Dr. Dawn Ravella is Executive Director of Emmaus House Harlem. She is a seasoned social worker with broad experience organizing faith communities to respond to poverty and injustice.

Dr. Ravella created the Coming Home prison re-entry project, a trauma informed program offering supportive community for returning citizens as they set goals, heal from past trauma, learn new skills and work for social change.

Dr. Ravella founded Public Policy Education Network, mobilizing Catholics on Long Island to be a moral voice in the public arena and creating a vehicle with which to lobby on issues such as welfare reform, immigration rights, and the abolition of the death penalty. She led the establishment of two homeless shelters and the co-organizing of East Side Congregations for Housing Justice, which organizes religious leaders in NYC to dialogue with elected officials on a blueprint to end homelessness in NYC.

Dr. Ravella is Adjunct Professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Work. She serves on the IRB board of Sarah Lawrence College and is a Board member of Al Amana International. She also serves on the board of BNC Alumni Association, Inc., affiliated with NY Theological Seminary; BNC is an organization committed to education for people impacted by the criminal legal system.