Our Senior Management Team is committed to preventing child abuse.  Their leadership combines several decades of proven experience in their respective fields with passionate commitment for children. These Directors guide our full staff of diverse and talented professionals to ensure that all kids in New Jersey are happy, healthy, safe and encouraged to learn.

Rush L. Russell was appointed by the Board to the position of Executive Director in July 2009. Rush has an extensive background in the non-profit, philanthropic and governmental sectors. Prior to coming to Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. He was also the founder and president for Children’s Futures, a comprehensive effort to improve early childhood health and development outcomes for children in Trenton, New Jersey. In philanthropy, he served as a Senior Program Officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and as executive director for the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation. In government, he was a legislative assistant to Senator Bill Bradley in Washington D.C. and director for health and human services in the Governor’s Budget Office in Texas. Rush has a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. He can be reached at 732-246-8060 x111 or rrussell@preventchildabusenj.org.

Diane Dellanno is our Director of Early Childhood and Education Programs. Diane currently oversees the Family Outreach Program MA and the NJ State Parent Information and Resource Center. A Licensed Clinical Social Worker with experience developing and implementing child abuse prevention programs, she has been affiliated with Prevent Child Abuse since 1986. Diane has conducted numerous national presentations on the topic of child abuse prevention and her research has been published in Families in Society and Social Work in Education. In 1995, she received a New Jersey Child Assault Prevention (CAP) award for her work in child abuse prevention. Diane received her MSW from Rutgers University. She can be reached at 732-246-8060 x117 or ddellanno@preventchildabusenj.org.

Dr. Ashawnda Fleming currently serves as the Director of Development for Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey. She possesses over sixteen years of nonprofit management experience. Prior to joining PCA-NJ in October 2011, she served as a Development Consultant to national nonprofits including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and First Candle/SIDS Alliance. Her career of service began in the late 1990s when she served as the Vice President of Clinical Compliance for the largest substance abuse and mental health provider in the Mid-Atlantic region. She also managed a national research initiative at Georgetown University which was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Fleming served as a working member on the Campaign for Mental Health Reform which was instrumental in passing the National Mental Health Parity Act of 2008. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from American University in Washington, D.C., a Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from St. Thomas University in Miami, FL and a Bachelors Degree in Mass Communications from Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, FL.

Gina Hernandez is the Division Director of Prevention Programs at Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey. She oversees several statewide prevention projects that are responsible for serving more 28,000 families throughout NJ. She joined the staff in November 2005 and she works closely with her team to provide technical assistance, quality assurance and training to the home visitation, family outreach and teen parent support programs across the state. She also oversees the Standards for Prevention training funded by the NJ Division of Prevention and Community Partnerships. Gina is a Healthy Families America Certified Family Support Worker Trainer and also teaches the Great Beginnings Start Before Birth Prenatal training, Parent-Child Interaction and Motivational Interviewing for home visitors in the state. She is also an HFA National Peer Reviewer and has extensive experience with program development, implementation and evaluation. Gina has a B.A. in Communications, an M.A. in Counseling and is also a Certified Infant Massage Instructor. Currently, she is involved with various program research and evaluation projects with several universities and also has experience with the planning and development of data systems. She hopes to bring other evidence-based child abuse prevention programs to New Jersey in order to further the mission of Prevent Child Abuse NJ.