About Us
Just Advocates is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization working across three advocacy domains to adjust and improve the family serving-systems charged with supporting the well-being of children and youth.
JA partners with individual children and families to navigate the child welfare, juvenile justice, education, developmental services, and behavioral health systems to access and coordinate the supportive services families are legally entitled to. In the near future, JA’s team will do this with the help of undergraduate and master’s level cross-system coordination interns, from colleges and universities local to the San Francisco Bay Area.
JA consults with county and nonprofit entities to support needed programming improvements to meet the cross-system needs of youth and families with complex and persistent needs.
JA works independently and in coalition with other stakeholders, supporting and driving local, state, and federal policy change that improves the efficacy of family- and child- serving systems, to ensure families have the services and supports they need to thrive.
Contact us to learn more about Just Advocate’s work and opportunities for partnership.
Meet the Team
-
Ken Berrick is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Emeritus of Seneca Family of Agencies, a nonprofit agency dedicated to providing Unconditional Care to children and families through comprehensive mental health, education, juvenile justice, foster care, and permanency services. Since its founding in 1985, Seneca has developed innovative programs ranging from Wraparound and Intensive Treatment Foster Care, to integrated mental health services in schools, and a crisis continuum of care for youth and their families.
Ken is thrilled to now serve as the President and CEO of Just Advocates, drawing on his decades of experience providing Unconditional Care as Seneca’s President and CEO to advocate for individualized support to children and families, and drive policy change at the local, state, and federal level.Ken has served as a Governor’s Appointee on both California’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC), and the California Child Welfare Council. He is actively involved with California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM), an initiative with the express purpose of improving access to and delivery of Medi-Cal healthcare services. Ken is a two-time former President of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services and serves on numerous policy planning groups in California at both the county and state-level. He is an elected member and Past-President of the Alameda County Board of Education, and Past-President of the California County Boards of Education.
In 2014, Ken was recognized by California Mental Health Advocates for Children and Youth as Advocate of the Year. In 2017, he was a recipient of the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award, in 2021, a recipient of the Jefferson Bronze Award, and in 2022, a recipient of the Jefferson Silver Award. He is co-author of the books, Unconditional Care: Relationship-Based, Behavioral Intervention with Vulnerable Children and Families (Oxford University Press, 2010), and Unconditional Education: Supporting Schools to Serve All Students (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Email Ken here at Ken@justadvocates.net.
-
Jill Mason is a social worker with over 25 years of experience as a nonprofit leader serving children and families. Most recently, she served as the Project Director of a nationwide initiative to connect children and parents who were impacted by the government’s “Zero Tolerance Policy” to trauma-informed behavioral health services. In her management of this $14.5 million program, she successfully oversaw ongoing operations of the program’s national hotline and outreach efforts to effectively locate, engage, and serve families forcibly separated at the border. Jill collaborated with immigration law and social service organizations across the nation, oversaw the development of a national network of more than 330 multilingual and multicultural mental health providers, and created systems for managing the network of providers, thereby enabling quick and effective referrals for families to access trauma-informed, culturally competent behavioral health services in their communities.
Jill holds both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in social work and has been a licensed clinical social worker for over 17 years. She joined Seneca Family of Agencies in 1999, where she worked for 23 years, including 20 years as a Program Manager and Regional Executive Director. Jill served as Executive Director for Seneca’s statewide community-based services, managing a budget of $36 million and over 500 employees. She was Regional Executive Director over Southern California programs and statewide Division Director over residential and crisis services. Jill was responsible for launching Seneca’s Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Programs (STRTPs), including licensure of the first-ever STRTP in California. Prior to her time at Seneca, Jill acquired experience in medical social work, health education, and substance abuse counseling. She is skilled in the areas of agency leadership, clinical service delivery, personnel management, program development, fiscal oversight, quality assurance, and building stakeholder relationships. She volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate and served as a member of the state of Arizona’s Foster Care Review Board.
Email Megan here at Jill@justadvocates.net.
-
Megan Salazar (she/her) is the Director of Advocacy at Just Advocates. In this role, Megan oversees all aspects of the agency’s direct support work with children, families, and systems-advocacy, and coordinates JA’s operational functions, including finance, human resources, fundraising, project management, and communications.
Megan also serves as the Special Projects Manager in the Strategic Initiatives department of Seneca Family of Agencies, supporting grant proposals and public policy projects. Prior to joining JA, Megan served as the Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operations Officer of Seneca, liaising between Agency leadership and Seneca’s 150+ programs across California and Washington State. Megan believes that family-serving systems, and the providers and administrators that make up these systems, should treat each child and youth as they’d like their own children to be treated: with love and dignity.
Email Megan here at Megan@justadvocates.net.
Ken Berrick founded Seneca Family of Agencies in 1985, and both Ken and Megan hold roles within Seneca in addition to Just Advocates. JA shares Seneca’s guiding principles of Unconditional Care™ and also carries the foundational mission to support children and families through the most difficult times in their lives. Though affiliated with Seneca, JA has an independent and discrete advocacy mission. Find more information about Seneca Family of Agencies, here.
