Meet the Staff
Eli Pascal, MSW
Director
pascale@uci.edu
Pronouns: they|them|theirs
Eli brings over 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 a faculty member for the National Organization for Victim Assistance.
Outside 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. They also have a skinny pig (aka a hairless guinea pig) appropriately named Pig.
Nicole Leon, MSW
CARE Advocate
Pronouns: she|her|hers
Tiffany
CARE Advocate
Pronouns: she|they
Tiffany is a fellow anteater, holding a degree in Criminology, Law and Society, complemented by a minor in Psychology & Social Behavior. Prior to her position at CARE, Tiffany demonstrated her commitment to advocacy through her roles with USC’s Confidential Advocacy Resources & Education Support Center (CARE-SC) team and the Center for the Pacific Asian Family (CPAF).
During her free time, she finds solace in nature walks as well as indulging in culinary delights and new experiences.
Tina R. Young
Violence Prevention Coordinator – Undergraduate
Pronouns: she/they
Tina is originally from the middle of nowhere northern California and is most comfortable when surrounded by coastal redwood trees. Despite that, she moved to Tucson, AZ as a teenager and later attended the University of Arizona where she obtained her B.S. in Criminal Justice Studies. She has happily worked her way back to California and joined CARE after finding her passion for prevention while working at Waymakers as a Violence Prevention Educator.
During her free time, she can often be found camping, reading sci-fi & fantasy books, or playing video games.
Douglas Leon
Marketing and Communications Specialist
dougll5@uci.edu
Pronouns: he|him|his
Douglas graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a degree in Graphic Design and a minor in Marketing. As a new member of UCI CARE, he is eager to devote his time to promoting the resources available to the UCI Community and playing his part in ending power-based personal violence.
He’s an orange county native who loves spending time with his family and friends. He particularly enjoys hiking, reading, eating, and beer tasting.
Vacant
Project Analyst
Pronouns:
Joan Rich, MPH
Assistant Director of Prevention
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.
Rasta Bagheri, MSW
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!.
Elleni
CARE Advocate
Pronouns: she|her(s)|ella
Maddy Verdin
Violence Prevention Coordinator – Graduate Students, Faculty, and Staff
Pronouns: she|her(s)
Madelinne “Maddy” Verdin proudly graduated from UC Merced in 2022 with a B.A. in Sociology. For three years of her time at UC Merced, Maddy worked in the CARE Office, where she discovered her passion for student affairs and fell in love with power-based personal violence prevention.
Maddy is currently pursuing her M.A. in Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Redlands, with graduation expected next spring. Her commitment to CARE continues to grow as she embarks on her journey as a Violence Prevention Coordinator. Maddy is excited to contribute to and advance the important work of violence prevention in her new role as she works with the graduate students, faculty, and staff of UC Irvine.
Maddy is also an avid Swiftie who can often be found listening to Taylor Swift. In her free time, she enjoys being a dog mom to her toy poodle named Rusty, attending sporting events, and spending time with her loved ones.
Toni
Administrative Assitant III
Pronouns: they|them
After Hours Resources
UCI Counseling Center (Available 24 hours):
Waymakers' 24-hour hotline resources & referrals for survivors of sexual assault:
Human Options 24-hour hotline resources, safety and support for individuals experiencing relationship abuse:
Suicide Prevention Hotline:
The UCI Police Department (Available 24 hours):
Please call 911 if there is an immediate threat to safety.