Cecilia "Cessie" Alfonso (born January 14, 1945) is an American

forensic social work Forensic social work is the application of social work to questions and issues relating to the law and legal systems. It is a type of social work that involves the application of social work principles and practices in legal, criminal, and civil ...

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

prevention and response, and

organizational development Organization development (OD) is the study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change. The goal of which is to modify a group's/organization's performance and/or culture. The organizational chan ...

consultant and activist who has protested against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

and the use of the

death penalty in the United States In the United States, capital punishment (also known as the death penalty) is a legal penalty in 27 states (of which two, Oregon and Wyoming, do not currently have any inmates sentenced to death), throughout the country at the federal leve ...

to prosecute criminals and in support of improved

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

for women and the

LGBT community The LGBTQ community (also known as the LGBT, LGBT+, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA+, or queer community) comprises LGBTQ people, LGBTQ individuals united by LGBTQ culture, a common culture and LGBTQ movements, social movements. These Community, comm ...

. The founder and president of Alfonso Consultants, Inc., she trained and worked as a social worker and has collaborated with civil and criminal defense attorneys nationally and internationally for more than three decades to provide psychosocial assessments and other social work support to their clients. During the course of her work, she and her colleagues have undertaken more than one thousand mitigation investigations.

Formative years

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, New York in the United States on January 14, 1945, Cecilia "Cessie" Alfonso is a first-generation, Caribbean American who attended the Montefiore School of Practical Nursing, where she earned her

Licensed Practical Nurse A licensed practical nurse (LPN), in much of the United States and Canada, is a nurse who provides direct nursing care for people who are sick, injured, convalescent, or disabled. In the United States, LPNs work under the direction of physicia ...

degree in 1965. She was then awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and sociology by

Hood College Hood College is a private college in Frederick, Maryland. In fall 2018, Hood enrolled 2,052 students (1,092 undergraduate students; 960 graduate students). Thirty-eight percent of students are either members of under-represented racial or ethni ...

; in 1977, she earned her Master of Social Work degree from the Graduate School of Social Work at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. Beginning in 1982, she was awarded a series of certifications and licenses, including the: * CSW by the State of New York's Board of Higher Education (1982); * ACSW by the

National Association of Social Workers The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is a professional organization of social workers in the United States. NASW has about 120,000 members. The NASW provides guidance, research, up to date information, advocacy, and other resources ...

, Academy of Social Workers (1983); * LCSW by the State of New Jersey's Board of Social Work Examiners (1983); and * Diplomat status by the National Association of Social Workers (Clinical Registrar, Certified Social Work, School Field Instructor, 1985).

Activism

During the 1960s and 1970s, she protested against the

and for

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

and

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

. She has also been a member of the

Combahee River Collective The Combahee River Collective (CRC) ( ) was a Black feminist lesbian socialist organization active in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1974 to 1980. Marable, Manning; Leith Mullings (eds), ''Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices of Resistance, Reform, an ...

, and has been active in trying to end the use of the

Nursing, social work and legal career

From 1969 to 1972, Alfonso worked as a licensed practical nurse in the operating room of Morrison Hospital in New York City. Her work related to the gynecological aspects of surgery. Between 1978 and 2000, Alfonso was employed as a social worker in clinical practice in New York and New Jersey, during which time she served as a psychiatric social worker, a clinical coordinator, a mental health specialist, and a drug counselor. Beginning in 1984, Alfonso provided expert witness testimony about

-related topics in legal cases in Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. She also worked as a consultant and mitigation specialist on state and federal death penalty cases in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, and South Carolina. From 1994 to 2012, Alfonso was employed by county and state public defenders' offices in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Wisconsin to provide training to their attorneys and other personnel regarding client-centered representation, trial preparation and presentation, mitigation and sentencing issues, and domestic violence-related topics. From 1995 to 2005, Alfonso also worked for Albany Law, training attorneys in cultural competency and client-centered representation. In addition, Alfonso worked as a faculty member of, and presenter for, the

National Legal Aid & Defender Association The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoted to advocating equal justice for all Americans and was established in 1911. History The Fourteenth Amendment to ...

from 1995 to 2010, providing training for attorneys, their staff and other social workers on such topics as the consideration of cultural differences in civil and criminal cases, defense-related issues in death penalty cases, preparing clients and their families for trial, the psychosexual dynamics of the serial rapist/killer, rage mitigation in domestic violence cases, and the preparation of witnesses for trial. She was also employed as a faculty member with the Clarence Darrow Death Penalty Defense College at

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

from 2005 to 2012, where she presented similar training programs and also addressed the impacts of poverty, race, gender, and class on attorneys' relationships with clients and in courtroom settings. During the fall of 2002, she was also employed as an adjunct professor by the department of math and sciences at the

College of Saint Rose The College of Saint Rose was a private college in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1920 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet as a Catholic women's college, and it became fully co-educational in the 1969–1970 academic year. The foll ...

in Albany.

Founding of Alfonso Consultants to the present

In 1988, Alfonso founded and expanded Alfonso Consultants, Inc. to offer consultation services to civil and criminal defense attorneys nationally and internationally. In addition to providing psychosocial assessments and other social work support to the clients of those attorneys, she has provided consultation services to attorneys and their clients regarding more than seven hundred capital (death penalty) cases and has also undertaken more than one thousand mitigation investigations with colleagues in cases in Columbia, Cuba, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and the United States. She has also served as an expert witness during the penalty phases of multiple death penalty cases. She has also worked with the New York State Defenders Association since 2005, providing training to attorneys and other staff regarding the impacts of poverty, race, gender, and class on attorneys' relationships with clients and in courtroom settings and ways to foster client-center representation.

Other community service efforts

Alfonso serves on the board of directors of Citizen Action of New York and is a former president of the board of the National Association of Sentencing Advocates. In 2017, she served on the Truth Commission on Poverty in New York State, which was established by the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State.

News program and talk show appearances

Alfonso has been a guest on multiple news programs and talk shows throughout her career, including the following: * "Battered Women's Syndrome," ''Sonya Live'' (CNN, 1990) * "Alternative Sentencing" (BBC TV, 1993) * "Battered Women's Syndrome," ''Sally Jesse Raphael Show'' (NBC, 1996) * "Domestic Violence," ''Sally Jesse Raphael Show'' (NBC, 1997) * "Women Who Stalk," ''Montel Williams Show'' (WOR-TV, 1998) * "Forensic Social Worker," ''Social Worker Radio'' (WCDB Radio, 2017) * "Social Work and the Death Penalty" (WOOC Radio, 2018)

Publications

* Alfonso, C. and K. Baur, K. "Enhancing Capital Defense: The Role of the Forensic Clinical Social Worker." Washington, D.C.: ''The Champion'', 1986. * Alfonso, C. "Poverty and Its Impact on the Client-Attorney Relationship," in ''The Advocate'', Vol. 13, No. 4, June 1991 (revised May 2006, Vol. 28, No. 3). * Alfonso, C. "A Module: Training for Cultural Competence." Jersey City, New Jersey: Alfonso Associates, 1995. * Alfonso, C. "Concerns and Considerations for Mitigation Specialists Handling International Investigations," in ''Cornerstone'', Vol. 29, No. 2; September-December, 2007.

Awards and other honors

Alfonso has been the recipient of numerous awards and other honors, including the:Cecilia Alfonso (bio), in "The ALARI First Continental Conference on Afro-Latin American Studies," Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center, Harvard University, December 2019. * Trailblazer Award for Innovation and Leadership from New Jersey Social Work (1992); * Innovation and Leadership—Edwin Gould Services Award from STEPS to End Family Violence (1995); * Outstanding Faculty Member in the Defender Institute Basic Trial Skills Program Award from the New York State Defenders Association (June 2000); * Mim George Award from the National Association of Sentencing (2005); * Life in the Balance Achievement Award from the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (March 2008); * Recognition Award presented by Governor

Jon Corzine Jon Stevens Corzine ( ; born January 1, 1947) is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006, and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran f ...

of New Jersey in recognition of her leading mitigation specialist work which contributed significantly to the abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey (2008); and * Recognition Award for service as the first president of the National Association of Sentencing Advocates and Mitigation Specialists (March 2013).

References

External links

Cecilia "Cessie" Alfonso, LCSW, ACSW, CSW
(official website) *
Papers of Cessie Alfonso, 1989-2018
" Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University *
Reclaiming History with Cessie Alfonso
(audio). Troy, New York: The Sanctuary for Independent Media (via the Internet Archive), September 3, 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Alfonso, Cessie 21st-century American women 20th-century American women Activists from New York (state) American anti–death penalty activists American anti-war activists American civil rights activists American community activists American feminists American health activists American social justice activists American social workers American women's rights activists Anti-domestic violence activists Domestic violence awareness American women civil rights activists 1945 births Living people