Meet the Team
Malia Vasquez
Trauma Support
Program Director
Malia Vasquez (she/her) has dedicated her career to providing compassionate care and support to people who have experienced trauma in their lives. She has spent close to 20 years working with survivors of child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of harm. Through her work at various nonprofits and government agencies across Oregon, California, Arizona, and Hawaii, Malia has gained valuable experience working with diverse populations across different systems. Her approach to trauma support is grounded in empathy, respect, and cultural awareness. She recognizes the unique experiences and backgrounds of trauma survivors and tailors her interventions accordingly. Her style is person-centered, empowering individuals to reclaim their lives, build resilience, and work toward post-traumatic growth.
As an individual born and raised in Portland, Malia is committed to the overall health, well-being, and safety of this city. Having most recently spent years working in victim advocacy, Malia understands the impact that crime has on the survivor, their loved ones, and the larger community. Malia seeks to provide a safe, empowering, and authentic environment for individuals to heal, learn, and grow.
As the Trauma Support Program Director for CTSS, Malia is excited to provide direct support to survivors and to create partnerships with community organizations, government agencies, and other local service providers.
Lindsay Christensen
Operations Director
As the Operations Director for the Center for Trauma Support Services, Lindsay Christensen (she/they) strives to ensure that all functions, policies, and practices are sensitive to the effects of interpersonal and systemic trauma and promote healing and resilience. Lindsay is a mediator, restorative dialogue facilitator, and conflict transformation professional. A systems thinker with heart, Lindsay helps organizations realize their vision through project and program management, accountability-based group processes, and streamlined workflow systems. She hold a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from Portland State University and has completed coursework in Organizational Management and Consulting.
Fascinated by human psychology, Lindsay enjoys helping improve workplace culture and the relationships which sustain it. They have designed and facilitated numerous workshops, strategic planning sessions, dialogues, and retreats for leadership teams including Portland State University, Compassion Connect, and the Portland Blues and Jazz Dance Society. Lindsay believes that true leadership comes from connecting and empowering people, and understanding and giving voice to the myriad needs and interests at play in any given situation.
Lindsay is grateful to be serving an organization and team that centers healing, compassion, collaboration, cultural sensitivity, and self-determination for individuals and communities.
Dr. Derron Coles
Board President
Dr. Derron Coles (he/him) is a learning strategist with over 20 years of experience designing learner-focused workforce development training. Derron has a wide-ranging portfolio that runs the gamut from learning solutions for technical topics, like a globally utilized online training on river system analysis, to interpersonal skills training, such as his award-winning equity diversity and inclusion (EDI) curriculum. Derron has earned certificates in eLearning design, the Treisman method of collaborative learning, the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST).
Upon completing his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Derron moved to Oregon to complete a masters and doctorate in civil engineering at Oregon State University. He then spent eight years managing the mathematics program for the OSU Educational Opportunities Program. In this role, Derron lead culturally responsive efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented science and engineering students.
Derron is now owner and principal consultant for DRC Learning Solutions, a culturally responsive company focused on helping organizations in both the private and public sectors develop and sustain social and environmental justice initiatives. As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Derron brings a process-oriented and learning-based approach to projects. The current DRC LS portfolio includes projects for small nonprofits, such as WaterWatch, larger organizations like the U.S. Forest Service, and multi-organization collaboratives like the Intertwine Alliance EDI Cohorts.
Derron is also the executive director of The Blueprint Foundation. The nonprofit provides workforce development for Black-identified students using project-based learning and multigenerational mentoring that attends to pressing environmental justice issues, while solidifying skills necessary for college, a career in the green sector, and civic life.
Derron is a survivor of trauma imposed upon him in response to his intersectional identities as a Black gay cisgender male. Derron uses his experiences and associated resiliency strategies to inform his workforce development programming for youth and adults. He is excited to be on the CTSS team to support other survivors as they recover and reclaim their power by constructing their preferred strategies for leveraging their traumatic experiences toward meeting their personal goals.
Vanessa Palacios
Board Treasurer
Vanessa (she/her) is originally from Mexico City and has been in the Portland Metro area for the past twenty years. Vanessa became a fierce advocate for justice and the most vulnerable members in our community after experiencing victimization and trauma. Vanessa has dedicated her entire professional career to serving people in need. First, she obtained an Associate’s Degree in Paralegal Studies from Portland Community College, and continued with a Bachelor’s in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Portland State University. She has over ten years of experience working in the courts, with law enforcement, with private attorneys, with the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, mediating, and practicing restorative justice. Family is very important to her, and she loves spending time with her husband, children, a dog, two cats, two fish, and also enjoys traveling to learn more from other cultures. At home, she is a furniture restoration and decoration enthusiast, plant lover, and an avid Latin music dancer; she will never turn down an opportunity to practice her moves! She is very excited to be a part of the CTSS board, and cannot wait to start the good work to bring so much-needed healing and peace to our community.
Julian Samuels
Board Secretary
Julian is originally from the Pacific Northwest growing up right across the river from Portland, Oregon in the Vancouver, Washington area. Julian has always wanted to give back to his community and has a passion for community safety. Julian started his goal of always helping his community by being a volunteer coach for the Boys and Girls Club of America as a teenager. After graduating high school Julian attended an undergraduate university in Arizona where he focused on law and public policy as well as history and business. Julian spent most of his time during his undergraduate career in different leadership roles on campus as well as interning with the Pima County Courts and a local business.
Julian then went to law school in Indiana where he focused on public service and pro-bono work. Julian completed internships with multiple courts in Indiana such as a major felony court and a minor felony court. Julian also completed an externship with the Indiana Court of Appeals and took classes that focused on community rights, criminal justice and advocacy.
After graduating law school and passing the bar Julian worked in civil litigation for one year until a position at the District Attorney’s Office opened up and he was hired as a first-year deputy district attorney. Julian always wanted to work at the District Attorney’s Office not only because of the impact a deputy district attorney can have on the community but also the ability to work directly with victims of crimes. Julian believes victims deserve a voice at every stage of litigation and passionately practices with that belief in mind.
Veronica Bañuelos
Board Member
Veronica Bañuelos is bilingual / bicultural Chicana Organizational Development and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion practitioner with special skills in Equity Conflict Resolution and Restorative Processes. As an independent consultant, Veronica supports people and organizations in moving closer to their mission and each other through coaching, training, and mediation. She works to identify organizational structures and systems that can support all layers of an organization. This to support a mission driven work and purpose for each individual client. Veronica has worked with government and nonprofit agencies as well as private business, she has been successful working on several statewide projects. Veronica holds a BA in Human Development and an MA in Management and Organizational Leadership from Warner Pacific University. She is a trained and highly skilled conflict resolution practitioner and mediator, a strong systems lens, she is a trained Spiritual Director through the Urban Spirituality Center and a relationship-centered practitioner. Combined, these practices ground Veronica’s holistic approach to the values of social justice and love, with commitment to service and healing.
www.veronicabanuelos.com
Mary Zinkin
Founder
Mary Zinkin, Ph.D. (she/her) founded CTSS in 2015 so that no other victim or survivor of a serious violent crime had to experience what she had endured: years and years of feeling all alone with no support for healing and recovering from severe trauma. She served as the Executive Director with unwavering commitment and passion to provide crucial healing services to trauma survivors, as well as resiliency training and restorative justice dialogues in the community. Seeing trauma as a public health issue informed her efforts to ensure that there are comprehensive resources in the community. Dr. Zinkin was called to increase understanding of victim/survivor needs and sensitivity to those needs in both the criminal and restorative justice systems.
To learn about Mary’s inspiration for creating the Center for Trauma Support Services, listen to this interview.