About the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness

Director & Founder

Nicole Baran, MSW, is the Director of the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness. She has been dedicated to the domestic violence movement since 2000, working both as an advocate with survivors of domestic violence and at the policy level for systemic change. Most recently, she was the Grant and Contract Manager at the Support Network for Battered Women in Mountain View. Previously, she worked for the Greenbook Initiative in St. Louis and produced guidelines regarding the response of domestic violence service providers to child maltreatment. In San Francisco, she taught dating violence prevention to continuation high school students. She has conducted training and workshops on domestic violence since 2001. She received her BA and MA in English from Stanford University and received her MSW from Washington University in St. Louis, with a specialization in management and a focus on domestic violence research.

Board of Directors

We are recruiting board members! Learn more about becoming a Board Member.

Current Board Members:

• Wendy Chang
• Caretha Coleman
• Sarah Jones
• Stephen Peeps
• Tara VanDerveer
• Donnovan Somera Yisrael

Advisory Board

• Elaine Baskin, Ph.D.
• Tami Cardenas
• Kristina Filopovich
• Sean Hecht
• Cindi Hunter
• Jenna Lawrence
• Kira Navarre
• Josh Palacious
• Carole Pertofsky
• Yolanda Anyon
• Judge LaDoris Cordell
• Dawn Desautels
• Sonya Sanchez

Additional Trainers

Tasneem Ismailji, MD, Trainer

Dr. Ismailji is a Pediatrician, born in Pakistan. After 20 years of Pediatric practice in the United States, Dr. Ismailji changed her career path to education and research in Family Violence. For the last decade, she has been conducting workshops in high schools, colleges and universities and hospitals on Domestic Violence and Dating Violence Prevention. As a pediatrician, she had received extensive training in Child Abuse, but none in Domestic Violence or Intimate Partner Abuse; hence, she has a particular interest in educating Health Care Providers. She has spoken at numerous hospitals about healthcare and domestic violence in Santa Clara County. Recently as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, Dr. Ismailji initiated research in Domestic Violence. With her collaborators at Stanford, she has completed a study at Stanford University on the effects of expressive writing on survivors of Intimate Partner Violence and published the results in scientific journals. She is a founding Board member of the Academy on Violence and Abuse. She serves on the Board of Family and Children Services and is a founding member of Women Leading Change.

Jennifer Rose, MSW, Trainer

Jennifer Rose has been working in the field of family violence for the past 10 years. She started as an advocate working on a crisis line in Durango Colorado. After moving to Santa Cruz, she worked as the director of domestic violence services at the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center. In her role as the director, she provided direct services to women, men, and children, supervised staff and volunteers, created and implemented programs, facilitated groups, provided long term advocacy and support for families, and provided training to center staff, community partners, and other concerned citizens working to end violence against women. Ms. Rose also works with agencies to build their capacity and accessibility to serve same sex survivors of domestic violence.

In her current role as the co-director of the California Safe Havens Demonstration Project, Ms. Rose has had the privilege of working at the local, state, and national level critically examining and implementing promising practices for the field of supervised visitation. She is also a consultant for Praxis International in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness in Palo Alto, California.  Ms. Rose received her Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and Women’s Studies from Fort Lewis College and most recently was awarded her MSW from San Jose State University.

Contact Us

  Mail:  Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness
            555 Bryant St. # 272, Palo Alto, CA 94301

  Phone: 650-736-2276     Email: nicole[at]stoprelationshipabuse.org
  Note: We do not provide direct services or consultations about relationship abuse. Please   call 800-799-SAFE (7233) if you are in need of assistance or have questions about   domestic violence.

  Office:  For office address, please email nicole[at]stoprelationshipabuse.org or call 650-  736-2276.

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