Moderator and Panelist Bios
Julia Fleckman, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social, Behavioral, and Population Sciences at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. She also serves as the Director of Research and Evaluation for the Tulane Violenece Prevention Institute. Her research includes the evaluation of structural and community-level mechanisms for the prevention of community and family violence. She has a particular emphasis on community-partnered research and evaluation, with the goal of strengthening multi-sector collaborations and community organizational capacity to utilize data in practice. She is currently working with community partners to conduct evaluations of restorative approaches and interventions.
Dr. Julia Fleckman
Learn more about the Tulane Violence Prevention Institute at https://violenceprevention.tulane.edu/about-violence-prevention-institute
Eva Lessinger, originally from upstate New York, has been in New Orleans since 2016. She received her masters in social work from Fordham University and serves as the Founder and Co-Director of Beyond Harm. She previously served as the Director of Programs at the New Orleans Family Justice Center (NOFJC). As a survivor of sexual violence and long-time survivor advocate, she feels passionate about being a part of someone's healing journey after violence. Eva has been equally interested in, and passionate about, helping those who cause intimate harm to find their healing and inner accountability to support a change process. In an attempt to address the gaps in the violence intervention landscape specifically for intimate harm, Eva co-founded Beyond Harm in 2022 with colleagues from the NOFJC.
Eva Lessinger
Learn more about Beyond Harm at https://www.beyondharmnola.org/
Alix Tarnowsky
Alix Tarnowsky (A-liks Tar-NOW-skee), is joining us from Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response, or STAR. Alix Tarnowsky, LCSW, MBA, has been with STAR since 2016 and has held many roles, currently as the Director of Survivor Services. Alix completed her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received her Masters of Social Work degree with a certificate in Disaster Mental Health from Tulane School of Social Work, and graduated with a MBA from Tulane Freeman School of Business. In addition to her work at STAR, Alix is active in local and statewide social justice initiatives, including as the former Co-Director of New Leaders Council – Louisiana, a progressive leadership development program, and as a Board Member of the Louisiana Abortion Fund from 2018 to 2023. Tarnowsky is passionate about the impact that sexual violence has on female-identifying people and learned about the depth of the impact that sexual violence broadly is having on the New Orleans community through her internship with the family service of greater new orleans. In this role she was able to understand that the root causes of sexual violence was connected to knowledge and access to building healthy communication skills.
Learn more about STAR at https://star.ngo/
Kai Werder
Kai Werder is the Deputy Director with the Center for Restorative Approaches. They aim to curate healing spaces that invite curiosity, connection, and transformation. Their work in restorative justice began in 2012 as an accountability board member at Family of Woodstock in the Hudson Valley, NY, where they are from. Outside of CRA, Kai is a member of the worker-owned collective Spring Up which provides liberatory education on transformative justice, consent and gender, and abolition. They believe that individual and interpersonal healing lends itself to systemic transformation and vice versa.
Learn more about the CRA at https://thecra.net/
Nelle Noble
Nelle Noble serves as the Resolution & Restorative Engagement Manager in the Equal Opportunity & Resolution Management department of Tulane University’s Office of Human Resources. A double Tulane alum with a J.D. and a Master of Social Work, Nelle has over ten years of experience working in the fields of domestic violence and sexual assault policy, victim advocacy, program management, crisis response, and grants and contracts administration. Nelle is both a licensed attorney and a licensed clinical social worker (board approved clinical supervisor) in the state of Louisiana.
Learn more about Tulane’s Resulation and Restorative Engagement Program at https://hr.tulane.edu/resolution-and-restorative-engagement-program