Céspedes received his Master of Social Work from Columbia University specializing in family systems theory – which emphasizes that individual behavior is inextricably linked to the history, contexts, structure, and function of the family. After completing his studies at Columbia University, he trained at the Center for Family Learning in New Rochelle New York, the Nathan Ackerman Institute for Family Studies in New York City, and the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto California. Following postgraduate training, he spent two decades working in marginalized communities serving families with mental disorders, substance abuse, intra-familial violence, and chronic illness. In 2000 he turned his professional attention to families and communities in Los Angeles impacted by violence, the crack epidemic, and the negative side effects of the war on gangs.

In 2009 Céspedes was named Deputy Mayor/Director of the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development. He implemented a successful city-wide comprehensive strategy by building collaboration across government sectors, community advocates, practitioners, law enforcement, researchers, and policymakers. He also brokered a first-of-its-kind agreement between the City of Los Angeles and the United States for International Development (USAID), which exported globally lessons learned in Los Angeles and established a transnational community of practice.

Since 2014, Céspedes has played the role of advisor in violence prevention strategic planning in several parts of the world. While based in Honduras as Deputy Chief of Party he provided on-the-ground technical assistance to (USAID)-funded violence prevention programs in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, St Lucia, Guyana, St. Kitts, and Nevis. He guided United States State Department-funded efforts to adapt gang prevention strategies to the prevention of extremist group-joining in Tunisia, North Africa.

Céspedes returned to the US in 2019 to start the first Department of Violence Prevention in the United States as Oakland’s first Chief of Violence Prevention. Currently, he is conducting an analysis of his extensive violence prevention work while serving as an advisor to the development of municipal community safety strategies. Throughout his professional career, Céspedes has been led by the lessons of family, his schooling, his music, and his experience with the community, to implement systems change that would reduce violence nationally, internationally, at a city and rural level. Click to explore his accomplishments in Southern California, Northern California, or Central America.