit Holder for Zen Peacemaker Bearing Witness Retreats around the world. Jared is also the author of Where Compassion Begins: Foundational Practices to Enhance Mindfulness, Attention and Listening from the Heart, a book that draws from the extraordinary contributions of many teachers, mentors and allies who have contributed to the evolution of the work of Center for Council. Read archived articles and listen to interviews with Jared. |
Maria Schnair
Director of Advancement
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Maria Schnair joins the team at Center for Council after a decade of experience in nonprofit development. Her career has primarily focused on supporting the growth and development of organizations serving low-income communities and families in the greater Los Angeles area. Maria has spent years working within nonprofits and institutions such as USC and Pathways LA, as well as independently as a nonprofit consultant. Her experience working both on the inside and outside of organizations gives her a unique perspective on fundraising strategy and organizational development. Maria’s greatest passion is connecting an organization’s mission to an inspired funder to create a shared vision for a better future. In addition to her work in the nonprofit sector, Maria brings a background in mindfulness, leadership development and yoga to her role. She is eager to amplify the mission of Center for Council at a moment when the organization’s vision for a more compassionate and inclusive society is critically needed.
Maria holds a Master of Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Southern California. |
Josh Jentzsch
Director of Programs and Operations
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Most recently, Josh Jentzsch was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, where he lived in a remote desert town near the border with Algeria. Through dust storms and extreme temperatures, he taught English and helped numerous Moroccans start or expand their businesses, teaching basic accounting, website development, and business soft-skills. Prior to that, he spent eleven years in the legal services industry, where he owned one firm and managed another. Because of his passion and acumen for establishing effective systems for growth, he has also helped numerous start-ups, acting as an adviser and operations manager. The vision of Center for Council dovetails perfectly with Josh's philosophy to "give back better," offering the world and our communities more than what was handed us. Josh has a degree in History from Westminster College, an intimate liberal arts university in Salt Lake City.
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Summre Garber
Finance Associate
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Summre Garber has been working in nonprofit finance and operations for over a decade in the Los Angeles area. Beginning with film festival and event production at Slamdance, the Bentonville Film Festival, and others, she moved into her role as the Director of Operations at the Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center bringing her skills as a community organizer and independent thought leader from her festival background. Summre is committed to engaging people from all backgrounds towards thoughtful communication and mindfulness and regularly practices mediation and yoga with her two children. Summre received an MA in Film Theory from San Francisco State University.
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Alea Wade
Program Associate
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Alea Wade is a teacher, council facilitator, youth mentor, resource advocate, and administrative professional. She is committed to the enrichment of mind, body, spirit and collective healing. Alea is a facilitator for Rites of Passage retreats with The Ojai Foundation, Brentwood school, and Crossroads school. She creates and collaborates on social and emotional programs that support community, growth, and empowerment. Alea received her Bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara with studies in Philosophy, English, and Black Studies. As a FIRE fellow with the Ojai Foundation, she co-founded Blk Crcl where she develops programs that support mental health, personal development, and healing for Black communities being impacted by systems of oppression. In addition to her work as a disability resource advocate with the Independent Living Resource Center, Alea has also collaborated with social justice organizations like The Youth Justice Coalition to promote disability justice in healthcare. Her mission is to build more bridges of access that meet at the intersections of healing, council, social justice, and disability justice.
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Mitch Highley
In-Reach Associate
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Mitch Highley was born and raised in Orange County, California. He has been involved with Center for Council since 2016, when he enrolled in the council program at Ironwood State Prison, where he was facing a life sentence. "I spent half my life incarcerated due to poor choices and lacking a sense of purpose and belonging in the community. Center for Council is where I learned healing from my past is possible. It gave me a safe place to learn, grow, and be vulnerable with my peers. Connection was invaluable to my recovery and these circles served as the ground for empathy, compassion and understanding to not only take root, but flourish. I discovered how to fill voids of emptiness with emotions I couldn't identify in my past. Through council interactions I learned to leave prejudice and look for similarities rather than differences." Despite his sentence, Mitch committed himself fully to his self-improvement and education in prison. He achieved a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology with an emphasis on criminology as well as Certification as a Substance Abuse Counselor. As a result of his work and transformation, he was granted parole in 2019. He has been working to share his story of redemption, and giving back to support those on the path, ever since.
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Efrain Ortiz
Program Assistant
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Efrain Ortiz was introduced to Center for Council through the Prison Council Initiative at California State Prison-Los Angeles County. There he joined the first cohort on Facility B and went on to serve as a facilitator for future council circles. The empathy and compassion he learned through the teachings of council had a profound effect on him. Council allowed Efrain to release many of his past traumas and hurts. He states, “Council allowed to me take off the weight I carried from my past, the resentments, the pain, the needless suffering. It allowed me to be me and remove the façade/identity I created many years ago.” Efrain began to utilize these teachings for his personal life with his family and with other incarcerated men. He invited other incarcerated men to sign up for council and mentored them as he continued his own personal growth. His experience helped other realize the effectiveness of sitting with other human beings who shared more experiences than they could imagine.
As a returning citizen Efrain continues to train in the way of council, growing as a person and helping those surrounding him. He is looking forward to returning to the institutions to co-facilitate council for those still incarcerated as well as assisting those returning home. Efrain understands there is a need for council for returning citizens and their families. |
Nicole Baxley
Advancement Assistant
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Nicole Baxley is currently a student at Loyola Marymount University pursuing a BA in Political Science as well as a BA in sociology. Most recently she worked at a nonprofit law firm to protect children in the foster care system. Nicole has worked in multiple countries helping build water infrastructure and teaching English and is excited to turn her passion of helping people to Center for Council's mission.
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Sam Escobar
Outreach Associate
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Sam was introduced to council as a member of the inaugural Prison Council Initiative at Salinas Valley State Prison. Having witnessed the impact of council in his own life and in the lives of his fellow inmates, as well as in the lives of his family members, he has become passionate about carrying this work even further.
Sam learned the values of compassion and empathy in the most unlikely of places and chose to devote his time to mentoring other inmates in this work, while at the same time working on his own rehabilitation. Over the course of several years, Sam has participated in numerous Center for Council workshops and events in prison, as well as in Los Angeles (via speakerphone) and was able to tell the story of his transformation to groups of community leaders and program participants. His writing from prison has been published online by ATTN.COM. His voice has helped bring widespread attention to the value and effectiveness of the Prison Council Initiative and how council helps build safe spaces that allow incarcerated men to open up and be themselves without having to hide behind the masks they have learned to wear as part of "the criminal lifestyle." As a result of his transformation, Sam received parole in 2018 and he is now working for Center for Council as its Outreach Associate. He participates in Native American spiritual communities around Southern California. In addition to the many Center for Council programs that Sam supports, he and his wife Jolene Escobar, a member of Center for Council's Trainer Leadership Initiative, look forward to co-facilitating council circles focused on the families of the incarcerated, with the hope of helping them heal from the wounds of having a loved one locked away, as well as helping the offender understand the impact of their crime on their community. |
