Meet The Leadership

Rima Nashashibi, Founder and President of Global Hope 365, a local nonprofit dedicated to ending Child Marriage, Human Trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence, is an Internationally Recognized Speaker, Political and Community Leader/Activist.  She was listed in the Orange County Register Newspaper OC’s top 125 most influential people in Orange County,  and the winner of the Los Angeles Times B2B Publishing Inspirational Woman of the year in the nonprofit executive category

Gus retired after a career as Chief Executive Officer of TMX Engineering & Manufacturing. He is an avid cyclist and outdoor enthusiast. Gus holds a degree in mechanical engineering from UCLA.

Kristin has managed political campaigns and is a podcast host. She previously worked as a news editor at Full Riot Productions. Kristin studied Radio, Film & Television at Vanguard University and holds a graduate degree from UCLA.

Tamara Farrar is a Family Law Attorney in Private Practice. Tamara is dedicated to the fair representation of her clients. She has been practicing law since 1989 and has substantial experience representing clients in all areas of family law. Tamara holds a JD from the American College of Law.

Dot is the founder of Women Drivers Interfaith Group, an assemblage of women from throughout south Orange County dedicated to “driving” the issues of peace, justice, and religious freedom. Dot has also served as the President of the Interfaith Council of Greater Rancho Santa Margarita. In 2008, she founded Rockcrest Seven Video Productions, a documentary film company that has worked in both Orange County and in Los Angeles. Dot holds a degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mellissa Withers, PhD, MHS is Associate Professor at the Keck School of Medicine in the Department of Preventive Medicine. She is based at the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health. She also is also Director of the Global Health Program of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, a non-profit network of 56 universities. She received a PhD from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, a Master’s in Health Sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a BA in international development from UC Berkeley.

Founding Director, of the USC SDP-Keck Human Rights Clinic, a professor, psychotherapist, and researcher of sexual violence in both civilian and military settings. Her current research interests include technology-facilitated sexual violence, gender-based violence and its connection to human rights within American society, and clinical treatments of trauma in the therapy room.

Darryl is a practicing business lawyer. He forms, organizes, buys, sells, and assists with the financings of all forms of entities, including non-profit corporations. Darryl has been a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine - School of Law teaching Securities Litigation and Enforcement and tax law courses. Darryl holds a B.S. in Business Administration and M.B.A. from Drexel University, J.D. and LL.M. (in Taxation) from Villanova University School of Law, and LL.M (in Securities Regulation and Finance) from Georgetown University Law School.

Dawn Tyree is an author, activist, and survivor of child marriage. Dawn was forced to marry her abuser at the age of 13, pregnant with her first child. She is a founding member of the National Coalition to End Child Marriage in the United States. Her efforts have helped bring the total of U.S. States banning child marriage to six. Dawn’s story has been published in The New York Times, Reuters, The Sun, and many more. Dawn is an Advisory Board Member for The Resiliency Foundation, a nonprofit focused on ending child marriage in the United States.

Elizabeth Sitton was forced to marry into a cult at the age of 16, to a much older man. She was later trafficked outside of the U.S. for 2.5 years. She escaped upon her return and is finishing her memoirs and a screenplay about her experience. An advocate for ending child marriage since 2018, she was instrumental in changing the age of marriage to 17 years old in the state of Nevada. She frequently testifies across the U.S. with the goal of changing legislation on the minimum age of marriage to 18 years, No Exceptions. She earned her Master's degree from Pepperdine University and a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She lives with her daughter and cat in Los Angeles and enjoys international travel, cooking, writing, and tennis.

Senator Joe Dunn chaired key committees such as the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Housing Committee. He received international acclaim as chair of the Senate Investigation Committee into the 2001 California energy crisis, and subsequently as “The Man Who Cracked Enron” (California Lawyer Magazine). Prior to entering the Senate, he was a plaintiff’s lawyer in Orange County, working on mass tort cases surrounding child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Big Tobacco, nuclear radiation contamination, and product liability litigation of defective medical devices and pharmaceuticals. He joined the Newport Beach office of Robins Kaplan after law school, and then Robinson, Calcagnie, Robinson, also in Newport Beach, where he continued to focus on sexual abuse, product liability, and complex litigation until his election to the Senate. Following his two terms in the State Senate, Dunn served as CEO of both the California Medical Association and the State Bar of California. He is currently a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law, an institution he cofounded while in the Senate. At UCI Law, he helped launch the UCI Cybersecurity Policy and Research Institute, the Civil Justice Research Institute, the Cannabis Research Center, and most recently, the overall artificial intelligence and the law effort at the law school. He currently serves as a trustee for the UCI Foundation and serves on the board of several organizations fighting sexual abuse in society. Senator Dunn received his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the Minnesota School of Law (1983) and his B.A. magna cum laude from the College of St. Thomas (1980).