About me
Vivianne Guevara has been a restorative justice practitioner and facilitator for 10 years and a social worker in public
defense for over 16 years. She is the Director of Integral Justice, an organization that provides private mitigation in
state and federal criminal cases nationwide, as well as restorative justice training and facilitation globally. Vivianne
began facilitating restorative circles in 2014 when she facilitated the first-known restorative circle for a Federal
District Court case. Since then, Vivianne has planned and facilitated hundreds of circles within/for the criminal legal
system, schools, universities, coalitions, community members, and private and non-profit organizations. She co-created the first restorative justice course at Columbia University’s School of Social Work and facilitated restorative circles at NYU School of Social Work, Hunter’s Silberman School of Social Work, Columbia Law School, NYU Law School, Texas A&M Law School, Yale Law School, New York Law School, as well as myriad public defender conferences, workshops, and offices. Vivianne was the founding Director of Social Work and Mitigation at the Federal Defenders of New York in the Eastern District, where she developed one of the first Federal Defender social work practices in the nation and led the social work practice from 2012-2023. Vivianne has planned and provided training in defense social work practice and mitigation since 2011 – at national Federal Defender workshops and conferences, law schools, and federal & state public defender offices/districts nationwide.
