Meet the Staff

Assistant Director

joanbr@uci.edu

Pronouns: she|hers

Joan joined UCI CARE as the Assistant Director in March 2023. As a teenager, she began engaging in violence prevention work and was one of the first peer educators for UC Merced’s CARE Office. She worked at a dual domestic violence and rape crisis center as a prevention specialist, where she implemented a program providing prevention education and advocacy services for a community college district. She was also the agency’s volunteer coordinator and trained new advocates. Before joining UCI CARE, Joan worked in the Title IX office at UC Merced, overseeing case management and sexual harassment prevention training and education activities.

CARE Advocate

Pronouns: they|she

Rasta received her B.A in Psychology with a Minor in Social Work from San Diego State University and her Master’s in Social Work from Boston College. She has been working with survivors of interpersonal violence since 2009. Her experience includes working with survivors of human trafficking with an emphasis on domestic sex trafficking and with survivors of intimate partner violence. She has supported survivors in community-based settings as well as through the criminal legal system. She has a passion for working alongside people who have experienced trauma, and is particularly interested in how restorative justice and transformative justice practices might be applied to addressing sexual and domestic violence. 

In her free time Rasta can be found baking from scratch, spending time with family and friends, hanging out by a body of water, laughing too much at everything, and spending time with their cats, Seven and Soda!. 

CARE Advocate

Pronouns: she|her|hers

Eli was born and raised in Staten Island, NY and brings more than 20 years of experience in advocacy, student affairs, organizational consulting, and non-profit administration. Additionally, Eli has a background in marketing, development, adjunct faculty, and as a mental health professional and trauma counselor. They received their B.A. and Master of Social Work degrees at Marywood University in Scranton, PA where Eli established the first ALLY program at a Catholic university in the United States.

Eli joined UCI CARE in 2015 as the Assistant Director and supported the sustainable growth of the holistic healing program, provided oversight of prevention efforts, supervised interns, peer educators and staff, and supported grant writing efforts. As the Director of CARE, Eli continues to support departmental programs while engaging in campus, community and systemwide initiatives and projects in support of survivors of violence. Eli also serves as a consultant for the Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women and as a faculty member for the National Organization for Victim Assistance.

Outside of work, Eli enjoys exploring and traveling to new and familiar places, cooking (and eating), rooting for the New York Mets, photographing historic/abandoned places and listening to/writing music.

CARE Advocate

Pronouns: she|her(s)|ella