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Officers

Marion Riedel, PhD, LCSW (President)

Marion Riedel (Ph.D., LCSW) works with people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS and that use drugs and alcohol. She is an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of Social Work and teaches, trains, and lectures nationally on the topic of harm reduction. She is a staff trainer with the Harm Reduction Training Institute, a clinical harm reduction supervisor for numerous community-based organizations, and trains extensively on Motivational Interviewing (MI). She also conducts research testing the efficacy of MI with various populations, such as: improving motivation for and access to AIDS Clinivcal Trials for HIV-positive people of color, including women (Project ACT 2), and infusing motivational techniques in a microfinance training and small loan project for women engaged in sex work in Mongolia. Finally, she is an anti-racist organizer affiliated with The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond and a member of the Northeast Anti-racist Alliance.

Melissa Goodman (Vice-President)

Melissa Goodman is a Senior Litigation and Policy Counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where she conducts and coordinates litigation, policy, and advocacy work on LGBT and reproductive rights issues.

Prior to joining the NYCLU, Goodman was a staff attorney with the ACLU's national Security Project, where she litagated cases concerning surveillance, excessive goverment secrecy, torture and detention, and the freedoms of speech and association.  Her cases included challenges to the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the FBI and the Defense Department's use of "national security letters," the government's practice of ideological exclusion, the U.S. military's detention practices at Guantanomo and Bagram, and the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.

Goodman graduated magna cum laude from New York University's College of Arts and Science in 2000 and she earned her J.D. from New York University in 2003, where she was awarded an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellowship, the John Perry prize Award in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and was an articles editor for the Review of Law and Social Change.  During law school, Goodman worked on issues related to LGBT rights, reproductive rights, and the rights of people with HIV/AIDS with the ACLU's Reproductive Rights Project, the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, the Legal Action Center, and Housing Works. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Frederic Block of the Eastern District of New York.

Will DeJesus (Treasurer)

Will DeJesus is a Senior Manager with CBIZ Mahoney Cohen, a top ten provider of professional services in the U.S. He specializes in corporate governance and risk management as well as information systems control and re-engineering. Prior to joining CBIZ Mahoney Cohen, Mr. DeJesus was an internal auditor for Altria Corporation, a Fortune Five consumer products entity where he led financial, operational and information systems audits in South and Central America.. Mr. DeJesus received an accounting degree from Queens College. He is a Certified Internal Auditor, a Certified Information Systems Auditor and a member of both the Institute of Internal Auditors and Information Systems Audit and Control Association.

Members

Brian Ash (Member)

Brian T. Ash is a Senior Manager with CBIZ MHM, LLC's Corporate Due-diligence & Collateral Field Examination Services Group. Brian directs, coordinates and manages all aspects of CBIZ's professional services which includes: pre-loan surveys, take-over exams, assessment of collateral exposure and advance rates, and evaluation of accounting [procedures and financing reporting capabilities for a multitude of lenders, which includes: investment and commercial banks, private equity finance companies and commercial factors.  He has over fourteen years of diversified business experience providing collateral field examination services, due-diligence, forensic accounting/litigation support services, internal audit and corporate government services and financial statement audits in a variety of trades.

Brian has worked with public, non-public and not-for-profit entities whose annual revenues range from $10million- $50 billion dollars.  His industry experience includes, but is not limitied to: financial service companies, automotive parts manufacturers, consumer products manufacturers and retailers, wholesale distributors, textile/apparel manufacturers and distributors, professional service companies, agriculural commodities companies, pharmaceutical companies, durable goods manufacturing and distribution companies, as well as food, beverage and alcohol manufacturing and distribution companies.

Brian graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pace University, Lubin School of Business.  

Brian serves on the Board of Directors for Positive Health Project, which is a state and federally funded not-for-profit agency based in New York City, NY, and also volunteers throughout the year at numerous charitable events.  He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Saad Bounjoua (Member)

Saad Bounjoua is a Director with PwC, the world's largest professional services firm. He specializes in governance and risk management and has developed credentials and expertise in these fields over the last eighteen years with a career that includes positions working with Fortune 500 companies in Europe and the United States. Mr. Bounjoua specializes in the retail and consumer products sectors and has advised large organizations on best practices for implementing effective risk management procedures and enhancing transparency and efficiency around organizational structure and operational effectivenees. Prior to joining PwC, he spent four years at Phillips Electronics North America, a Dutch conglomerate, where he was an Internal Auditor.  Mr Bounjoua received a diploma from the Paris Graduate School of Management. He is a Certified Internal Auditor and a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors where he has lectured on issues of governance and risk management.

Loren Siegel (Member)

Loren Siegel is an attorney and strategic communications consultant. Her client roster includes the Ford Foundation,The New Press, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Opportunity Agenda, and the New York Civil Liberties Union.  From 1991 to 2001 she served as the Director of Public Education for the American Civil Liberties Uniion where she built an integrated communications program specializing in media relations, publications, and website development and managed the organization's public opinion research program.  Ms. Siegel conceived and implemented numerous multi-media, multi-dimensional public awareness campaigns, including the Campaign Against Racial Profiling for which the ACLU was awarded the Pulbic Relations Society of America's Silver Anvil Award for Excellence for Public Affairs.  Her writings on criminal justice issues have appeared as chapters in several books including Crack in America (Eds. Levine & Reinarman, Univ. of Calif. Press, 1997) and Gangs And Society (Eds. Kontos, Brotherton, and Barrios, Columbia Univ. Press, 2003)

Andrew Tatarsky, Ph.D. (Member)

Andrew Tatarsky, Ph.D. holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from City University of New York.  He is a founding member and past President of the Addiction Division of the New York State Psychological Association and Chairperson of Mental Health Professionals in Harm Reduction.

Dr Tatarsky has a private practice in New York City specializing in harm reduction psychotherapy with drug and alcohol users and is co-director, with Dr. Mark Sehl, of the Harm Reduction Psychotherapy and Training Associates, a treatment and training organization. He is the editor of the groundbreaking book, Harm Reduction Psychotherapy: A New Treatment for Drug and Alcohol Problems (Jason Aronson, 2002).

Joe Voeller (Member)

Arash Yomtobian (Member)

PHP peer educator presenting at the Safe Injection Site conference