STAFF & BOARD MEMBERS

Cristina Ayala earned her B.A. from Yale University and her Certificate in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.  She has been involved in many aspects of ATASK’s operations over the past 15 years, including grant writing, contract reporting, community relations, and event planning. She served as ATASK’s Emergency Shelter Director for six years, and then became the Founding Director of the Transitional Housing Program. Cristina is a consummate ambassador and has represented ATASK at various speaking engagements, events, and meetings with key funders.

Earlier in her career, Cristina worked on various public health projects in Latin America.  She later joined the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center and managed the construction of their largest site.  As their Operations Manager, she was in charge of Medical Records, the Laboratory and Facilities.  She also worked with Boston Partners in Education, served on the Board of St. Peter School in Cambridge, and is a Board Member of Metro West Collaborative Development.

Cristina is recognized for her leadership within the Filipino community in Boston, where she teaches at the Filipino School and helps organize fundraising events for natural disasters and low-income communities. She currently resides in the Greater Boston area with her family.

cristina@atask.org

Dawn Sauma, MSW, LICSW has been the Co-Executive and Clinical Director of Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK) since 2010, overseeing direct services, collaborating with stakeholders and community partners, and authoring grants. She has worked in social services for over 30 years, serving Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities in Hawaii and Massachusetts as a provider, educator, manager, and administrator within the mental health, crisis intervention, academic and non-profit systems.

She is a Board Member and President-Elect of Jane Doe, Inc. (JDI), the MA Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence; Community Co-Chair of Addressing Disparities in Asian Populations Through Translation Research (ADAPT); member of the Tufts CTSI Stakeholder Expert Panel; and partner in Asian Center for Addressing Research, Education and Services (CARES). 

Dawn is a bi-racial half Japanese and half white, bi-cultural advocate/activist from Hawaii, whose work blends her personal and professional experience.

dawn@atask.org

Codi Bierce, M. Ed. earned her B.A. from the University of Connecticut in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and her M. Ed. from Salem State University. She has a history of working in the field of Higher Education (Student Affairs) after graduating with her master’s and then making the transition to the Non-Profit world in joining ATASK in August of 2024 as the Outreach and Community Engagement Manager. She has a previous passion for social justice education and worked with Title IX throughout her experience in higher education which pushed her to decide to transition working for an organization focused on serving Domestic Violence survivors.  

Codi is a proud Korean American adoptee having been adopted into a white family at the age of 6 months old. She is very passionate about sexual assault and domestic violence awareness. She is a cat mom and dog mom of 2 mini goldendoodles who live with her in Quincy, MA. 

codi@atask.org

Rebekah Bodden joined ATASK as the Director of Development in August 2024. She brings over 15 years of experience working in nonprofits across diverse locations, serving vulnerable populations and addressing critical issues. In Denver, Colorado, she contributed to transitional housing programs for homeless families and community reentry initiatives. Later, in Beijing, China, she worked on international child welfare projects. In these roles, she led efforts in volunteer coordination, grant writing, donor stewardship, marketing and communications, and community engagement to drive social impact. 

Rebekah holds a BA in Sociology and an MA in Public Administration with a focus on Gender-Based Violence, both fueling her commitment to supporting survivors and advocating for systemic change. 

Now embarking on this new journey with ATASK, Rebekah is excited to support ATASK’s mission and help build a brighter future for survivors in the community. 

rebekah@atask.org

Victoria Bruce is the Shelter Manager at ATASK, bringing over 20 years of experience in housing and property management, with a focus on affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households. She has completed credentials from institutions such as the National Grant Foundation for Grant Writing and Fundraising, Wentworth Institute of Technology for Project Management, and the National Center for Housing Management (NCHM), where she obtained specialized property management certifications.

victoria@atask.org

Joyce Kao, MSW earned her B.A. from Chengchi University in Taiwan in Sociology and M.S.W. in Social Work from Springfield College.  She worked as a social worker in Garden of Hope Foundation in Taiwan with domestic violence survivors, and then moved on to working as a hotline manager in ECPAT Taiwan serving underage survivors from sexual exploitation and abuse after completing her M.S.W.

She initially joined ATASK as Chinese Advocate/Case Manager after moving to United States, and is now working as the Clinical Manager for the Asian Shelter and Advocacy Programs. As an immigrant herself, she is passionate about working with immigrants survivors with diverse cultural and language backgrounds.

joyce@atask.org

Abeer Massri, LLM is an attorney who specializes in immigration and family law, with a deep interest in international human rights. With more than a decade of extensive legal experience, Massri joins ATASK after serving for six years as a senior attorney at the Justice Center in Brockton, MA. At the Justice Center, her primary focus was to secure legal status for immigrants, especially women and children.

Massri began practicing law in Syria at a young age. After a short time working at a top law firm in Damascus where she was supervised by the Minister of Justice, Massri was named as the youngest partner in the firm. 

After leaving Syria, Massri resumed her legal career in Massachusetts working with several nonprofit organizations.  Massri has also worked as a teaching assistant at the Boston University School of Law and writes as a legal expert for a Syrian law journal.

Massri has been an active member of the Massachusetts Bar since 2016. She holds an LLM in American Law from Boston University School of Law, and a Master’s in Civil and Commercial Law from Damascus Law University.

Massri is married and a proud mother of three. She writes Arabic poetry and enjoys a good book with a warm cup of tea.

Shruti Sinha Rauniyar joined ATASK in 2020 as the South Asian Advocate providing direct services to victims of domestic violence. Since that time, her role has evolved to being the Operations Manager of ATASK’s Asian Shelter and Advocacy Program. In this capacity she is responsible for non-clinical management of the program, playing a critical role in its success and shaping and achieving ATASK’s mission of providing hope to survivors of domestic violence.

Prior to joining ATASK, Shruti consulted for multiple legal and strategic consulting firms, including Deloitte and Ernst & Young. She has also served as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of India. She has lived and worked in multiple countries including Singapore, India and Nepal.

Shruti earned her JD from National Law Institute University in India and her LL.M. from New York University and is passionate about socio-economic issues impacting marginalized communities. 

shruti@atask.org

Timothy Rehberg, MSW, LICSW was recently hired on as the Clinical Supervisor for ATASK in June 2023.  Timothy graduated from UMASS Amherst with a B.A. in Sociology and went on obtain in Masters in Social Work through Wheelock College (now considered Boston University) in Boston.  He comes with over 23 years of experience within the field of social services, 17 of them from within the child welfare system as a social worker and supervisor.  Along with his experience within child welfare system, Tim has experience with crisis intervention, intimate partner violence, management, and clinical mental health work.

Timothy works part time as an adjunct professor at Elms College in Chicopee where he has received the opportunity to teach and learn from BSW students and has been a part of nonprofit boards and a member of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) committees all within the Worcester and Boston areas.  He has also received opportunities to present at conferences on diversity and adoption nationally.  When not working for ATASK or Elms College, you can find him refereeing competitive basketball games for high school level youth. 

Timothy identifies as a Transnational Korean-American adoptee.  He was adopted from Korea when he was 3 ½ years old and grew in a multi-racial family consisting of a two-parent household and two older siblings, who both were also adopted.  As a transnational adoptee, he has learned through personal experiences that the world is full of lots of amazing and incredible opportunities where one can continuously grow and learn from.  It’s from his experiences that eventually connected him with folks within the Asian community, ultimately leading him seek and become employed by ATASK.

timothy@atask.org

Noah Schneiderman supports a variety of nonprofit organizations as a contract CFO and financial consultant. Prior to his work in this capacity, he served as the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer at The Trustees of Reservations and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in both cases overseeing  Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology. Previously, Noah worked as the Finance Manager at the Massachusetts State College Building Authority (MSCBA) and as an urban and campus planner at Sasaki Associates. A graduate of Dartmouth College with a dual-degree in Geography and Studio Art, Noah holds two masters degrees, one in Real Estate Development and one in City Planning, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He lives in Needham, MA with his wife and three school aged children. 

noah@atask.org