Our Team

Matt Sioson

Director

Matt Sioson is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Matt has been active in the UCSC community as the President of the UCSC Chapter of the Phi Alpha Delta international pre-law fraternity and a member of UCSC Bayanihan, the Filipino-American Cultural Group on campus. Matt’s Filipino upbringing placed a strong emphasis on the importance of family. This, alongside his love for reading, inspired him to take on a leadership role at the Walls to Bridges Book Project to help keep children connected to their incarcerated family. Matt currently majors in Legal Studies and plans to attend law school after graduating from UCSC to pursue a career in public interest law.

Alyssa Scarsciotti

Co-Director

Alyssa Scarsciotti graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and Sociology. As an undergraduate, she directed the Artistic Rehabilitative Therapy (ART) Initiative, a student-led group at UCSC that provides art classes in correctional facilities in Santa Cruz County. Alyssa is passionate about social justice and supporting system-impacted individuals. In addition to volunteering with Walls to Bridges, Alyssa is a volunteer mediator with the Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County, and volunteer English tutor with the Santa Cruz Literacy Program.

Alyssa Tamboura

Founder | Advisor

Alyssa Tamboura is an adult child of a formerly incarcerated parent and an advocate for children impacted by the criminal justice system. She is an undergraduate transfer student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in her fourth year as a Legal Studies and Philosophy double major. Alyssa's work and research focuses on family reunification and connection to heal the traumas that many endure during familial incarceration. After graduation, Alyssa will pursue her J.D. at Yale Law School beginning Fall 2021.

Daisjah Sheperd

Project Coordinator

Daisjah is a fourth-year Sociology and Anthropology double major at the University of California Santa Cruz. With her studies of the injustices within the criminal justice system along with first-hand experience of the ways in which incarceration can affect a family, she is dedicated to helping mend the relationships the criminal justice system has broken. Daisjah strongly believes the foundation of any good relationship is clear and kind communication and so she hopes to help facilitate this and thus support the rebuilding of relationships affected by mass incarceration. After graduation Daisjah plans on attending graduate school to recive masters degree in sociology in order presure her passion for helping people come together through a better understand of themselves and eachother.

Lindsey Tavares-Sabido

Social & Digital Media Strategist

Lindsey Tavares-Sabido (she/hers) is a UCSC alumni holding a B.A. in Legal Studies with a minor in Politics. She is a first-generation American, first-generation college student, and an adult child of a formerly incarcerated parent. Lindsey currently supports graduation-bound transfer and re-entry students in her role as a Lead Transition Mentor with Services for Transfer and Re-entry Students (STARS) at UCSC. She is also conducting research through the Pan African Research Fellowship pilot program and working as the Operations Coordinator with Bay Area Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership (BAYCIPP).

Marian Avila Breach

Community Development & Materials Manager

Marian Avila-Breach was born in Northern Mexico and grew up in the Bay Area. She greatly values her bicultural upbringing and credits it for her lifelong interest in cultural studies. Marian is a recent graduate of UC Santa Cruz with dual B.A. degrees in Politics and Philosophy. It was the conjunction of these two fields of study that fostered a passion for learning about and fighting for prison reform. On the rare day that she's not too busy, she can usually be found at the nearest bookstore searching out a new subject for her favorite pastime.

Simelia Rogers

Team Leader | Project Coordinator

Simelia Rogers will receive her B.A. in Legal Studies and Politics in June 2021. She has a deep passion for facilitating connections in communities impacted by incarceration stemming from both her upbringing and her academic interests. As a member of the UCSC Student Union Assembly and former legislative analyst, she has extensively lobbied for policies impacting UC students. After completing her undergraduate degree, she hopes to join a legal support team that provides resources to the underserved. One day, she hopes to pursue a JD and eventually become a public defender. Her lifelong passion is to merge her passion for policy and law to reform the carceral system.