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YCRC helps individuals and communities resolve conflicts, address interpersonal harms, and restore relationships through restorative justice and mediation services
A place where people discover that conflict and harm can become opportunities for growth and healing.
To request a copy our annual report for FY 22, please send an email to [email protected] with Annual Report in the subject line.
Kara Hunter, Executive Director
Kara Hunter is the Executive Director of the Yolo Conflict Resolution Center, a non-profit that works to fulfill possibilities for change and responsible interdependence through visionary leadership and a responsiveness to needs. Kara has nearly 20 years in the non-profit administration and leadership and enjoys serving the community in this capacity. She is a member of 2 Boards of Directors and has given thousands of volunteer hours to the community in a variety of capacities including mentorship, historic preservation, tutoring, language teaching, as well as juvenile and criminal justice reform. She proudly hails from the San Joaquin valley area of California where she learned to drive a tractor, before she learned to drive a car.
Contact Kara: [email protected]
Elvia Garcia, Mediation Services Coordinator
Elvia Garcia is a Lead Trainer, Mediator and Restorative Justice Facilitator with YCRC. She contributes her many years of experience as a practitioner and program development professional to support a wide variety of YCRC initiatives. Elvia has been a conflict resolution practitioner since the early 1990s and is a founding member of YCRC. She is a graduate of U.C. Davis and has accumulated training and experience in mediating complex cases, facilitating public meetings, facilitating circles and restorative justice conferences and training conflict resolution program volunteers. She considers being involved in the birth and growth of YCRC as one of her greatest accomplishments. Elvia aspires to continue to train, mentor and support fellow staff and volunteers to ensure YCRC’s future. She is a firm believer in the power of community to transform the negative energy of conflict into productive and meaningful actions through genuine dialogue.
Rocio Saldaña, Restorative Justice Program Coordinator
Rocio Saldaña is the Restorative Justice Programs Coordinator for the Yolo Conflict Resolution Center (YCRC). Rocio holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from UC Davis. She worked as an ASES Tutor for Woodland Joint Unified School District and served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Woodland United Way (currently United Way California Capital Region) for 16 months. Rocio was born in Mexico and raised in Woodland. In her role at YCRC, she hopes to pursue her aspiration of empowering youth and giving back to the community.
Alannah Tomich, Services Coordinator
Alannah Tomich is a Services Coordinator in YCRC’s Youth and Family Case Management and Mediation programs. Alannah hold a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley and a Master’s Certificate in Restorative Practices and Youth Counseling from the International Institute for Restorative Practices.
Before coming to YCRC, Alannah worked implementing restorative practices in high school classrooms in Knoxville, Tennessee and on the conflict-transformation team at an intentional community where she lived in Missouri. A Davis High grad, Alannah is now happy to be back in Northern California. Alannah is also a yoga teacher and mother to a toddler.
Alannah believes all our interactions result from underlying universal human needs, and that practicing seeing each other through that lens can transform conflict and so much more.
Ariel Axelrad-Hausman, Program Assistant
Ariel is a Program Assistant, Case Manager, and Restorative Justice Facilitator at YCRC. Ariel is originally from Davis, and after earning her bachelor’s degree in social Welfare from UC Berkeley, she now lives in Oakland. Before becoming a part of the YCRC team, Ariel accumulated diverse experiences, ranging from consent education and public health research to childcare and religious education, and even delving into the world of artisan chocolate. Ariel believes that conflict creates opportunity for change, and is excited to work alongside people to navigate the challenges that may arise.
Linda Ziegahn, President
Linda Ziegahn has been on the Board of Directors of YCRC since 2018. She brings to the board her interests and experience in conflict resolution, intercultural communication, and community engagement. Linda has also served recently on the boards of Opening Doors, a refugee resettlement agency, and the UC Davis Retirees’ Association. In 2016 Linda retired from the Community Engagement and Research Program for the Clinical and Translational Science Center at UC Davis. In this position she developed and conducted community-engaged research training programs for clinical and health researchers, residents, and community-based organizations. She holds a doctorate in Adult Education from Michigan State University. Prior experience includes teaching and administration at Antioch University and Syracuse University, and international development consulting in several African countries and Bangladesh.
Alberto T. Rosas, Vice President
Alberto Rosas works for the State of California, where he helps adjudicate administrative appeals and disputes between individuals/businesses and certain government agencies. Additionally, he volunteers for the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento, and adjudicates small-claim conflicts and disputes between private parties. He is a member of numerous organizations, including the American Inns of Court, the Sacramento County Bar Association, and the Yolo County Bar Association.
“I joined the YCRC board of directors because of the great work YCRC is doing in the community, especially its important work with alternative dispute resolution and restorative justice services. The standard two-balance system of criminal justice is sometimes not sufficient to fully address certain harms. With its restorative justice services, YCRC helps to provide an alternative system… because sometimes it is necessary that other factors and interests be weighed in the balance, including the interests of victims, offenders, and the community.”
Lentice Sanders-Carter, Secretary
Lentice Sanders-Carter is honored to serve as a YCRC Board Member. With over 25 years in Human Resource Management working in the housing industry, she brings both practical knowledge and real-world experience in facilitation, mediation, and conflict resolution in the workplace and community at-large. She believes wholeheartedly in the work that YCRC is doing both locally and nationally to provide alternative ways of resolving conflicts, restoring relationships, and healing harms. Lentice also has a passion for community building and performs volunteer-work supporting the upliftment and empowerment of women and their families.
Manny Medeiros, Treasurer
After receiving my B.A. from UCD in 1968 and my J.D. from UCD’s King Hall in 1972, I spent five years in the Central Valley with California Rural Legal Assistance, returning to Davis in 1976 to take a position with the state’s new Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Later, after a couple of years with the State Public Defender’s Office, I joined the staff of the Attorney General’s Office in 1984, serving in a number of positions, and retiring in 2012. Following retirement, I wanted to explore the use of restorative practices as an alternative to the criminal justice system. To that end, I joined with others and the Yolo County District Attorney to develop the Neighborhood Court Program and to train its earliest volunteers. My work with Neighborhood Court led to an invitation to join the YCRC Board of Directors. I believe that YCRC performs an important, restorative and communicative, function in our community. I enjoy working with the other board members, our Executive Director, and with our committed staff and corps of volunteers, in expanding the organization’s scope of services, our capacity to perform those services, and our geographical reach. I presently serve as the Board’s Treasurer.
Davis Enterprise
Commentary: If we want to reduce conflict … (2/1/21)
Restorative Justice, Lets Keep the conversation Going (6/11/17)
Mediation Offers Alternative Way (7/10/15)
West Sacramento News Ledger
Yolo Conflict Resolution Center (3/09/16)
Daily Democrat
Will a Holistic Approach Counter Violence in Woodland? (12/15/19)
Yolo Nonprofit Brings Conflict Resolution to Woodland (10/16/15)
‘Peace of Art’ Student Creations Featured Friday (4/18/16)
KOLD Channel 13
Pima County could soon adopt a new form of justice based on healing instead of punishing. (2/8/21)
Financial Information for the Yolo Conflict Resoltuion Center can be found on Charity Navigator.
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