Shira Shavit, MD

Executive Director, Transitions Clinic Network

Shira Shavit is a Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California in San Francisco and the Executive Director of the Transitions Clinic Network. For over a decade, Dr. Shavit has been redefining national best practices for the care for chronically-ill individuals and communities impacted by incarceration. Dr. Shavit also directs and sees patients in the Transitions Clinic program in San Francisco's and the Medical Discharge Planning clinic at San Quentin State Prison. In addition to providing clinical care to returning prisoners, Dr. Shavit has provided technical assistance to many counties and states to improve health outcomes, cut health care costs, and support healthy integration of individuals returning home from incarceration.  She also worked as a consultant to reform healthcare systems in the California State prisons in collaboration with the Federal Receivership (2006-2011). She is a recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leader Award (2010). Dr. Shavit graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, completed her MD at Rush University in Chicago, and completed her residency training at the University of California, San Francisco. She is currently a CHCF Health Care Leadership Fellow.

Emily Wang, MD, MAS

Evaluation Director and Co-founder, Transitions Clinic program

Emily Wang is an internist with a longstanding clinical and research interest in patients with a history of incarceration. She has developed expertise in training former prisoners to become community health workers and researchers through community based participatory research methods. She is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Yale University where her research explores incarceration as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and how correctional facilities can be a meaningful point of intervention to reduce the risk of disease in the community. Dr. Wang has a BA from Harvard University, an MD from Duke University, and a MAS from the University of California, San Francisco.

Anna Steiner, MPH, MSW

Program Manager, Transitions Clinic Network

Anna Steiner, MSW, MPH, Program Manager. Before joining TCN as Program Manager, Anna served as Program Advisor for the Office of Viral of Hepatitis Prevention at the California Department of Public Health. Throughout her career, she has worked to promote health equity and build capacity among those facing systematic and institutional barriers to accessing health care, including people who use drugs, formerly incarcerated and homeless individuals.

Jenerius Aminawung, MD, MPH

Evaluation Analyst

Jenerius Aminawung is the Evaluation Analyst for the Transitions Clinic Network working alongside the Evaluation Team located at Yale University. Dr. Aminawung’s work includes health services research projects at Yale University, studying cancer treatment effectiveness, chronic disease management and outcomes in disadvantaged populations, ambulatory care services and drug safety. Dr. Aminawung received his medical training abroad at the University of Yaoundé and earned an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Tufts University School of Medicine.

Lisa Puglisi, MD

Physician/Director, Transitions Clinic Connecticut

Lisa Puglisi, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Yale University where she practices primary care and addiction medicine. She is the director of Transitions Clinic-New Haven, a multi-disciplinary clinic that is part of a national network of programs that focus on care of individuals who are returning to the community from incarceration. Her clinical practice includes treatment of addiction and hepatitis C in primary care and she also oversees a medical legal partnership. She has developed specific skills in training, hiring and supervising community health workers and directing interdisciplinary teams of physicians, midlevel providers, community health workers, research personnel and legal colleagues around the work of clinical care and research to improve the health of people with recent incarceration. She is originally from the New Haven area and deeply committed to the community. Lisa received her undergraduate degree from Tufts University, her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed her medical training at Yale New Haven Hospital.

James Bhandary-Alexander, JD

Medical-Legal Partnership Legal Director

James Bhandary-Alexander represents low-wage workers and their organizations before administrative agencies, in state and federal courts and in the legislature. He graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 2005, where he was a Public Interest Law Scholar, and was admitted to practice in Connecticut and New York. He subsequently worked for the National Labor Relations Board and as the Thomas Emerson Fellow at David Rosen & Associates. James served as co-chair of Connecticut’s Low-Wage Employer Advisory Board and served on the state’s Task Force on Domestic Workers. He is a Visiting Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and is the Past-President of the New Haven Association of Legal Services Attorneys. In 2016, James received the Micah Award from the Naugatuck Valley Project and the Brazilian Worker Center, and was one of four finalists for the Connecticut Law Tribune’s statewide Attorney of the Year award during that same year. In 2019, he received the Unsung Hero Award from the Morris and Irmgard Wessel Fund. James has been interviewed about his cases and worker rights more broadly by the New York Times, Bloomberg News, Sports Illustrated, In These Times, the Hartford Courant, and many other publications. He has presented at trainings and conferences across the country on the topic of community and movement lawyering in the context of worker rights advocacy. James speaks English and Spanish.

Jerry Smart, CHW

Senior Community Health Worker

Jerry Smart, CHW, is the senior community health worker at the Transitions Clinic program in New Haven, CT. Jerry coordinates medical care and social service support for chronically ill patients recently released from prison. Since 2012, Jerry has been a Steering Committee member for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinic Scholars Program. To learn more about Jerry, read these stories on his work in NPR, the CT Post, and the YaleNews.

Monya Harper-Harris

Community Health Worker, Transitions Clinic - New Haven

Monya Harper-Harris uses her community health worker training to deliver the Women on the Road to Health (WORTH) Intervention and provide healthcare and social service navigation for women leaving jail. She supports clients in connecting with both primary and specialty care appointments (including substance use treatment and HIV treatment); providing health education specific to re-entering the community; and navigating the complex health and social services system in New Haven.

Tino Negron

Community Health Worker, Yale's Health Justice Lab

Tino Negron is an Outreach Specialist for Yale's Health Justice Lab and a Transition Clinic employee where he addresses access to health care with his colleagues. Mr. Negron is a Certified Life Coach, Recovery Coach for Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, Forensic Peer Support Specialist and mentor for those that are “justice-involved” and formerly justice-involved who are returning back to our communities following a term of incarceration. Mr. Negron, a ex-offender himself, fully understands the meaning of redemption. During his years of incarceration he worked tirelessly to grow and find a way to give back to others. His empathy and desire to provide hope to other inmates resulted in his creating a program now utilized by the CT Department of Corrections that assists inmates in developing social skills to enable them to more easily re-integrate into society after long periods of incarceration. Mr. Negron's focus on assisting others who are justice-involved in developing life skills and re-integrating after incarceration has afforded him the opportunity to actively serve as a mentor and work directly with men that share similar life experiences. He awakens early to tackle the day’s challenges and prides himself on being a reliable support to his peers and those he mentors. He is cognizant of the obstacles that are detrimental to the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated population: doubt, despair, and complex psychological and social histories. He utilizes care and an individually tailored approach to overcoming these obstacles in order to help others be successful and productive members of society following their release.

Tyler Harvey

Research Assistant

Tyler is a first year MPH graduate student in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at the Yale School of Public Health. Prior to Yale, Tyler was a Thomas J. Watson fellow, where he completed a yearlong, international project aimed at understanding how poverty influences the ways in which communities living in vastly unique geopolitical contexts experience wellbeing and interact with healthcare. His interests center around questions of health equity with an emphasis on intersectionality, including structural determinants of health, health interventions for those experiencing marginalization, and LGBTQ criminalization.

Liz Kroboth, MPH

California Program Manager, Transitions Clinic Network

Liz Kroboth, MPH, California Program Manager. Liz joined TCN as the California Program Manager, and is leading TCN's California expansion. Liz's wealth of experience includes managing training programs at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, teaching research and writing courses at San Francisco State University, and working as a curriculum developer and project manager within health-focused nonprofits and market research organizations. Liz has a strong commitment to reducing mass incarceration and law enforcement violence and to promoting health equity among communities most affected by these issues.

Joseph Calderon, CHW

Senior Community Health Worker

Joseph Calderon, Senior Community Health Worker. Joe is a native of San Francisco and a certified community health worker (CHW). At the age of 23 he started serving a life sentence. After nearly 20 years incarcerated, he began to explore ways to give back to society upon his release. He currently works as a Lead CHW and Trainer at the Transitions Clinic Network, a national organization dedicated to improving health and reentry outcomes for those returning to the community from incarceration. Joe trains and mentors CHWs with histories of incarceration who are employed by TCN programs nationwide. Joe was an appointee to the San Francisco Reentry Council from 2013-2016 and now serves on the Policy and Procedure Sub-Committee. He also served on the Equity Advisory Committee with the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. In 2017 the San Francisco Department of Health appointed Joe to the SF LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) Policy Committee.  He has a passion for working with diverse and disenfranchised populations, leveraging his personal experience with incarceration to advocate for social justice and community investment. Mr. Calderon has a Post-Prison Community Health Worker certificate from San Francisco City College and plans on continuing his education in public health. Joe completed a JustLeadershipUSA fellowship in 2018.

Jack Morris, CHW

Community Health Worker, St. John’s Well Child & Family Center

Jack L. Morris, CHW, is employed as a community health worker at St. John’s Well Child & Family Center (SJWCFC) in the Office of Diversion and Re-entry (ODR). He has been employed with SJWCFC for approximately two years. Jack is a formerly incarcerated individual, having spent 40 years in prison and more than 30 years in solitary confinement. He is an author of two books, an artist, as well as an activist and advocate for judicial change. Jack works with justice impacted people addressing the social determinants of health with community and family at the forefront.

James Mackey, MA, RADT

Community Health Worker, Community Medical Center

James Mackey, CHW, is 55 years old, and has been married to wife Janet for 26 years.  They have 3 grown children; Chereese, Lanae, and Kevin, and their first grandchild is due in the next few weeks.  James was born in French Camp, California near Stockton, where he now works as a Transitions Clinic Network (TCN) Community Health Worker with Community Medical Centers (CMC).  Before joining TCN and CMC he worked as a peer counselor and housing coordinator serving the homeless of Fremont for Bay Area Community Services.  James was incarcerated for over 28 years but decided early in his sentence to become a better man and to help others to do the same.  Twenty-five years as a participant, facilitator, and mentor in self-help programs, 10 years as a clerk, and 7 years as a mental health aide prepared James for many roles but none could have fit more perfectly than the role of community health worker. Prior to his incarceration, James attended the University of the Pacific (UOP), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education with emphasis in sports medicine.  While incarcerated, he earned a master’s degree in humanities which helped him to gain a deeper understanding of himself and his fellow man and learned the importance of fearless human interaction.  In 2017, James applied and was accepted for entrance into Valley State Prison’s Offender Mentor Certification Program (OMCP) but was happily paroled prior to the start of the program.  While in transitional housing in Stockton, James enrolled in UOP’s Substance Abuse Counselor Certificate program which he completed 6 months later while interning at MedMark.  James plans to take and pass the state certification exam in February of 2020 and continue to pad his resume.

Tressa Hillman, CHW

Community Health Worker, Valley Homeless Healthcare Program

Tressa Hillman is a Community Health Worker for Santa Clara County. She has lived experience and serves as a medical and social liaison for recently incarcerated individuals with high-risk for homelessness. Tressa's goal is to improve linkage to medical care, reduce recidivism and hospitalizations, while improving quality of life. She makes connections by treating each person with dignity and respect.

Arlinda Timmons-Love

Reentry Health Conductor, Contra Costa Health Services

Presently Arlinda is an “African American Reentry Health Conductor” for Contra Costa County Department of Reducing Health Disparities in Partnership with Center for Human Development African American Health Conductor Program. She works with formerly incarcerated men & women who are returning home, back to their communities; making sure if they have any hereditary chronic illnesses they will get Obama Care, as well as jobs & other resources the federal government has set aside for them. Being an advocate for those who can’t speak the language they left 20 to 30 years ago, understand the language they’re returning to. Arlinda also works at the WCHC in the Transitions Network Clinic, a Specialty Clinic that only treat the needs of the formerly incarcerated targeted population. Arlinda lost her 15yr old son to gun violence, and in 2004 she founded “Women of New Birth” a nonprofit organization working with women who lost their children to gun violence. In 1999 Arlinda became a Neighborhood Change Agent under City of Richmond Mayor Gale McLaughlin, whom started a city organization to fight gun violence called “ONS” Office of Neighborhood Safety, advocating & working with young men ages 13yrs old to 29yrs old who police targeted as “shooters”, to turn their lives around. She worked with these men from all areas of Richmond and the yearly murder rate dropped tremendously due to her tenacity in making sure another mother would not have to feel the pain of losing her child. Arlinda still remains with the ONS Program as a Peace Keeper, is actively enrolled in CCSF Community Health Worker Program, certified with Yale’s National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research, Administrative Justice graduate, facilitate 52 week court mandated batterer class, anger management facilitator & has numerous letters of appreciation, certificates and awards. But the most valuable award I get is from the people I help in the communities I serve with the needed resource they need, and just being a light in the community to them.

Sara Wilshinsky

Lead Peer Community Health Worker, St. John's Well Child & Family Center

Released from incarceration in January 2018, Sara Wilshinsky became a member of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition before becoming an employee of St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, a federally qualified health center that addresses the medical and mental health of economically depressed and marginalized communities in South Los Angeles and the Compton areas. As a Peer Community Health Worker, Sara works closely with folks impacted by the justice system and has helped hundreds of returning community members. Sara’s lived experience contributes to overcoming many of the hardships her clients face in society, especially social determinants of health, reentry, homelessness, substance use,, and mental health diagnosis. Sara is also certified as a Registered Drug and Alcohol Technician through the California Consortium of Addiction Program Professionals. Sara can be reached via email at SWilshinsky@wellchild.org.