Conference Faculty

Juan Carlos Areán
Juan Carlos is an internationally recognized activist, public speaker, trainer and facilitator, and published author. Since 1991, he has worked to engage men across different cultures to become better fathers, intimate partners and allies to end domestic violence and
achieve gender equity. He is presently the Director of the Faith and Community Based Youth Violence Prevention Initiative at Futures Without Violence. Previously, he served as Director of the National Latin@ Network at Casa de Esperanza and as a Sexual Assault
Prevention Specialist at Harvard University.

Juan Carlos was the lead developer of Futures Without Violence’s Fathering After Violence Initiative and Casa de Esperanza’s Campaign Te Invito. He is co-author of various articles, curricula and educational tools for men, including Working With Fathers in Batterer Intervention Programs (Oxford University Press) and Fathering After Violence: Enhancing safety for women and children post separation (FWV). He is a founding member of the United Nations Network of Men Leaders to combat violence against women created by former Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Mr. Areán has served as an expert in many media outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, NPR, the Huffington Post, CNN en Español, Univision and Telemundo. He is an active trainer and facilitator, who has led hundreds of workshops and presentations throughout the United States, the Americas and the Caribbean, as well as in Europe, Asia, the US Congress and the United Nations in New York and Geneva. A person of many interests, he has a Masters degree in music composition and is an ordained interfaith interspiritual minister.

Jeffrie K. Cape LMSW ACSW CAADC
Jeffrie is the director of Charron Services LLC and started HEAL (Helping Explore Accountable Lifestyles) a 52 session Batterer intervention program and WEAVE (Women Exploring Accountably Violent Encounters) in Oakland County, Michigan.

Jeffrie has over 25 years of clinical experience and also has a private practice with varied clientele. She was appointed to the Michigan Domestic Violence and Prevention and Treatment Board by Governor Snyder in 2011 She helped develop local standards for batterer intervention programs and was a member of the governor’s task force to develop state standards. She was active in the development and formation of BISC-MI in 1995. She serves on the board and was chair in 2001-2002. She was chair the Batterer Intervention Provider Standards Compliance Council (BIPSCC). She was one of the originators of AQUILA.

Jeffrie also is employed part time at ADA (Alternatives to Domestic Aggression) in Washtenaw County, where she facilitates groups, trains, supervises staff, develops and refines curriculum for community and prison based programs. She participates in a variety of state and local task forces as well as providing local and national training and supervision for agencies and individuals who work with individuals involved in domestic violence.

Mary Case
Mary is a nationally Clinically Certified Domestic Violence Counselor, Consultant, Master Facilitator for Batterer’s Intervention, and the former Program Coordinator for the L.A. LGBT Center’s STOP Partner Abuse/Violence Program, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive LGBTQ specific domestic violence program that was selected as one of the ten most innovative DV programs in the country by the national organization Futures Without Violence. She has worked in the field of domestic violence for nineteen years and has focused her work in the area of LGBTQ domestic violence for more than a decade. She is an LGBTQ domestic violence consultant and conducted hundreds of workshops, trainings and presentations both nationally and locally for thousands of participants. She developed a LGBT specific training curriculum in collaboration with the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence and provided technical assistance and trainings for 42 domestic violence shelters in California. Most recently Mary developed an LGBTQ Specific Domestic Violence Program for the LGBTQ Center of Long Beach and is a consultant for their domestic violence program.

Christopher Hall

Christopher Hall, MSW, has worked with perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence for nineteen years, and during that time has been a facilitator and trainer for Emerge, coordinated batterer intervention programs statewide for the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and has rebuilt a failing BIP/DVIP from scratch at The Retreat in Suffolk County, New York. He administers the Domestic Violence Intervention and Education discussion group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/DVEducationIntervention), as well as the Facebook page for Stony Brook University’s Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities.

Christopher takes an intersectional approach to working with domestic violence offenders, victims, and survivors and utilizes Motivational Interviewing and Appreciative Inquiry to facilitate movement toward respect, health, repairs, and amends in relationships.

Dorthy Stucky Halley
Dorthy has been Director of the Victim Services Division of the Office of Attorney General since this division’s inception in 2007. Her development of a motivation typology for those who batter has opened the door to a new understanding for judges, prosecutors, law enforcement, advocates, batterer intervention providers, and others in the domestic violence field. She led the state efforts to develop standards and certify batterer intervention programs throughout Kansas. Halley 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. Her work with those who batter began in 1991, and led to her co-founding the Family Peace Initiative (FPI). Halley was the Practicum Director and Assistant Professor at Pittsburg State University in the Social Work Program from 1997 to 2007, before accepting her current position. 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 is currently serving her third term as president of the Kansas Organization for Victim Assistance (KOVA). She also serves as a consultant for the Kansas Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board (KDVFRB). Halley received the Outstanding Victim Advocate of the Year award in 1996 from KCSDV.  She has served as an expert witness in domestic violence cases for the past 28 years. She is an author, and has provided more than 1000 presentations on a national, state, and local level to more than 24,000 advocates, criminal justice professionals, and others. Her latest published work is the chapter “Providing Effective Services to Victims of Human Trafficking: Theoretical, Practical, and Ethical Considerations” (Halley, Sullivan, and Rapp), in Combating Human Trafficking: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Palmiotto, CRC Press, 2014. In 2015, Halley co-presented “Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence: Intersections and Deviations” for the United Nations Commission for the Status of Women. She again served as a delegate to the United Nations Commission for the Status of Women in 2017 for the International Public Policy Institute. Halley loves water skiing and spending time with her family—most notably, her grandchildren.

Steven M.S. Halley, LSCSW
Steve is the clinical director of Halley Counselling Services, P.A. and the Director of the Family Peace Initiative (FPI). Having received a bachelor degree in history, and master degrees in both outdoor administration and social work, Halley focused his career on working with individuals and families. For the past 25 years Halley has worked as a wilderness counselor, probation officer, therapist, and batterer intervention provider. His success in understanding and working with those who batter has created high demand for his trainings and the FPI curriculum, which incorporates batterer motive and a trauma-informed approach. In 2016, Halley provided training to the National Association of Victim Service Professionals in Corrections at their national conference regarding his “River of Cruelty: A Trauma-Informed Approach”. In 2017, Halley served on the panel “Innovative Practices: Balancing Accountability and Support for Healing” for the Office of Violence Against Women. Halley is the longest-serving member of the Kansas Governor’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board, serving since its inception. He is an avid golfer, songwriter, and along with his wife, Dorthy, authored Halley’s Alley: Commentaries on marriage, family, healthy relationships, parenting, loss, grief, trauma, and domestic violence.

Chris Huffine
Chris Huffine, Psy.D., licensed psychologist, has worked with abusive men for the past 24 years.  He is the Executive Director of Allies in Change in Portland, Oregon. Prior to founding that agency in 2004 he worked for 12 years at Men’s Resource Center. During his career he has worked with thousands of abusive men and dozens of female and male victims of abuse. He is the founder of the Tri-County Batterer Intervention Provider Network which has made regular use of facilitated discussions in its 19 years of monthly meetings.

He is an adjunct faculty member at Portland State University where he teaches an anger management class and speaks on domestic violence. He regularly speaks publicly and offers trainings on a variety of issues related to domestic violence.  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. In addition to his domestic violence work, he does individual and couples counseling with adults on a variety of other issues including mood disorders, stress management, relationship/intimacy issues, and addictions.

Lisa Young Larance, MSW, LCSW, LMSW
Lisa is a practitioner-scholar whose curricula, publications, trainings, and practical work focus on meeting the needs of marginalized women and their families.  Ms. Larance is the founder of two innovative community-based programs providing intervention, advocacy, and support for women who have used force in their relationships: Vista and RENEW. She is also the co-creator of the prison-based Meridians Program for Incarcerated Women.

Ms. Larance’s consulting work includes technical assistance and training for the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence; the United States Air Force; and Harmony House’s Nurturing Hearts Program in Hong Kong, China. Ms. Larance is currently a doctoral student, researcher, and Graduate Student Instructor at the University of Michigan’s joint doctoral program in Social Work and Sociology.

Floyd Rowell
Floyd is the Lead Facilitator of the Wisdom Walk to Self Mastery program at the Alma Center, an intensive trauma resolution program incorporating indigenous healing practices and modern neuroscience. He has been actively working in the effort to create peaceful change among men in our community and end violence against women and girls for over eight years.  Floyd has courageously and wholeheartedly engaged in his own process of transformation, having first come to the Alma Center as a client in the Men Ending Violence Program. Utilizing his own experiential knowledge of having walked in the same shoes, as well as his deep study of psychology and spiritual practice, Floyd has helped many abusive men re-examine and heal from the violence in their own background and stop repeating the same cycle of perpetration with their partner and children.

Dr. Rahul Sharma
Dr. Rahul Sharma began his work in 1989 in gender issues, violence against women prevention, and race relations as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, where he worked extensively at the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center.  He received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1998, specializing in multicultural psychology. After that, for over six years, he served as Director of the University of Chicago’s Resources for Sexual Violence Prevention, initially reporting to then Associate Dean Michelle Obama.  He contributed a chapter on South Asian men’s roles in addressing violence against women for a book addressing domestic violence in South Asian communities.  He received the “Vagina Warrior” award from V-Day Celebration by the Vagina Monologues for his commitment to violence against women prevention.

Dr. Sharma is currently Associate Professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology (ISPP) at Argosy University, Chicago and Chair of its Diversity Concentration.  At ISPP for over the last 10 years, he has worked extensively to ensure cultural competence for all Clinical Psychology students, as well as foster leadership development in the area of diversity among his Concentration students.  Dr. Sharma was 2014-15 Chair of the Division on South Asian Americans (DoSAA) within the Asian American Psychological Association.  He maintains a private practice, specializing in cultural nuances related to cultural identity and intercultural conflict.

In addition, Dr. Sharma is also founder and bassist/sitarist for the intercultural award-winning music group Funkadesi, comprised of musicians, activists, educators, and healers.  The band is unprecedentedly diverse, with Indian-American, African-American, Jamaican, Latino, and European-American members.  As the band has thrived and remained cohesive for over 20 years, Dr. Sharma’s long-standing goals incorporate music as a vehicle for community-building, self-understanding, cross-cultural communication, and social justice principles. Dr. Sharma recently became a Trained Health Rhythms Facilitator and advanced Adolescent Protocol Facilitator, using Remo Drums’ evidenced-based health-promoting and social-promoting protocols to spawn healing, personal growth, group cohesion, and dialogue among a variety of populations. In March of 2015, Dr. Sharma delivered a keynote address in Chicago on cultural competence in clinical practice and teaching, incorporating compelling analogies and anecdotes from his career as a musician. Dr. Sharma designed and led anti-oppression healing workshops at schools and conferences, including at YWCA’s Racial Justice conference April 2017.  Most recently, he is the recipient of the Joyce Foundation Award, commissioned to co-write a musical piece on the theme of the history of Englewood.  The piece, to be performed by 1,000 musicians, aims to engage youth in violence-prone environments.  Dr. Sharma continues to consult, present lectures, & lead workshops on mental wellness, music, diversity, social justice, and healing.  Dr. Sharma will be leading an experiential, interactive plenary session on accountability and diversity with drummers from Funkadesi at the upcoming  Batterer Intervention Services Coalition in Michigan.

Carlos Cornier (congas and percussion)
Funkadesi percussionist Carlos is a New York-born Puerto Rican musician who has studied and performed many Latin rhythmic traditions. He is an award-winning documentary film-maker, and writes for World Percussion and Rhythm magazine. Carlos also is a gifted educator on Latin/Caribbean drumming, and is an instructor at the Old Town School of Folk Music. He leads many workshops and drum circles, integrating his cultural knowledge with the imparting of drumming and percussive techniques. Recently, he has been doing experiential drumming and leadership training for executives across the country.

Ajay Randhawa (dhol, dholki, percussion, keyboards)
Funkadesi percussionist Ajay performs various genres: Punjabi, Trip hop, hip hop, Jazz, Cinematic, Classical Indian and Western, House. Ajay has recorded with world renowned classical guitarist Fareed Haque and shared the stage with Ustad Zakir Hussain. In addition Ajay has also accompanied the likes of Surinder Shinda, K.S. Makhan, Mohd. Saddiq, Baljit Malwa, Sarbjit Cheema, Debi Maksoospuri, Amar Arshi, Nachhattar Gill and many others. Working as the artist alias Jumping Genres, he is a multi-talented musician and producer.

Kwame Steve Cobb (drum kit, djembe, vocals and percussion)
For more than four decades Funkadesi percussionist Kwame has honed his musical skills while sharing stages with well known recording artists Lou Rawls, Ramsey Lewis, Stanley Turrentine, Anita Baker, Roy Ayers, Peabo Bryson and many others. Kwame and Chavunduka, a dynamic husband and wife team, work closely with youth in workshops and seminars, sharing unique insights into the popular culture, particularly music and its impact on the social, economic and political lives of our communities. Most recently, Kwame has become a trained conflict resolution mediator.

Paul Cotton (African and Latin percussion)
Funkadesi percussionist Paul is a principal musician with the Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago. For over two decades, Paul has studied West African, Afro Cuban, and Afro Caribbean drums and percussion. He attended the American Conservatory of Music, where he studied classical percussion, music theory and jazz. He has worked in all genres of music from Blues, Pop Rock, Jazz, Afro Caribbean and Gospel. Paul has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and West Africa.  Recently, Paul has co-led drum circles for peace across the south side of Chicago.  A committed artist and educator, Paul believes that from your heart you can transform the art of music to your hands.

Aldo Seoane
Aldo Seoane (Yoeme) is co founder of Wica Agli a domestic and sexual violence awareness organization focused on engaging men in the conversation of ending violence, located Mission, South Dakota.

In 2013 Wica Agli was created to address the needs of providing domestic and sexual assault advocacy and awareness education in Rosebud South Dakota. For the past 4 years Wica Agli has been work with men and boys in the community in an effort to create allies for women and to model healthy behaviors. Wica Agli has been actively working with tribes across the country to raise awareness of the intersections of pipeline infrastructure and increases of domestic and sexual violence to indigenous communities.

Terri Strodthoff, PhD
Terri is the Founder and Executive Director of the Alma Center, Inc., a community based agency in Milwaukee working to break the cycle of violence in families. The Alma Center is a research based gender-specific agency providing pioneering trauma-informed healing, education, social services and a positive peer community to support abusive men’s peaceful and lasting transformation.  The agency is a recipient of the 2014 Celebrating Solutions Award for innovation in domestic violence prevention, chosen by a panel of leading domestic violence experts from more than 300 national applicants.

Dr. Strodhoff has more than 25 years experience in the field of domestic violence, including program design and administration, evaluation and direct service delivery. Dr. Strodthoff received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.  She has co-authored articles and is a regular presenter and trainer for national and local audiences.

Tish Taylor
Tish is the Assistant Director of the Family Peace Initiative batterer intervention program, and has served in that capacity since 2013. She has been providing services to those who batter since 2011, operating as many as 7 groups per week. Her unique, high energy style of facilitation endears her both as a group facilitator and lead trainer for FPI’s Facilitator Training Series. Tish provided consultation and technical support to the Kansas Department of Corrections to establish their first batterer intervention program inside of the prison setting. She also facilitates groups for women in the Topeka Correctional Facility, the only state prison for women in Kansas.

Prior to her current position, Tish was a site coordinator for Greenbush Educational Cooperative, providing contractual services to the Kansas Department of Correction. Her history of working with both juvenile and adult offenders within the Department of Corrections provided vital experience for her role as both a group facilitator and trainer.

Tish is currently pursuing a criminal justice degree, with a minor in psychology.  Tish loves to spend time with her family. She and her husband, Scott, keep busy with their 5 children, ages 5 to 20, and their activities.

Jerry Tello
Jerry Tello comes from a family of Mexican, Texan roots and was raised in south central Los Angeles. He is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of fatherhood, family strengthening, community peace and mobilization and culturally based violence prevention/intervention issues. Over the last 40 forty years Mr. Tello has dedicated his efforts to preventing and healing the pain of relationship/community violence, teen pregnancy, fatherless-ness and internalized oppression by speaking to over half a million people and training 1000’s of facilitators across the nation to address these issues. He is co-founder of the National Compadres Network (established in 1988) and serves in the role of Director of the National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute division. Mr. Tello has motivated, trained and mentored thousands of individuals, organizations and community groups in the various curriculum (see website jerrytello.com) that he has authored addressing the issues of Fatherhood, Male “Rites of Passage,” relationship and gang violence prevention, teen fatherhood, pregnancy prevention, family strengthening, fatherhood literacy and community peace. He served as a principal consultant for Scholastic Books on International Bilingual Literacy curriculum focused at reaching low-income families, is the author “ A Fathers Love”, a series of children’s books, co-editor of Family Violence and Men of Color and a series of motivational C.D.’s. He has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Latina and Lowrider magazines and has received many major awards including the Presidential Crime Victims Service award, presented by President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno, two California Governor’s Awards for his violence prevention and intervention advocacy work, the Ambassador of Peace award from Rotary International and recently received the White House’s Champion of Change award for his work.

As part of his continued work on peace, healing and violence prevention he is presently working in numerous communities integrating a trauma/healing informed approach to violence prevention. Finally, in collaboration with the American G.I. Forum, Mr. Tello is part of an effort of providing Domestic Violence awareness presentations and support services to Iraq, Afghanistan and Persian Gulf veterans and their spouses. Presently, also oversees the Sacred Circles Center in Whittier, California and is a member of the Sacred Circles performance group, a group dedicated to community peace and healing. He is the proud father of three children: Marcos, Renee and Emilio and the grandfather of Amara and Naiya.

Pamela Wiseman
Pamela 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.

From 1989 until assuming the position of Director at the NMCADV, she served as the Executive Director of Safe Passage, an Illinois domestic violence and sexual assault agency. There, Ms. Wiseman developed the organizations first batterer intervention program and facilitated groups for nearly 15 years. She also chaired the committees that developed standards for batterer intervention programs in both New Mexico and Illinois. In 2015, she initiated and chaired a New Mexico, legislatively created, task force with national participation and impact designed to study the effectiveness of batterer intervention programs.

Ms. Wiseman is also the author of a bestselling book on the topic of batterer intervention. She holds a bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Michigan and a masters in communication from Northern Illinois University.

Merkeb Yohannes
Merkeb Yohannes is a storyteller and activist who is dedicated to bring forth the voices of Immigrants and Refugees experiencing violence. She is a Program Manager at the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic Violence and a volunteer for the Survivor’s Speakers Bureau, and Capital Area Response Effort in Lansing, MI. Her commitment and approach to this work stem from being an Immigrant and Refugee survivor of domestic violence and child sexual abuse.

Merkeb’s work experience has spanned over continents.  In the United States, prior to joining the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, she served in advocacy and program management roles for those with disabilities as well as Immigrant and Refugee communities.  Merkeb has vast experience working in developing countries with international non-profit organizations, local governments and faith-based organizations in areas of woman and girl empowerment,  grant management, HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention, media material development for public health issues, and workforce training and development.