Area Served

Board of Directors

Margery Saunders, M.S.W., A.B.D. Margery serves as President of our board of directors and directs both the Nonprofit Education Initiative and the Fellowship on Women and Public Policy in the Center for Women in Government at the University of Albany, where she is presently completing her doctoral dissertation in the School of Social Welfare. Margery has taught about Functions of the American Social System and International Social Policy and has conducted research in the areas of child health care policy and early childhood education. She also has served as a counselor for children and families, including victims of abuse, and has served as a community organizer on neighborhood revitalization and crime prevention initiatives. Margery's professional interests revolve around creating postive developmental opportunities for women, children, and disadvantaged or "at-risk" families.

Grant Reeher, Ph.D. Grant serves as Secretary of our board of directors and teaches Democratic Theory and American Politics at both Syracuse University and the Federal Executive Institute run by the U.S.Office of Personnel Management. Grant also is a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Policy Research in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. In 1993, Grant won the American Political Science Association's award for the best dissertation in the field of state and local politics, federalism, or intergovernmental relations. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, Grant is the author of "Narratives of Justice: Legislators' Beliefs about Distributive Fairness" published by the University of Michigan Press and the editor of two other books: "Education for Citizenship" and "Power, Inequality, and Democratic Politics". Grant is presently working on a book length study about "Health Care, Reform, and Distributive Fairness" funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Program, the Dirksen Congressional Center, and the National Institute on Aging. Grant also is working presently on a book length study about "Civic Renewal" focusing on an experimental attempt to raise voter turnout by applying rational choice and social capital inspired techniques.

Mark Branagh Mark is President of the Branagh Information Group, a consulting firm in California that specializes in developing case management and research information systems for social service and health care providers. Mark worked as data systems manager in the national study office of the Infant Health and Development Program, a nationwide multisite longitudinal clinical trial run by the Center for the Study of Families, Children and Youth at Stanford University and has developed research data systems for medical researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. Mark and his staff have designed, developed, and maintained distributed case management and program evaluation systems for both the California Department of Child and Maternal Health and California Department of Social Services. The Branagh Information Group, under Mark's direction, specializes in developing user-friendly, individually-customized information systems and training end users of those systems.

Denise DeZolt, Ph.D. Denise is an Assistant Professor of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University of Albany. She has taught courses in intervention/prevention, diversity and multicultural issues, consultation, community psychology, social psychology, and developmental psychology. As part of the American Psychological Association's Presidential Task Force on Adolescent Girls, Denise was section editor and chapter co-author in "Beyond Appearances: A New Look at Adolescent Girls". In addition to numerous scholarly articles and book chapters, Denise also co-authored a book entitled "School Interventions for Children of Alcoholics". Her current research interests include the enhancement of social and cultural competence, program evaluation, spirituality and professional practice, and social justice issues. In addition to her university teaching, Denise presently runs an after-school educational program for elementary school students in Albany called the "Learning After Three" program, which she designed and is evaluating.

Employee Profiles

Michael Roona Michael serves as Executive Director of the Social Capital Development Corporation. In addition, he currently is directing three reseach studies. One involves treatment for people with co-occuring mental health and substance abuse problems. Another involves preventing children of substance abusing parents from becoming substance abusers. The third examines the effectiveness of different types of school-based drug education programs on substance use behaviors of youth.

Isla Roona Isla serves as the Social Capital Development Corporation's Director of Development and Administration. She has graduate degrees in both social work and criminal justice and coordinates our Restorative Community Justice project. Click on "Our Work" for information about Restorative Community Justice in Albany.

Peter Ochshorn Peter received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1986 and currently serves as our in-house statistical and research design consultant. Prior to joining SCDC, Peter taught economics and statistical methods to both graduate and undergraduate students. He also served as a consultant on numerous economic and social research projects.

Andrei Streke Andrei is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University at Albany who works as a research associate on our meta-analysis of drug education program evaluations. In addition to computing effect sizes, coding research designs, and conducing statistical analyses for this meta-analysis, Andrei studies societal and organizational change in the former Soviet Union, which is his home country.

Diana Marshall Diana received her Master of Science degree in Community Health Education from the Sage Graduate School and works as a research assistant on both our drug education program evaluation meta-analysis and our process evaluation of a statewide effort to facilitate collaboration between substance abuse and mental health treatment providers to improve treatment for people with co-occuring disorders.

Amy Palmer Amy received her Master of Science degree in Biometry and Statistics from the University at Albany's School of Public Health. She works as a reseach assistant on both our drug education program evaluation meta-analysis and our evaluation of a program to prevent children of substance abusing parents from becoming substance abusers.

Judith Brink Judith left a career in New York City as a hospice volunteer coordinator and moved to Albany to become a hospital chaplain. She later bridged both vocations by working at a camp and conference center in Western Massacusetts, during which time she was trained as a mediator. Her subsequent experiences as Chaplain for the prison unit at Albany Medical Center broadened her interest in the criminal justice system. This led her to take advantage of the restorative justice conference training offered by SCDC and become a certified conference facilitator. While she still serves as a volunteer restorative justice facilitator, she now also works half-time as Assistant Coordinator of Albany Restorative Community Justice.

John Cutro John is an experienced forensic case manager who works as a victim liaison on death penality cases for the Capital District Defenders Association and serves as our lead Restorative Community Justice trainer. John has been using restorative justice approaches for several years with MICA (Mentally Ill, Chemical Abusing) clients and to resolve a variety of types of cases, including serious violent crimes. For information about our Restorative Justice project, click on "Our Work" above or below.

Connie Fenton Connie is a school social worker and private practitioner (ACSW, CSSW) who serves as a Restorative Community Justice certified trainer. Connie has worked with families and youth for the past 33 years. She is Vice-President and Co-founder of the Guilderland Town Youth Court and a co-coordinator of the Albany County adolescent peer helpers initiative. Connie also regularly lectures parent groups on how to discipline with dignity. For information about our Restorative Justice project, click on "Our Work" above or below.

Jon Rice Jon works as clinical director for Catholic Charities in Albany County and serves as a Restorative Community Justice trainer. Jon is a clinical social worker who has several years of experience incorporating restorative justice practices into his work as a therapist working primarily on physical and sexual abuse cases. Jon has used restorative justice approaches to handle both adult street crime and juvenile sexual misbehavior, including serious violent crime. For information about our Restorative Justice project, click on "Our Work" above or below.

Nancy Baker-Crellin Nancy works for the LaSalle School of Albany, an alternative school for troubled youth, and serves as a Restorative Community Justice trainer. Nancy is a clinical social worker who has used restorative justice approaches to handle student-teacher conflicts at LaSalle and interactions between students and social workers. She also has conducted restorative justice conferences with juveniles returning to the community from jail and with victims of juvenile crime. For information about our Restorative Justice project, click on "Our Work" above or below.