Team
Meet the people working behind the scenes
We practice a feminist co-director model. We value shared leadership, community collaboration, and partnership with people advancing racial, economic, and social justice in New Jersey.
Meet our staff, community harm reduction ambassadors, and board below (in alphabetical order by first name).
Staff
Caitlin O'Neill (they/them)
Community Drug Checking Technician
Caitlin is a survivor, a healer, and a harm reductionist. They were introduced to Harm Reduction in the 00’s through utilizing a local syringe service program, and spent a dozen years or so informally serving as the harm reductionist of their social circle while working full-time as a massage therapist & bodyworker.
Caitlin believes it is the birthright of every human being to experience joy, dignity, and bodily autonomy. Co-founder of New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition, they work to build a world in which people who use drugs have access to resources for healing and self-determined care, regardless of background or choices.
I believe in harm reduction because I have seen and experienced firsthand the gruesome things that happen without it. I have also seen and experienced firsthand the magic of someone simply reminding you that your life has value and that you are not dirty or bad, and that magic can make a huge impact on our spirit and sense of self-worth.
Safer use gear: new syringes, straws, or pipes. offering something to honor where that person is at this moment, and acknowledging that they deserve to not be harmed while using — no matter what they’re using — that’s huge. Trust and dignity begin with honoring a person for their whole existence, not just the parts that fit into some coercive model of “success.”
I enjoy spending my time off with my partner and my family—especially time hanging with our two cats or with my three nephews. To unwind, I’m a big fan of a long herbal bath and my drugs of choice.
Cristina Ortiz (she/her)
Harm Reduction Supply Assistant
Cristina has always been fascinated by the study of how drugs modulate the brain. Coming from a background in cognitive science and pharmacology, she worked in clinical research labs for drug development but moved toward harm reduction because it is a field she wholeheartedly believes in, combining the elements of pragmatism and social justice she craves.
Cristina believes in harm reduction because everyone deserves dignified and compassionate treatment – and because the data backs it all up, of course. When she’s not working, you can usually find her on a long run or reading a book.
Harm reduction WORKS and provides an invaluable service to communities otherwise neglected by the systems in place meant to keep people safe.
A willingness to meet people where they’re at, and pragmatism – I believe these are essential to serving your community as it is, not what you think it should be.
In my free time I love to hang out with my friends, watch movies, knit, or spend time in my pottery studio.
De'Asia Jones (she/her)
Program Associate, Statewide Harm Reduction Center
After spending a summer internship packing and distributing wound care kits on outreach sessions with the Mercer County Department of Public Health and Safety, De’Asia found her way to harm reduction. As a certified Community Health Worker, she is passionate about health equity and dismantling disparities in healthcare.
De’Asia is constantly reaching for more knowledge on equitable healthcare; she is currently studying to become a Certified Health Education Specialist and planning to pursue a Master’s in Public Health. She is also a visual artist that enjoys drawing, painting, and photography in her free time.
It’s a public health practice that aims to decriminalize individuals. It also provides health access to marginalized groups by breaking down barriers.
I have three!
Outreach: to spread awareness about harm reduction and resources.
Education: to inform people about health topics and safety concerns.
Mailing: to provide supplies to those who normally don’t have access to them.
I listen to music or podcasts.
Felix Duprey (he/him)
Harm Reduction Navigator
Felix (he/him) has decades of lived experience, watching loved ones go without access to sterile syringes, losing others to overdose, and using drugs himself. Growing up in north Newark, he was personally affected by the gaps in his city’s care for the Latinx community and realized that it was people power that would bring the safety and resources his community lacked. He brings his unique perspective to all elements of his work as a tool to connect with others and is an advocate for people who use drugs and have otherwise been left out of the conversation. He previously served as a High-Risk Intervention Outreach Worker for Newark Community Street Team where he honed his skills for relationship-building and resource connection.
Felix is a fluent Spanish speaker, a proud Newark native, and a prolific music promoter. Music plays an instrumental role in his practice, putting a pause on trauma and allowing for a genuine moment of connection.
I believe in harm reduction, because we are saving lives.
My life experience, being able to connect and engage with any participant. My life has taught me how to network.
Jenna Mellor (she/her)
Executive Director
Jenna has over ten years of experience at the intersection of direct service and public policy. She previously served as the first Associate Director at Point Source Youth, aide to Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Outreach Manager at HIPS, and has advised the New Jersey Department of Health on harm reduction best practices.
Jenna holds a BA from Harvard College and completed her Master’s in Public Affairs at Princeton in 2020, focusing on drug and housing policies that promote public health and human dignity. Jenna is a co-founder of NJHRC, and previously served on the boards of New Leaders Council — New Jersey and the New Jersey Abortion Access Fund. Currently, she serves on New Jersey’s Opioid Recovery and Remediation Council, consulting on where the State’s opioid settlement funding should be allocated. Jenna is also a proud product of Atlantic County and lover of the Pine Barrens.
I love harm reduction because it works — it values deep relationships and longterm investment in people’s wellbeing. The power and change that comes when people are respected and treated as the experts in our own lives is truly remarkable.
I have three: consistency, syringes, and policy change!
Consistency is so key to building trust. And while harm reduction is about much more than syringes, injection is also the most stigmatized form of drug use. If we embrace safer injection (“building from the margins” style), we’re probably moving toward more equitable drug policy for everyone.
Finally, on policy change: we always try to look at systems and structures and see if we can get at the underlying causes of harms that our team bears witness to during outreach.
Take baths, hang with my sweetheart and cat, watch the Eagles (I’m a big fan of Jalen Hurts!), and (if the weather is sunny!) go tubing with loved ones. Being near water, whether a bathtub or ocean or river, makes me happy.
Keith Pittman (he/him)
Harm Reduction Supply Lead
Keith entered recovery from Substance Use Disorder (SUD) in 2012 and is a person in long-term recovery. Keith was previously the Residential Supervisor for the Salvation Army residential living facility in Philadelphia where he oversaw over 120 program participants. From there, he went on to develop his facilitation skills by training participants to earn their Serv Safe certification, helping them excel in the workforce.
Keith began volunteering with NJHRC in 2023 and came on the team officially as a Community Ambassador before becoming the Harm Reduction Supply Lead. In Operations, his duties include preparing overdose prevention and public health supplies and ensuring they get distributed throughout all of Middlesex County and New Jersey, but especially in his home base of New Brunswick. When he isn’t saving lives, he enjoys cooking and his favorite cuisine to prepare is barbecue.
I believe in harm reduction because it’s about creating a support system for all people of all walks of life.
Safer use tools.
I like to lay around the house or read or find a good movie.
Laura Buckley (she/her)
Interim Program Director
Laura oversees NJHRC’s direct services and capacity-building programming, supporting drug users all throughout New Jersey. She has always been drawn to roles that involve pragmatic helping and connecting people to resources and support. Her formal introduction to harm reduction began during a fellowship in Cape Town, South Africa, where she worked with an HIV/AIDS nonprofit and has deepened through receiving her Master’s in Social Work, and spending two summers supporting a sex worker collective in Kolkata, India.
Laura also comes to this work with firsthand insight into how criminalization and the War on Drugs affects individuals and communities, through her own experience with the criminal justice system at 18. She combines her experiences and approaches her work through a lens of social work principles, action research methods, yoga teacher training, and scuba diving certification in her facilitation.
Because harm reduction is dignity and kindness in action. It’s also refreshingly pragmatic—it works with human behavior as it actually is, not as we wish it would be. It’s grounded in the reality of how people actually change and grow, rather than idealistic notions of how they should. Rather than setting people up to fail with unrealistic expectations, harm reduction meets people where they are, recognizes that any step toward greater safety and wellbeing matters, and trusts that people are the experts on their own lives.
I’ve come to believe that much of service work stems from our own desire to receive the kind of support we’ve needed. This self-awareness doesn’t diminish the work—it deepens it. Understanding my own motivations helps me approach harm reduction with both passion and humility, recognizing that this work is ultimately about meeting people where they are and supporting their own definitions of safety and wellbeing.
Relationships—hands down. You can have the best programs, the most resources, the perfect intervention, but if you don’t have genuine, trusting relationships, none of it matters. This work is fundamentally built on human connection. While policies and programs absolutely have an impact, meaningful change happens when people feel seen, heard, and valued by someone who believes in them and shows up consistently without judgment. Trust is the foundation that makes everything else possible.
There’s nothing better than good food, good people, and a really good dog hug.
Lea Rumbolo (she/her)
Senior Operations Manager
Lea brings a deep commitment to dignity, care, and community. Before entering the harm reduction field, Lea spent two decades as a chef and another ten years as a brewer—professions that reflect her belief in nurturing people in every form. Her journey to harm reduction is rooted in lived experience and a powerful sense of justice. Whether managing logistics, mentoring staff, or advocating for accessibility and equity, she approaches every task with heart, humility, and a fierce belief in every person’s right to respect and support.
Coming soon!
Coming soon!
Coming soon!
Malcolm Wolf Lee (he/him)
Harm Reduction Specialist
Malcolm knows firsthand the efficacy of syringe services, having benefitted from using them in the late 00’s. Now, as a Harm Reduction Specialist, he is guided by his firsthand knowledge and deep-seated empathy when providing care to community members.
His years of lived experience, coupled with his time in customer services and research canvassing, have shaped his proactive and compassionate approach to meeting people where they’re at and making connections to the necessary resources. Malcolm also commits to improving the community through his artwork – he is a skilled painter and muralist.
Coming soon!
Coming soon!
Coming soon!
Marisa DiPaolo (she/her)
Harm Reduction Supply Assistant
Marisa was practicing harm reduction before she had the words to describe what it was. At a young age she saw the grief that rippled through her family after losing her aunt to overdose, and became determined to show up for loved ones, friends, and neighbors by being someone who kept naloxone on hand.
Formally trained as an artist, and more specifically an animator, Marisa brings a detail-oriented eye to quality control in the kit-building room, that ‘brings life’ to the supplies distributed throughout NJHRC’s programs (sometimes with individualized artwork!). She shows up to harm reduction with the intention of being a reliable resource in hard times and making her late aunt proud. Marisa is also a musician that dabbles in clarinet, violin, guitar, and ukulele.
As cliché as it is, I believe in harm reduction because it saves people. By providing people safe tools, there is less risk for injury/bodily harm. It gives people hope and allows them to feel loved and respected.
The relationships you build are the most valuable. I believe when you help others, it encourages others to do the same. A true act of good will always spark another.
I like to draw! Specially I like to animate. I like to make my drawing move. Animation feels like the closest thing we have to magic.
Reggie Rosarion (he/him)
Senior Manager, Middlesex Harm Reduction Center
Reggie has a long history of advocating for and supporting marginalized communities through more than a decade of experience in program management across organizations like Planned Parenthood, RBA YMCA, and Tri-County Care Management Organization. He has also led projects and panels that examine the cross sections of institutional racism, poverty, and race, gender, and equity.
Reggie funnels this vast array of experiences into his role and keeps an ear to the ground when assessing the needs of the community. He finds harm reduction to be an innovative and crucial service to meeting communities where they’re at.
Because it works…
My most valued outreach tool is meeting people where they’re at. Also, my sense of humor and easy-going nature.
I love walking with my pup, meeting other people walking their dogs, and watching the grass grow.
I love going to musicals, baseball games and theatre…
I love learning new languages!
Sheilah Powell (she/her)
Manager, Statewide Harm Reduction Center
Sheilah is a harm reductionist, a person in recovery who also uses substances and a lifelong resident of central New Jersey. A tireless advocate, she serves on various grassroots committees and Boards throughout the state and country. She is currently the Manager of the Statewide Harm Reduction Center at the New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition, a long-time facilitator with Mainstream Recovery and a Middlesex County election poll worker. A mother of three children, she loves the beach, yoga, and her dog, Starla. She is an active volunteer for The Phoenix, Ruby’s Vision Inc., and Comfort Zone Camp, a bereavement camp for children.
Harm reduction saves lives, respects human dignity and autonomy, is supported by data and scientific evidence, and prioritizes humans who are so often marginalized and left without care or support. I not only believe in harm reduction, I practice it in my personal life on the daily!
Intramuscular naloxone and education on rescue breathing to reverse an overdose.
I knit winter hats for unhoused folks, and if it involves water it’s for me! The ocean, pools, hot tubs, saunas, kayaking – I love it all!
Taylor Dua (she/her)
Development & Communications Coordinator
Taylor came to harm reduction serendipitously. In 2020 she grew restless over the isolation imposed by the pandemic and took to the streets to bring community together through efforts with various mutual aid organizations. It was through these actions – community breakfasts, grocery distributions, clothing shares – that Taylor found NJHRC and saw the stars align.
It was also in 2020 that Taylor graduated with a BA in journalism & media studies. Now as NJHRC’s Development & Communications Coordinator, she brings with her the edge of recounting stories in real time and documenting the growth of NJHRC and uplifting the needs, the triumphs, and the true accounts of the harm reduction movement.
I believe in harm reduction because I think the only way we move forward is making sure that everyone does too. And I mean EVERYONE. I believe people deserve to pursue the life path that best reflects their own needs, and harm reduction respects and encourages that autonomy without the shame attached – when we meet each other where we’re at, the road ahead becomes a lot clearer.
In a physical sense, my most valued outreach tool is my tactical vest – lots of pockets means more storage for more supplies and easier access to getting folks things they need.
My other tool is the ability to ask questions. People are the best experts on themselves, but that knowledge can get jumbled up with all the other life happening in our heads. Sometimes it helps to have someone on the outside reorient where we’re at, to know how to communicate what we really need.
I like visiting loved ones at the cemetery and strolling about there. I find a lot of peace in being near wildlife at some capacity. I also like tossing a ball around and talking life with a friend when I need a hard reset.
Zainab Muhammad (they/them)
Harm Reduction Supply Assistant
In 2021, Zainab was working on an urban farm in Northeast Philadelphia near Kensington where they were exposed to a teeming network of mutual aid and harm reduction groups in action. They quickly saw the connection between their own work in agriculture and these community-driven groups as two entities focused on providing their neighbors with much-needed resources for survival and sustenance in a way that was tangible.
By blending their practical, tactile skills as a land steward with their drive to support their community, Zainab flourishes in the collaborative environment of kit-building. They also enjoy hands-on hobbies like sewing in their free time.
I believe in harm reduction because it’s life-saving mutual aid, that people need to survive and thrive. It’s a resource that reminds everyone that people who use drugs are not disposable and deserve then same care as we all do.
My most valued outreach tool would be my ability to be mutable in specific situations that call for listening, extending compassion and creating a care plan.
I like to rest or chill in my hammock; in my free time I like to see my friends and hang out. A cool hobby I have is that I sew and upcycle clothes occasionally. I really enjoy practical work and hobbies. It just makes sense ya know?
Community Ambassadors
Harm reduction ambassadors increase awareness about harm reduction, naloxone availability, and the impacts of the drug war in their communities.
Roxy Walker (she/her)
Community Ambassador
Roxy is a survivor — she wants people to know that she’s been out here for a while and she’s making it and surviving. She has faith that a better world is possible and enjoys doing her part with the outreach team.
I believe in harm reduction because it’s something good for the community and I’m using my understanding of the community to give back
Everything! Everything we do is awesome shit, excuse my language.
I take deep breaths and count to ten. It works. And the rest of the team has started doing it.
Board
Ami Kachalia
Board Chair
Campaign Strategist, ACLU-NJ
Ami Kachalia is a Campaign Strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, where she develops and leads policy advocacy campaigns with a focus on criminal legal reform, drug policy reform, and immigrants’ rights.
Reverand Dr. Leslie Harrison
Board Treasurer
Pastor at Mt. Zion AME Church & Founder of Let It Flow Enterprises (LIFE)
Rev. Dr. Leslie Robin Harrison can be described as a listener, a friend, and a voice for the voiceless (until they find their voice). She is the pastor of Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and earned a doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy at Eastern University. She is passionate about helping people live into their dreams and purpose. She has served over 20 years as a chaplain and pastoral counselor specializing in addiction.
I believe in harm reduction because harm reduction saves lives. Also as a member of the human race and a faith leader it is my duty to help individuals live life to the fullest in the healthiest way possible.
My most effective outreach tool is my presence and my voice.
To relax I try to get myself, a thick blanket and salty snacks in the presence of some moving water (i.e. river, ocean, fountain) and when that is not possible I turn on some water soundscapes audio or video and eat some chips while resting with my eyes closed and breathing deeply while laying on a soft blanket.
Michael Enich
Board Secretary
Graduate Assistant, Center for Prevention Science
Michael Enich is a MD/PhD Student at Rutgers University interested in health, homelessness, housing, and harm reduction. His research focuses on the intersections of these issues, such as substance use disorder treatment, health disparities for people experiencing chronic homelessness, Street Medicine, and evaluation of health policy and health service delivery. As of writing this he thinks he’s going to be a family medicine doctor, but recognizes a lot can happen during a PhD before he applies to residency! He’s proudly from Chicago, IL and graduated with a BA in Religion from St. Olaf College in 2014.
Not to be too academic, but I believe in harm reduction because the evidence is there that it works! I also deeply value bodily autonomy and admire how firmly rooted in that value harm reductionists are.
I have a profound appreciation for the Squat and Listen, i.e., kneeling down when people sitting on the ground are talking to you– and then letting them speak!
I climb rocks (usually plastic ones indoors) and am currently (slowly) baking my way through the whole Tartine cookbook.
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Harm reduction is essential. A harm reduction approach to drug use is the best strategy we have to end the overdose crisis, reduce risks associated with drug use, and affirm the dignity and bodily autonomy of every New Jerseyan.
