Our Leadership Team

Survivor Justice Center

Leadership Team

Survivor Justice Center Staff

Leadership Team

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Executive Director

Carmen McDonald, Esq

Carmen has twenty years of experience serving low-income individuals in family and immigration law and has worked at the Center over ten years. In March 2023, the Board appointed her as Executive Director.

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Director of Legal Services

Jimena Vasquez, Esq.

Jimena Vasquez oversees all aspects of the delivery of legal services to clients at the Center. Jimena has been practicing family law for the past 16 years.

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Director of Development

Marissa Marasigan, MSW

Marissa Marasigan is the Director of Development at the Center. With over 10 years of experience, Marissa leads the Center’s individual, corporate and private foundation giving, as well as its fundraising events and communications.

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Director of Operations

Jill Stamp

Jill Stamp is the Director of Operations, overseeing the Center’s critical business functions and infrastructure.

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Director of Finance

Heidi Slater

Heidi Slater is Director of Finance. In this role, she plans and directs all financial activities and strategies, oversees budgets, audits, and tax preparation, and develops accounting policies to ensure strong fiscal stewardship and long-term sustainability.

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Directing Attorney

Michelle Carey, Esq.

Michelle has represented low-income survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual violence and human trafficking in their immigration matters for over 20 years, leading the Center’s immigration work since 2013.

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Directing Manager of Trauma-Informed Services & Education

Sylvia M. Gribbell, LCSW

Sylvia Gribbell, LCSW, is the Directing Manager of Trauma-Informed Services & Education at Survivor Justice Center. A licensed clinical social worker with nearly 20 years of experience, she specializes in trauma, anxiety, and depression.

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Supervising Attorney of Family Law

Stephanie Davidson, Esq.

Stephanie oversees the Survivor Justice Center’s family law team. She has been working with survivors of gender-based violence for over 20 years.

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In her previous role as Director of Legal Services, Carmen oversaw the Center’s domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking projects and the Center’s pro bono program, which pairs attorneys with survivors of domestic violence seeking representation at their restraining order hearings. Driven by her passion to help others, she has led representation for hundreds of domestic violence survivors in family court and immigration proceedings, overseen precedent-setting appeals and worked on policy and legislation to support survivors, immigrants, and the low-income community.

Prior to the Center, Carmen was an attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County where she represented survivors of domestic violence in family law and immigration matters and worked in the Shriver Access to Justice Project assisting tenants with unlawful detainer proceedings. Carmen also worked at Break the Cycle where she represented teen survivors of domestic violence in family law matters. Prior to becoming an attorney and at the YWCA of San Diego County Legal Services program assisting survivors of domestic violence in family law matters and at the Gay and Lesbian Center of San Diego County assisting clients living with HIV/AIDS with accessing public benefits. During law school she interned at the Friends of San Diego Legal Aid office. After law school she worked as a post bar clerk for the San Diego Public Defenders office.

Carmen’s parents emigrated from Cuba and taught her the importance of fairness, justice, and the rule of law. She was raised with an understanding of how critical access to justice is.

Carmen received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Central Florida with a minor in Women’s Studies before graduating from California Western School of Law.

Carmen is active in many Los Angeles County bar committees including the Family Law Executive Committee, the Access to Justice Committee, the Judicial Appointments Committee, WLALA and LLBA. Carmen previously served as Trustee for the San Fernando Valley Bar Association. Carmen was awarded the 2020 Los Angeles Domestic Violence Council Betty Fisher award for her service to survivors of domestic violence.

California State Bar License #231681

Prior to her position at the the Center, Jimena worked at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, representing victims of domestic violence in their family law and immigration matters.  Jimena has also worked at Neighborhood Legal Services, Break the Cycle and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).  Jimena was the former Vice Chair of the Board of the Legal Aid Association of California and former board member of the Latina Lawyers Bar Association.

Jimena received her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law in 2001 and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from the University of California, Berkeley in 1998.  She is married and is a proud mom of two.

California State Bar License #225908

Prior to joining the Center, she was the Director of Development & Strategic Initiatives at St. Barnabas Senior Services, where she led fundraising, events, communications and program development. In this role, she helped to launch Los Angeles’ only technology and aging conference – Aging Into the Future. Marissa also participated in AARP’s Latino Caregiver Project, joining the Latino Caregiver Coalition and co-chairing the Outreach and Education Committee targeting Latino family caregivers in Supervisorial District 1.

She has participated in various training programs including Executive Service Corps’ Developing Development Program, the SCAN Foundation’s Linkage Lab Academy and USC’s MSW Field Instructor Certification. Prior to this work, she volunteered at a domestic violence shelter in San Francisco, working their 24-hour hotline and earning her 40-hour domestic violence counselor certificate.

Marissa graduated with a B.S. in Social Welfare and Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her Master of Social Work with a concentration in Community Organization, Planning and Administration from the University of Southern California.

Jill joined the Center in 2023 to apply her extensive expertise in operations management, human resources, and business consulting to the organization’s mission of securing justice for survivors. Prior to her move to the Center, Jill spent over two decades in the for-profit sector, most recently serving as Principal and Director of Operations at Partner Energy, an engineering and sustainability consulting firm. There, she played a pivotal role in growing the company from a startup to an industry-leading $12M, 60-person organization recognized for its work in energy efficiency.

Earlier in her career, Jill worked at Deloitte, where she helped school districts increase their federal funding for health services, as well as the Public Agenda Foundation and Bennington College, where she led corporate and foundation relations efforts.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Jill is deeply engaged in her local community. She has spearheaded capital campaigns for the public school district and served on several boards focused on education and youth sports. Jill holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts from Villanova University’s Honors Program. She and her husband have two children currently attending college.

Prior to joining the Center, Heidi spent more than 25 years at the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law, most recently as Deputy Director, where she directed financial, contractual, personnel, and operational functions for the organization. Heidi also served as Program Manager with the State Bar of California, Office of Access & Inclusion, where she led and expanded the fiscal team. In this role, she developed fiscal policies, streamlined reporting systems, delivered training and technical assistance, and participated in fiscal and program audits.

Heidi earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles and brings a deep commitment to equity, transparency, and access to justice through strong nonprofit leadership.

Michelle is the co-facilitator of the LA VAWA Network and she has organized and moderated the annual U Visa Certifier Roundtable event for the last 15 years. Michelle was invited to testify in support of AB 674, which became California’s Penal Code section 679.10, the first statewide U Visa certification bill in the nation. She was one of the drafters and testified on behalf of AB 1261, a bill that provided important amendments to PC 679.10 and added PC 679.11 for human trafficking survivors seeking T Visa certifications. She has also contributed to the drafting of similar bills in Illinois and Colorado. Michelle brought together the coalition of survivor advocates and experts at the intersection of criminal and immigration law that led to the passage of AB 2169, a bill that ensured immigrant survivors are fully protected by California’s vacatur laws.  ASISTA, ILRC, AILA, NCVLI and Freedom Network USA have invited her to speak at their statewide and national conferences.

Michelle received her B.A. from Cornell University in English and Women’s Studies and her J.D. and M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA. While at UCLA School of Law, she completed the Epstein Public Interest Program in Law and Policy and graduated with a concentration in Critical Race Studies.

Michelle has also taught high school in Watts, English in Guadalajara, Mexico, an undergraduate course on Immigration Policy at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, and a graduate course on Domestic Violence at the USC Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. She published “‘You Don’t Know if They’ll Let You Out in One Day, One Year, or Ten Years…’ Indefinite Detention of Immigrants after Zadvydas v. Davis,” 24 Chicano-Latino L. Rev. 12 (2003) and has been listed as a contributor to several editions of ILRC’s “The U Visa: Obtaining Status for Immigrant Survivors of Crime.”

In earlier roles, she provided bilingual therapy to children, adolescents, and families in clinical and school-based settings. She now serves adults in private practice, supervises ASWs across multidisciplinary and non-traditional settings, and facilitates community groups focused on well-being and mental health resilience.

Sylvia holds a BA in Political Science from UCLA and an MSW from USC with a concentration in children, families, and public child welfare. Her holistic, experiential approach integrates evidence-based practices with mindfulness, art, and eco-therapy. At the Center, she supports survivors of violence and systemic oppression through a community advocacy program she developed, grounded in a transdisciplinary legal-social work model.

She is a certified compassion fatigue educator, training in evidence-based therapeutic model, and has served as a practicum instructor and placement coordinator for two decades. Sylvia is a dedicated advocate for survivors and individuals with developmental and learning disabilities.  Through her lived experience and professional collaboration with those she advocates for, she has contributed to policy review, legislative work and trainings to reflect the experiences of those she serves with the intention of creating systems that better serve all individuals. She is an active member of NASW, WOSEP, CSCSW, and the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.

Here in Los Angeles, Stephanie serves as a founding member of the City’s Domestic Violence Restraining Order Enforcement Taskforce, and is a co-chair for the Domestic Violence Council’s Systems Improvement Committee. Prior to joining the Center, Stephanie was the Managing Attorney for the Survivor and Family Justice Workgroup at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

Before to moving to California, Stephanie was a Clinical Instructor at Harvard Law School’s Family/Domestic Violence Clinic for six years. There, she represented Boston-area clients (often alongside clinical students), and served on the leadership team for the Passageways Medical Legal Partnership between Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Legal Services Center. Immediately after law school graduation, Stephanie was a Public Service Venture Fund Fellow at the Urban Justice Center’s Domestic Violence Project in New York City, where she provided legal services to low-income survivors of domestic violence in Manhattan and Queens, and specialized in financial abuse. Prior to law school, Stephanie worked as an investigative analyst for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Unit, and served as a volunteer rape crisis counselor for four years.

Davidson received her B.A. from Columbia University, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was elected President of Harvard Women’s Law Association and served as an articles editor for the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender. Upon graduation, she received the Gary Bellow Public Service Award as well as the Dean’s Commencement Award for Community Leadership.