734.707.7550Joseph Barksdale LMSW,CAADC
Joseph earned his Bachelor of Social Work (1992) and Master of Social Work (1999) degrees from Wayne State University. Joseph’s experiences involve working with patients who are dual diagnosed with mental health and substance abuse problems in inpatient and outpatient treatment settings. Joseph has worked as a domestic violence facilitator and individual and family therapist for over the past 25 years. As part of substance abuse and domestic violence, Joseph has worked with many parolees and probationers to learn how to establish healthy relationships, increase sobriety and learn how to integrate back into families. Additional areas of expertise include relationship building, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
Specializes in working with: Adults
Areas of Practice: Abuse/Neglect, Adjustment Problems, Adult Child Of Alcoholics, Anger Problems, Anxiety, Behavior Problems, Divorce Issues, Depression, Domestic Violence, Family Dysfunction, Grief/Loss Issues, Lifestyle Changes, Parenting Issues, PTSD, Recovery/Relapse Issues, Relationship/Marital Problems, Self-esteem, Stress.
Debra (Debi) Cain
Ms. Cain is the former Director for the Division of Victim Services and Executive Director to the Michigan Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention and Treatment Board. She spent the first 15 years of her career as the founding executive director of H.A.V.E.N., Oakland County’s sexual assault and domestic violence program and spent four years as the director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Ms. Cain is a founding member of the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, served on the board of directors of the Sexual Assault Information Network, is a past chairperson of the TriCounty Coalition Against Domestic Violence and, for four years, represented the State of Michigan as a board member on the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In 1990, Ms. Cain served as a spokesperson for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Ms. Cain was appointed by the University of Michigan president to chair the Violence Against Women Task Force at the University of Michigan. In 1995, she was appointed by the Governor to the Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board. In addition, Ms. Cain has served as president of the Oakland County Non-Profit Executive Association and has been on numerous advisory boards, including Michigan’s interdisciplinary advisory groups for the development of a domestic violence policy for Children’s Protective Services, Welfare Reform and state standards for domestic violence programs.
Debra 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, and domestic violence and sexual assault program staff. Ms. Cain has reviewed manuscripts for groups such as Child Maltreatment and The Journal of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. She served on the National Sexual Violence Applied Research Advisory Group which advised the Sexual Violence Applied Research Forum.
Ms. Cain has received various awards for her work and dedication to the field. She was selected by United Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit as the 1987 Executive of the Year; the Oakland County Chamber of Commerce awarded her the 1990 Athena Award; and she was a recipient of the Crains Business News 40 under 40 Award for 40 exceptional community leaders under the age of 40 in 1992. In 1993, WAND (Women’s Action for New Directions) presented her with an award for outstanding leadership in her field. In 1997, she received the Trailblazers Award from the Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and, in 1998, was selected by the Women’s Survival Center as a Wonder Woman. In 1999, Ms. Cain was honored by the MDVPTB at Summit IV. H.A.V.E.N. presented her their Heart of H.A.V.E.N. Award in 2000. She was selected as the National Association of Social Workers – Michigan Chapter – Public Citizen of 2000; the Metro Detroit Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children presented her their 2000 Humanitarian Award; Ms. Cain received the 2002 Apple Blossom Award presented by the Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence; honored in 2008 at First Step’s 30th Anniversary Celebration in recognition of and appreciation for significant contributions toward a violence-free community; honored with a 2009 Outstanding Public Service Award from the MI Responsible Fatherhood Coalition; presented an “Angel” Award by the national Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community in 2009; and in 2012 was honored by the University of Michigan for her work with SAPAC. Ms. Cain has a Master of Science in administration and a Bachelor of Science in psychology and political science.
Bea Coté, LCSW, LMFT
Ms. Coté is a social worker and an advocate who has worked exclusively with abusers for over 20 years. She is the founder of IMPACT Family Violence Services LLC, which provides abuser programs (DV Intervention Programs) in 5 NC counties. Bea trains and consults regionally and nationally on all facets of domestic violence and enjoys focusing specifically on the abuser.
Ms. Coté founded a non-profit organization, Step Up to Family Safety, which provides access to DVIP services, supports programs like Legacy, and spreads a message of prevention of domestic violence throughout the Carolinas. She reminds the community that #OnlyAbusersCanStopAbuse.
Shamita Das Dasgupta, Ph.D.
Shamita is a co-founder of Manavi, an organization in the United States that focuses on violence against women in the South Asian community. She has taught at Rutgers University and NYU Law School. Shamita’s published books are: The Demon Slayers and Other Stories: Bengali Folktales (1995), A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America (1998), Body Evidence: Intimate Violence Against South Asian Women in America (2007), Mothers for Sale: Women in Kolkata’s Sex Trade (2009) and Globalization and Transnational Surrogacy in India: Outsourcing Life (2014).
In her retirement, Shamita is enjoying writing mystery stories in her mother tongue, Bengali.
Shelby Y. Frink
Ms. Frink is the Interim Executive Director at The Family Crisis Center of Baltimore County, a comprehensive domestic violence agency located in Dundalk, Maryland.
Ms. Frink has been working within the Abuse Intervention Program at Family Crisis Center and attending MAIC for several years. From starting as a program assistant within the New Behaviors program to moving into her current position as Program Services director, encompassing Advocacy and Counseling services, she has continued to learn, adapt, and soak up as much knowledge as possible about AIP and domestic violence services. Ms. Frink is passionate about the work she does and providing the best services to the clientele that she works with.
Ms. Frink grew up in Baltimore City. She earned her B.S in Criminal Justice from Georgian Court University in Lakewood, NJ. She received her M.S. in Criminal Justice and Trauma informed certification from the University of Baltimore. She is a former member of Court Appointed Advocated (CASA) and Big Brother Big Sister.
Ms. Frink is a current member of the Maryland Abuse Intervention Collaborative; she is the current chair of the DVRP/ Abuse Intervention Program Subcommittee for the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and co-chair of the community services committee for the Maryland Domestic Violence Fatality Review State Implementation Team.
Angelique Green-Manning
Ms. Green-Manning is the Associate Director for Intervention Services, where she has worked with House of Ruth Maryland since 2002 when she was hired as a Paralegal in the agency’s Legal Clinic. Her role and responsibilities with the agency has continued to grow and today she is the Associate Director of Intervention Services. Ms. Green-Manning is responsible for the oversight and development of programming in the Gateway Project, the agency’s programs to engage those who have been abusive toward their intimate partner. Under her leadership, program staff engage participants in a process to recognize the harm they have caused and learn the skills they need to engage safely with their families. The Gateway Project prides itself in providing this support in a trauma-informed environment, using tools that are accessible to a low-literacy population, and with an intersectional lens that recognizes the dual of experience many of the participants hold in being both people who have caused harm and who have been harmed by institutional oppressions and personal traumas.
Ms. Green-Manning served as the Co-Chair for the Maryland Abuse Intervention Collaborative (MAIC) for more than six years and currently sits on the Baltimore City Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team. She continues to embrace the experiences and challenges of abuse intervention work. Ms. Green-Manning believes in House of Ruth Maryland’s mission of ending intimate partner violence and appreciates that requires addressing the source of violence. She enjoys being part of the solution. She is married to her husband of 34 years and has 2 adult children. She enjoys singing and spending time with family and friends.
Dorthy Stucky Halley, LMSW
Dorthy is an international trainer, is co-founder of Halley Counseling Services, P.A., and co-director of the Family Peace Initiative Program, a trauma-focused battering intervention program. She is the past director of the Victim Services Division of the Kansas Office of the Attorney General (2007-2020). Her development of an evidence-informed motivation typology for those who batter has opened the door to a new understanding for judges, prosecutors, law enforcement, advocates, battering intervention providers, and others in the domestic violence field. She led the state efforts to develop standards and certify battering intervention programs throughout Kansas. She has served as an expert witness in domestic violence cases for the past 33 years.
Dorthy has served victims in various capacities since 1986. She was the Executive Director of Safehouse, Inc. for over a decade, and previously served as a Crime Victim Compensation Board member. She was the Practicum Director and Assistant Professor at Pittsburg State University in the Social Work Program from 1997 to 2007. She is the past president of the Kansas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (KNASW), the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence (KCSDV), and the Kansas Organization for Victim Assistance (KOVA). She also serves as a consultant for the Kansas Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board (KDVFRB).
Dorthy received the Outstanding Victim Advocate of the Year Award by KCSDV (1996). She was the first recipient of the Dorthy Halley Lifetime Service Award by the Office of Attorney General Derek Schmidt (2020). This award is reserved as a special recognition for a dedicated professional who creates significant positive impact in the lives of crime victims throughout their career. In that same year, she also received the Exemplary Service to Children and Families Award by the Governor’s Conference on Child Abuse. In 2022 she became the recipient of the Kansas Children’s Service League’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service to Children Award.
Along with her husband, Steve, she has authored curricula for working with those who batter, justice-involved women, and justice-involved youth. They have also authored The River of Cruelty, and Halley’s Alley: Commentaries on marriage, family, healthy relationships, parenting, loss, grief, trauma, and domestic violence. She has provided international and domestic presentations to more than 30,000 advocates, criminal justice professionals, and others. She serves as a delegate and presenter to the United Nations Commission for the Status of Women for the International Public Policy Institute (IPPI), and currently serves on the IPPI Board of Directors. In addition to her work, Dorthy loves water skiing, traveling, and spending time with family.
Darald Hanusa, Ph.D.
Darald is a Board-Certified Diplomate (BCD) in Clinical Social Work and is licensed in the State of Wisconsin as a Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). Dr. Hanusa is a Senior Preceptor and Senior Lecturer Emeritus at the School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison where he taught from 1978 through 2019. He is a 1997 recipient of the Luan Gilbert Award for outstanding contributions in domestic violence intervention and prevention awarded by the Dane County Commission on Sensitive Crimes, Domestic Violence Coordinated Community Response Task Force. He is a member of the Wisconsin Batterers Treatment Providers Association and the Dane County domestic violence task force, both of which he is a founding member and has chaired.
Clinically, Dr. Hanusa has specialized in domestic violence with both perpetrators and the survivors of violence since 1980. Since 1989 he has offered assessment and treatment services for abusive men through the ATAM Program (Alternatives and Treatment for Abusive Men) and counseling for survivors through the Midwest Domestic Violence Resource Center at the Midwest Center for Human Services. He currently offers services in English and Spanish.
Dr. Hanusa is a frequent speaker and has provided several hundred presentations, lectures, appearances, and workshops concerning a variety of topics. He provides consultation, expert witness services, domestic violence evaluations, specialized domestic violence/custody evaluations, training to private and public agencies and professionals working with domestic violence, workplace violence, corporate communication, and anger management-fitness for duty issues. He has conducted training workshops nationally and internationally, including work with the Department of Defense, Naval and Marine Corps Family Advocacy Programs.
Chris Huffine, Psy.D.
Mr. Huffine, a licensed psychologist, has worked with abusive men for over 30 years. He is the Executive Director of Allies in Change in Portland, Oregon. During his career he has worked with thousands of abusive men and hundreds of female and male victims of abuse. He is considered to be a national expert on working with abusive partners and has provided trainings around the country, including a semi-annual 27-hour training on the Allies in Change curriculum.
He recently published a book for abusive partners called “Becoming Allies . . . With Your Partner, Yourself, and Others: Addressing the Abuse and Control in Your Relationships”.
He is a member of the advisory group to the Oregon state attorney general to monitor standards for batterer intervention programs and of the Oregon Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team. Allies in Change is a 501c3 non-profit based in Portland, OR. It offers nearly thirty weekly groups for abusive partners, including specialized ones for voluntary attendees, women, and one multigender group for LGBTQ+ abusive partners. Of particular note, Allies in Change works with more voluntary abusive partners than any other agency in the country.
Lori Jump
Ms. Jump is a Citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and Tribal Appellate Court Judge for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribal Chippewa Court, and former Executive Director and current Board Member of Uniting Three Fires Against Violence, DV/SA tribal coalition in Michigan. She served on the Federal Task Force researching Violence Against American Indians and Alaska Native Women and has 26+ years of tribal advocacy experience in her community. Tribal programs developed from the ground up include: victim services and advocacy; tribal court and law enforcement programs; victims advocacy and a women’s shelter.
Land Acknowledgment: She is currently in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, land of the Ojibwe, the Anishinabeg, the original people. StrongHearts Native Helpline is headquartered in the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area on the ancestral lands of the Sioux Santee (Eastern Dakota) Wahpekute (Waȟpékhute) peoples.
About StrongHearts Native Helpline: Established in 2017, StrongHearts Native Helpline is a 24/7 confidential and anonymous culturally-appropriate domestic, dating and sexual violence helpline for Native Americans.
- StrongHearts Native Helpline Methods of Contact: Call or Text 1-844-762-8483 Chat online at strongheartshelpline.org
- Mission Statement: We exist to restore power to Native Americans impacted by domestic, dating and sexual violence by weaving together a braid of safety, sovereignty and support.
- Vision Statement: We envision a return to our traditional lifeways where our relatives are safe, violence is eradicated and sacredness is restored.
Who We Serve: Any American Indian or Alaska Native affected by domestic, dating and/or sexual violence.
Tony Lapp, LCSW
Mr. Lapp is executive director of Courdea, a 39-year-old intervention program for people who have abused an intimate partner. He is the recipient of the 2014 Powerful Partner Award from Women’s Way and the 2022 Advocacy Champion Award from Women Against Abuse.
Mr. Lapp is an experienced trainer, educator, writer, and therapist. He is a member of the National Battering Intervention Programs Network and collaborates with numerous projects in the Philadelphia area related to family violence, including Shared Safety, the IPV-Home Visiting Service Coordination Project, the Domestic Violence Law Enforcement Committee of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services Domestic Violence Collaborative.
Mr. Lapp is a frequent guest on radio and podcasts, recently including WHYY’s Radio Times, the Fathering Circle Podcast and the When Dating Hurts Podcast.
Alyce LaViolette
Ms. LaViolette began working at the WomenShelter in Long Beach, CA as a shelter advocate in 1978. In 1979 she founded Alternatives to Violence, one of the first programs in the country to work with men who abuse their intimate partner. In 1984, she took her programs into private practice and expanded her focus.
She currently continues to counsel while training teams and speaking to groups locally, nationally, and internationally. She has a trauma-focused practice with survivors and perpetrators of adult violence as well as childhood and adolescent abuse, couples in conflict, separated and divorced couples who need to learn to parent together, and individuals struggling with life transitions.
Ms. LaViolette speaks on a variety of topics to business and social groups, keynote conferences, and fundraising luncheons. Currently she is on the Speakers Bureau for the United States Department of State. She also consults with clients and attorneys, providing expert testimony as an expert witness in criminal, family law, civil and federal cases. She has been developing and providing training for groups such as the United States Department of State, probation departments, Departments of Children and Families, police departments, non-profit agencies, government bureaus, school districts, universities, and businesses.
She is the proud co-author of the best-selling book, Why Battered Women Stay: It Could Happen to Anyone.
Tim Logan
Tim Logan has nearly 30 years of experience managing, facilitating and counseling group sessions with youth and adults. His experience includes extensive work in the fields of mental health, counseling, treatment and training, public education, and social justice systems. Mr. Logan is the owner, agency administrator and lead facilitator at SoValTi, a batterer intervention counseling program serving African-American and Biracial men and women.
Mr. Logan is a longtime member of the Albina Head Start Board of Directors. His areas of expertise are in training and development, domestic violence batterer intervention, school advocacy for gang involved youth, dropout prevention and reentry, strategic planning, organizational management, cultural sustaining practices, trauma informed care, and equity.
Mr. Logan earned a degree in Psychology with minors in Communication and Education from Eastern Washington University.
Maia Lunde Cockerham, B.A.
Maia has been with the Community Violence Intervention Center in Grand Forks, ND since 2017. She worked as a family visitation specialist before transitioning to the domestic violence intervention program in 2019. Since then, Ms. Lunde Cockerham has been facilitating groups for women who have used violence as well as conducting the partner contacts for the men’s program. In 2022, she began hosting a monthly collaborative call for practitioners working with women who have used force in their intimate relationships.
Ms. Lunde Cockerham grew up back and forth between the Standing Rock and Coeur d’Alene reservations. She graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2017 with a B.A. in psychology and also majored in American Indian Studies. This is her 5th time attending the conference (including virtual options in 2020) and her first time being part of the faculty.
Penelope Morrison, Ph.D.
Dr. Morrison holds a Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology and a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to arriving at Penn State New Kensington, she served as a co-investigator and senior research associate at Magee-Women’s Research Institute where she developed interdisciplinary collaborations with investigators at RAND, Veterans Affairs Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion and the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Morrison has also served as a qualitative methodological expert on projects related to veteran’s health, PTSD, informed consent, maternal to child transmission of HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ youth and substance use, telemedicine, and patient-provider substance use communication.
Dr. Morrison’s own research interests are focused on addressing health disparities for underserved populations of women and children. Her most recent research utilizes traditional ethnographic methods to investigate what intervention practices work best for promoting long term behavioral change among men who perpetrate violence against women, and how to best stem the epidemic of intimate partner violence in the United States.
Publications: https://newkensington.psu.edu/person/penelope-morrison
Jeremy NeVilles-Sorrell
Mr. NeVilles-Sorell has worked in the field of domestic violence since 1994 on issues affecting children who have experienced domestic violence, supervised visitation, batterer’s intervention, and providing training and education. He worked a program coordinator at the Duluth Family Visitation Center serving families with a history of domestic violence also as the Children’s Program Coordinator at Women’s Transitional Housing Coalition in Duluth, Minnesota, providing activities and groups for children who have witnessed violence. He started working with Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical Assistance Project in 1998, a national program to assist American Indian Tribes and Alaskan Native Villages to develop responses to violence against Indian women.
With MSH he held various titles from team leader, program coordinator, co-director, and Training and Resources Director. In 2015 Mr. NeVilles-Sorell began working with Wica Agli and in March of 2019 assumed the position of Director of the National Native Coalition of Men’s Programs.
Hon. Elizabeth (“Libby”) Pollard Hines (ret.)
Judge Hines served as 15th District Court Judge in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from her election in November of 1992 until she chose to retire in November of 2020. She handled a primarily criminal docket, including a nationally-recognized specialized domestic violence docket. Judge Hines helped create and launch “Street Outreach Court,” a community project of the Washtenaw County criminal justice system and advocates for people experiencing homelessness, helping people help themselves to get off the street and on their feet.
Judge Hines received her BA, with honor, from the University of Michigan in 1974, and her JD from the University of Michigan Law School in 1977. While on the bench, she helped train judges in Michigan and across the country on domestic violence. She served on numerous local, state, and national committees and task forces, including the Board of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC).
Judge Hines remains active with the American Judges Association and the Michigan Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention and Treatment Board, a 7-member, Governor-appointed body with duties including recommending to the Governor and Michigan legislature policy and legislation concerning DV and sexual assault. The Governor appointed her Chair of the Board in 2023. A past member of the AJA Executive Committee, Judge Hines currently serves on the AJA Board of Governors and as Chair of the AJA Domestic Violence Committee. She also serves on the Michigan State Planning Body addressing legal services in Michigan.
She has received numerous awards, including the first annual “Judicial Excellence Award” from her peers in the Michigan District Judges Association. In 2012, the AJA created and awarded to Judge Hines the “Judge Libby Hines Domestic Violence Award” that honors each year a judge in the US or Canada who has taken innovative steps to reduce domestic violence. In November of 2018, the Hon. John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, presented Judge Hines with NCSC’s “William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence” at a ceremony at the US Supreme Court.
Mica Reagan, BSW
Ms. Reagan’s first opportunity to serve NM youth and families came as the program assistant for NMKids Matter Inc. There she learned from the steadfast leadership just what kind of woman leader in community she wanted to be. Her next opportunity to serve came when she went on to serve Valencia County as the Multidisciplinary Team Coordinator for crimes against children with Valencia Shelter Services Children’s Advocacy Center. There she was also privileged to serve as a victim service advocate for survivors of domestic violence as well as sexual assault. She was offered a position with All Faiths Children’s Advocacy Center to facilitate and supervise High Fidelity Wraparound and working with a core service agency that takes a holistic approach to serving the most vulnerable populations in community was important to her.
While in that role, she was consistently reminded of the intersectionality of intimate partner violence and crimes against children. Mica sought to serve survivors within the state via macro level systems change and accepted the position of Coordinated Community Response Statewide Specialist with the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In this role she provides coaching and technical assistance to Coordinated Community Response efforts happening in counties throughout the state. She is the proud parent of an incredible, intelligent, beautiful college student and a quirky covid puppy. She is also a proud veteran of the US Army.
Melissa Petrangelo Scaia, MPA
Ms. Petrangelo Scaia is the Director of International Training for Global Rights for Women (GRW). At GRW, Melissa also co-facilitates a men’s domestic violence offender group each week in our local program Pathways to Family Peace. She has been co-facilitating in offender programming for over 22 years. In her position at GRW she brings a wealth of experience as the former executive director of Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs (DAIP), also known as “the Duluth Model.” Prior to working in Duluth she was the executive director of Advocates for Family Peace (AFFP) for 17 years, a local domestic violence advocacy program where she advocated for victims of domestic violence. She has also led and organized two Coordinated Community Responses (CCR) to address domestic violence in Minnesota.
Ms. Petrangelo Scaia has been a consulting trainer for a number of national training organizations on domestic violence and child abuse, including the Center for Court Innovation (CCI), the Battered Women’s Justice Project (BWJP) and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). As a qualified expert in the she testifies as an expert witness on domestic violence in criminal court cases in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
She wrote her Master’s thesis on the effects of domestic violence on children and wrote her doctoral dissertation proposal to address supervised visitation, children and domestic violence. She has contributed to numerous publications related to domestic violence offender programing, supervised visitation, women’s use of violence and domestic violence. She co-wrote a curriculum and DVD for working with men who batter as fathers entitled, Addressing Fatherhood with Men Who Batter. She also co-authored a curriculum and DVD with Ellen Pence, PhD and Laura Connelly for working with women who have used violence in intimate relationships entitled, Turning Points: A Nonviolence Curriculum for Women. Most recently, she authored Safe Consultations with Survivors of Violence Against Women and Girls, a guide with UN Women on how to conduct focus groups and interviews with survivors. She has been selected for numerous roundtable advisory discussion groups for the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) through the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence.
She was named to a National Consulting Group on Batterers Intervention Programs and as a National Advisory Committee Member for Law & Order: SVU actress Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation for survivor-based healing. She has also conducted research on topics related to domestic violence: 1) women’s use of violence and 2) using videoconference software to conduct men’s batter intervention programming (BIP). Recently at GRW, she has participated in a number of United Nations Expert Meetings related to domestic violence and worked with numerous UN Women regional offices and local women’s organizations globally. This past year she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in Public Service from Hamline University. Outside of her work she is a mother of two, a Minnesota State High School League volleyball referee, and has a passion for photography.
Melissa Silver
Melissa Silver is the Coordinated Community Response Team Leader at the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NMCADV). She collaborates with law enforcement, court personnel, and other systems to increase capacity and improve outcomes for survivors of intimate partner violence within the justice system.
As a leader in her community and an expert on intimate partner violence and sexual assault, Melissa serves as a key provider of training on partner abuse and sexual violence, a board member for the Battering Intervention Services Coalition of Michigan, and a former co-chair and founder of several interdisciplinary community response teams.
Before her work at the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Melissa spent seven years at a local domestic violence and sexual assault organization as the Director of Social Action, first response court advocate, and crisis and support line specialist, and three years as a sexual assault peer advocate at Central Michigan University providing survivor-centered Title IX advocacy and training around intimate partner violence and bystander intervention. Melissa is a Master of Social Work candidate from Wayne State University. She is a passionate advocate who has dedicated her life to eradicating intimate partner violence and engaging the community to keep survivors safe and hold offenders accountable.
Oliver Williams, Ph.D.
Dr. Williams is a Professor of School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota, in St. Paul, MN. From June 1994 to September 2017 he was the Executive Director of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community (IDVAAC). He has also served as the Director of the Safe Return Initiative that addresses the issues of prisoner reentry and domestic violence from 2003-2016 and the Director of the African American Domestic Peace Project (AADPP) that works with community leaders in 10 cities across the United States to address domestic violence from 2010 to 2021.
He has worked in the field of domestic violence for more than forty years. Dr. Williams is a clinical practitioner; working in mental health, family therapy, substance abuse, child welfare, delinquency, and sexual assault programs. He has worked in battered women’s shelters, developed curricula for batterers’ 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 has been appointed to several national advisory committees and task forces from the Center for Disease Control, U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Office on Women’s Health, and the U.S. Department of Education. He has been a board member of various domestic violence and human service organization, including the early days of the National Domestic Violence Hotline 1999-2000 and the National Family Justice Center Alliance Advisory Board, 2006 to 2016. In 2000, he was appointed to the National Advisory Council on Domestic Violence by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and U.S. Attorney General. In 2010 he hosted a roundtable on youth and violence for the U.S. Attorney General and participated in a roundtable with the U.S. Attorney General on issues related to fatherhood and participated in a Whitehouse Roundtable on Fatherhood and Domestic Violence. He has conducted training for the U.S. Military Family Advocacy programs in the U.S. and abroad. He has presented on numerous Family Violence, Research, and Practice organizations in the United States, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Canada, Virgin Islands, United Kingdom, and Germany. In 2015 Dr. Williams was invited to speak at the United Nations about domestic violence among Africans in the United States and in Africa. His research and publications in scholarly journals, books, reports and videos have centered on creating service delivery strategies to reduce violent behavior and support victims of abuse. He has consulted with the NFL, MLB, and NBA on issues related to domestic violence.
Dr. Williams has received many awards, among them include an award from the American Psychological Association; an International “Telly Award” for his documentary work; the National “Shelia Wellstone Institute Award” The Alliance for Hope from the International Family Justice Center related to his National work on Domestic Violence; and a Distinguish Alumni Award from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Social Work. Dr. Williams received a bachelor’s degree in social work from Michigan State University; a Masters in Social Work from Western Michigan University; a Masters in Public Health and a Ph.D. in Social Work both from the University of Pittsburgh.
Pam Wiseman
Pam Wiseman has served as Executive Director of the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NMCADV) since 2009, where she oversees a statewide response to domestic violence. In that role, Ms. Wiseman initiated a legislatively created task force, with national participation and impact, designed to study the effectiveness of battering intervention programs in the U.S. and she participated in the creation of and currently oversees a national network of battering intervention programs. She also chaired committees in both New Mexico and Illinois, charged with developing state standards for battering intervention programs.
She conceptualized and secured funding for an innovative Coordinated Community Response (CCR) designed to improve the criminal justice system response to DV in New Mexico and led successful efforts to increase state DV funding by approximately $5 million in 2022. She developed and secured significant, ongoing, funding for statewide projects designed to provide services to children and protect companion animals from domestic violence and is the 2015 recipient of the Animal Protection of New Mexico’s prestigious Milagro award for her significant contribution to the welfare on animals in that state.
Wiseman oversees strategic communication for the NMCADV, delivering a variety of communication/ messaging strategies and training across New Mexico. She created and developed significant, well recognized, and first of their kind, national conferences (Message Matters) on how to effectively message about violence and abuse. From 1989-2009, she served as the Executive Director of Safe Passage, an Illinois domestic violence and sexual assault agency. While there, she created one of the first battering intervention programs (BIP) in Illinois and facilitated BIP groups for over a decade. Wiseman also continuously advocated for the inclusion of battering intervention programs into the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV).
Wiseman led efforts, both locally and statewide, to improve the court response to DV. She created, developed, and delivered innovative and successful Court Watch projects throughout Illinois. She developed the concept and is the principal author of an ICADV paper entitled Achieving Accountability in Domestic Violence Cases: A Practical Guide for Reducing Domestic Violence (2005). Wiseman authored a best-selling book on men who batter, Ditch That Jerk (2000) and she and her work have been featured in local and national publications such as BBW, Glamour and Cosmopolitan. She has appeared on local, regional, and national radio and television and was a commentator for All Things Considered, Northern Illinois Public Radio.
Wiseman holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Michigan and a masters in communication from Northern Illinois University.
Lisa Young Larance, PhD, MSW, LCSW, LMSW
Dr. Young Larance is a distinguished practitioner-researcher with wide-ranging clinical, community, and prison-based practice experience. Her direct service work includes providing individual trauma-informed therapy and co-facilitating intervention groups. Her macro-social work practice is rooted in meeting organizational and community needs while serving violence-involved families. She is known globally for being an anti-violence intervention pioneer who created foundational and innovative community-based programming for diverse women with domestic and sexual violence survivorship histories brought to systems attention for their use of non-fatal force [See the Vista Program and curriculum (JBWS, Morris County, New Jersey, USA) and the RENEW Program (Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.)].
Dr. Young Larance also co-developed and implemented Meridians for Incarcerated Women serving women housed in Michigan Department of Corrections facilities. Dr. Young Larance’s extensive consulting work includes the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence (U.S.A.), Harmony House’s Nurturing Hearts Violence Prevention Program (Hong Kong, China), the +SHIFT Program (Victoria, Australia), and the United States Air Force’s Family Advocacy Program (Global). Her leading-edge scholarship focuses primarily on understanding systems involving women’s legal, child protection, and antiviolence intervention experiences. Dr. Young Larance investigates how women’s institutional contact can both replicate intimate harm and facilitate positive change. Her insightful work emphasizes the strategies women employ to navigate surveilling systems and their agency in healing from trauma while creating community. She is widely published, most notably in Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work, BMJ Open, International Social Work, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Psychology of Violence, and Violence Against Women. Her forthcoming book, Broken: Women’s stories of intimate and institutional harm and repair, will be published August 2024 by the University of California Press. Dr. Young Larance is an assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.