LOS ANGELES, CA – District Attorney George Gascón of Los Angeles County announced earlier this week the DA’s Office has established a Women’s Advisory Board, its seventh advisory board.
The intent behind creating this advisory board, according to the District Attorney Office, is to “ensure that gender equity consistently informs the office’s strategies.”
“Women encounter specific and deeply rooted challenges in our justice system—as victims, survivors, and sometimes as individuals navigating the justice system themselves,” said DA Gascón.
“From domestic violence and sexual assault to human trafficking and systemic inequities, women are often forced to make difficult choices for survival—choices that, at times, have even become criminalized,” DA Gascón added.
The new Women’s Advisory Board was sworn in last week. According to the DA’s Office, members include:
Norma Cumpian, currently assistant deputy director of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC). Cumpian was sentenced to life in prison, but pardoned in 2019, and appointed to the Board of State and Community Corrections in 2020.
Kathy Evans, a 35-year government employee for the county she serves and advocate for survivors of sexual assault and sexual violence, partnering with organizations such as Cry Hear, REACH for Mental Health, Standing 4 Black Girls, and several other advocacy groups.
Tianna N. Gammage, who for the last decade has worked with at-risk youth and young adults. Her family’s personal struggles with the justice system fueled her passion for criminal justice, according to the DA, and her mother and grandmother’s work with children provided Tianna a “deep empathy” for them.
Diana Paola Hernandez, according to the DA’s office, works closely with Spanish-speaking families and children with disabilities as a Special Education Attorney. Drawing on inspiration from her upbringing, she continues to advocate for access to education.
Susan Hess, MSW, LCSW, “a transnational speaker specializing in trauma-informed care,” currently works at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work as an Associate Teaching Professor. She is the co-founder of Trauma Informed LA, and a faculty advisor of the Jewish Student Affinity Group.
Yasmine-Imani McMorrin, J.D. served as the Vice Mayor of Culver City before becoming its first Black woman Mayor last year. She is also the Director of Education Equity at the Children’s Defense Fund CA.
Wendelyn Julien, J.D. serves as the current executive director of the Probation Oversight Commission for Los Angeles County. This position requires her to oversee both the citizen commission and team of staff in pursuit of reform in the nation’s largest probation department.
Jorja Leap, Dr., both an anthropologist and a “recognized expert in gangs, violence, and systems change,” is a member of the Social Welfare Department faculty at the UCLA Lushun School of Public Affairs, and has been there since 1992.
Linda McFarlane currently works as both the executive director and secretary of Just Detention International. Not only is she the primary spokesperson for the organization, but is the main manager of all of JDI’s work. She has more than 30 years of experience as a social worker in working with survivors of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault.
Priscilla Ocen, formerly a special assistant attorney general for the California Department of Justice, currently teaches as a Professor of Law at Loyola Law School. She has advised Attorney General Rob Bonta in regards to reform and the issues surrounding it, appointed to the California Committee on the Revision of the Penal Code.
