Josephina Alvarado-Mena

Josefina Alvarado Mena joined Safe Passages as Executive Director in August 2003. Prior to joining the Safe Passages team, she headed the Department of Student, Family, and Community Services for the Oakland Unified School District for almost four years, during which time she helped expand after-school programs, violence prevention programs, case management, and mental health programs throughout the school district. As director of the department, she also led the effort to develop the Safe Passage Middle School Strategy that has resulted in a seventy-two percent decrease in suspensions for violence at target high need middle schools in Oakland.

A native of the Oakland flatlands, she received her BA in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley in 1993, and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) in May, 1996.