Catalyze Reform is a team of subject matter experts, experienced advocates, and practitioners who understand that they are a resource to community leaders.
The Catalyze Reform Team
Leadership
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Aaron Zisser founded Catalyze Reform because he saw a pattern of cities paying lip service to “community engagement.” He saw lawyers and politicians taking control of reform efforts, marginalizing the very people whose lives were most impacted: usually the Black community or other communities of color. These reform proposals inevitably ended up being superficial quick fixes with no accountability for implementation and follow-through.
Aaron served as a subject matter expert for a community-led Blue Ribbon Commission on jail reform and saw the value in pairing community leaders and experienced practitioners. But this Blue Ribbon Commission was unusual — the county paid for the expert. He immediately understood that most community-led efforts combatting racial injustices and systemic abuse would be on their own.
Aaron has since served as the director of two independent civilian oversight agencies, in San Jose and Oakland, California. In those roles, he reviewed police conduct and discipline but also advised leaders on policy reforms and best practices. He has also consulted for and advised other police oversight agencies, and he was an Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco, primarily in the Independent Investigations Bureau, which investigates officer-involved shootings and other use of force.
Prior to his work in local police oversight, Aaron was an attorney with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as lead attorney on jail and prison reform cases, as well as other statewide and institutional cases involving systemic racial and other disparities. In that work, input from impacted individuals and families was a major priority and critical in shaping consent decrees and monitoring implementation.
Aaron has worked for several human rights and civil rights nonprofits.
Aaron earned his BA from UC Berkeley and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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BJ Victor is a hip hop artist from Oakland. He writes and performs as part of the Black Excellence Band. He also directs a nonprofit that makes education grants to promising young people in the community and works with a Bay Area organization that supports Black youth in the public schools.
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Phil Telfeyan is the founder and Executive Director Equal Justice Under Law, a civil rights nonprofit based in Washington, DC. He began the organization in 2014 with the goal of ending inequality in the justice system. He fights to end America’s money bail system, to end the war on drugs, and to limit excessive collateral consequences of criminal convictions.
Phil previously served as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice for five years, where he specialized in employment discrimination and immigrants’ rights and litigated complex pattern-or-practice cases on behalf of victims of discrimination. Before that, he clerked for the Honorable Janice Brown on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Phil also served as Director of the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter where he oversaw the health and safety of 24 homeless guests per night.
Phil earned both a bachelor’s degree (in Philosophy and Government) and a law degree from Harvard University.
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Julie Abbate is the National Advocacy Director at Just Detention International (JDI), based in its Washington, D.C. office. She leads JDI’s federal and state policy work, advocating for government action to address sexual abuse behind bars. Julie has spent most of her 25-year legal career fighting for prisoners’ rights. She comes to JDI after 15 years at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she focused on combating sexual abuse in women’s prisons. Julie was also a member of the Attorney General’s PREA Working Group, which drafted the national Prison Rape Elimination Act standards. She is a certified PREA auditor.
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Aparna Patrie is a dedicated and passionate immigration attorney with over a decade of experience in civil litigation and federal policy. Aparna has represented numerous clients in immigration matters including asylum, removal, detention, family-based immigration, U-Visas, VAWA, and business immigration matters.
Aparna received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown Law, magna cum laude, in 2015. After law school, Aparna clerked for the Honorable Majorie O. Rendell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Aparna also has years of experience as a lawyer for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where federal immigration laws are drafted, and as a staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is licensed in New York.
Aparna lives in West Maui with her husband and three kids. She is passionate about serving her community, and is currently assisting immigrants impacted by the Lahaina wildfires through Roots Reborn, a local nonprofit organization.
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Aaron Zisser brings expertise in systemic reform in policing, corrections, and schools. A civil rights attorney, he investigated systemic issues in correctional and psychiatric facilities, statewide mental health systems, and schools while with the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (2009-2015).
He subsequently consulted on jail reform as a subject matter expert for a community-led Blue Ribbon Commission in Santa Clara County and was part of a court monitoring team assessing conditions in the Illinois prisons.
Aaron then served as the Independent Police Auditor in San Jose, reviewing SJPD’s internal affairs investigations and making policy recommendations, and as the Interim Executive Direcsor for Oakland’s Community Police Review Agency, where he oversaw independent civilian investigations of police conduct and worked closely with the Police Commission. He was also an Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco, primarily in the Independent Investigations Bureau, which investigates officer-involved shootings and other use of force.
Aaron has worked for several human rights and civil rights nonprofits.
Aaron earned his BA from UC Berkeley and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Russell Bloom is the Independent Police Auditor for the Bay Area Rapid Transit. He reviews internal affairs investigations, oversees his office’s independent investigations, and recommends police policy changes. He works closely with a citizen board and with community stakeholders.
Russell has also served on the Berkeley Police Review Commission, including as chair and vice-chair. He also advises other oversight bodies.
Russell earned his BA from UC Berkeley and his JD from theNew College of California School of Law. -
Farah Muscadin was the inaugural Director of the Office of Police Oversight for the City of Austin. Farah built the systems and programs for the department from the ground-up. The mission of the Office of Police Oversight (OPO) is to provide impartial oversight of the Austin Police Department’s conduct, practices, and policies to enhance accountability, inform the public to increase transparency, and create sustainable partnerships throughout the community.
Farah was promoted into the leadership role for the newly created department of police oversight for the City of Austin and reported to the City Manager. In this role, she managed all programs and initiatives to maintain accountability in policing and served as the key link between the community, the police department and government officials.
Farah served as the Co- Chair of the City of Austin Reimagine Public Safety efforts. It is a multi-pronged strategy to redefine public safety, improve safety outcomes, to address racial and institutional inequities, and increase accountability and transparency in policing.
Farah also has extensive legislative affairs experience, both as an assistant to the mayor of Chicago and on behalf of higher education institutions and the state of Illinois. With the city of Chicago, Farah was successful in shepherding legislation which provided the Independent Police Review Authority access to juvenile records, while also serving as the legislative counsel with the responsibility of reviewing, monitoring and drafting legislation on various municipal matters.
Early in her career, Farah was a public defender in Chicago. She earned her Bachelor’s and law degree from the University of Iowa.
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Dr. Regina Scott’s career with the Los Angeles Police Department spanned over 34 years, culminating in a command staff role for over two decades and ultimately her role as Bureau Chief. Dr. Scott’s management experience includes, as Deputy Chief, managing various bureaus; overseeing the deployment and implementation of body-worn cameras; overseeing patrol, detective, homicide, VICE, gangs, narcotics, and audit teams; coordinating various multi-agency task forces; and as Bureau Chief, overseeing aspects of use of force, complaints, pursuits, discipline, and audits.
Dr. Scott has extensive experience addressing use of force. She has addressed de-escalation, crisis intervention for persons experiencing mental health issues, TASER best practices, and supervisor command and control. She co-chaired the Use of Force Boards and made findings and recommendations to the Chief of Police and the Police Commission. As the commanding officer of the Communication Division, Dr. Scott reviewed, revised, and established dispatch protocols, particularly focusing on scenarios involving persons experiencing mental health crises.
Dr. Scott’s supervision of various audit units was directed at ensuring stringent compliance with the federal consent decree across numerous areas, including use of force, complaint investigations, and command and accountability performance. Her role involved close coordination with the Department Inspector General, the Constitutional Policing Unit, and Independent Federal Consent Decree Monitors.
Dr. Scott has had key roles in implementing training. Dr. Scott led the development and delivery of the 21st Century Department-wide training “National Discussion: Public Trust and The Preservation of Life” a comprehensive training attended by all 10,000 police officers and key community members. She also served as Officer in Charge of Recruit Training, where she led the training for LAPD’s Basic Academy. She was instrumental in integrating federal consent decree and state mandates into the training curriculum. Dr. Scott’s collaboration with the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training led to the development of the Ethical Decision-Making Tools for California Law Enforcement.
In 2022, Dr. Scott earned her Doctorate in Criminal Justice, focusing on policy evaluation and implementation of evidence-based criminal justice reforms.
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Perry Tarrant has more than three and a half decades of law enforcement experience. He was Assistant Chief for the Seattle Police Department for more than three years (2015-2018), commanding the Special Operations Bureau - Harbor Patrol, SWAT, Canine, Arson-Bomb Squad, Traffic, Traffic Collision Investigations, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement, Parking Enforcement. He began his career with the Tucson Police Department where he worked assignments in Patrol, Canine, SWAT, and Bomb Squad. He also supervised or commanded these areas as well as Motorcycle Enforcement, Internal Affairs Investigations, Aviation (with a Commercial Pilot Certificate), Homeland Security–Counterterrorism, Emergency Management, and Investigations.
Perry served on the Executive Board of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) before being elected to lead as its President (2016 and 2017). Perry currently chairs the NOBLE Technology Taskforce dealing with community engagement, officer safety, and effective crime reduction innovation. He authored or contributed knowledge and experience to publications on race and policing, a comprehensive model policy for use of force by law enforcement and corrections, and a criminal justice resource for responding to hate crimes. Perry continues to be a resource for several congressional offices and committees. He has been described as a consummate policing and criminal justice reformer for human rights for the most vulnerable in our communities.
Perry provided written testimony to President Obama’s Taskforce on 21st Century Policing. He worked with community leaders, city leadership in Ferguson, Missouri and the U.S. Department of Justice through challenges and toward restructuring. He was asked by the President Obama White House to lead a response into Charlotte, NC following a high profile police shooting.
Perry is certified as a Community Engagement subject matter expert and Collaborative Reform Generalist under the IACP Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center.
Perry received his Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a Leadership Emphasis from Northern Arizona University, and his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from The University of Arizona.
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Catalyze Reform can tap into a broad network of experts on a range of issues throughout the country.