Pernell Brown is the Co-Founder of Brown & Brown Consultants and CREW (Children Respecting Each other Worldwide), a community engagement mentor program that teaches alternatives to substance abuse, criminal thinking, gang involvement and intimate partner violence.  Mr. Brown was a youth gang specialist where he mentored children, encouraging them to make alternative productive lifestyle choices.  He was also a school advocate where he promoted the development of an education planning program targeting students who were about to be expelled from school. The program aimed to help those youth remain in school. Mr. Brown was also a re-entry and gang specialist for Turning Point’s Going Home Program in collaboration with the Oregon Department of Corrections and Emmanuel Community Services.  In these roles, Pernell provided re-entry assistance to the inmate population, a continuum of care at post-prison supervision to offenders and their families, and mentorship in the African American community to ex-offenders and post-prison supervision status. Mr. Brown has been a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor since July 2005.

Debra (Debi) Cain is the Executive Director of the Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board (MDVPTB). Ms. Cain spent the first 15 years of her career as the founding executive director of H.A.V.E.N., Oakland County, Michigan’s sexual assault and domestic violence program.  After leaving H.A.V.E.N., she served as the director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.   Ms. Cain also set up and served as the director for the Violence Against Women Training Institute, under the Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board.  Ms. Cain has a Master of Science in administration and a Bachelor of Science in psychology and political science.

Ms. Cain is a founding member of the Michigan Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She was appointed by the University of Michigan president to chair the university’s  Violence Against Women Task Force In 1995, she was appointed by the Governor to the Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board. Ms. Cain has served as a consultant, author, and/or editor for a number of articles, manuals, and publications related to violence against women and children.  She has been involved in developing training curriculum for judges, police, Children’s Protective Services staff, Friend of the Court, prosecutors, welfare workers, domestic violence and sexual assault program staff. Ms. Cain has received various awards for her work and dedication to the field.

Jeffrey Dunmore is a domestic violence prevention and education specialist and former dvocate at the Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. He is a Pittsburgh native and father and mentor of two up and coming African American leaders - his sons.

Jeff is co-founder of Black Men Rising, a homeless initiative in Pittsburgh that addresses homelessness caused by substance abuse, repetitive incarceration and mental health issues. Black Men Rising focuses on changing personal values and belief systems and developing nonviolent decision-making skills and other relevant life management skills.

Based on his work with Black Men Rising, Jeff is currently collaborating with PCTV21 to develop a live call-in talk show that aims to address productive responses to current social issues.

Warren Edwards is currently a Community Activist in the Twin Cities area.  After surviving a lifestyle of selling drugs, abusing women both physically and mentally, and having served time in prison, an elderly gentleman told him that he deserved a better lifestyle that what he was giving himself.  Warren decided that night to turn his life around.  He also wanted to share this lifestyle change with other men who were on the same destructive path.  He began this by becoming a volunteer at the Community Action Center and spoke with men about fatherhood and stepping up to the plate and developing good relationships with their children regardless of the relationship they may have with their mothers.

Warren has worked for African American Family Services where he counseled men in domestic violence; a project organizer at Family and Children Services for “100 Men Take A Stand” and recently founded “Feeding the Least to Increase the Peace”, an organization that relies on financial contributions from businesses, churches, etc., to provide financial assistance to the elderly during winter months to help cover their expenses; and assisting young students with scholarships to go to school who otherwise couldn’t afford it).  Contributions can be made thru Warren or LaTisha Edwards @ 651-216-2626.

Steve Eckstrom has worked for the Washington Department of Corrections as the Victim Services Program Manager since October 2004, and as the Community Victim Liaison Manager from November 2001 to September 2004.  Prior to that, he was Advocacy Services Program Manager with the Washington State Office of Crime Victims Advocacy in Olympia beginning in October 1990, and the Director of the Victim/Witness Assistance Unit of the Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office in Everett beginning in 1981.  He has been active for many years in statewide efforts to strengthen rights and improve services for crime victims, serving as a founding board member and the first chairperson of the Washington Coalition of Crime Victim Advocates.  Before moving to Washington in 1979, Mr. Eckstrom worked for several years as a counselor and program manager in a residential treatment program for juvenile offenders.  He received his Master of Social Work degree from the University of Washington in 1981.

Mr. Garvin is the founder of the Alternatives to Domestic Aggression Program, a co-founder and chair of the Batterer Intervention Services Coalition of Michigan. Mr. Garvin was selected to serve as the co-chair of the Michigan Governor's Taskforce on creating standards for batterer intervention programs. Mr. Garvin has conducted trainings, consultations, conferences, workshops, in-services around the country and has been featured on local, state and national television, in magazines, professional journals and newspapers.

Mr. Garvin was named the 2009 National Association of Social Workers-Michigan (NASW-MI) Social Worker of the Year. He earned the prestigious honor for his work in the areas of domestic violence, mental health and adoption.

Dean and Professor, Jane Adams College of Social Work, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois

Creasie Finney Hairston, Ph.D. is the Dean and a professor of social work at Jane Adams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received a B.S. at Bluefield State College and an M.S.S.A. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. Her professional interests include examining social work practice, families, and the criminal justice system.

Creasie's current research and many of her publications focus on the impact of incarceration and reentry on families and children, and the impact of child welfare policies on children of color. Creasie is affiliated with several boards and associations including the African American Family Research Institute Board of Directors, Volunteers of America Board of Directors and the Chicago Board of Health.

Shelia Hankins is the Project Director for the Family Independence Agency, Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board. Before assuming her current position, Ms. Hankins served as the Vice President of Programs for the HAVEN Center in Pontiac, Michigan. She also provides training and consulting services nationally and has served as the Administrator of the Violence Against Women Grants Office for the Florida Governor’s Task Force on Domestic and Sexual Violence. Additionally, Ms. Hankins was previously Executive Director of the Detroit Women’s Justice Center and the northwest and downtown branches of the YWCA of Metropolitan Detroit. For more than 2 decades, Ms. Hankins has focused her professional career and her community service activities on issues related to redressing the economic, political, and social status of traditionally disenfranchised and marginalized communities. Ms. Hankins has a Bachelor of Science in Education from Wayne State University and is an MBA candidate.

Joleen Jones is the Anger Management & Violence Prevention Counselor for the Women’s Domestic Violence Program at African American Family Services.  She has fifteen years of experience in the areas of chemical dependency and relapse prevention, community practice, and social service.   She also has experience in working with the criminal justice system on domestic violence issues and is very knowledgeable in dealing with women in relationships with men who have been in prison or on parole.
 
 
 
 
 

Paul Mulloy is the Director of Programs/Grant Coordinator for the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.  In 1991, Paul Mulloy began his career with the Davidson County Sheriffs Office at the DUI center off Murfreesboro Road as an assessment counselor.  He was promoted to drug treatment counselor and helped began a drug treatment program at the work house where the Jerry Newsome Center is currently.  After two year, he was transferred to the Hill Detention Center where he conducted assessments for New Avenues/Straight Time until 1997 when transferred to the Correctional Work Center.  In 1998, he was promoted to Director of Treatment Services.  In 2002, Paul was promoted to Program Director for the CWC and in 2004 name Administrator/Warden of the Correctional Development Center.  In 2006, he was named site Program Director for the Sheriff’s Correctional Complex as well as Grant Coordinator.  In 2007, Paul was promoted to Director of Programs for the DCSO and operations the Programs Division which encompasses Reentry Services, Day Reporting, State licensed Substance Abuse Treatment, Court Referrals, Pretrial Release and the DUI Safety School.

In addition to Mr. Mulloy’s experience in the programs arena for the DCSO he is a nationally recognized trainer on domestic violence and substance abuse in corrections.  He consults for the Urban Institute National panel on Transition from Jail to Community, VERA institute of Justice in New York, Department of Justice of Justice Programs D.C., and Office of Violence Against Women in D.C.  Paul has served twice on the review panel in Washington D.C. in the development of requirements for state and federal guidelines for the establishment of Batterers Intervention Standards.  He also testified for the State of Tennessee during the establishment of our State BIP standards.  He has been involved in the national Safe Return Initiative for five years on prisoner re-entry.  Paul has been a speaker on several occasions for the AJA and ACA on what works in corrections.  He has had multiple articles published in the AJA magazine on programming and successful components for re-entry as well as other journals.  In the past two years, Paul has severed as a consultant on the Transition from Jail to Community Project collaboration between NIC and Urban League in Washington D.C.

In his career, Paul has written and successfully obtained many of the grants for the following DCSO programs:  New Avenues, SAVE, Day Reporting Center, Correctional Development Center-Female’s Treatment center, trauma, special client programs, parenting, education and the governor highway safety program for Sober Ride/SAFFE, Cosmetology, Educational Programming, and reentry specialist positions to mention a few.

Paul holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Management, Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice, and is a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor.  He has completed his MMI course in June 2006 and is in the process of applying for his CJM.  Paul is a member of the American Jail Association, American Correctional Association, Alcohol and Drug Council, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Tennessee Coalition Against Domestic Violence and National Fatherhood Associate.

Professor Oliver holds a Ph.D. in criminal justice. Among his primary research interests has been the issue of black-on-black violence. In research of the topic, he has focused on the causes, interpersonal processes, and means of prevention. His dissertation research involved an interview-based study of black men engaged in violent incidents in barroom settings. From this work he wrote The Violent World of Black Men (Lexington Books, 1994).

Recently, he has begun work on a project examining how black women cope with the loss of a child to homicide. Professor Oliver teaches courses on violent behavior, criminal violence in the black community, and theories of crime and deviance.

Benita Presley is a domestic violence survivor and victim advocate who has been actively involved in the development of rehabilitative programs for victims of domestic and sexual violence, and for substance abusers.  She is currently with Break The Cycle in Portland, OR.  She was formerly a Domestic Violence Specialist at Project Network in Portland, OR where she was responsible for planning, organizing, and facilitating culturally-specific domestic violence groups for men and women who abuse as well as for abuse victims.  Benita also volunteers as an advisory Committee member at the Oregon Crime Victims Needs Assessment, and participates in the Ugaza Jamii (Planning Committee).

Benita was also a member of AmeriCorps through which she worked as a domestic violence advocate and volunteer coordinator at Project Network; and a Tenant Services Coordinator at the Tualatin Valley Housing Partners in Aloha, OR.
 
 

Dennis Schrantz is the Deputy Director in charge of the Michigan Department of Corrections’ Planning and Community Development Administration. He is responsible for strategic planning, works on implementing the department’s five-year plan to control prison growth and manages the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative (MPRI).  This administration is also responsible for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the Michigan Community Corrections Act and for the department’s Office of Research and Planning. Schrantz has also served as Chief Deputy Director of the MDOC’s Field Operations Administration, which oversees probation, parole and boot camp operations.

Schrantz’s areas of specialty are jail and prison overcrowding, cross-system integration between substance abuse and criminal justice systems, and the reduction of racial disparity. His experience in community corrections dates back to 1981. He served as the administrator of a community service program in Hickory, NC, the administrator of the North Carolina Community Penalties Program, the first director of the Michigan Office of Community Corrections and as the director of adult services for Wayne County’s Department of Community Justice. Schrantz has been a consultant to several national organizations and federal agencies and has published and taught extensively.

John Staloch is a Corrections Unit Supervisor for the Traditional Supervised Release Unit of Hennepin County Department of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation.  Hennepin County is comprised of Minneapolis and suburbs. He supervises 19 parole officers who supervise caseloads of adults released from state prisons.  He has worked in corrections for more than 30 years in institutions and in the field. His experience encompasses juvenile and adult corrections, probation and parole, felony and misdemeanor offenses, investigation and supervision, and line staff and administration.  From 2000 to 2007 Mr. Staloch supervised a unit of probation officers who supervised caseloads of people who had been convicted of domestic violence crimes.  Prior to that, he supervised Alternative Programs, which included the unit that interacted with victims of crime and the restoration of the community and the victim.  Over the last decade Mr. Staloch has worked on validating the risk instruments that we use.  He has trained staff, victim advocates, police, attorneys, and judges to the dynamics of domestic violence and the interaction with the criminal justice system.  He has presented and served on panels at regional and national conferences.  He is currently a member of the Fourth Judicial District Family Violence Coordinating Council and the Criminal Sub-Committee.  He is just beginning a grant-supported pilot to reduce the caseloads of three agents and cooperate with more thorough case planning in the institutions to attempt to better the chances of offender success upon reentry.  Mr. Staloch is eager to work with IDVAAC to bring a better understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence to the prison and parole system.

Stanley Stewart’s background is in human services delivery and administration. Most recently, he was president of Stewart Information Services, his own consultancy, serving nonprofit community based organizations with expertise in grantsmanship, regulatory affairs, budgeting, staffing, volunteerism, and community relations. In this role, Stan provided technical assistance in development of the national AmeriCorps project through the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), and consulted on the Hope VI project in the City of Detroit.

As Michigan program director for the Corporation for National and Community Service for 23 years, Stan was responsible for activities that led to millions of dollars in new funding for the Older Americans Program. He also directed more than 100 VISTA projects and worked with local foundations to obtain matching funds for Detroit-based AmeriCorps projects.

Stan was a federal executive on loan to the Michigan Department of Social Services (now the Department of Human Services) with special emphasis on improving multicultural relationships in Detroit and Wayne County. While in this position, Stan provided direction to the Office of Communications, developed a teen pregnancy prevention program, worked in an advisory capacity on certain juvenile justice, foster care and adoption issues, and served as departmental liaison with multicultural communities.

Earlier in his career, Stan served for three years as deputy director of the Portage County (Ohio) Community Action Agency, where he managed day-to-day operations and was responsible for human resources, budget, grants and neighborhood centers.

Stan holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana, and resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan with his wife Dorothy.

Diane Wade began here career working with female offenders in residential alcohol and drug treatment in a community-based program, where she became a certified alcohol and drug counselor.  She created interactive, skills-based groups and learning activities to prepare clients to transition out of treatment. The corrections and treatment staff also appreciated her curriculum development for both batterers and victims of domestic violence, which included a training program for providers.  In July 1999, Diane accepted a transfer to a Probation and Parole position.  She worked for the African American program and developed a culturally specific, African American women’s caseload.  In this capacity, she teaches her female offenders Effective Black Parenting classes, domestic violence, and gender/culturally specific health issues.  Other topics include healthy relationships, addiction recovery, anger management, criminality reduction, mental health resource and referral, and alternatives to prostitution.  Ms. Wade’s experience also includes being a board member for Portland Women’s Crisis Line, a trainer for Ellett & Associates (Dying to Recover: Domestic Violence and Addiction), and a private contractor with various community agencies for which she conducts training about domestic violence with the African American community.  She also works with dual diagnosis, male offenders at a community-based residential program, as time permits.

Oliver J. Williams, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community, and a Professor in the School of Social Work, College of Education and Human Development, at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Williams is a practitioner as well as an academician.  As a practitioner, he has worked in the field of domestic violence for more than twenty-five years and has provided individual, couples, and family counseling.  He has been a child-welfare and delinquency worker, worked in battered women’s shelters, developed curricula for batterer’s intervention programs and facilitated counseling groups in these programs. He has provided training across the United States and abroad on research and service-delivery surrounding partner abuse.

Dr. Williams’ extensive research and publications in scholarly journals and books have centered on creating effective service delivery strategies to reduce violent behavior, as well as ethnically sensitive practice. He serves on several national advisory boards and received numerous awards for his work addressing issues of domestic violence. Dr. Williams received a bachelor’s degree in social work from Michigan State University; a Master of Social Work from Western Michigan University; and Master of Public Health and a Ph.D. in Social Work both the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Williams has received numerous honors and awards, including the Josie R. Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice Award from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (2004), an appointment to the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women by the US Attorney General Department of Justice and US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC (2004), and the “Dare to Dream Award” by the sponsors of the International Conference on Children and Family Violence, London Ontario Canada (2001).

Click here for a selected list of Dr. Williams and recent honors