OUR TEAM

Elizabeth Brewington (she/her) is based in Durham, NC and is the Manager of Health Programs for the Opioid Settlement Technical Assistance team of the NC Association of County Commissioners. Prior to the NCACC, she launched the Overdose Crisis the Faith Community Responds program at the NC Council of Churches. She is passionate about connecting faith and harm reduction and building community.

Rev. Michelle Mathis (she/her) is co-founder and Executive Director of The Olive Branch Ministry, a faith-based harm reduction agency in North Carolina. She is the director of Points of HOPE, a justice-centered education and syringe access program, and project coordinator for a local county EMS post overdose response team. Michelle serves as Advisory Board Chair for the National Faith in Harm Reduction movement. She believes that honoring an individual’s journey, with compassion and love, is the key to a successful connection. While her faith is the motivation behind her work, extending hope and extending life is her mission.

Hill Brown (they/them), based in Western North Carolina, is the Southern Director of Faith in Harm Reduction. Hill is a founding board member and the former executive director of Steady Collective, a community based Harm Reduction program in Asheville NC. Born and raised in Alabama, Hill is committed to speaking about and directly addressing the particular ways that gentrification and displacement; racial capitalism; and the war on people who use drugs manifest in the Southern United States.

Oriana Mayorga (she/her/ella) is a native New Yorker and recent graduate from Union Theological Seminary where she received her Master in Divinity. Oriana has been a part of the drug policy movement for well over a decade. She is passionate about centering & uplifting the anger, needs, hopes, and joys of people of color in the work she does.

Terrell Jones (he/him) is the Advocacy and Community Engagement Manager at Onpoint NYC. Terrell is a passionate advocate, activist, and inspiration for drug users, sex workers, the homeless, and other marginalized communities. Terrell Jones is a former drug user who, like many other people of color, was incarcerated because of his drug use. Terrell has now been in the harm reduction field for over 19 years and worked his way up from participant, to peer educator, to staff, and now to the management team.  In his current role at Onpoint, he often collaborates with the Drug Policy Alliance, Faith in Harm Reduction and VOCAL NY. Terrell is also Co-Director of the Peer Network of New York where he emphasizes the professional and personal development of peers working in the field of harm reduction. Terrell’s work has brought him around the country giving talks and advocating for harm reduction policies and practices to be used to assist drug users, sex workers, and other individuals impacted by the war on drugs. Terrell represents Onpoint NYC on the New York City Mayor’s Taskforce for Opiates and Prescription Drugs Overdose. He also helped organize People of Color Tour of Harm Reduction in Fall 2016 where City Council members and other Legislators from New York City and New York State visited syringe exchanges around the city and attended panels on the history and importance of harm reduction. He has become the face of harm reduction.

Rev. Erica M. Poellot, MSW, MDiv is the founder and Executive Director of Faith in Harm Reduction and serves as the Minister of Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention Ministries for the National United Church of Christ. As a faith leader engaged in a long-term healing process from substance use disorder, Erica founded Faith in Harm Reduction to co-create a justice movement which connects people who use drugs, their loved ones, and communities of faith through the development of harm reduction centered spiritual resources, ritual support, and spiritual care. With joint MDiv/MSW degrees from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University in NYC, Erica is based at Judson Memorial Church in NYC. Erica also serves on the Board of Directors for Safehouse Philadelphia and the Peer Network of New York.

M Jade Kaiser (they/them) is the co-founder and co-director of enfleshed, a collaborative effort to create and facilitate resources of spiritual nourishment for the labors of collective liberation. M's work focuses on the roles of spirituality and religion in healing and justice efforts at the interpersonal, collective, and systemic levels. Integrating over a decade of activism and organizing within and outside of religious contexts, they are passionate about co-creating sustainability, joy, and genuine community in movement spaces.

Marilyn Reyes (she/her), born and raised in The Bronx, is a mother, grandmother, activist, public health worker, and so much more. Fueled by her experiences and her desire to improve job prospects for people coming home from incarceration, Marilyn has worked for Voices Of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY), a statewide grassroots membership organization that builds power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness in order to create healthy and just communities. She served as a Peer Educator with New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE), a non-profit organization devoted to promoting the health, safety, and well-being of marginalized, low-income persons who use drugs or engage in sex work, their loved ones, and their communities. Marilyn is also Co-Director for the Peer Network of New York (PNNY) and a member of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. Marilyn's work uplifts her own experiences but also the experiences of so many women who have had their lives upended by the failed war on drugs and mass incarceration. 

Louise Vincent MPH (she/her) is an activist and educator in NC whose work and expertise in drug user health, and social and criminal justice reform have driven the expansion and acceptance of harm reduction.  She is a harm reduction consultant who specializes in women’s health, drug policy reform, and the meaningful engagement of people who use drugs.  Louise is committed to developing and evaluating user-informed systems and developing organizational leadership using horizontal structures and feminist theory.  Louise’s passion and expertise have created opportunities for system change and movement building both locally and nationally.  Louise sits on the board of the International Network of People Who Use  Drugs and is the Executive Director of the NC Survivors Union.