Staff

Select a staff member's name to read their bio.

Christine Abaté

Christine Abaté, Deputy Director (Syracuse) is responsible for programs and services in the Syracuse office. Ms. Abaté has extensive experience in comprehensive, collaborative approachs to addressing urban issues and empowering disenfranchised populations. Creative problem solving, creation of partnerships, and involvement of citizens and program participants are hallmarks of her perspective. Prior to joining CCA in 1997, Ms. Abaté designed and directed the original NYS Economic Development Zone in Syracuse, NY, creating a unique and comprehensive inner city redevelopment program addressing a disadvantaged population and the integrated redevelopment issues of business entrepreneurship, job creation, employee development and affordable homeownership. As Deputy Commissioner of Syracuse Department of Community Development, Ms. Abaté was responsible for the development and submission of the City's HUD block grant program, increasing community-based organizations' involvement in program implementation and involvement of citizens in program planning and review. Ms. Abaté has a Master's Degree in Regional Planning from Syracuse University and a BS in Sociology from the University of Iowa.

csabate@communityalternatives.org

Josefina Bastidas

Josefina Bastidas, Esq., Deputy Director (NYC) joined the Center for Community Alternatives in 1999. Ms. Bastidas provides the leadership and oversight of all services in the NYC office. Ms. Bastidas has considerable experience in criminal law both in the United States and in Venezuela, where she was a District Judge. She has also taught at the law school at the University of Caracas and worked for the Pan American Health Organization Staff Association in Washington, D.C., where she assisted in preparing cases to be decided by The International Labor Tribunal. Ms. Bastidas has a law degree from Santa Maria University, Caracas Venezuela and a Master's of Law Degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

jbastidas@communityalternatives.org

Meredith Dank

Meredith Dank has been with Center for Community Alternatives since April 2007. She works on evaluations of the NYC-based programs. Ms. Dank holds an M.A. in criminal justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and is a Ph.D. candidate in criminal justice at the CUNY Graduate Center. The title of her dissertation is "I know a Way You Can Make Some Extra Money...." A population Estimate and Network Analysis of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City, which is based on a study funded by the National Institute of Justice. She has also worked on research projects that focused on reentry, international restoratives justice, and the American prison system. As an adjunct instructor at John Jay, she teaches such courses as Sex and Culture, Computer Applications in Criminal Justice, and Statistics.

mdank@communityalternatives.org

Max Lindeman

Max Lindeman comes to the Center for Community Alternatives as Senior Director of Court Services after working with the Fortune Society for more than 11 years, most recently as Associate Vice President. Max also has extensive experience in substance abuse and performance-based programming, clinical and quality assurance skills, and has worked in private practice providing individual and group psychotherapy. He has served on the New York County Democratic Nomination Committee for Supreme Court Judges. Max has an undergraduate degree, as well as Paralegal and Criminal Justice certificates, from Marist College; an MSW from Yeshiva University; and is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Welfare at Yeshiva, examining the factors associated with successful re-entry into society following incarceration.

mlindeman@communityalternatives.org

Emily Napier

Emily Napier has been with Center for Community Alternatives since August 2006. Ms. Napier works on evaluations of Syracuse-based programs. She holds an M.A. in sociology from Syracuse University and is preparing her dissertation proposal in the same program. As an adjunct instructor at Syracuse University and Ithaca College, she teaches such courses as Racial and Ethnic Inequalities, Definitions of Normality, Radical Criminology, Street Gangs, and Research Methods. She is actively engaged in a variety of community-based initiatives, including the Justice Taskforce for the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse and the Criminal Justice Taskforce for the National Action Network.

enapier@communityalternatives.org

Alan Rosenthal

Alan Rosenthal is a criminal defense and civil rights attorney with over 28 years of experience. A graduate of Syracuse University College of Law, he has litigated cases involving police misconduct and violations of civil rights in both jails and prisons. He has lectured on such topics as "Race and the Criminal Justice System", "Race and the Juvenile Justice System", "Treatment Courts", "Community Justice", "The Prisons Industrial Complex" , "Police Misconduct Litigation" , "Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions", "Working with a Criminal Record", "Sentencing Advocacy and Mitigation" and "Incarceration and Violence." He has drafted legislation on "Racial Profiling and Data Collection" and "Citizen Review Board."

As the Director of Justice Strategies, Alan undertook a study of race and the local criminal justice system for the Onondaga County Chapter of the NAACP and the Alliance Network. He has presented training for lawyers for both the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and New York State Defenders Association on sentencing, sentencing advocacy, and the collateral consequences of criminal convictions.

arosenthal@communityalternatives.org

Patricia Warth

Patricia Warth joined the Center for Community Alternatives in January 2008, as Co-Director of Justice Strategies where she will use her experience representing those accused of crimes who have not yet been convicted, as well as those convicted of crimes and serving their sentences. Patricia Warth has devoted her legal career to criminal justice issues. After graduating from Cornell Law Scholl in 1996 and clerking for a federal district court judge, Ms. Warth worked for the New York State Capital Defender Office, representing individuals charged with first degree murder and facing a possible sentence of death. In 2005, after New York's highest court invalidated the death penalty in New York, Ms. Warth spent a semester at Syracuse Law School's Office of Clinical Legal Education as practitioner-in-residence. Interested in continuing her work on behalf of those involved in the criminal justice system, Ms. Warth spent two years working for Prisoner's Legal Services of New York as Managing Attorney of the Buffalo office until joining the Center for Community Alternatives.

pwarth@communityalternatives.org

Marsha Weissman

Marsha Weissman is the executive director of the Center for Community Alternatives. She has established model programs for youth and young adults in the juvenile and criminal justice system including New York's only alternative to incarceration program for "juvenile offenders", i.e. children under the age of 16 who are treated in the adult criminal justice system, New York State's first alternative-to-incarceration treatment program for women in the criminal justice system and a unique collaboration with the Syracuse City School District to reduce suspensions and expulsions of high risk youth. In 2002, Ms. Weissman was testified before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee about the program's success.

Ms. Weissman holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship, Syracuse University. She serves on numerous Boards of Directors and policy bodies including the National Sentencing Project. Ms. Weissman publishes widely. See the publications pages of this site for copies and links to her publications.

mweissman@communityalternatives.org

Elaine Wolf

Elaine Wolf holds the Ph.D. in sociology from Temple University (1984) and has been employed at the Center for Community Alternatives since June 1999. Prior to her affiliation with CCA she had been employed in private research organizations (the Jefferson Institute for Justice Studies and the Institute for Law and Justice), at the United States Sentencing Commission, and in academic arenas as an adjunct faculty member (Syracuse University's School of Social Work and Department of Sociology). She is a member of the American Evaluation Association and the American Society of Criminology. Her publications have appeared in Evaluation Review, Journal of Drug Issues, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, and in James Nolan's edited volume, Drug Courts: In Theory and In Practice.

emwolf@communityalternatives.org