Cecilia "Cessie" Alfonso, MSW, ACSW, LCSW, Afro Boricua and Cuban feminist, member of Combahee River Collective and a nationally recognized expert in forensic social work, domestic violence. She is founder and president of Alfonso Consultants, Inc. For the past 20 years, Alfonso Consultants, Inc. has provided social work and psychosocial assessments to the clients of civil and criminal attorneys throughout the 

United States, as well as internationally. As a mitigation specialist, she and her associates have conducted over 1000 mitigation investigations since she began providing services. She has also been qualified as an expert social worker in NY, PA, GA, FL, and NJ amongst several more states. In her attempt to obtain information on several Cubans facing the death penalty in Florida, she found herself in Cuba on September 11, 2001. Ms. Alfonso has received the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association's (NLADA) Life in the Balance Achievement Award for her pioneering work as a forensic social worker/mitigation specialist. In 2007, Cessie was also recognized by New Jersey Governor Corzine, for her contribution for the abolishment of the death penalty. 

For 20 years, Cessie was a faculty member at the NYS Defenders Basic Trial Training Program. She contributed significantly to the development of a client-centered curriculum. Because of her pioneering work, Cessie has been asked for her historical papers by the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.