Maine/New Hampshire Victim Assistance Academy Presenter Bios

Transcription

1 Danyel Albert is the Outreach Coordinator for Family Crisis Services. She has been advocating for victims of domestic violence for the past 10 years. In her role as an advocate she assists victims daily with obtaining and finalizing Protection from Abuse orders, providing crisis intervention, emotional support, and assistance with safety planning. Danyel has been a member of the State s Domestic Homicide Review Committee for the past 6 years. She has facilitated trainings for Court Marshalls, Law Enforcement officers, District Attorney Interns, Pro Bono Volunteer Lawyers, and several community agencies throughout the state. She has monitored Batterer Intervention Programs (BIPS) and continues to attend judicial monitoring for the specialized domestic violence courts. Olga MT Alicea, LMSW-cc, CADC is a clinical social worker serving as the Behavioral Health Specialist (BHS) for Maine Migrant Health Program (MMHP), a role created in 2009 to better address the emotional wellbeing of its patients. Olga provides direct counseling & education, while supporting staff as they engage patients in culturally appropriate and empathetic ways. One of the challenges inherent in serving a mobile and diverse population in Maine is finding providers ready linguistically or experienced culturally this remains a work in progress. Olga believes that ongoing conversations with community members and providers around the needs and strengths of migrant and seasonal farm workers are essential to ensure that a unified, savvy and welcoming network is created as this is a dynamic and deserving segment of our society. As a Puerto-Rican woman making her home in Maine since 2000, Olga constantly seeks opportunities that lead her back to her community, allowing her to feel validated, connected and serving to bridge the way for the many Latinos, immigrants and minorities that call this state their home. Thomas Baran is a Patrol Sergeant with the York Police Department and has been an officer there for 28 years. He is a certified instructor with the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and teaches officers the proper handling and investigation techniques for domestic violence cases. He is the coordinator of the York Police Department s Domestic Violence Proactive Response Team. This team is responsible for making weekly checks on victims to check their well-being and to see if the offender is violating bail conditions or protection orders. This program seeks out the offender holding them responsible for obeying all conditions and restrictions set forth by the court. Sgt. Baran was named Community Policing Officer of the Year by the Maine Chiefs of Police Association in 1998 for his involvement in community programs. He has a Bachelor s Degree from the University of Southern Maine and lives in Kittery with his wife Linda and their two sons. Kristyn Bernier, Detective, is a 20 year veteran of the Portsmouth, NH Police Department, specializing in undercover internet crime investigation, child exploitation, sexually based crimes, domestic violence, sex offender management, cold case homicides and undercover narcotics work. She has served as a member of the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, actively investigating offenders who possess, manufacture and distribute child sexual assault images. She developed the guidelines for NH ICAC for forensically interviewing suspects in child exploitation cases. Prior to becoming a law enforcement officer, Det. Bernier was a family assessment specialist and caseworker working with juvenile offenders and juvenile victims of child abuse and sexual abuse. She is a primary hostage/crisis negotiator for the Seacoast Emergency Response Team.

2 Det. Bernier is the co-author of Cyber Crime Fighters: Tales from the Trenches (Que 2009), and co-authored a chapter on Sexual Offenders in Serial Offenders: Theory and Practice (Jones and Bartlett 2012). Detective Bernier revised the Portsmouth Police Department Domestic Violence SOP and then designed a comprehensive domestic violence training which was attended by all sworn members of the Portsmouth Police Department which coincided with the release of the revised SOP. She trains law enforcement professionals and other multi-disciplinary professionals in various areas, including the interview and interrogation of sex offenders and child predators, sex offender management, domestic violence and sexual assault, suicide, investigative techniques and victim interview techniques. Det. Bernier has been recognized by the Department of Justice, the NH Attorney General's Office, Sexual Assault Support Services and other agencies with awards and commendations with regard to her work. She continues to coordinate efforts with SASS, A Safe Place, Jaden's Ladder and the NH Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence with regard to advocating for victims in New Hampshire, and she is currently the law enforcement trainer for the NH SANE nursing program as well as a speaker with the NH Survivor Voices Suicide Loss Speaker's Bureau. Heather Biggar is the Domestic Violence Clinician at Community Counseling Center serving Cumberland County Maine. She provides clinical treatment for children who have been exposed to domestic violence and also provides consultation and training on topics related to intimate partner violence and childhood trauma. Heather is also a member of Portland Defending Childhood, a national initiative funded through the Department of Justice focused on childhood exposure to violence. She received her Bachelor s Degree in Human Sexuality and her Masters in Social Work with a clinical concentration on child and youth from the University at Buffalo. Heather has worked in the criminal justice system and nonprofit sector providing advocacy services for victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault for 14 years. Polly Campbell, RN, BS, BA, is Director of the Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner Program, Maine Office of the Attorney General. She has been in this position for over eight years. She is responsible for program oversight including training of Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners (SAFE); technical assistance for SAFEs, health care providers who care for patients who have been sexually assaulted, and Sexual Assault Response Teams; promoting community awareness of sexual violence issues; and working with community partners to improve the community response to victims of abuse and violence. She currently sits on the Maine Domestic Violence Homicide Review Panel and Elder Death Analysis Review Team; and is a member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) Board of Directors. Prior to her tenure at the AG s office she worked in clinical nursing for a decade and has spent the last 25 years working in the fields of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse and neglect first at the Family Crisis Services in Portland as Community Response Coordinator, and later at the Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine. In addition to direct service with victims of abuse and violence, she coordinated statewide training and service programs that brought together professionals from various disciplines to better meet the needs of adult and child victims of violence.

3 Deborah Dana, LCSW is part of a group practice in Saco Maine, The Island Institute for Trauma Recovery, specializing in working with complex trauma. She is a certified TAT (Tapas Acupressure Technique) trainer, a certified Internal Family Systems therapist, has trained in sensorimotor psychotherapy and EMDR, and completed a certificate program in traumatic stress studies at the Trauma Center in Boston. In addition to her clinical work she teaches a trauma theory and practice class in the School of Social Work at the University of Southern Maine. Sue Hall Dreher is the Executive Director of Sexual Assault Support Services of Midcoast Maine. In her capacity as ED, she provides training and technical expertise to organizations regarding the issue and impact of all forms of sexual violence. Ms. Hall Dreher has her BS in Community Health Education and her Masters in Human Services. She has done additional graduate studies in public health with a focus on prevention. Susan has 30 + years experience in the nonprofit sector. Susan sits on the Board of Directors of the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault where she is the former Executive Chair; and serves on the Board of the Elder Abuse Institute of Maine and on the Board of Licensure for Alcohol & Drug Counselors. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maine. Sherry Edwards is the Assistant Director of Caring Unlimited, York County's Domestic Violence program. In this capacity she provides training and technical expertise to organizations regarding the issue and impact of all forms of domestic violence and works with local law enforcement, Batterers Intervention programs, and child welfare organizations, among others agencies on strengthening cross-systems partnerships. Prior to her work with Caring Unlimited, Ms. Edwards worked for Spruce Run, as the Transitional Services Coordinator serving Penobscot county. She has over 20 years' experience working in the field of domestic violence. Hope Flynn has been a prosecutor in NH for about 12 years now. She started at the Rockingham County Attorney s Office then moved to the Strafford County Attorney s Office where she has been for the last 10 years. She is the Deputy County Attorney and handles all types of felony cases. Sarah Holmes is the Assistant Director of Student Life and Diversity at the University of Southern Maine. Her primary function is to coordinate USM's Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity and oversee the Safe Zone Project (program that teaches LGBTQ 101 and helps people explore how to be a better ally to the LGBTQ community). Jennifer Hunt Kayce Hunton is the Client Services Manager at Sexual Assault Support Services of Midcoast Maine (SASSMM). In that capacity, she has served as a member of the Working Group on Family Violence in Sagadahoc County, and served on the Midcoast Collaborative for Access to Transportation. Ms. Hunton represented SASSMM as a core group committee member to revise the statewide sexual assault advocate training manual titled, Help in Healing: A Training Guide for Advocates. She received her BS in Rehabilitation Services from the University of Maine at Farmington and her MS in Organizational Leadership from Southern New Hampshire University.

4 Fatuma Hussein is the founder of, and has been the Executive Director of United Somali Women of Maine for the past 9 years. She came to this country as a refugee teenager, attended high school and college, and began work as a community advocate, using all the lessons she had learned in overcoming the challenges of being a refugee teenager in a different culture. These lessons helped her to found the United Somali Women of Maine Women's Center, established in 2001, to promote self-sufficiency and economic empowerment, and to prevent all types of violence and promote a non-sexist, multi-cultural environment that rises up the strengths of refugee and immigrant women and girls by serving as cultural brokers, barrier reducers, skill enhancers, and problem solvers. (Ret.) Detective Sergeant Kathy Kimball retired after serving 23 years with the New Hampshire State Police. (Ret.) Sergeant Kimball worked for many years in Hillsborough County before being assigned to the Major Crime Unit. She returned to Troop B as an investigator and completed her career as a Detective Sergeant. In addition to her State Police responsibilities, she was a member of the Attorney General's Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect and assisted with writing the 2008 Attorney General s Child Abuse Protocol. (Ret.) Sergeant Kimball also assisted in updating the Law Enforcement: A Model Protocol for Police Response to Domestic Violence and the development of the Stalking: A Model for Law Enforcement Protocol. In addition, she served on New Hampshire s Child and Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committees. She has also served as a member of the NHCADSV Board of Directors. She has been an instructor at the New Hampshire Police Academy for the past fourteen years teaching courses on both adult and child sexual assault investigations to recruits, part-time officers and full-time certified law enforcement officers. She is currently the Coordinator of the New Hampshire Sexual Assault Resource Team (SART) Initiative out of the Attorney General s Office. Lisa Lamphere is the Coordinator for the New Hampshire Victims Compensation Program with the New Hampshire Attorney General s Office. Prior to becoming the Coordinator, Ms. Lamphere worked as a paralegal for the Department of Justice for 14 years in both the Civil Bureau and the Consumer Protection Bureau. Ms. Lamphere earned her Bachelor s Degree in paralegal studies at Notre Dame College. Sandra Matheson Darcie McElwee is a native of Caribou, Maine. She graduated from Bowdoin College in 1995 and the University of Maine, School of Law in For the first four years of her legal career, Darcie served as an Assistant District Attorney for Penobscot and Piscataquis Counties in central Maine. Darcie currently serves as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maine. As the coordinator for Maine s Project Safe Neighborhoods and Project Sentry programs, Darcie prosecutes federal firearms, explosives and arson cases and engages in community outreach regarding domestic violence, offender intervention and juvenile and school gun violence. Rashida Mohamed is originally from Sudan. She worked at the International Institute of New Hampshire for two years, and then worked as Shelter Manager for the YWCA for 8 years. Rashida is now is the Victim/Witness Advocate for the Manchester Police Department.

5 Heather Putnam is the Victim Witness Coordinator and Law Enforcement Coordinator for the United States Attorney Office. Her role and responsibilities include education and advocacy for the District of Maine regarding victim witness protection laws; provision of information/education, support and assistance to federal victims and witnesses, and coordination with Maine law enforcement regarding trainings, federal initiatives, and pending federal prosecutions. Prior to her work at the U.S. Attorney s Office, Heather worked for seven years at the Portland Police Department as their Victim Advocate, and spent over ten years working with at-risk and homeless youth in the Greater Portland area. Deborah Shaw Rice has been the Director of Maine's Crime Victims' Compensation Program in the Office of the Attorney General since Her responsibilities include: administrating and supervising the Program; providing training and outreach; coordinating services with other community and governmental agencies; monitoring or drafting legislation, rules, and opinions; and managing Federal grants. Ms. Rice served on the Legislative Commission to Propose an Alternative Payment Process for Sexual Assault Forensic Examinations. She is a member of the Department of Corrections Victims Advisory Group and the Maine Victim Witness Advocates Association, and she is immediate Past President of the National Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards for which she has been a board member since After graduating from the University of Maine School of Law, Ms. Rice worked as a Legal Services attorney representing victims of domestic abuse and co-drafted Maine's first protective order statute. Lynda Ruel Dr. Romy Spitz received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. She is currently a consultant to Maine s Department of Health and Human Services with expertise in deafness, language development, and non-traditional communication and Adjunct Professor of Linguistics at the University of Southern Maine specializing in the neuropsychology of language and communication. Francine Garland Stark has worked to end domestic abuse and violence since 1985, beginning as a volunteer on a domestic violence hotline, joining the staff of Spruce Run Association in Penobscot County as the Administrative Coordinator in During 23 years with that agency, Francine provided advocacy for people affected by domestic abuse and violence in addition to her responsibilities as a program administrator and public educator. She has articulated the problem of domestic abuse and violence through curriculum development and collaborative projects to educate individuals, to inform policy development, and to promote culture change to foster safe, healthy, and joyful families. As Executive Director of Hope and Justice Project in Aroostook County, she coordinates the services of three shelters for victims of domestic violence and three transitional housing sites that are located throughout the County as well as the project s 24-hour hotline, legal services, advocacy, support groups, school-based prevention education, community education, and professional training programs. In 2010, Francine was honored to receive the Maryann Hartman Maine Woman of Achievement Award from the Women in the Curriculum and Women s Studies Program of the University of Maine.

6 Holly Stover works for the Department of Health and Human Services, for the Office of the Commissioner, as the Department s Director for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. In her role, Holly provides leadership in domestic and sexual violence programming and policy. She serves on the Maine Commission on Domestic and Sexual Abuse, the Maine Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel, and the Maine Commission on the Permanent Status of Women. Holly holds a Bachelor s Degree from Nasson College, has attended the Muskie School of Public Service, and completed the State and Local Executive Program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Barbara Taylor, Esq., Staff Attorney came to ILAP in March 2006, after previously working as an intake volunteer and later as an intern through a Maine Association of Public Interest Lawyers Fellowship in the summer of Barbara graduated cum laude from the University of Maine School of Law in Before joining ILAP, Barbara clerked with the Maine Superior Court and worked briefly with Legal Services for the Elderly. Barbara also has her Masters from Columbia Teachers College and was involved in education on various levels before switching to a law career. Barbara is admitted to the Maine Bar.