Commissioners

Mark-Anthony Clayton Johnson

Mark-Anthony Clayton Johnson is the Executive Director of Dignity and Power Now, a licensed acupuncturist, and seasoned organizer who was born and raised in Los Angeles County.  Mark-Anthony is a member of the Movement for Black Lives Policy Table Leadership Team and the Founder of the Frontline Wellness Network (FWN); a project of DPN that organizes health care providers working to end the public health crisis of incarceration and criminalization through action oriented political education and through bridging relationships between providers and grassroots campaigns against state violence.  In this capacity he is a member of the Executive Team of the JusticeLA Coalition, a Los Angeles based coalition that successfully stopped the County from spending $4 billion on a women’s jail and a mental health jail while reallocating those funds to community based treatment and alternatives to incarceration.  Mark- Anthony is also a 2017 Soros Justice Fellow.

Mary Veral

Commissioner Mary Veral was appointed to the Commission by Honorable Supervisor Hilda Solis on November 2, 2021. 

For over 15 years Ms. Veral has been a dedicated advocate for people impacted by the criminal legal system.  Currently she runs a private practice focused on defense-based advocacy as a licensed clinical social worker and mitigation specialist.  For over 11 years, she was an Investigator and Social Worker with the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles.  She conducted comprehensive fact and mitigation investigations for federal criminal matters, including capital, felony, misdemeanor, and post-conviction cases.  These investigations took place throughout California, the United States, and internationally.  Ms. Veral was also a member of the Federal Defender’s Office with the Conviction and Sentence Alternative Program, a federal diversionary program in the Central District of California.  From 2006-2010, Ms. Veral was the Jails Project Coordinator at the ACLU of Southern California.  In this position she monitored conditions of confinement and advocated for the rights of individuals incarcerated in the Los Angeles County Jail System.  She earned her B.A. from the University of Iowa and her Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington. 

Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills

Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills is a Clinical Psychologist with a current emphasis in Community Psychology. On the faculty of Loyola Marymount University (LMU) for the past 35 years, she is a Professor of Psychology, Director of their Psychology Applied Research Center, and President’s Professor in the College of Liberal Arts. She is the Founder and Executive Director of a non-profit organization, Imoyase Community Support Services, dedicated to program evaluation, action research, and technical assistance with community-based organizations focused on social justice, community organizing, and community-defined interventions.

Dr. Grills is a national Past President of The Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) and serves as one of the lead trainers in the Community Healing Network/ABPsi partnership on the Emotional Emancipation initiative. She currently serves on the CA Reparations Taskforce, appointed by the Governor of CA and on the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC). She was Co-Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Blue Ribbon Commission on Child Protection whose work led to significant reforms in LA County’s approach to child welfare, including establishment of an Office of Child Protection. Most recently, Dr. Grills was appointed to the Governing Council of the Global Pan African Movement and is member of the International Planning Committee of the 8th Pan African Congress to be held in Uganda in early 2024.

Dr. Grills is a research principal investigator on several multi-site projects addressing mental health disparities, social determinants of health, positive youth development, and COVID’s impact on communities of color nationally.

Ingrid Archie

Ingrid Archie is a Community Organizer, Civic Engagement Specialist, and a Mother of 6 children.  She was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles and has served as a Community Leader in the 2nd District for over 6 years at A New Way of Life Reentry Project.  Currently she serves as the TimeDone Organizing Director at Alliance for Safety and Justice.

Eric Miller

Eric J. Miller is a professor and Leo J. O’Brien Fellow and Co-Director of the Loyola Anti-Racism Center at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he teaches and writes in the areas of criminal procedure, jurisprudence, critical race theory, reparations, and problem-solving courts.  Professor Miller is a former Chair of the AALS Section on Criminal Justice, and a co-editor of the Cambridge Handbook on Policing in America (2019), as well as co-founder of the Policing Los Angeles Forum, which brings legal academics, law enforcement personnel, lawyers, policy-makers, and activists together to propose innovative policing reforms. His scholarship focuses the intersection of criminal justice with political theory, sociology and criminology.

Professor Miller is an internationally recognized expert on problem solving justice and specialty courts, as well as on the police and policing, and on reparations for African Americans.  He has provided testimony to the United States Congress House Judiciary Committee, the United States Sentencing Commission, the Federal Judicial Center's National Workshop for U.S. Magistrate Judges; the Eighth Circuit Chief Judges Conference, and internationally to the Scottish Commission on Women Offenders and the Scottish Government Judicial Studies Committee. 

Professor Miller received an LL.B. from the University of Edinburgh, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, where he was also a Charles Hamilton Houston Fellow.  He clerked for the Hon. Myron H. Thompson in the Middle District of Alabama and the Hon. Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

His publications include:

• The Cambridge Handbook of Policing in America (Eric J. Miller & Tamara R. Lave, eds. (2019)
• The Moral Burdens of Police Wrongdoing, 96 Res Philosophica 219 (2020)
• Encountering Resistance: Non-Compliance, Non-Cooperation and Procedural Justice, 2016 U.  Chicago Legal Forum 2016
• The Warren Court’s Regulatory Revolution in Criminal Procedure, 43 Conn. L. Rev. 1 (2010)
• Putting the Practice into Theory, 7 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 31 (2009)
• Drugs, Courts, and the New Penology, 20 Stanford L. & Policy Rev. 417 (2009)
• The Therapeutic Effects of Managerial Reentry Courts, 20 F. Sentencing Rptr. 127 (2007)
• Role-Based Policing: Restraining Police Conduct “Outside the Legitimate Investigative Sphere,” 94 Cal. L. Rev. 617 (2006)
• Embracing Addiction: Drug Courts and the False Promise of Judicial Interventionism, 65 Ohio State L.J. 1479 (2004)

Alexander Sherman

Alex Sherman is an attorney, journalist, and advocate for jail reform. He has previously served as a monitor at Men's Central Jail and contributed to a report on carceral conditions for the Office of Independent Review, a precursor to the Office of the Inspector General.  He has also worked as a volunteer teacher in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's Education-Based Incarceration program.  As an attorney, he has served on the team representing more than 750 local governments and 9 state attorneys general in the opioid epidemic litigation. 

Joahanna Terrones

My name is Joahanna “Jo” Terrones.  I am excited to have the opportunity to be a part of the Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections. I am a licensed clinical social worker.  I am currently working at the Anti-Recidivism (ARC) as the transitional aged youth mental health therapist providing life skills and individual therapy sessions to formerly incarcerated youth in our housing program.  I have worked in the community mental health field for approximately 15 years providing case management and supportive services to individuals and families in the Los Angeles and Long Beach areas.  I decided to pursue a career in social work in 2015 and graduated with my master's degree in Social Work from Cal State University, Los Angeles with a concentration in Forensic Social Work.  I am familiar with the criminal justice and mental health system, laws and policies that have been created to meet basic human rights and needs as well as the ongoing work that is desperately needed to address many issues and barriers system impacted individuals and those living with mental health issues continue to face daily, both in and out of prison/jail settings.  I have a vested interest in working toward making changes in institutional settings and collaborating with community leaders, advocates and organizations that raise awareness around issues system impacted individuals encounter as I too have loved ones and close friends that benefited from changes in laws and policies for current and formerly incarcerated individuals.  Although there have been positive changes that benefited those I know, I am aware of the lack of care and services they did not receive or had to fight for in order to keep themselves as safe, sane, and healthy as possible.  I previously worked at a nonprofit mental health organization providing individual therapy to children, teens and adults using trauma informed and cognitive behavioral treatment models to help guide individuals on their journey.  I grew up in the Harbor area of Los Angeles and enjoy going to the beach, spending time with my family and bunny, and love all that is vintage! 

"Throughout my lifetime growing up in the Harbor area of Los Angeles, I have witnessed and experienced how the criminal justice and mental health system have impacted so many people I knew in my community.  I decided to go into social work to help uplift and support those around me in any way I could.  With this opportunity to be a part of the Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections, I am excited and hopeful to be able to collaborate on and address any issues incarcerated individuals are currently facing by utilizing my clinical skills and social work ethics.  I am privileged and humbled to take on the role of becoming the eyes and voice for system impacted individuals and I am grateful to be a part of the change we as a commission, and community members, would like to see and strive for". 

Raymond Regalado

Ray Regalado brings an extensive human relations background to the commission.  Mr. Regalado, who recently retired from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations after more than 21 years, managed the Dispute Resolution Programs Act (DRPA) activities of nine contract agencies delivering mediation services in LA County. These agencies provided community-based conflict resolution at the local community level. Additionally, specific agencies also offered civil court/day of hearing mediation opportunities to allow opposing parties to attempt resolving their dispute before presenting their case in front of a judge. Another service provided by the DRPA program was the opportunity for first time criminal offenders to participate in restorative justice mediation where the individual had an opportunity to discuss their low-level criminal violations with the victim to come to a negotiated remedy. This process allowed the offender the opportunity to avoid jail and/or probation. Mr. Regalado provided programmatic guidance to support successful outcomes by the County’s DRPA contract organizations. In addition, he also managed the Policing and Human Relations project and supervised responses to requests for assistance from constituents.

Prior to his more recent assignments, he worked in hate crime victim support and hate crime awareness training and assisted in the compilation of data for the annual Los Angeles County hate crime report. Furthermore, Mr. Regalado is a trained mediator in conflict resolution. Ray has experience working with at-risk youth, community organizing, and leadership development. He coordinated the activities of the Gang Reduction and Community Engagement (GRACE) project to address youth gang violence in the Harbor Gateway community of Los Angeles. Ray also has worked as a Field Deputy for First District Supervisor Gloria Molina. Ray has an M.A. in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution.

Bob Frutos

Bob Frutos is currently serving on the Burbank City Council, where he served as Mayor in 2021 for a second term.  He proudly represents and serves the diverse group of residents of Burbank for over 8 years.  As council member, he currently serves on the Burbank Audit Committee and is Liaison to the Burbank Police Commission.   Additionally, Bob is a member of the Fiscal & Treasurer’s Review Group, the American Public Powers Association’s Policy Makers Council and California Cities Public Safety Policy Committee.    Prior to being elected to the Burbank City Council, Bob was appointed to the Burbank Police Commission and served as its Chairman for two years.  He also served as a member of the Burbank Sustainable Commission and the Burbank Charter Review Committee and sub-committee. 

As a resident of the Los Angeles County for over 57 years, Bob has always been committed to community service from a very early age. He proudly served as a Los Angeles Police Officer for over 28 years.   Working with the Los Angeles Police Department as Latino Community Liaison Officer, in the Chief’s Office, he learned the value of working with residents and neighborhoods in a collaborative effort to find solutions to complex community issues.  Bob enjoys working as a Reserve Police Officer.

Bob believes in treating everyone fairly,  with respect and human dignity even if when sharing difference of opinion as evidenced through his leadership as Mayor in dealing with the tough social issues that we are currently facing.