Jayden “JJ” Hernandez is a youth advocate and leader from Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of the More Than Words PIY Core Team. As a JUMP Leadership Accelerator Fellow in partnership with the Boston Celtics, he works at the intersection of lived experience and policy to drive real change for system-impacted youth.

Through his leadership with More Than Words, Jayden advocates for diversion, prevention, and second chances for young people involved in the justice system. He has spoken at the Massachusetts State House and collaborates with community and government leaders to push for policies that create pathways to opportunity, not punishment.

Today, he speaks in support of Raise the Age, bringing both lived experience and a commitment to ensuring that no young person is defined by their worst moment.

Attorney Goncalves is the Deputy Chief Counsel of the Youth Advocacy Division (YAD), the juvenile defender branch of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state public defender’s office. Prior to becoming Director, Duci was the Attorney in Charge of the YAD Quincy/Brockton Office for over ten years where she supervised attorneys and social workers while maintaining her own caseload. Duci started her career as a public defender with the YAD Roxbury Office in 2005 where she represented juveniles in delinquency and youthful offender matters in the Dorchester, West Roxbury, and Boston Juvenile Courts. From 2010-2011, while on a leave of absence from YAD, Duci worked as a staff attorney at Suffolk University School of Law’s Juvenile Justice Center supervising law students representing juveniles in the Boston Juvenile Court and assisting in the teaching of the Juvenile Defender Clinical Class.

Naoka Carey is a Senior Advisor for the Emerging Adult Justice Project. In that capacity, she advises jurisdictions on ways to make juvenile and adult criminal systems more developmentally appropriate and effective, including providing training, data analysis, and technical assistance. She is currently an Acting Assistant Professor at NYU School of Law, where she teaches first-year law students and conducts research on the impact of state policies and neighborhood contexts on adolescent development. She has previously taught undergraduate classes in adolescent psychology and child development and worked as an attorney and advocate for children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Dr. Carey has a PhD in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology from the Lynch School of Education & Human Development at Boston College and a JD from New York University School of Law.

Detective Captain Lisa Butner began her Law Enforcement Career in 1983 as a Patrolman and Sensitive Crime Investigator for Harvard University Police Department. In 1987, Butner joined the Metropolitan Police Department where she worked as a Patrolman, Drug Unit Investigator, Undercover Officer, and Academy Instructor. Her department consolidated with the Massachusetts State Police in 1992, and she became a State Trooper assigned to Uniformed Patrol. In 1993, she became a Homicide Investigator with the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. Butner was assigned to the Affirmative Action and Recruitment Unit in 2000. In 2003, she was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. She was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 2012, responsible for overseeing four separate troops. In 2019, Butner was promoted to the rank of Detective Lieutenant and assigned as the Massachusetts State Police Cadet Program Coordinator. In this role she developed and implemented a Cadet Program aimed to increase diversity in the department.

In 2022, Butner joined the Tufts Police Department where she currently serves as Detective Captain in charge of Internal Affairs, Executive Protection and Security Details, and Title IX Investigations and Civil Rights Violations Investigations. Butner is the current President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE). She is also the President and Co-founder of the MSP One Blue.

Additionally, she is a member of the Massachusetts Association of Women in Law Enforcement (MAWLE), Massachusetts Latino Police Officers Association, the Benevolent Asian Jade Society of New England, and Latino Law Enforcement Group of Boston (LLEGO).