QUESTIONS ANSWERS CONTACT INFORMATION Title Ms. First Name Maya Last Name Simek Home Address City Cleveland State OH Zip Code Home Phone Cell Phone Email Address Are you over 18 years of Age Yes What is your gender identity? Female What do you consider your race? Caucasian What do you consider your ethnicity? EMPLOYMENT HISTORY Current place of work The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Community Center of Greater Cleveland Job Title Director of Programming Job Address 6600 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, 44102 COMMISSION ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS 1. Are you a resident of Cleveland? Yes 2. Do you work in Cleveland? Yes In order to ensure diverse Faith based organization, Civil rights advocate, representation on the Commission, Organization representing communities of color, members must reflect eight broad Advocacy organization, Academia, Individuals with categories delineated in the Consent expertise in the challenges facing people with Decree. Please select all that apply mental illness or the homeless to you: BACKGROUND INFORMATION Please note, responses to these questions do not necessarily disqualify one from consideration for a position on the Commission. 1. Are you a current employee or No former of a law enforcement agency? Please specify if answer YES above (1) 2. Are you a current or former No Page 1 of 5
elected or appointed public official? Please specify if answer YES above (2) 3. Do you understand the role of the Yes Commission and the responsibilities of its members? 4. Do you understand that Yes applications for the Commission are public records, subject to disclosure upon request? 5. Have you ever been convicted of No a misdemeanor or felony? 6. Do you speak any other Yes languages? Please specify if answer YES above Rudimentary Spanish (6) OPEN RESPONSES To determine your willingness and ability to contribute to the Commission, please provide a brief response to each of the following questions. Each response should be 200 words or less. 1. Please state your reasons for I have spent the past 13 years both working and desiring to serve on the owning a home in the City of Cleveland, specifically Commission. residing in Slavic Village. In my experiences both professionally and personally, I have been a witness to circumstances of discordant interactions both within the justice system and with police officers. Professionally, in the roles of social worker, attorney, program director, and professor, I have been privy to client stories of racial profiling, mismanagement of escalated/traumatic situations, and disrespect from those authority figures meant to provide protection and justice. Both within and out of the walls of court rooms, I have seen dismissive and outright disdainful responses to victims domestic violence, victims of hate crimes, and those with criminal backgrounds who while they had paid their "debt to society" were not able to receive impartial responses in times of need. My desire in joining this Commission is that I might be able to utilize my personal and professional skills Page 2 of 5
to bring everyone to the table so that we are able to work at establishing the platform from which Cleveland can begin to find peace, respect, and understanding. 2. Please describe any skills, life My legal, teaching, and social services experiences, and expertise that backgrounds have given me the tools to be an would qualify you for an effective and passionate advocate that will make appointment? me asset to the Commission. Examples of these skills include: the creation, implementation, and evaluation of programming; staff oversight; drafting/research around evidence-based practices; development and maintenance of relationships with community partners; provision of cultural competency trainings; and civil legal representation. These experiences have required identifying and removing barriers using problem-solving, creativity, engagement, trust-building, listening, and conflict resolution. In a personal capacity, I can also relate to having frustrations with the police. After the foreclosure crisis, Slavic Village experienced a pervasive lack of police presence. Situations requiring police intervention were often met with disinterested officers and severely delayed response times, including a 9-1-1 call not answered for 4 hours. The overwhelming feeling of helplessness I felt in these situations parallel that of so many others who have felt overlooked, forgotten, and without recourse. My ability to present to the Commission with an understanding of the many sides of these exchanges will allow me to be a staunch, yet fair advocate who will seek to find the way in which true collaboration, perspective broadening, and change might begin. 3. Please address how you see the Through the process of working to achieve the Commission advancing the larger objectives outlined in the Consent Decree, goal of ensuring community specifically paragraphs 17 through 24, the engagement, promoting bias free Commission will achieve the larger goals. Working policing, and building trust and actively to reach out to the community members transparency in the context of police where they are and presenting them with the Page 3 of 5
reform? opportunity to vocalize their experiences both from the community and from within the department will allow individuals to feel connected to the process and provide the space for trust to be created, established, and maintained(17 C). Allowing all sides to be represented will assist a greater feeling of connectivity and accountability. Providing the ground work for the creation of representative cultural competency education will provide context for greater understanding, resulting in increased awareness(17 B). The review of current policies(17a/d) and data collection measures(18) in comparison with best practices both locally and nationally, will present a solid basis from which to work that will be based not only in evidence-based practices, but also contextualized to Cleveland. Finally, identifying community stake holders for the District Policing Committees with diversified membership(24) and publishing reports(20) will help to provide the basis for continuous conversation, investment by both sides, and disclosure by which the maintenance of relationships will be facilitated. OTHER APPLICABLE INFORMATION Please provide other information you I am a barred attorney in Ohio and California and a consider pertinent: (i.e., civic and Licensed Independent Social Worker in Ohio. community group, memberships, Currently, I hold a Juris Doctorate(JD) from related work experiences and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, a Masters of professional groups). Social Services Administration(MSSA) from Case Western Reserve's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, and a Bachelor's of Sciences in Psychology from John Carroll University. In addition to the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, I currently work as an attorney at the Nueva Luz Urban Resource Center(a faith-based organization providing social services to individuals under the federal poverty level living with HIV/AIDS), and as an Adjunct Clinical Law Professor at Cleveland-Marshall. Over the past ten years, other legal and social services agencies I Page 4 of 5
have worked for/with include Cuyahoga County's Juvenile Public Defender's office, the Witness Victim Service Center, and the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. I serve as Transgender Subcommittee Co-Chair in the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association(CMBA)'s LGBT Committee. I am one of the founding members of the Cleveland-Central American LGBT International Solidarity Committee, a group whose purpose is to promote equality, connectivity, and awareness of the injustices both in El Salvador and locally through the dissemination of information and creation of individual connection through delegation exchanges. Page 5 of 5