Geiger Institute Team

Before joining the Institute as an Associate Project Specialist, Soleidi worked as an advocate for the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center providing trauma-informed services for survivors of domestic violence. Additionally, she collaborated with internal and external multi-disciplinary teams on domestic violence cases and invested in community engagement and education in the city of Lawrence focusing on faith and immigrant communities.

Soleidi received her Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice with summa cum laude honors as well as her Master of Arts degree in Security Studies from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Timothy Boehnlein, M.A. is a Project Specialist at the Geiger Institute. 

Tim has a Master’s Degree of Counseling Psychology from Cleveland State University. He has over 29 years of experience in assessment of perpetrators of domestic violence, facilitating batterer intervention groups, counseling domestic violence and stalking offenders, and diagnostic assessments. He is also experienced in operating and managing a supervised visitation center where children can visit with their non-custodial parent in a safe environment free of power and control, manipulation and coercion. Tim created the Adolescent Centered Family Violence Prevention Program at the Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center which addressed teen dating violence, stalking, sexual assault and cyber bullying in the context of a dating relationship. He developed the Batterer Treatment Program for the Domestic Violence Center in 1992; the program was in operation for 15 years.

Tim previously was an Advocate Supervisor in the Domestic Violence Unit for the Cuyahoga County Witness Victim Service Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He worked on the expansion of the Domestic Violence High Risk Team as part of an initiative through the US Department of Justice and the Office of Violence Against Women. Within this work, he assisted several police departments in implementing the use of the Danger Assessment for Law Enforcement. Tim recently completed the Five Day Virtual Advanced Course on Strangulation Prevention from the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention.

Tim has a credible reputation throughout Cuyahoga County and the State of Ohio as a speaker, trainer and expert in the field of domestic violence. He has spoken extensively on the issues of victim advocacy, offender treatment, domestic violence, risk assessment, stalking and teen dating violence. He has provided professional trainings for The Supreme Court of Ohio Judicial and Court Services Division, Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Metro Health Hospital Family Practice Residents, The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, The Supreme Court of Ohio Judicial College and multiple police departments throughout Cuyahoga County. 

Heather is a Senior Project Specialist at the Geiger Institute where she works with communities across the country to assess their existing response systems and implement homicide reduction strategies.

She has provided training and technical assistance to communities of all sizes, working directly with advocates, law enforcement, prosecutors and other criminal justice stakeholders.  She has extensive experience identifying community strengths that can be leveraged and challenges to be addressed in order to maximize homicide reduction efforts. She has trained at national conferences on a variety of issues regarding intimate partner violence and homicide.  

Before joining the Institute, Heather worked for Casa Myrna where she coordinated the day to day operations of SafeLink, the Massachusetts statewide domestic violence crisis hotline. Heather began her career as an attorney and she practiced law as a civil litigator for eleven years. 

Heather holds a B.A. from Bucknell University and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law.

Sarah is a Senior Project Specialist for the Geiger Institute and supports communities’ efforts to implement homicide reduction strategies and evaluate their effectiveness. 

Before joining the Institute, Sarah provided customized technical assistance to jurisdictions throughout the country to help them improve justice system outcomes for victims and defendants, reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system, and increase community engagement with justice initiatives.  

She has managed a variety of projects, including the implementation of justice reform legislation, program implementation, and model fidelity, institutionalizing the use of data and reporting on programmatic outcomes, and reducing the unnecessary use of incarceration.  

Sarah has B.A.’s from the University of Iowa and received her Master of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.   

Darren Johnson, J.D. is the Technology Application Integration Specialist at the Geiger Institute. He holds a Juris Doctor and a Certificate in Information Privacy Law from Maine Law, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Applied Technology from the University of Maine.

Darren leads the technical coordination and integration of IMPACT, a web-based application designed to advance the Institute’s mission of reducing intimate partner homicide. He collaborates with developers and stakeholders to ensure the system is user-friendly, reliable, and responsive to the needs of frontline users. He also plays a key role in quality assurance, user onboarding and training, and translating complex technical information and data into accessible insights.

Di Torres is Executive Assistant for the Geiger Institute, and brings over 16 years of experience supporting mission-driven organizations through nonprofit operations, program management, and strategic coordination. Previously she served as Program Manager at Family Services of the Merrimack Valley, where she led two mentoring programs focused on strengthening youth and family support systems, cultivated partnerships with schools, community organizations, and corporate partners, and contributed to fundraising and program sustainability efforts. Her work is grounded in building strong organizational infrastructure that helps teams better support communities, respond to complex needs, and strengthen collaborative impact.

Di brings expertise in program operations, database and workflow systems, and organizational process improvement, with a track record of strengthening communication, coordination, and decision-making in mission-driven organizations. Her background includes executive support, program administration, stakeholder engagement, and operational leadership across nonprofit, community, and national service settings. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management.