MCRCC Staff
24 HOUR HELPLINE: (831) 375-4357 • (831) 424-4357
Monterey Staff
Lorelei Ahlemeyer
Campus Advocacy Program Manager
Lorelei Ahlemeyer is the Campus Advocacy Manager at CSU Monterey Bay, where she enjoys empowering survivors of sexual assault. She previously worked for the Kansas Attorney General as a System-Based Advocate under the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. She served on a statewide multi-disciplinary team to improve the lives of sexual assault survivors and worked on a committee to develop new investigative model policies for law enforcement. She received a Distinguished Service Recognition Award from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for her work with survivors.
Lorelei is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Kearney, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and a Master’s in Education in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with her family.
Maria Bowery
Administrative Assistant
Maria started her career with the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center in 2004. She began as a volunteer before becoming the Administrative Assistant for the Monterey office. Maria is bilingual, a certified self-defense instructor, and a child abuse prevention educator.
Sheryl Embler
Crisis Intervention Services Manager
Sheryl Embler is the Crisis Intervention Services Manager with the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center. She began her service with MCRCC as a volunteer advocate in November 2015 before joining the staff in 2020. She graduated from National University with a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, emphasis on Education. Her passions include advocacy, education and travel. She’s used these passions to focus her career goals and volunteerism toward being of service, offering education, support and assistance to her community. Her work has taken her to positions in the USA, Germany and Thailand. Her experience in program management, program analysis, advocacy and education enable her to use these skills in service of MCRCC, our clients and partners. She dreams of continuing her education by earning a license as a professional clinical counselor working in Marriage and Family Therapy with the desire to help families form more loving, cohesive, supportive, healthy relationships.
Nicole Irigoyen
Prevention Program Director
Nicole is a graduate of CSU Monterey Bay, where she earned her Bachelors of Science in Communication Design. While her degree is technology centered, her true passion is the empowerment of women and girls worldwide and is a passionate advocate for social justice and equality.
Rita Mora
Prevention Educator
Rita graduated from CSU, Monterey Bay with a B.A. in Spanish Literature and Culture, after which she decided to focus on serving her community in Salinas as an ESL instructor and working with non-profits like the Central Coast Citizenship Project. She also attended graduate school at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and plans to eventually finish her M.A. in Translation and Interpretation. She began her journey with MCRCC in 2019 so that she could continue to serve and advocate for her community by teaching children about safety and empowerment. Though her degree focuses on language studies, Rita is passionate about spreading awareness of social justice issues and encouraging empowerment within her community.
Clare Mounteer
Executive Director
Clare Mounteer has been the Executive Director of the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center since 1986. Clare is a Certified Sexual Assault Victim Counselor; Past Chairperson and current member of the Child Abuse Prevention Council; a member of the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, a member of the Sexual Assault Response Team Steering Committee, a member of the multidisciplinary team for juvenile sex offenders (JSORT), and a past board member of United Way. She is also a past community representative of the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects at CSUMB.
She was a recipient of the Talcott Bates Award from the Child Abuse Prevention Council in 2007, and in 2011 was one of six Executive Directors Statewide to receive a sabbatical award from the California Wellness Foundation.
A native of England, she moved to the United States in 1977 and received a BS in Organizational Behavior in 1987 from the University of San Francisco.
Erin Ortiz
Community Engagement Specialist
Erin joined MCRCC in 2016 as an Outreach and Event Coordinator. She earned her BA in 2007 from Michigan State University, where she also volunteered as a sexual assault crisis advocate. Her background includes working at various non-profits providing outreach and direct services, and as an administrator for an AmeriCorps tutoring program serving Monterey County schools. She enjoys taking advantage of the beautiful scenery and activities that Monterey has to offer.
Salinas Staff
Diana Beltran
Prevention Educator
Diana V Beltran is a graduate of San Jose State University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She plans to continue school to receive her Master’s and become a licensed professional clinical counselor and Marriage and Family Therapist.
Diana is passionate about giving back to her community, and as a Prevention Educator, she aspires to empower individuals by encouraging them to find and use their voice.
Along with this work, one of her ambitions is to generate and implement new ideas to improve and advocate for various populations.
Cindy Brodsky
Clinical Services Director
Cindy is a licensed clinical social worker. She received her BA from Vassar College in New York and her MSW from Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston. Before coming to Monterey County Rape Crisis Center, she worked for 11 years at the D’Arrigo Children’s Clinic at Kinship Center, providing therapy to children and their families, as well as providing a myriad of other supportive roles within the clinic. She is very excited to be part of MCRCC.
Lauren DaSilva
Deputy Director
Lauren was hired as the Deputy Director after earning a Master of Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies where she focused research and course work on sexual violence and organizational capacity building. Lauren’s passion in life is rooted in MCRCC’s vision to end sexual violence, and all forms of violence. Though this passion may sometimes appear singular, she also deeply loves the natural beauty of Monterey County, her three-legged dog, family, friends, cooking, growing dahlias, and her co-workers at MCRCC who amaze her with their brilliance and dedication everyday.
Leslie Donato-Ramirez
Crisis Intervention Specialist
Leslie Donato-Ramirez is proud to have been raised in the Salinas Valley and has a great love and appreciation for her community. One of her great passions in life is to help people on the road to recovery, and to help underserved populations. It is her hope to be the guiding light for survivors of abuse so that they may feel safe and to find strength, healing, and peace once again. Leslie’s educational background includes a B.S from the University of Phoenix in Human Services with a concentration in Family and Child Services. She plans to continue her education to ultimately earn an M.S in Counseling/Marriage, Family and Child Therapy. In her free time you can find her reading about psychology and spending quality time with her husband, two precious little girls and extended family. She is overwhelmed with excitement to be part of the MCRCC team.
Robyn Guzik
Community Engagement Specialist
Robyn is a 2015 graduate of CSU Monterey Bay, where she earned her Bachelors of Arts in Collaborative Health and Human Services with a concentration in Public Administration. While she attended CSUMB, she interned for three semesters with MCRCC’s outreach program.
Devan Haddad
Prevention Educator
Devan began her work at MCRCC in spring 2017 as a volunteer Advocate, after earning her BA in Global Studies from CSUMB. She became a staff Prevention Educator in February 2018 as the MyStrength club facilitator. She now facilitates the My Life clubs and is continually inspired by the brilliant students she works with. In addition to being committed to ending sexual violence, she is a staunch activist for many forms of social justice including LGBT+ equality and racial equality. She enjoys hiking and lounging at the beach with her pup, and of course, smashing the patriarchy.
Paola Martinez
Crisis Intervention Services Director
Paola moved to Monterey from Sacramento to attend school, where she obtained her B.A. in Psychology at CSU Monterey Bay. She started volunteering at MCRCC in Fall 2016 as an Advocate. She plans to continue school and obtain her Master's in Social Work with hopes of one day working as a therapist with survivors of trauma. She is beyond excited to be a part of the team at MCRCC. In her free time, she loves to go back to Sacramento and spend time with her family and Maximo her dog.
Carl Mucha
Prevention Educator
Carl is the My Strength Club facilitator whose passion is to inspire young men throughout Monterey County towards ending sexual violence. The clubs that Carl facilitates helps young men recognize and challenge the rigid gender stereotypes and social norms that allow sexual violence to exist in any community.
Deborah Pembrook
Human Trafficking Outreach Manager
Deborah has many years’ experience in the anti-human trafficking and anti-violence movement. As Outreach Advocate for the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center, Deborah conducts outreach in our community on human trafficking and the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).
Rosa Zavala
Child Abuse Treatment Program Manager
Prior to Rosa’s position as the Child Abuse Treatment (CHAT) Program Manager for The Monterey County Rape Crisis Center, she was in Child Abuse Prevention for seven years. She graduated from CSUMB with a BA degree in Collaborative Health and Human Services with a concentration in social work.
Clinical Staff
Cindy Brodsky, LCS #21845
Herminia Cervantes, ASW #90542
Sally Huerta, AMFT #70616
Wanda Jackson, AMFT #100846
Tiina Kurvi, ASW #78762
Denise Osornio, AMFT #93832
Ashley Patania AMFT #58219
Amanda Roberts, ASW #81854
Cristina Sotelo, ASW #78530
Christine Vincent, MFT #25206