Home / Who We Are / Meet Our Staff

Meet Our Staff

  • Kelsey, CARE Director

    Kelsey Hoie Ferrell, CARE Director

    831.459.1053
    she/her/hers
    As 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.

  • Jazmin Jauregui

    Jazmin Jauregui, Advocate

    831.459.1746
    she/her/hers
  • Alison Hanson

    Alison Hanson, Prevention Education Coordinator

    831.459.2721
    she/her/hers
  • Bandisha Shah

    Bandisha Shah, Temporary Advocate

    831.502.2273
    she/her/hers
    Bandisha's passion for Psychology led her to move from Kenya to Southern California in order to pursue her higher education. She achieved her Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and became a Certified Counselor for survivors of sexual assault while volunteering and working with many organizations such as TAPP (Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting Program), California Cousins Program, and as a Victim/Witness Assistance at the Santa Ana Courthouse. She moved to the Bay Area in 2014, where she worked at Dress For Success and S.T.A.R. programs before joining Maitri as their program manager to develop their new economic empowerment & community outreach program, and a support group for survivors of domestic violence.


    Outside of work, she loves traveling, exploring new places, learning about different cultures, trying new restaurants, cooking (and eating!), dancing, reading, playing badminton, swimming, watching tv, and winning at Catan!
  • Carolyn Sohn

    Carolyn Sohn, Advocate

    831.459.3874
    she/her/hers
    As an advocate, Carolyn works directly with survivors of interpersonal violence, and the people who care for survivors in their own communities. She considers advocacy as a commitment to the resilience, strengths, and self-determination of survivors, and a responsibility to educate the wider community on the realities of interpersonal violence.

    Before arriving at the UCSC campus in September 2019, Carolyn was a CARE advocate and intake specialist at UC Santa Barbara. She received her advocate training at Standing Together to End Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Solutions, based in Santa Barbara. She's proud of her journey as a first generation college student and second generation Korean-American, and is thrilled to join the UCSC community.
  • Lourdes Dizon

    Lourdes Dizon, CUIP Community Support

    Lourdes Dizon

    She/Her/Hers

    CUIP Community Support

    I love being able to emotionally support the community and offer survivors safe spaces. I train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and I am super double jointed.

  • Sherry Tran

    Sherry Tran, Community Support Intern

    Sherry Tran

    She/Her/Hers 

    Community Support Intern

    Hello there! My name is Sherry and I am a Community Support Intern at CARE. I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve our campus community by providing emotional support and helping people get in touch with the resources they need, along with the opportunity to build up relationships with other organizations and resources on campus.

    I am a senior studying Art & Design: Games and Playable Media (go AGPM!!), a Leo, an ENFP, and Type 4 Enneagram. A couple of my interests are graphic design, calligraphy, hiking, reading, and video editing.

  • Allison Dean

    Allison Dean, Community Support Intern

    Allison Dean

    She/Her/Hers

    Community Support Intern

    I enjoy being an active member in my community and being able to help grow others and myself.  I was in a steel drums band! There are only 2 in the state of Arizona (and we were the best!)

  • Isis Casillas

    Isis Casillas, Community Support Intern

    Isis Casillas 

    She/Her/Hers

    Community Support Intern

    After volunteering with CARE last year, I like that I now have the chance to not only continue to spread the word about what we do, but I can work directly with survivors in offering emotional support and guidance. I am an avid reader of crime, romance, and erotic novel (fan of nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, and Lisa Roberts). I also love dogs and will wave hello to all dogs I see on the street (I don’t discriminate between breeds).

  • Gianna Passalacqua

    Gianna Passalacqua, CUIP Prevention Education

    Gianna Passalacqua 

    She/Her/Hers

    CUIP Prevention Education

    I enjoy giving folks the language and tools to heal from experiences of violence. I taught myself how to knit.

  • Carrie Vasquez

    Carrie Vasquez, Prevention Education Intern

    Carrie Vasquez

    She/Her/Hers or They/Them/Theirs 

    Prevention Education Intern

    I am a queer xicanx true crime lover. As a Prevention Education Intern, I enjoy facilitating workshops geared toward communities that I am a part of, specifically the QTBIPOC community. I have a persistent pupillary membrane in one eye (Google it). 

  • Rojina Bozorgnia

    Rojina Bozorgnia, Prevention Education Intern

    Rojina Bozorgnia

    She/Her/Hers or They/Them/Theirs

    Prevention Education Intern

    I love being able to spread my knowledge around the community and connecting folx to the right resources. I have memorized the entire script to Clueless. Ask me to recite it on the spot.

  • Anna Mulrooney 

    Anna Mulrooney, Prevention Education Intern

    Anna Mulrooney 

    She/Her/Hers

    Prevention Education Intern

    I love being able to spread awareness across UCSC to make our campus a safer place for everyone. A fun fact about me is that I’m the biggest dog lover you’ll ever meet. If I see a dog across the street, I will 100% cross the street to go pet it.

  • Connor Alexander

    Connor Alexander, Graphic Design and Marketing Intern

    Connor Alexander

    He/Him/His

    Graphic Design and Marketing Intern

    I love that I can use my skill in the arts to educate and aid people in the communities I exist in. A fun personal project I'm working on is writing and illustrating my own sci-fi comic book.