Meet Our Staff
Kelsey Hoie Ferrell, CARE Director
831.459.1053she/her/hersAs 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
831.459.2721Pansexual, Queershe/her/hers, they/them/theirsEmma Rouda is the Sexual Violence Prevention Education Coordinator for the UCSC population and is a Confidential Advocate for student, staff, and faculty survivors of sexual violence, dating violence, and stalking & their loved ones.As the coordinator for sexual violence prevention, they work with student interns and volunteers as well as campus partners to create workshops, events, and campaigns in an effort to spread knowledge about CARE services, affirmative consent, healthy intimate partner relationships, the dynamics of sexual, dating, & stalking violence, rape culture, bystander intervention, and supporting survivors. As an advocate, she supports survivors and their loved ones to navigate the paths they choose to find safety and healing.
Emma graduated from UCSC with a B.A. in Feminist Studies, with a concentration in Science, Medicine, and Technology. They went on to receive their Masters of Public Health in maternal and child health and Masters of Social Welfare in direct health services from UC Berkeley. In the past, Emma has worked to create equity and safety around the public health crises of HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, obstetric fistula, dating/domestic violence, & sexual assault. To this end, their work has spanned the methods of research, policy, education, and counseling/advocacy. They assisted in the research, data analysis, and national implementation of a revolutionary first aid device for obstetric hemorrhage in Zambia. They focused their masters thesis on the connection between surviving adolescent dating violence and enduring additional dating violence in adulthood, in an attempt to discover how to end this cycle.
In her free time, Emma enjoys trees, laughter, and chocolate. Emma is passionate about reducing the shame and blame that is often put on survivors of sexual violence and fostering a culture of consent & empathy at UCSC and beyond.
Tona Gonzalez Karlsson, Confidential Advocate
831.459.1746Bisexual, Queershe/her/hersTona is a Confidential Advocate for students, staff, and faculty who have been impacted by sexual violence, dating/domestic violence, stalking, and sexual harassment at UC Santa Cruz.Prior to working at UCSC, Tona worked with women and youth impacted by sexual violence in a variety of contexts, including the Walnut Avenue Family & Women's Center, middle schools and high schools throughout Santa Cruz County, in foster/group homes, and in a Southern California youth correctional facility. Tona has experience facilitating support groups, healthy relationships workshops, and teaching sex education with groups of teens in the Santa Cruz community.
Tona has a BA in Psychology (from UCSC!), and a Masters of Social Work with a concentration in Interpersonal Violence and Trauma.
Tona loves her dogs (Yari and Pepper), sunshine, food, and going to the beach!
Claudia Velazquez, Admin Support
831.502.2273Queershe/her/hersClaudia is the administrative support person for CARE who works closely with the advocates to set up appropriate services and with volunteers in outreach activities around campus. She is the first face you see when you walk through the doors and provides proper referrals for those who do not fall under CARE's services.Claudia is a UCSC alumni with a BA in Sociology with an emphasis on gendered violence in prisons. She has worked with survivors of domestic violence and rape for about six years. She began this work after personally having a close friend experience an abusive relationship in high school and not knowing how to be supportive. At her previous job, Claudia specialized in domestic violence related court hearings (both family and criminal law) and being a safe advocate for children survivors under 12. Claudia recently went back to school and is studying Early Childhood Education and Criminal Justice at Cabrillo in hopes of using the knowledge in advocacy for survivors.
Claudia tries very hard to keep up a self care routine. For everyday self care, Claudia drinks plenty of water, tries to cook every night and takes short walks with her pup. She enjoys watching "rom coms," trying new food, hanging out with her sister and getting her nails done.
Gianna Passalacqua, Survivor Support Coordinator
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Gianna Passalacqua is the Survivor Support Coordinator at CARE. This is her third year working for CARE and her fourth year working with survivors of sexual violence.
Her first year in this field was spent volunteering at a domestic violence prevention nonprofit organization in northern California, where she worked with a number of under-resourced schools to initiate programs that prioritized consent and healthy relationships. The following year she volunteered for CARE after attending UC Santa Cruz, and subsequently worked as one of three Prevention Education Specialists to educate the campus and community.
Gianna also serves as the UC Santa Cruz undergraduate representative to the Title IX Advisory Board, where she works to reform the application of Title IX so that it is more transparent, just, and trauma-informed.
Gianna has many hobbies such as running, swimming, and knitting. She practices self-care by drinking copious amounts of herbal tea and being out in nature.
Lourdes Dizon, Peer Educator Coordinator
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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, Peer Educator Coordinator
Queershe/her/hersCarrie is and has been a prevention education intern at CARE for the past year. She puts on workshops with her fellow prevention education interns on sexual violence, consent, and more. Prior to working at CARE, she has worked with homeless LGBTQ+ youth of color and is extremely passionate about many LGBTQ+/POC issues.Carrie likes to help people in any way she can. She wants to see a violence-free, consent cultured campus. She is a third year feminist studies major with a legal studies minor.
She loves to listen rap music, watch any true crime docu-series, and do as many face masks as her skin can handle.
Toni Leto, Peer Educator and Violence Prevention Specialist
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As a trained Domestic Violence Advocate Toni will be working as a Peer Educator and Violence Prevention Specialist at CARE this coming year. They started working with the organization one year age, but have been working with Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault survivors for the last six years. Toni began doing this work as a form of resistance and because they believe everyone has the right to safety.
Some of the ways they take care of themselves is by making art, going to the beach, and spending time with family and friends.
Sherry Tran, Graphic Designer & Marketing Coordinator
Straight, heterosexualshe/her/hersSherry is a 3rd year Art & Design: Games and Playable Media major, and is the Graphic Designer and Marketing Coordinator at CARE.As a survivor, Sherry felt impassioned to raise awareness and help those who have been affected by issues like stalking, dating violence, and sexual violence. Upon job-searching, she found the perfect oppurtunity at CARE to use her skills to raise awareness and hopes that over time, her work would help the community.
Sherry has 3 years of experience, beginning with a graphic design course in high school and making graphics for her church group in college. Sherry's game design curriculum also allows her to build her skills, and she is eager to continue growing in order to help CARE and the campus community in any way she can.
Sherry enjoys spending time with close friends, going to the gym, and walking/hiking around campus while listening to music. She also likes taking pictures and eventually would like to get into video-editing. For self care, Sherry goes walking in nature, watching funny BTS videos, and occasionally indulges in retail therapy.
Lauren Hasserjian, Peer Educator Coordinator
Queershe/her/hers, they/them/theirsLauren works as an intern for the CARE office, which provides support to survivors of violence outside the avenues of police and Title IX intervention. Lauren and most of their femme friends have personally experienced DV/SA and stalking.They have been an emotional pillar of dependable support for too many friends who have experienced violence, and are in the process of learning better ways to collectively cope with trauma.As a survivor of violence, Lauren wants to extend healing to themselves and to others by connecting and working with other survivors. They applied to be a first time CARE intern in the Fall of 2018, and will be working for the school year. Lauren believes their qualifications lie in their life experiences as a socialized female bodied person, and the difficulties and expectations that come with that. Lauren is also a founding member of Collective Liberation for the People, which is an off campus power organization based in Santa Cruz. They have helped sculpt the vision and culture of vulnerability and consent within that space, and want to mesh that with CARE’s philosophies. Through the CARE office, Lauren hopes to gain more skills in helping survivors of violence.
Lauren is a 4th year student at UCSC, studying Sociology with a focus on healthcare systems. This major relates to their work as a CARE intern, by bringing in intersectional sociological lenses to personal traumas which can help better understand where they stem from and how to treat them.
Lauren’s hobbies include spending artistic and healing time with fellow queer friends of color, going on long scenic drives and doing aerial arts.
