Our Board of Directors

Linda Ziegahn has been on the Board of Directors of YCRC since 2018. She brings to the board her interests and experience in conflict resolution, intercultural communication, and community engagement. Linda has also served recently on the boards of Opening Doors, a refugee resettlement agency, and the UC Davis Retirees’ Association. In 2016 Linda retired from the Community Engagement and Research Program for the Clinical and Translational Science Center at UC Davis. In this position she developed and conducted community-engaged research training programs for clinical and health researchers, residents, and community-based organizations. She holds a doctorate in Adult Education from Michigan State University. Prior experience includes teaching and administration at Antioch University and Syracuse University, and international development consulting in several African countries and Bangladesh.

Lentice Sanders-Carter has served on the Yolo Conflict Resolution Center Board of Directors since 2021. A seasoned Human Resources Director with more than 30 years of experience, 27 of them in the multifamily housing industry, she specializes in employee relations, organizational leadership, and cultivating healthy, resilient workplace cultures. Her advocacy for integrating restorative practices into professional settings reflects her belief in their ability to strengthen communication, rebuild trust, and reduce harm.

Lentice’s passion for YCRC’s work is also shaped by her understanding of how harm and healing can influence a person’s life. Having experienced profound personal loss due to community violence, she is committed to fostering environments, both in workplaces and in the community, where people feel seen, heard, and supported. She is deeply proud of the work YCRC does each day to transform conflict, restore relationships, and bring stability and healing to individuals and families throughout Yolo County.

Lentice holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Phoenix. She is honored to serve on the Board and to support an organization whose mission and values align with her belief in justice, compassion, and the power of community-centered healing.

After receiving my B.A. from UCD in 1968 and my J.D. from UCD’s King Hall in 1972, I spent five years in the Central Valley with California Rural Legal Assistance, returning to Davis in 1976 to take a position with the state’s new Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Later, after a couple of years with the State Public Defender’s Office, I joined the staff of the Attorney General’s Office in 1984, serving in a number of positions, and retiring in 2012. Following retirement, I wanted to explore the use of restorative practices as an alternative to the criminal justice system. To that end, I joined with others and the Yolo County District Attorney to develop the Neighborhood Court Program and to train its earliest volunteers. My work with Neighborhood Court led to an invitation to join the YCRC Board of Directors. I believe that YCRC performs an important, restorative and communicative, function in our community. I enjoy working with the other board members, our Executive Director, and with our committed staff and corps of volunteers, in expanding the organization’s scope of services, our capacity to perform those services, and our geographical reach. I presently serve as the Board’s Treasurer.

Elena is excited to join the YCRC Board in 2024 and contribute to its growth. Elena trained as a Community Mediator in 2002 with the City of Davis program that would later become YCRC.  Several years later she trained as a Youth Restorative Justice Facilitator.  Elena sees these “non-legal” methods to resolve conflict as a much kinder, more effective method to resolving conflicts.  

Elena brings a wealth of experience to YCRC. She earned her law degree in 1978. She opened a private legal practice serving marginalized women and children in divorce and domestic violence cases.  Later, as a State Attorney, Elena developed AIDS education programs for adults with developmental disabilities, represented clients in benefits hearings, helped close socioeconomic gaps in low-income communities, presented workshops on a variety of insurance issues and supported legislative initiatives for fair insurance practices to protect the elderly. Driven by a passion for social justice, she has spent decades working in the nonprofit world–helping create, develop and expand several community organizations. 

Elena knows the services that YCRC offers are invaluable, especially today as strife and discord have grown throughout our communities.

I’m an Air Force Vietnam Era Veteran, having served here at McClellan Air Force Base and in Turkey. After four and a half years I became a civilian to finish my bachelor’s degree and then earned a Masters in Social Work at Indiana University. My social work career was primarily with persons with serious mental illness, in direct practice, administration, and then policy level at the State and County levels. After I retired, for a few years, I was the co-organizer for the National Behavioral Health Information Management Conference and Exposition. Between my various social work roles I spent some time doing real estate development and management and management consulting.

Since I retired I’ve served on the Yolo Local Agency Formation Commission, the Woodland Personnel Committee, the Woodland Commission on Aging, and I’ve volunteered with the Yolo County Attorney General’s Restorative Justice Partnership (RJP). I’ve been a facilitator with RJP for the last ten years.

It has been my work with RJP that introduced my to the Yolo Conflict Resolution Center. I find that the philosophy behind restorative justice, and the ways that it has been implemented locally resonate with my deeply held convictions.