Meet the Team

Dr. Briscoe-Smith earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University. She then received her clinical psychology Ph.D. from University of California Berkeley. She then went on to continue her specialization in trauma and ethnic minority mental health through internship and postdoctoral work at University of California San Francisco/San Francisco General Hospital. She has combined her love of teaching and advocacy by serving as a professor and by directing mental health programs for children experiencing trauma, homelessness or foster care. Much of her work has been with schools, as a clinician, consultant and trainer. Currently she is the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Wright Institute where she is a professor. She provides consultation and training to bay area non profits and schools on how to support trauma informed practices and cultural accountability.

Marcy Campbell serves as the Belonging Colorado Project Manager, leading implementation of this groundbreaking, new initiative to bridge divides and foster belonging across the state of Colorado. Marcy has a robust background in leading community change initiatives, focusing on wellness, social connection, and fostering thriving communities through intentional, inclusive approaches. Her work centers on bringing together diverse stakeholders, using compassionate facilitation to create spaces where people can listen to, value, and understand each other, building common ground for collective progress and fostering authentic relationships. Marcy has developed innovative mixed method data collection approaches and empowered community members, including youth, to collect and use their own data to develop local solutions that address the community's needs.

Marcy engaged over 600 community members and partners in her role as Behavioral Health Project Manager for Boulder County to co-create a Behavioral Health Roadmap, a shared vision aimed at ensuring community members receive timely and appropriate mental and behavioral health support while building a sense of community belonging. Additionally, Marcy has expertise leading organizational culture initiatives such as change management and staff retention, improving staff mental health and psychological safety in the workplace, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts. As a lifelong Colorado resident with experience in both rural and urban settings, Marcy understands the unique challenges of bridging differences within the state. She combines her leadership in complex systems and policy work with direct service experience, which has deepened her understanding of the effects of othering and systemic barriers. Marcy is committed to fostering belonging and recognizing the dignity and value in every person, aligning well with the Belonging Colorado Project Manager role, where she hopes to promote well-being, social connection, and equity through innovative, collaborative approaches.

Criss was born and raised in Venezuela; however, most of her adult years have been spent living and working between the United States, LatAm, and Spain. Criss spent over a decade in corporate America working in hispanic television sales, production, and operations. In 2016, after much inner work and reflection, she fully transitioned into a career that allowed her to spread mindfulness and emotional intelligence around the world - initially through her volunteer-led organization, and most recently as a consultant. With purpose and passion she aims to create and sustain spaces where people make meaningful connections and feel like they belong. Since departing corporate America, Criss has achieved notable milestones such as self-publishing a book, co-authoring a peer-reviewed article published in the Mindfulness Journal, establishing partnerships, and offering consulting services for renown companies, organizations, and academic institutions. Criss currently serves as the Bridging Differences Program Coordinator at the Greater Good Science Center.

Trisha A. Dehrone, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where her work explored how intergroup contact can help bridge social divides and foster belonging and trust in contexts of demographic and political change. She is also interested in how people navigate conflict within close cross-group friendships, with a focus on how intimacy and authenticity developed through dialogue can strengthen coalition building and social change.

Prior to joining GGSC, Dr. Dehrone served as a research consultant for organizations such as the Trust for Public Land, Beyond Conflict, and the American Immigration Council. She has co-authored policy guides and practitioner resources - including Cultivating Contact, a nationally disseminated guide that translates decades of social science into actionable strategies for bridge-building. At GGSC, she continues her applied research on fostering connection across lines of difference and translating insights from psychological science into tools that promote belonging and community well-being. You can follow her work at trishadehrone.wixsite.com/about.

Lauren is the Director of Marketing and Partnerships at the Greater Good Science Center. A creative strategist with over a decade of experience in marketing and branding, she has worked across publishing, tech, and nonprofit sectors. Outside of her role, Lauren is a lifestyle photographer, shooting for stock agencies and cause-driven organizations. Her perfect day involves a library, dappled tree light, double creme brie, and ending with a family movie night.

Jason Marsh is the GGSC's executive director and the founding editor in chief of its award-winning online magazine, Greater Good. He oversees the production of all editorial content, curates the "Science of a Meaningful Life" event series, and coordinates the public education efforts at the GGSC, where he has worked for nearly two decades. In that time, Jason's writing has explored everything from the psychology of the bystander to the reasons why he should finally start meditating.

Jason is also a co-editor of two anthologies of Greater Good articles: The Compassionate Instinct and Are We Born Racist?. Before coming to the GGSC, Jason was the managing editor of the political journal The Responsive Community. He has also worked as a reporter and producer at KQED Public Radio in San Francisco, as a documentary producer, and as a kindergarten teacher. His first documentary, Unschooled, a profile of three families practicing the controversial homeschooling method known as "unschooling," debuted at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. A graduate of Brown University and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Jason lives in Berkeley with his wife and daughter.

Kelly Rafferty, Ph.D. is the Bridging Differences Content & Engagement Manager at the Greater Good Science Center. She is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary producer and writer with a commitment to the transformative power of nonfiction storytelling and collaborative creative practice. She cares a lot about making powerful ideas accessible, entertaining, and actionable for the people who need them most.

Prior to joining GGSC, Kelly was Vice President of Creative for W. Kamau Bell's company, Who Knows Best Productions, where she oversaw the creative development and execution of their slate of nonfiction projects across film, television, podcasting, and print. Recent credits include the CNN docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, the HBO documentary 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed, the four-part SHOWTIME series We Need to Talk About Cosby, the New York Times bestseller Do The Work!: An Antiracist Activity Book, and the ACLU's podcast, At Liberty. Kelly also served as Assistant Professor of Performance Studies at Arizona State University, specializing in the theory and practice of feminist experimental performance.

Kelly is a graduate of Tulane University, and she has a Ph.D. in Performance Studies with a designated emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality from UC Berkeley. She lives in the East Bay with her wife and a pitbull named Fancy. She always wants to hear about your favorite bakery and whatever you're watching on TV right now.

Juliana Tafur is the inaugural director of the Bridging Differences program at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. In this role, she has guided Bridging Differences' evolution from a small initiative into a robust program, cultivating multi-year partnerships with national foundations to support field-building, training, and storytelling on bridging across racial, socioeconomic, ideological, and other divides. Supported by an amazing team, she has expanded the work into communities, campuses, and organizations nationwide, developing resources and learning experiences that help people build social connection and a stronger sense of belonging.

A TEDx speaker, creator of Listen Courageously, former Emmy-nominated senior producer and content executive, Juliana loves channeling her creative energy into building programs and designing immersive learning experiences. She frequently leads keynotes and workshops and produces multimedia content that make bridge-building skills widely accessible and actionable. She's an honors graduate of Northwestern University and a 2021-2022 Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband and two boys and is proud to support her home state through Belonging Colorado, a bold initiative that brings people together in new ways, strengthens community resilience, and expands Coloradans' sense of who belongs.