Leon Smith, Executive Director

Leon Smith started as CfJJ’s executive director in February 2019. A 1995 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio and a 1999 graduate of New England School of Law in Boston, Leon worked as a trial attorney in the juvenile system since 2001. Leon began his career in 2001 as a juvenile court public defender, first in Providence, Rhode Island and later at the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Roxbury, Mass. He subsequently managed his own law practice devoted to juvenile and criminal court advocacy in the Massachusetts Juvenile, District and Superior courts. He then moved on to at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City, working on youth- oriented local and national public policy issues.

Leon comes to CfJJ from the Connecticut-based Center for Children’s Advocacy. Previously the director of the Alternative Schools Project, he advocated reforms to improve services for Connecticut’s alternative school students and to prevent drop-out. In 2013, the project helped to change state law, providing better oversight of alternative schools. In 2015, the project drafted additional legislation which offered further protections upon its passing, including a requirement that students in alternative education receive “as nearly equal advantages” as students in traditional public schools.

Leon also served as the director of the Racial Justice Project, leading a team providing legal representation to youth of color subjected to harsh school discipline, illegal school push-out, and unconstitutional targeting by law enforcement. Through legislative advocacy, litigation and collaborative work with communities and state agencies, the project advanced reform. He was also the lead facilitator and co-chair of Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) committees, which addresses disparities in the juvenile justice system in three Connecticut cities, and an appointed member of the Connecticut Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System. Since returning to Massachusetts, Leon has served on a number of statewide juvenile justice reform efforts, including the Emerging Adult Justice Task Force and he School Resource Officer Memorandum of Understanding Commission.

Sana Fadel, Deputy Director

Sana Fadel serves as Deputy Director and is primarily responsible for CfJJ's legislative advocacy and is the lead organizer of the statewide Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Reform Coalition. Prior to joining CfJJ, Sana was the Director of Public Policy at Rosie’s Place, a sanctuary for poor and homeless women in Boston where she led campaigns on access to substance abuse treatment, strengthening families involved with the child welfare system, and improving services for customers applying for and receiving public benefits. She was responsible for advocating at the state-level on issues affecting Rosie’s Place guests as well as empowering them through voter mobilization and advocacy trainings. Sana holds a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University, New York and a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Augusta State University, Georgia.

Alex Danesco, Development Director

Alex joined CfJJ in November 2017. His work has included direct service, program management, board management, capacity building and resource development at three community based, youth serving organizations in Boston. After graduating with a degree in Philosophy from Boston College in 1997, he worked for the West End House Boys and Girls Club in Brighton, where he served as Associate Executive Director. In this role he managed all operations of the organization’s positive youth development programming, through six core areas as developed by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He then served as Executive Director of the Commonwealth Tenants Association expanding services to the youth and families of the Commonwealth Housing Development. From 2012 to 2017, he served as Development and Program Director and at MissionSAFE, a Roxbury based, teen-serving organization, where he focused on corporate and individual philanthropy, and program management. Alex holds a Master’s Degree in Youth Development Leadership from Clemson University in Clemson, SC.

Joshua Dankoff, Director of Strategic Initiatives

Joshua joined CfJJ in 2015 to staff the Massachusetts Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Leadership Forum, an interagency group focused on strategic planning and addressing racial disparities. His current work involves leading initiatives that extend the impact of CfJJ’s advocacy, including research on policing, race equity, and education. As a qualified Results Based Facilitator, Joshua engages state-wide leaders to work together toward equity-focused interagency systems improvement. Prior to joining CfJJ, his work focused on justice for children, child protection systems building, and rule of law in both the United States and internationally. He worked with UNICEF, as Child Protection Specialist in Sierra Leone where he helped facilitate the launch of the Child Justice Strategy. He has previous experience with the Ministry of Justice in Côte d’Ivoire while on a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship; the Firelight Foundation; and as a consultant with Child Frontiers, Civil Registration Centre for Development, and others. Joshua is a graduate of Wesleyan University, and Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he earned a Juris Doctor and certificates in ChildLaw and Public Interest law. He also has a Masters in Development Practice from the University of Queensland, Australia. He taught a masters-level course entitled "Child Rights, Protection, and Development" at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

Kate Lowenstein, Multisystem Youth Project Director

Kate joined CfJJ in December 2014. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kate earned a joint J.D/M.S.W from the Catholic University of America. She began her career as part of a team implementing a court-ordered mandate to reform the juvenile justice system in Washington, D.C. She then spent time working in the abuse and neglect system in Washington, D.C, before moving into the field of international human rights and victim rights. For the 13 years prior to coming to CfJJ, she was co-director of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights where she had extensive experience organizing and advocating for victims and murder victims' family members. She co-authored an amicus curiae brief on behalf of victims' family members to the Supreme Court in the high-profile case Roper v. Simmons.

Jillie Santos, Community Engagement Coordinator

Jillie joined CfJJ in July 2022. As the Community Engagement Coordinator at CFJJ, she works closely with community partners and youth advocates. She recently completed her undergraduate education in Economics and Theatre at Bucknell University. While at Bucknell, Jillie organized multiple direct action demonstrations for environmental, LGBTQ+, and racial justice with experience leading initiatives for police accountability and public safety on her campus. She has previously served as an intern at the Office of the Public Defender in Brunswick, GA and at Public Citizen.

Delaney House, Communications and Development Assistant

Delaney joined CfJJ in July 2023 as the Development and Communications Assistant. She completed her undergraduate education in Political Science and Social Thought and Political Economy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. During her studies she conducted research on how the experience of menstruation is weaponized against people under carceral control in the United States. She previously interned with the Reproductive Health Access Project, Housing Up, and multiple other nonprofits and advocacy groups. As the Development and Communications Assistant at CfJJ, Delaney works to strengthen CfJJ’s outreach. 

Avery Farmer, School to Prison Pipeline Fellow

Avery joined CfJJ in September 2024 as the School to Prison Pipeline Fellow. He attended Amherst College and Harvard Law School. As a summer law clerk in the Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, he worked on direct representation and impact litigation with the goal of releasing people from prison. As a student attorney with the Consumer Protection Clinic of the Harvard Legal Services Center, he reduced the debt owed by low-income people by hundreds and thousands of dollars. And as an executive editor and student author with the Harvard Law Review, he published three articles on the criminal law and law as a theory of progressive social change.