The Program for Torture Victims (PTV) - The Organization

	The Organization
	Caring for Survivors
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	Our Founders
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"Their shattered clients arrive by the dozens each year, a parade of ghosts from all corners of the globe.They come bearing scars seen and unseen, bringing nothing with them but the will to survive. Los Angeles, the great second-chance city, takes them in as it does everyone else, the shattered and the broken, offering promise but no guarantees."
Steve Lopez,
LA Times

Our Staff

	Julie B. Gutman, Esq., PTV Executive Director, is heralded as a labor and human rights hero. Most recently serving as Vice-President of the Board of Public Works Commissioners and Senior Labor Advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa since July 2007, Gutman has worked diligently to promote good jobs, workforce development programs, and labor harmony. She mediated mutually beneficial labor-management agreements for a myriad of private sector workforces, particularly in industries with workers living on the margins. Gutman’s commitment to social justice has been a career-long pursuit. After graduating from Stanford Law School, she founded a new practice at a community based law office in the low-income and ethnically diverse city of East Palo Alto, where she served as supervising attorney and community economic development director. For 10 years, Gutman w as a trial attorney at the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles, where she vigorously advocated for worker and immigrant rights. She was the only lawyer to achieve a 100% win record in voluminous unfair labor practices trials and federal district court injunction litigation, including injunctions against the mass discharge of low-income and immigrant workers. In addition, Gutman served as an adjunct faculty member at Stanford Law School, clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Weigel, and was awarded an American Bar Association fellowship. She is a fluent Spanish speaker who learned the language while doing human rights work in Guatemala. Gutman serves on the Advisory Board of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. Born and raised in Chicago, Gutman graduated Magna Cum Laude with bachelor’s degrees in History and Law & Society from Brown University. She received her J.D. from Stanford Law School.

	Jose Quiroga, M.D., co-founder of PTV and Medical Director , is a globally recognized authority on torture and trauma. He fled from Chile and arrived in America after the military coup that overthrew the democratically elected president Salvador Allende. He is a former assistant professor in the UCLA School of Public Health, and Associate Director of Preventive Cardiology at UCLA. Dr. Quiroga serves on the Executive Board of the Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, and is a Vice President on the Executive Committee of the International Rehabilitation Council for Victims of Torture based in Copenhagen.

	Ana Deutsch, M.F.T., Clinical Director, co-founded PTV with Dr. Quiroga. She fled Argentina’s “Dirty War” with her family in the 1970s. Trained as a psychologist in Argentina, Ana obtained her Marriage, Family and Child Therapist license in Los Angeles, and worked in various community clinics. She serves as an expert witness and trainer for the Intra-American Human Rights Court. In 2003, the Community Clinics Association awarded the Community Health Star for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Leadership to her and Dr. Quiroga.

	S. Megan Berthold, Ph.D., LCSW, therapist and Director of Research and Evaluation, has been with PTV since 1998. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard, M.S.W. from the University of Utah, and Ph.D. in Social Welfare from UCLA. She is a specialist in cross-cultural trauma and torture treatment issues. She has worked extensively with Southeast Asian communities in the United States and in refugee camps in Thailand and the Philippines. Megan provides psychotherapy to survivors of torture and human trafficking, training on the psychological effects of trauma, and serves as an expert witness in immigration court. She is also currently a co-investigator on a federally funded NIMH study researching the prevalence of torture and the health and mental health consequences among Khmer refugee adults in Long Beach, California.

	Carolina Aparicio, B.A., Communications and Development Associate, recently joined the PTV team as an Americorps VISTA volunteer. A graduate of Boston University, Carolina spent the past year working in multimedia communications at LAANE (L.A. Alliance for a New Economy). Prior to moving back to her native Los Angeles, Carolina spent four months traveling in Asia where she taught English at an orphanage for physically disabled children in Nepal.

	Rose Marie Durocher, Ph.D., marriage and family therapist, specializes in the assessment and treatment of trauma. She has been with PTV since 1998 and has principally worked with refugees from war zones, victims of torture, rape and incest. She is fluent in Spanish and French.

	Maureen Farrell, B.S., Community Outreach Coordinator, received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009. During her final academic year in her undergraduate studies, Maureen studied the Spanish language, literature, and culture in Barcelona, Spain. Most recently, she relocated to Los Angeles and began working for PTV as an AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer.

	Gaithri Fernando, Ph.D., therapist, is a clinical psychologist who teaches in the Department of Psychology at California State University-Los Angeles, where she also directs the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. She lectures and publishes in the area of posttraumatic stress in the context of war and extreme traumas such as torture.

	Erin Grimes, M.P.P., Operations Manager, recently earned her Masters of Public Policy with a concentration in non-profits from the University of California Los Angeles. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from University of California Santa Cruz. For a semester during her undergraduate career Erin lived in Brasil studying Portuguese and Brasilian culture. For two years Erin worked within education conducting enrichment classes with elementary students and then, facilitating housing for college students. She has been with PTV for two years.

	Lela Hung, Development Coordinator, brings an extensive background in non-profit management, grant procurement, and community service to PTV. Lela served as a Program Officer for the Magic Johnson Foundation, where she managed the funding for all grant recipients in the United States. Prior to joining PTV, Lela worked in the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Office of AIDS Programs and Policy. While there, she managed large-scale contracts, published several guides on non-profit capacity-building, and successfully organized the 2002 U.S. Conference on AIDS.

	Ken Louria, M.F.T., therapist, has been with PTV since 1998. Ken is also Director of Youth Services for the Children’s Institute. He has provided training to Immigration and Naturalization Service Asylum officers on the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Ken is a recognized expert witness in U.S. Immigration Court in the areas of trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder, and rape.

	Shoshana Martinez, B.A., M.S., Case Manager, came to PTV in 2004. Prior to coming to PTV, Shoshana worked for The Independent Living Center and the Greater Southeast Apartment Training, an agency that provides direct support services to the developmentally disabled. She graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from Mount Saint Mary's in Fall 2005, and recently completed her Master of Science in Psychology.

	Jené Moio, PhD, clinical social worker and Associate Director of Research and Evaluation, has been with PTV since 2003. She received her B.A. (Sociology), Master of Social Welfare, and Ph.D. (Social Welfare with a concentration in Women’s Studies) from UCLA. Her research is focused on the healing process of refugee survivors, with particular attention to the role culture and belief systems play in making meaning of the torture experience and how they intersect with clinical interventions during the healing process. Other research interests include: sociopolitical identity and traumatic stress; hate crime; post-colonial, post-modern, and critical theories, and praxis intervention.

	Crystal Thomas, B.A., Research and Evaluation Intern, is a native of Los Angeles and a 2007 graduate of UCLA, where she majored in International Development Studies with concentrations in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. As an undergraduate student at UCLA, Crystal worked at the UCLA Sloan Research Center on Everyday Lives of Families where she assisted in research on working middle-class family life. Crystal worked in the New York City Mayor’s Office, assisting the Deputy Mayor and Chief of Staff on various policy initiatives and conducting strategic planning for improvement of all city social services. Currently a joint MSW/PhD student in the UCLA Department of Social Welfare, Crystal’s research interests involve examination of government services as they intersect with poverty and general child welfare.

	Nina Vannucci, B.A., Assistant to the Executive Director, recently received her B.A. in Communication Studies from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, graduating with Magna cum Laude honors. She also received a minor in Psychology. Eventually, Nina hopes to pursue a Masters program in Non-Profit Management. Nina comes to PTV with several years of office administration and event planning experience. Over the last year, Nina worked as an intern at Family Care Network, a non-profit in San Luis Obispo County, where she helped organize and coordinate several successful events. While there she developed a passion for serving her community and is excited to now share her experience with the clients, staff, and volunteers at PTV.