GENEVIEVE RIMER is a recent graduate from the University of Southern California (USC) with a doctorate of social work degree.While at USC, Dr. Rimer created a virtual community of practice platform for employment service providers of second chance job seekers. She was also the Co-Chair of Unchained Scholars. Unchained Scholars is a student interest group for formerly incarcerated social worker students.
Genevieve began her career in the field of social work as an intern providing case management services to women returning home from prison at a halfway house. Working with individuals post-incarceration became her passion and she continued serving these individuals in a variety of capacities including her current role at the Center for Employment Opportunities where she supports employers’ inclusive hiring practices.
Genevieve is also proud to partner with the Forestry & Fire Recruitment Program (FFRP). FFRP assists individuals released from California’s fire camps transfer to a professional fire-fighting career. At FFRP, Genevieve supervises master of social work students and is supporting the buildout of their social support arm. Mostly importantly, Genevieve believes that her redemptive journey through the carceral system has uniquely positioned her to be an advocate for fairness and equality.
DR. YEHUDAH PRYCE , DSW, MSW, served over 16 years incarcerated for a non-violent robbery he was arrested for as a teenager. While incarcerated, he helped design and facilitate personal development curriculum for his fellow incarcerated community members. Since his release from prison on October 22, 2018, he finished his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with an emphasis in social welfare; he graduated with his Master in Social Work degree from the University of Southern California (USC), where he was the chair of the student caucus group Unchained Scholars; and he completed his Doctorate in Social Work degree, in which his capstone project was “Person-centered Smart Decarceration: an MSW course centered on community members with a lived experience of incarceration.” He has experience working as an Intensive Case Management Services (ICMS) program manager for a South Los Angeles population that was chronically homeless with high acuity mental health challenges. He also volunteered for years as a psychotherapist at a residential addiction treatment center in Los Angeles that has an alternative sentencing department and has Lifers paroling directly there. In addition to his full-time job at Defy Ventures as the Senior Director of National Mental Health and Well-Being Programs, which involves working with community members who are incarcerated in prison and community members navigating reentry from prisons, he also works as a psychotherapist to incarcerated community members preparing for the parole board, and as a clinical social worker for the Orangewood Foundation Young Adult Court program (where he work collaboratively with justice-impacted transitional age youth, the presiding judge, district attorney, probation officer and public defender). Yehudah currently resides in Irvine, CA with his wife and three children.
