Amber Vlangas
Amber Vlangas is a founding member and Executive Director of Restorative Action Alliance. Amber is an organizer, human rights activist, survivor of sexual harm, and advocate of re-imagining how we address crime and seek justice in our society. Amber facilitates and participates in Restorative Peer Support Circles for people impacted by crime and the criminal legal system, and vicarious restorative justice processes with those who are incarcerated and on community supervision. She is a certified mindful and meditative art teacher and sound healer. She is a strong believer in the power of human connections and effective storytelling to create positive change.
Amber started her professional career in the United States Marine Corps and has over 24 years of experience in marketing, fundraising and public relations for a variety of nonprofit and public organizations. She is a frequent speaker and panelist for presentations that explore the collateral consequences of criminal justice involvement and conviction registries, and the co-host of the podcast, Amplified Voices.
She has participated at the grassroots level with the ACLU Smart Justice Campaign, Center for Rational Justice Studies, Healing Connections Restorative Justice Conference, and more. In 2019, she served as a member of the Employment Subcommittee of Connecticut’s Council to Study the Collateral Consequences of a Criminal Record. Ms. Vlangas is a prominent thought-leader in the movement to end cycles of sexual harm, abolish the sex offense registry and end civil commitment. She maintains a personal website at Amber Speaks Up.
Jason
Jason is an Executive Board member currently serving as President of the Restorative Action Alliance. He earned a B.S. degree at Tufts University and an M.B.A. at Columbia Business School. He has worked in leadership roles at Fortune 100 Companies and in smaller start-ups. Jason devotes significant time to volunteering including previously serving as President of the Board of his Synagogue and mentoring small business owners. Jason is a firm believer that people are capable of change and he became personally involved with advocacy related to criminal justice in 2018 as a result of lived experiences. In 2020, he co-created the podcast Amplified Voices to share real life, in-depth stories of fellow humans who have been impacted by the criminal legal system.
Ellen Fleishman
Ellen Fleishman, Ph.D. is the current President of the Restorative Action Foundation. She is a retired New York City Department of Education Supervisor of School Psychologists. She has played many volunteer roles, including Corresponding Secretary of her local Democratic Club, President of her building coop, and the PTA, Trustee of her synagogue and Editor of its newsletter, and Publicity and Special Event Chair of Park Slope Hadassah. She's been listed in Who's Who in America, American Education and American Women. Ellen has also published professional journal articles and presented to various professional conferences.
Currently Ellen is on the Advisory Board of her walking club, Shorewalkers.org, where she often leads walks. She also performs volunteer psychological evaluations of asylum applicants for Physicians for Human Rights, which recently honored her through her presentation on the process to the SUNY Downstate Medical School. Ellen is humbled to be participating in criminal legal system reform.
Alan Dlugash
Alan Dlugash is Treasurer of the Restorative Action Alliance Board and a highly experienced tax consultant with over 40 years in the field. He advises high-net-worth individuals and their businesses through his firm, Alan J. Dlugash, LLC. He began his career at Price Waterhouse, later co-founded Dlugash & Kevelson, and served as managing partner until its merger with Marks Paneth & Shron. He remains active in the profession through leadership roles with the New York State Society of CPAs and membership in the AICPA and the IRS Relations Committee.
Alan holds a B.S. in Economics and an MBA in Accounting from the Wharton School and resides in Westchester, NY.
Rita Finley
Rita Finley serves on the Board of Restorative Action Alliance and is a founding board member of CAUTIONclick National Campaign for Reform (CCNCR), a grassroots organization advocating for community safety and the rights of individuals on the registry. She is dedicated to public education on the legal and personal risks associated with illegal online content, sexting, and harassment.
Allison Frankel
Allison Frankel serves on the Board of Restorative Action Alliance and is a Senior Staff Attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Criminal Law Reform Project, where she utilizes strategic litigation and integrated advocacy to challenge oppressive criminal legal system practices, with a focus on probation and parole, electronic monitoring, and sex-offense registry requirements. Allison previously served as a fellow with Human Rights Watch and the Center for Appellate Litigation SORA Unit, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Andrew L. Carter, Jr. of the Southern District of New York. Allison is a graduate of Yale Law School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Emily Horowitz
Emily Horowitz, Ph.D., is a Restorative Action Foundation Board Member and a Professor teaching courses in sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College. She directs the Institute for Peace & Justice, and founded and co-directs the post-prison college program (a nationally recognized program that helps formerly incarcerated students earn college degrees). Her scholarly research extends from a focus on sex offenses to wrongful convictions to various topics in educational policy. She is frequently quoted in media outlets about sex offense policies, and delivered keynote addresses at two major sex offense advocacy conferences.
She’s the author of Protecting Our Kids? How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us (Praeger, 2015), which was a is a sociologist who studies sex offense law and policy. She is the author of Protecting Our Kids? How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us (Praeger, 2015), and is currently conducting research on the experience of veterans who are on the sex offense registry. Prof. Horowitz is Professor of Sociology & Criminal Justice at St. Francis College (Brooklyn, NY), where she co-directs a program that helps those with criminal justice involvement earn college degrees.
2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title and co-editor, with Law Professor Larry Dubin, of Caught in the Web of the Criminal Justice System: Autism, Developmental Disabilities and Sex Offenses. Her article, Timeline of a Panic: A Brief History of Our Ongoing Sex Offense War, which appeared in the Southwestern law Review in 2018.
Mrs. Rivera
Mrs. Rivera is a dedicated criminal legal and prison reform advocate and proud to serve as a Restorative Action Alliance Board Member. Her experiences in the field range from successfully preparing individuals to gain their freedom through parole board hearings, reentry and storytelling through fundraising events.
She has produced several events for various NYC criminal legal organizations and focuses on uplifting voices, raising awareness and building community. In addition to being committed to those ensnared in the criminal legal system, she is devoted to volunteering in her NYC neighborhood. Mrs. Rivera's personal mission is to continue to help create and build systems based in equity and fairness for all.
David Rosen
David Rosen serves on the Board of Restorative Action Alliance and currently works for the Michigan Center for Youth Justice (remotely) as Manager of Institutional Giving. Previously, David worked as the Director of Development for JustLeadershipUSA, a national criminal justice organization working to develop the leadership and activist skills of formerly incarcerated individuals and to reduce the levels of incarceration across the U.S. Since 1990, David has been a successful fundraiser for a range of prominent progressive and educational not-for-profit organizations, including Environmental Defense Fund, Amnesty International, Human Rights First, New York University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Arts in 1977 from the State University of New York at New Paltz. David is also a professional ceramic artist and lives with his wife Sophie and son Theo in Yonkers, NY.
Justyna Rzewinski
Justyna Rzewinski serves on the Board of Restorative Action Alliance. She is a PhD candidate in Social Work at Yeshiva University, with a BA in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College and an MSW from Hunter College, is a licensed clinical social worker with over a decade of leadership experience in correctional health, outpatient treatment, and community-based reentry programs, currently serving as Clinical Director of a supervised release program in New York City. Justyna teaches master's level social work and forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Yeshiva University where she also researches service providers' knowledge of voting rights for justice-impacted individuals.
Justyna actively advocates for expanding community-based mental health treatment and reforming policies that disproportionately affect justice-involved populations. Also known as "the Rikers Whistleblower," Justyna exposed abusive and inhumane treatment that she observed first-hand of individuals with severe mental illness, particularly the prolonged use of solitary confinement. Her courageous testimony before the Board of Corrections on October 8, 2024, led to a Department of Investigation inquiry, bringing critical attention to systemic failures in correctional healthcare. In 2025, Justyna received an award from NY ATSA (New York Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse) in recognition of her impact. Her unwavering advocacy underscores her commitment to social justice, policy reform, and improving conditions for vulnerable populations within the criminal legal system.
Kim Avery
Kim Avery is the Administrative Assistant for Restorative Action Alliance, a mother of five, and a proud grandmother. As a registry-impacted individual and survivor of sexual harm, she channels her experiences into advocacy, art, and writing. Kim is actively involved in efforts to create meaningful change through her work with Safer VA, the National Coalition Against Conviction Registries, and the SHINE Women on the Registry Group. Kim is passionate about empowering others on their healing journeys and standing up for those who face oppression. In her free time, she expresses her creativity through art and shares her thoughts and experiences on her blog, https://healitwithkimness.substack.com/.
Advisory Committee
Larry Menzie
Larry Menzie, LCSW/R received his MSW in 1994 from Columbia University. His prior experiences in the field are varied working with victims, individuals with mental health/substance abuse issues, and other marginalized populations. In 2003, he co-founded Queens Counseling for Change- a forensic social work practice specializing in the treatment of individuals at risk for, or having engaged in, acts of violence. Larry was also a NYS Parole Officer for 10 years and has been actively engaged in many community organizations focusing on justice reforms and LGBT equality. Larry is currently the President of the NYS Alliance for the Prevention of Sexual Abuse and on the Executive Board of the NYS chapter of the Associations for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. In those capacities, he provides education, advocacy and training on best and emerging practices to effectively prevent and intervene on sexual abuse.
In all of these roles, Larry has used the intersectionality of his personal and professional experiences to obtain the most benefit to the individual and their communities by advocating that each person be seen as an individual worthy of respect, that their story be heard, and that barriers to quality services be lifted.
Joshua Hoe
Joshua B. Hoe is a policy analyst at Safe & Just Michigan. Prior to his work at Safe & Just Michigan Josh help ensure passage of the federal First Step Act as a consultant. As a policy analyst in Michigan, he has been part of coalitions passing Raise the Age and Clean Slate expungement legislative packages. Josh is also the host of the Decarceration Nation Podcast. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Central Oklahoma.
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