Our Team
Seema Clifasefi (she/her)
Project Director
Seema Clifasefi (she/her), PhD, MSW serves as the UW Faculty Sponsor and Doorway Project Director. She is an associate professor and also co-directs the Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) Center in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington-Harborview Medical Center. Her research interests lie at the intersection of substance use, mental health, criminal justice and housing policy, with an emphasis on populations with lived experience of homelessness, substance use and/or involvement in the criminal justice system.
Over the past fifteen years, she has worked collaboratively with affected communities to develop, evaluate and disseminate programs and interventions that aim to reduce substance related harm, improve quality of life, and create positive social change. Ultimately, through her research, she aims to center the voices of the populations she is working on behalf of to create more equitable systems through community capacity building, self-determination, and compassionate pragmatism.
Emma Mancano (She/her)
Program Coordinator
Emma serves as the Program Coordinator at The Doorway Project, where she supports community driven approaches to housing sustainability for young people in the University District. She began working with The Doorway Project as a CELE Center community based internship (UCBI) intern through the University of Washington, continued as a Jackson Munro Public Service Fellow, and later transitioned into a permanent staff role. Her approach balances holding emotional space for communities with taking proactive, concrete steps toward systems level change. Emma is a Sociology graduate from the University of Washington with an academic focus on social inequality, systemic oppression, and the ways intersecting identity factors including race, class, gender, sexuality, and physical ableness shape lived experiences. Her work is grounded in an intersectional sociological framework that centers both individual healing and collective accountability.
June Jackson (they/she)
Community Partners Fellow
June Jackson (she/they) is a PhD student in Learning Sciences and Human Development and a Community Partners Fellow at the Doorway Project. Their research focuses on how learning unfolds in contested social contexts where people - both those experiencing marginalization and those upholding exclusion - construct meaning, take action, and negotiate relationships within broader processes of social transformation. At Doorway, June facilitates the University District Community Advisory Board and contributes to the development of the UDYC Collectives Data Infrastructure.
Iris Xu (she/her)
UCBI Intern
Iris (she/her) is a third-year Neuroscience major at the University of Washington. She is grateful to be a part of the Doorway Project team as the Undergraduate Community-Based Intern for 2026.
Her volunteer experiences at the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance exposed her to the magnitude of the homelessness crisis in the U District, but also to a welcoming community offering a range of supportive services. Recognizing the impact these services could have on people’s lives, she joined the team at ShelterApp, which lists such services across the nation. By helping to expand the list of services on the app, she anticipates it will make an even greater difference in people’s lives in the coming years. Now, as the Doorway Project’s intern, she looks forward to working closely with a range of service providers to learn more about the resources being provided, the systems that limit their reach, and further opportunities to contribute to these causes.
Danilo Nunez Jaimez (He/Him)
Brotherhood Initiative Intern
Danilo (He/Him) is a 2nd year student at the University of Washington as a Pre Health and Sciences major and Doorway Project intern as part of the Brotherhood Initiative in Cohort 8. The Brotherhood Initiative is a group comprised of men of color that aim to strengthen the UW community by mentoring incoming freshmen. Danilo joined the Doorway Project as their alignment to helping the youth/young adults with homelessness aligns with his goal of fostering community, hoping to build upon the solidarity among men of color.