Policing In Marin – Community Input & Action
Date: September 11, 2023
When: 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Where: Zoom webinar online
Cost: Free
Contact (if needed): info@marincoalition.org
Moderator: Noah Griffith
Panelists:
Paul Austin – Founder & CEO, Play Marin
Tammy Edmonson – Police Team, Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity & Empowerment
Cesar Lagleva – Adjunct Professor, Dominican University
Celimene Pastor – Police Team, Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity & Empowerment
See speaker photos and bios below
As a follow-up to our recent program featuring Marin County Sheriff Jamie Scardina, San Rafael Police Chief David Spiller, and former Novato Police Chief Beth Johnson, we now are pleased to present a second panel to discuss issues relating to policing in Marin – this time from the community perspective. Our panel for this program, which will again be moderated by MC friend Noah Griffin, will feature Tammy Edmonson and Celimene Pastor from the police task force of MVFREE – the Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity and Empowerment; Marin activist and professor Cesar Lagleva; and Marin City community organizer Paul Austin.
We look forward to a wide-ranging discussion of the trends in local policing practices as observed by members of the community as well as ongoing citizen participation in providing feedback to the various local departments that our panelists and others have been undertaking in recent years. Our panelists have been leaders in working with local authorities on improving communication between police and the communities they serve; this program will be an opportunity for us all to learn what progress is being made through those efforts.
Attendees will have an opportunity to submit questions in advance when registering as well as during the program which will be addressed in the Q&A period. We look forward to an educational and informative program.
Noah Griffin has been a fixture of Bay Area politics, arts and culture for his entire life. A graduate of Fisk University in Nashville, he earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School before embarking on his several careers: He served on the staffs of SF Mayor Frank Jordan, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Charles Schwab; hosted talk radio shows on KGO, KFRC and K-101; wrote op-ed pieces for, and served on the editorial board of, the San Francisco Examiner; has written for the Boston Globe; and appears frequently in the Marin Independent Journal, where he served on the editorial board. He served until recently on the Tiburon Town Council.
Paul Austin is Founder & CEO of the non-profit Play Marin, a group he formed to address the lack of recreational activities that challenged the Marin City community and to intentionally give kids of diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds the opportunity to play, learn, and grow together. Mr. Austin is committed to tackling racial and economic disparities within Marin County and beyond and his work touches the lives of hundreds of local youth. Formerly Director of Recreation for the Marin City Community Services District, he also served as College Completion and Career Advisor for Bridge the Gap College Prep. He studied Early Childhood Education at Texas Southern University and holds a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Dominican University. In 2022, Mr. Austin was invited to the White House by the Biden Administration to sit Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) Task Force.
Tammy Edmonson represents the Police Team for the Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity and Empowerment (MVFREE). MVFREE is an advocacy organization working to advance racial equity in Mill Valley and beyond and is an outgrowth of the Mill Valley DEI Task Force, which provided an anti-racist blueprint for all facets of Mill Valley city life. Tammy is a retired criminal defense attorney who brings a data and policy perspective to MVFREE’s battle against systemic racism in the criminal justice system. She grew up in Marin and has a long history of volunteer community and nonprofit leadership in the County in the fields of social justice, education, arts and culture and the environment.
Cesar Lagleva is a life-long Marin resident who grew up in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood after immigrating from the Philippines in the late 1970s. Cesar gained his personal lived experiences in the justice system as a young person through his personal struggles and the struggles of his neighborhood friends and peers. As a young adult, Cesar fostered 16 youth while raising two of his own children. Professionally, he worked at the then Canal Community Alliance as a Youth Program Director between 1990-1997; Licensed Clinical Social Worker between 1999-2014 at Marin County Juvenile Probation through the Department of Health and Human Services; and served as the Equity Manager for the County’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Division between 2014-19 before retiring in 2020. Currently, Cesar is an Adjunct Professor at Dominican University; has a private psychotherapy practice; and leads diversity trainings, workshops, and offers consultation services related to DEI, with a specialty on race, class and gender.
Celimene Pastor is a biochemist and has been a resident of Mill Valley for 15 years. She proudly sits on the leadership team and police working group of the Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity and Empowerment (MVFREE) and describes her true passion as advocating for racial justice. A Haitian American, she is a devoted mother of four.