Meet Our Staff
Kelsey Hoie Ferrell, CARE Director
831.459.1053As the CARE Director, Kelsey serves the campus community as an advocate, manager, and content expert on interpersonal and sexual violence prevention. She is committed to approaching both prevention and intervention work from an intersectional and community-based approach.
Prior to moving to sunny California, Kelsey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Eastern European Republic of Moldova. In Moldova, Kelsey served as the director for an anti human trafficking initiative. She also worked on women’s empowerment programs and learned Romanian. Her education includes a bachelor's degree in Humanities from Fort Lewis College and a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from Portland State University. She completed her master’s thesis on culturally responsive collaborative program evaluation for immigrant and refugee community programs.
Outside of work, Kelsey is the seeing-eye human for her blind dog, Loki. She is a maker-of-things including knitwear, patterns, jewelry, and has a current obsession with tapestry weaving. Kelsey also loves hiking in the redwoods, making homemade apple pie, and reading as much as possible.
Emma Rouda, Violence Prevention Educator
831-459-2721Emma is the Violence Prevention Education Coordinator and is one of the Confidential Advocates for student, staff, and faculty survivors of sexual violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual harassment at UCSC. Emma does individual advocacy work for survivors' safety and healing and coordinates the sexual violence prevention for the UCSC population.
They work with student staff and volunteers to create workshops, events, and social media campaigns in an effort to spread knowledge on affirmative consent, healthy intimate partner relationships, bystander intervention, how to support survivors, and what services CARE provides.
Emma is passionate about reducing the shame and blame that is often put on survivors of violence and fostering a culture of consent at UCSC and beyond.
Tona Gonzalez Karlsson, Confidential Advocate
831.459.1746I am a Confidential Advocate for student, staff, and faculty survivors of sexual violence, dating/domestic violence, stalking, and sexual harassment at UC Santa Cruz.
After graduating with a BA in Psychology from UCSC, I worked with teens in the Santa Cruz community for a few years on topics like Healthy Relationships and Sex Education. It was during this time that I realized I had a passion and affinity for working with people, and decided to pursue a graduate degree in Social Work, concentrating in Interpersonal Violence and Trauma. During graduate school, I interned as a Therapy Trainee at a local high school, and the following year I interned as a Social Worker and Reentry Counselor with the California Youth Authority in Southern California. What I enjoy most about working at CARE is the opportunity to work with people from all over California and beyond, and to enjoy the same views I enjoyed very much as a UCSC student.
I spend most of my time hanging out with my dogs, Yaretzi and Pepper (Yari and Pep for short), listening to music, going to the beach, working out and staying strong, and enjoying days when the sun is shining!
Claudia Velazquez
831.502.2273
Claudia (she/her/hers) is the administrative support person for CARE. This means she is the first face you see when you walk through the doors. Claudia is a UCSC alumni and is excited to provide support to the school community. Claudia started working with survivors of domestic violence and rape four years ago. Claudia got into this type of work after personally having seen a close friend experience an abusive relationship in high school and not knowing how to support her friend. At her previous job, Claudia specialized in domestic violence related court hearings (both family and criminal law) and being a safe person for children survivors under 12. Claudia enjoys seeing the growth and resiliency in survivors as well as being able to educate the community on how to be allies. Just as Claudia preaches to everyone, she does try very hard to keep up a self care routine. For everyday self care, Claudia drinks plenty of water, takes short 20 minute snoozers and tries to cook every night. She enjoys watching "rom coms" and anime, eating pho, hanging out with her sister and getting her nails done.
If Claudia could be famous for one thing, it would be for having a glorious goat and alpaca ranch. It would be world famous! All the revenue made off it would be donated to different agencies working with trauma survivors and climate change.
Chicana, arriba Durango!
Laughing, more often than not
A fan of Kpop and Reggaeton
Understanding
Dazzling mind of random facts
Immigrant rights advocate
Animal lover
Gianna Passalacqua, CARE Intern
I am a second year undergraduate affiliated with Cowell College and a double major in Politics and Literature with a concentration in Comparative Politics. I love running, swimming, and keeping active, and a fun fact about myself is that I participated twice in the California International Marathon. This is my third year working in interpersonal violence prevention and I choose to work for CARE because I believe everyone has a right to an education that is free from sexual violence. I am excited to lead workshops surrounding topics such as mental health in intimate relationships, supporting survivors, and navigating trauma. I hope to promote a diverse and healing environment for all students.
Lourdes Dizon, CARE Intern
Lourdes Dizon is a CARE Intern, her work has pertained to the subjects of unhealthy and healthy relationships and self-care. She became involved with CARE when attempting to find a career involving human rights and highly focused on helping improve the UCSC lifestyle for students.
Her experience begins with volunteering at Ronald McDonald House of Charities, a non-profit organization created to provide temporary housing for underprivileged families awaiting the recovery of their children in the hospital; along with political and journalism courses throughout her academic career. These two experiences influence her to explore topics of mental health, self-care, the sociopolitical power structure of media revolving human rights. Her areas of expertise coincide with supporting DV/SA survivors, the power and control aspects of a relationship. What she likes most about her job is how it taught her new ways of self-care and advocating CARE resources throughout UCSC, working with new volunteers and Resources Centers, along with working on potential future workshops and care days that she hopes will help the community of Santa Cruz.
Her self-care activities and hobbies include running and going on hikes, drinking tea, and immersing herself in the world of literature through reading and writing. If Lourdes isn't at the CARE Office, you could find her at the gym or in a random place writing in her journal. If Lourdes could be famous for anything, she would want to be acknowledged as a traveling political journalist and activist!
Carrie Vasquez, CARE Intern
Carrie is an intern at CARE. She is a second year Feminist Studies major with a concentration in Law, Politics, and Social Change and a minor in Legal Studies here at UCSC. Prior to working at CARE, she has worked with homeless LGBTQ+ youth of color and is extremely passionate about many LGBTQ+/POC issues. She decided to work at CARE because it coincided with many of the things she encountered while working at the Center for homeless LGBTQ+ youth. She enjoys working with her fellow CARE interns on spreading the word about what CARE on campus. As the school year progresses, she becomes more and more excited to put up workshops for UCSC students to live a better, healthier lifestyle.
If Carrie could be famous, she would love to be a feminist icon.
