CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

CONVERGE! Re-Imagining the Movement to End Gender Violence

February 7-8, 2014

Fri. 8:00 am – 5:45 pm / Sat. 8:30 am – 4:30 pm University of Miami School of Law

University of Miami School of Law Race & Social Justice Law Review Miami Worker's Center Sisterhood of Survivors

Center on Applied Feminism-University of Baltimore School of Law

AZIZA AHMED is an associate professor of law at Northeastern

University School of Law and an expert in health law, human

rights, property law, international law, and development. Her

interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on issues of both domestic

and international law. She teaches Property Law, Reproductive

and Sexual Health and Rights, and International Health Law:

Governance, Development, and Rights. In addition to this work,

Professor Ahmed also examines challenges facing Muslim

minority communities post 9/11. Prior to joining the Northeastern

faculty, Professor Ahmed was a research associate at the Harvard

School of Public Health Program on International Health and

Human Rights. She came to that position after a Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship

with the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW).

SARA AINSWORTH is Visiting Assistant Professor at

Seattle University School of Law, where she teaches

Gender Violence and the Domestic Violence Clinic.

Previously she practiced law as Senior Counsel at Legal

Voice, a non-profit that advances women’s legal rights

in the Northwest, and as a legal services lawyer for low-

income domestic violence survivors. She is a graduate

of the University of Washington Law School, and a

founding member of Surge Northwest, a non- profit

reproductive justice collaborative in Washington State.

CATHY ALBISA is a constitutional and human rights lawyer with a

background on the right to health. Ms. Albisa also has significant

experience working in partnership with community organizers in the use

of human rights standards to strengthen advocacy in the United States.

She co-founded NESRI along with Sharda Sekaran and Liz Sullivan in

order to build legitimacy for human rights in general, and economic and

social rights in particular, in the United States. She is committed to a

community-centered and participatory human rights approach that is

locally anchored, but universal and global in its vision. Ms. Albisa

clerked for the Honorable Mitchell Cohen in the District of New Jersey.

She received a BA from the University of Miami and is a graduate of

Columbia Law School.

DR. ETIONY ALDARONDO is Associate Dean for

Research and Director of the Dunspaugh-Dalton Community

and Educational Well-Being Research Center in the School of

Education at the University of Miami. He is also the

Executive Director of The Council on Contemporary Families.

The recipient of various recognitions for educational

excellence and community involvement, his scholarship

focuses on positive development of ethnic minority and

immigrant youth, domestic violence, and social justice-

oriented clinical practices. His publications include the

books Advancing Social Justice through Clinical Practice

(Routledge), Programs for men who batter: Intervention and prevention strategies in a diverse

society (Civic Research Institute with Fernando Mederos, Ed.D.), and Neurosciences, Health and

Community Well-Being (San Luís, Nueva Editorial Universitaria with Dr. Enrique Saforcada and

Mauro Muñoz).

ALETA ALSTON-TOURE' is the founder of the The New Jim

Crow Movement (Jax) and Co-Lead of Free Marissa Now

(FMN). She bears witness as a vessel for social change through

grassroots activitism and popular educational arts and community

organizing work. She has been focused on the systemic issues of

oppression towards women through poverty, race and class. Aleta

realizing that radical theory and progressive practice expressed

through stories can shift the transformation of women 's lives which

in turn builds new nations. She fights to build new freedom

movements by supporting women in key leadership roles.

LIS-MARIE ALVARADO is a first generation immigrant from

Nicaragua raised in Miami, FL. She is a young community

organizer who has worked for over six years in movements for the

rights of immigrant low-wage agricultural workers, day laborers,

and youth of color in Miami Dade County public schools. From

2007-2013, Lis-Marie worked at WeCount! in Homestead, FL, at

WeCount!, she created the COMADRES immigrant women’s

group where she facilitated dynamic training programs that built

women’s sense of worth and power inside and outside the home,

organizational leadership skills, and political analysis that helped

them position themselves as crucial leaders within the organization.

Since then, Lis-Marie continues to be a cultural organizer and radio

host/dj with the Madre Tierra Collective, where they utilized

culture, media, and art as strategic tools for social change,

collective healing, decolonization, and empowerment.

ROSANA ARAUJO was born and raised in Montevideo,

Uruguay. In 2003 she migrated to the United States with her

husband and son, and promptly found work at a factory, where she

was raped by one of her managers. Rosana’s lack of immigration

papers was used against her by her manager. In addition to being

raped, Rosana suffered an accident at her work place, but was told

she should not seek compensation nor treatment from the company

because they would call ICE if she did. It was around that time

that Rosana joined Sisterhood of Survivors out of an honest desire

to empower other women and encourage them to speak out about

the physical, psychological, sexual and economic gender-based

abuse endured by women, especially undocumented women,

whose lack of immigration status prevents them from accessing

treatment and education opportunities. Rosana’s passion is not merely to empower other women

to speak out, but to create a women-led movement to change legislation and help create laws that

create protections and development opportunities for women and children who are survivors of

gender violence.

SUJATHA BALIGA’s work is characterized by an equal dedication

to victims and persons accused of crime. A former victim advocate

and public defender, sujatha was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship

which she used to organize a successful restorative juvenile diversion

program in Alameda County. She often speaks publically and inside

prisons about her personal experiences as a survivor of child sexual

abuse and her path to forgiveness. Today, sujatha is the director of

the Restorative Justice Project at the National Council on Crime and

Delinquency, where she helps communities implement restorative

justice alternatives to juvenile detention and zero-tolerance school

discipline policies. She is also dedicated to advancing restorative

justice to end child sexual abuse and intrafamilial and sexual

violence.

SIENNA BASKIN, with the Urban Justice Center, is Co-Director of

the Sex Workers Project. Ms. Baskin directs the legal services and

policy advocacy of the SWP. Ms. Baskin trains and supervises legal

staff in providing direct legal representation, public education and

outreach. She promotes reform of laws and policies affecting sex

workers and survivors of trafficking, and oversees the production of

SWP’s human rights documentation reports. Ms. Baskin also provides

direct legal education, advice and representation to sex workers and

survivors of trafficking on a variety of issues, including housing,

criminal, employment, and immigration matters. Ms. Baskin started at SWP as an Equal Justice

Works fellow and Staff Attorney. Prior to joining the Sex Workers Project, Ms. Baskin

advocated for criminalized people's rights in various settings.

MARLEINE BASTIEN, a licensed clinical social worker and

graduate of Miami-Dade College and Florida International

University, is the founder and Executive Director of Fanm Ayisyen

Nan Miyami, Inc. (Haitian women of Miami), a group that

provides desperately needed assistance not only to Haitian women

and their families, but to the community at large. She is the Chair

of the Florida Immigration coalition and Vice-Chair of the Haitian-

American Grassroots Coalition. Under Bastien’s leadership,

FANM has showed a unique ability to provide an array of social

services while also organizing around issues such as immigration,

housing, health access, education reform, gender equality, and

human rights. Bastien formed the Justice Coalition for the Haitian

Children of Guantanamo, is a founding member of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition,

the Haitian Neighborhood Center (Sant La), and many more community organizations. Bastien

is the recipient of many awards including, most recently, the 2013 U.S. Human Rights Movement

Builders Award from the U.S. Human Rights Network.

CAROLINE BETTINGER-LÓPEZ is an Associate Professor of

Clinical Legal Education and Director of the Human Rights Clinic

at the University of Miami School of Law. Her scholarship,

advocacy, and teaching concern international human rights law and

advocacy, violence against women, gender and race discrimination,

immigrants' rights, and clinical legal education. She focuses on

implementation of human rights norms at the domestic level,

principally in the United States and Latin America. Professor

Bettinger-López regularly litigates and engages in other forms of

advocacy before the Inter-American Human Rights system, the

United Nations, and federal and state courts and legislative bodies.

She is lead counsel on Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) v. United States,

the first international human rights case brought by a domestic

violence victim against the U.S.

BEATRICE BIANCHI FASANI is a second-year student at the

University of Miami School of Law where she is enrolled in the

Immigration Clinic. She was born and raised in Rome, Italy. She

graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Arts degree

in International Relations and Political Science. During college,

she gained work experience by working at the Italy- America

Chamber of Commerce and as a consultant at the consulting group

"International Venture Consultants," in Madrid, Spain. After

graduation, she moved to Miami and worked for a Bankruptcy

law firm until she began attending law school at the University of

Miami School of Law.

ALISA BIERRIA is the Associate Director of the Center for Race

and Gender at UC Berkeley and a PhD candidate in the Department of

Philosophy at Stanford University. Alisa has years of experience

writing, teaching, and organizing on issues of violence and redress and

is currently organizing with the Free Marissa Now Mobilization

Campaign, a project working to free Marissa Alexander. She is a co-

editor of Community Accountability: Emerging Movements to

Transform Violence, a special issue of Social Justice: A Journal of

Crime, Conflict, and World Order. Her writing can also be found in

Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy; Journal of Popular Music

Studies and Left Turn Magazine, among others.

TED BUNCH is the co-founder and co-director of A CALL TO

MEN. He is recognized both nationally and internationally for his

expertise in organizing and educating men in the effort to create a

healthier and more respectful manhood. Ted is the former Director

and co-creator of the largest program for domestic violence offenders

in America. He is a recognized trainer, lecturer and consultant on

male accountability. A committed ally for more than a 15 years,

Bunch has gained leadership status in the domestic violence, rape and

sexual assault prevention communities across the country. Bunch has

lectured in Israel, Suriname, South Africa, Ghana, Brazil and Puerto

Rico as was an invited guest presenter for the United Nations'

Commission on the Status of Women and the UN Alliance of

Civilizations. Ted is also an international lecturer for the U.S. State Department, and was

appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon as a Committee Member to UNiTE, an

international network of male leaders working to end violence against women.

CONNIE BURK co-founded the first regional LGBT

survivor services in Kansas over 20 years ago. Since

1997, she has directed The Northwest Network of

Bisexual, Trans, Lesbian and Gay Survivors of Abuse

in Seattle, WA. There she established the National

LGBT Training & Technical Assistance Initiative and

founded the National Q&A Institute. She is the co-

author of Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to

Caring for Self While Caring for Others, an executive

producer of the award winning documentary film, A Lot Like You, and a contributing author to

the anthology, The Revolution Starts at Home. Connie trains internationally on community

engagement, domestic abuse and prevention strategies, and taking the “crisis” out of crisis

response organizations.

CYRA CHOUDHURY is an associate professor of law at Florida

International University. She graduated from The College of Wooster

with a BA in Political Science. She received an MA in Comparative

Politics from Columbia University focusing on women, religion and

South Asia. Upon graduation, Professor Choudhury worked at The

National Academies in Washington, DC as a Research Associate on

international labor law and education. She completed her J.D. cum

laude from Georgetown University Law Center. She then worked for

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in their corporate finance practice,

the New York Legal Aid Society in the immigration law unit, and advised a number of small

local and national not-for profit organizations before returning to the Georgetown Law Center in

2005 as the Future Law Professor Fellow. As a fellow and adjunct professor, she taught classes

in critical approaches to international law and law in Islamic societies.

DONNA COKER is a nationally recognized expert in

domestic violence law and policy. Her research concerns the

connection between economic vulnerability and domestic

violence; restorative justice and other alternative criminal

justice interventions; and gender justice and criminal law

doctrine. She is a leading critic of the “crime-centered” focus

that characterizes U.S. domestic violence policy. Her

research illustrates the negative impact of this focus on

women marginalized as a function of poverty, race, or immigration status. Coker’s empirical

study of the adjudication of domestic violence cases in Navajo Peacemaking Courts has

influenced work in the fields of restorative justice and domestic violence in the United States and

abroad. Her work on the nature of "heat of passion" doctrine uncovered gender related

assumptions imbedded in criminal law doctrine. She continued to explore gender fairness in her

recent historical research on the Wanrow case, an early "women's self-defense" case. The Story

of Wanrow: The Reasonable Woman and the Law of Self-Defense (co-authored with Lindsay

Harrison) appeared in CRIMINAL LAW STORIES (2013), a book that she co-authored with Robert

Weisberg (Stanford Law).

Professor SARAH DEER’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of

tribal law and victim’s rights. Professor Deer first worked to address

violence against women beginning when she was an undergraduate in

1993. She volunteered as a rape crisis advocate while working toward

her B.A. in Women’s Studies and Philosophy from the University of

Kansas. She later attended law school so that she could address the

social unique legal issues facing Native rape survivors, and received her

J.D. with a Tribal Lawyer Certificate from the University of Kansas

School of Law. In addition to authoring several articles on the issues

facing Native women in the United States, Deer is a co-author of two

textbooks on tribal law: Introduction to Tribal Legal Studies and Tribal

Criminal Law and Procedure, as well as a co-editor of Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native

Women Surviving Violence.

ANGELA DIAZ-VIDAILLET is the Chief Executive Officer of

Victim Response, Inc., and the Chair of the Florida Coalition Against

Domestic Violence. In her capacity as CEO she operates The Lodge,

the first private not for profit certified domestic violence center in

Miami Dade County. She has over twenty years of experience working

in the field of domestic violence, mental health, and substance abuse.

Ms. Diaz-Vidaillet received her M.S. in Developmental Counseling in

1983 from St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. She is a Licensed

Mental Health Counselor in the State of Florida. Her work with abusers

lead her to pursue one of her professional life’s biggest challenge: to

serve battered women and their children who seek safety and justice.

The operation of The Lodge has been one of her greatest professional and personal challenges

and accomplishment.

EJIM DIKE is Executive Director of the US Human Rights

Network. Her work focuses on addressing poverty and

discrimination using a human rights framework. Previously, she

was Director of the Human Rights Project. Under her leadership, the

Human Rights Project launched an annual report card on the human

rights record of New York City Council members; coordinated a

report on racial discrimination with 30 local groups for submission

to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial

Discrimination (CERD); and developed several resources for social

justice activists to engage in domestic human rights work.

LAURA DUNN is a third year law student at the University of

Maryland focusing on victim’s rights. In 2007, she graduated from

the University of Wisconsin with a B.A. in Legal Studies and

Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice. While in college,

Dunn became an outspoken survivor and activist on the issue of

campus sexual assault. Since then she has helped pass local, state

and federal legislation to prevent and address sexual violence.

Dunn is also the founder of SurvJustice, an organization dedicated

to empowering activists and assisting survivors in seeking justice

for sexual violence.

DR. ALESHA DURFEE is an Associate Professor in Women and

Gender Studies at Arizona State University. Her work has been

published in journals such as Gender & Society, Violence Against

Women, Feminist Criminology, and Feminist Teacher. She currently

has a National Science Foundation grant to analyze legal

mobilization among domestic violence survivors, including the

decision to file for a protection order, perceptions of the legal

system, and the costs and benefits of filing for an order for

survivors. Her research also includes the effects of mandatory arrest

policies, the social construction of domestic violence victimization

and how gender, race, and documentation status influence the

interpretation of survivors' narratives of violence by the justice

system. She volunteered as a law enforcement victim advocate and

currently serves on the board of the Purple Ribbon Council.

ZANITA E. FENTON is Professor of Law at the University of

Miami School of Law, where she teaches courses in Constitutional

Law, Family Law, Torts, Race and the Law, and seminars in Critical

Race Feminism and in the Reproductive Technologies. Professor

Fenton’s scholarly interests cover issues of subordination focusing on

those of race, gender and class. She explores these issues in the

greater contexts of understanding violence and in the attainment of

justice. She has long served as an advocate and consultant for

survivors of domestic abuse. Professor Fenton received an A.B. from

Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she

served as editor-in-chief of the Harvard BlackLetter Journal. After

law school, she practiced briefly in the New York firm of Cleary,

Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before she served as a law clerk to the

Honorable Edward R. Korman, United States District Court for the

Eastern District of New York.

REINA FERNANDEZ, a mother of three, was born and raised in the

Dominican Republic. In 1984 she migrated to the United States with

her family. Reina is a survivor of Domestic Violence and a founding

member of Sisterhood of Survivors (SOS). She has been a leading

voice in the effort to create awareness of the fact that Domestic

Violence is not an isolated and private matter, but an epidemic that

concerns the society as a whole. She has been working hard with

S.O.S to effect legislative change to help women and families

overcome situations of gender-based abuse. Reina works at a shelter

for women and families who are survivors of Domestic Violence. She

lives in Miami, Florida.

JUANA FLORES is the Co-Executive Director for Programs of

Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA). She has been working with MUA

since 1992. Currently she provides leadership for campaigns around

immigrant rights and social justice issues; provides technical assistance

for grassroots Latina immigrant organizations nationally; maintains

organization’s visibility as an active member of local, state, and

national coalitions; provides leadership for strategic and long-term

planning; and conducts media interviews. In the past, she has provided

leadership for numerous communities organizing and outreach

campaigns: Campaign to Defend Immigrant Women’s Access to

Prenatal Care Services, Popular Theater Campaign on Immigration and Welfare Reforms,

Campaign against Proposition 187, and National Campaign for the Violence Against Women

Act.

MARY ANNE FRANKS is an Associate Professor at the University

of Miami School of Law, where she teaches Criminal Law, Criminal

Procedure, and Family Law. She also serves as the Vice-President of

the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, a nonprofit organization that raises

awareness about cyber harassment and advocates for legal and social

reform. Her research and teaching interests include cyberlaw,

discrimination, free speech, and law and gender. Prior to joining the

Miami Law faculty, she was a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law at

the University of Chicago Law School. Prof. Franks received her J.D.

from Harvard Law School. She received her D. Phil and M. Phil from

Oxford University, where she studied on a Rhodes Scholarship.

Born and raised in Canada, RASHMI GOEL brings to bear her

experience on both sides of the border in her Criminal Law class and

in her upper-level seminars, Multiculturalism, Race and the Law and

Comparative Law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

In conjunction with her ongoing research and scholarship in this area,

she has also developed expertise in international criminal law and

restorative justice. Her current projects bring together her expertise

in comparative law and domestic violence, examining for instance the

role of female actors in domestic violence in countries like India and

Nigeria. She is also examining rape and the legislative response India

and in South Africa from both a cultural and legal

perspective. Rashmi Goel brings a unique and diverse perspective

to issues of race, culture, gender and social inequality. She is

currently chair of the Rocky Mountain Collective on Race, Place and Law, a consortium of

University of Denver Faculty who work in the areas of critical race theory and social justice.

JULIE GOLDSCHEID is a Professor of Law at

CUNY School of Law. Before joining the CUNY

faculty, she was a senior staff attorney, and served as

acting legal director, at Legal Momentum (formerly

NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), where

she spearheaded litigation, legislation and public

policy initiatives to address gender violence; she

subsequently was general counsel at Safe Horizon, a

leading victim services organization. She writes and

speaks widely about gender-based violence and

women’s economic independence and equality.

REYNA GOMEZ, MWC Sisterhood of Survivors member, migrated to the US in 2004 from

Honduras, where she faced fierce persecution and repression for being a union organizer. In spite

of having to flee her country for political reasons, and being a survivor of both cancer and

Domestic Violence, Reyna was not able to obtain legal immigration status in the United States.

Still, as an undocumented domestic worker, survivor of cancer, domestic violence survivor, and

persecuted syndicalist, Reyna has managed to remain in the frontlines of the movement to end

gender-based violence and to participate in other struggles. She was one of the fasters during the

University of Miami janitors’ strike in 2006, which led to a 33 percent increase in their wages

and to the ability to form a union.

WANDA GOMEZ is a survivor of domestic violence and

the mother of 7 children. She was stabbed 7 times by her

husband. Her children were put in foster care after the

incident. While in foster care, her 3 year old son was sexually

abused. Wanda is one of the founding members of Sisterhood

of Survivors (SOS). She does outreach work, public speaking

and presentation on behalf of SOS to raise awareness about

domestic violence and sexual abuse. She uses her story to

help other women victims leave and stay out of abusive

situations. Her resilience and transformation are truly an inspiration to others.

JESSICA GONZÁLEZ-ROJAS is the Executive Director at the

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the only national

organization that specifically works to advance reproductive health and

rights for Latinas. She has been a leader in progressive movements for

over 15 years, successfully forging connections between reproductive

health, gender, immigration, LGBTQ liberation, labor and Latino civil

rights, breaking down barriers between movements and building a

strong Latina grassroots presence. Jessica is an Adjunct Professor of

Latino and Latin American Studies at the City University of New York

and has taught courses on reproductive rights, gender and

sexuality. Jessica was recently named on Cosmopolitan’s “2013 Power

List”, featured in Latina Magazine in the “Making Us Proud” series,

and has been named 13 Women of Color to Watch in 2013 by the Center for American Progress.

ROSA M. GONZALEZ-GUARDA, PhD, MPH, RN, CPH, is an

assistant professor at the University of Miami School of Nursing

and Health Studies and the Co-Director of the Research and

Training Core of the School’s Center of Excellence for Health

Disparities Research. Dr. Gonzalez-Guarda is a community/public

health nurse and a community-based participatory researcher

focused on the prevention of behaviorally rooted health disparities

among Hispanics and other vulnerable populations. She is currently

funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty

Scholars Program to develop and pilot test a teen dating violence

prevention program for Hispanic youth and is collaborating with

Miami Dade County Department of Community Action and Human

Services

LEIGH GOODMARK is a Visiting Professor of

Law at the University of Maryland Frances King

Carey School of Law and Professor of Law,

Director of Clinical Education and Co-director of

the Center on Applied Feminism at the University

of Baltimore School of Law. During the 2013-14

academic year, Professor Goodmark is directing

the Gender Violence Clinic, a clinic providing

direct representation in matters involving intimate

partner abuse, sexual assault, trafficking, and other

cases involving gender violence. Professor Goodmark’s scholarship focuses on domestic

violence; her book, A Troubled Marriage: Domestic Violence and the Legal System, was named

a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of 2012.

STACI K. HAINES is the founder of generative somatics, whose

mission it is to grow a transformative social and environmental justice

movement one that integrates personal, community and systemic

transformation. Staci has been working and teaching in the field of

Somatics for the last 20 years. She integrates her extensive study in

personal and social change, trauma and recovery and Neuro-Linguistic

Programming into this unique and powerful work. She is a senior SI

teacher in the field of Somatics and leads courses in Somatics and

Leadership, Somatics and Trauma, and Somatics and Social Justice.

Staci is also a founder of generationFIVE, a social justice organization

whose mission is to end the sexual abuse of children within 5

generations through survivor leadership, community organizing, transformative justice

approaches and movement building. She has been working and organizing in child sexual abuse

prevention since 1992.

LILLIAN HEWKO is a Reproductive Justice Legal Fellow at the

National Women’s Health Network. While a Gates Scholar at the

University of Washington Law School, she co-founded the

Incarcerated Mothers Advocacy Project, which advocates for

systemic change to prevent family separation due to incarceration.

As an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Legal Voice, she led

successful efforts to amend Washington State’s child welfare laws

to support incarcerated parents’ access to their children. She is a

founding board member of the reproductive justice collaborative

Surge Northwest.

ROSIE HIDALGO is the Director of Public Policy at Casa de

Esperanza, a national Latina organization whose mission is to

mobilize Latinas and Latino communities to end domestic violence.

Rosie has worked in the movement to end domestic violence for the

past 20 years. She previously worked as an attorney at legal services

programs for low-income families in New York City and in Northern

Virginia. Rosie also lived in the Dominican Republic for four years,

until 2006, where she helped establish and coordinate a community-

based domestic violence prevention and intervention network and

worked as a consultant for the World Bank on social services

reforms. She serves on the Steering Committee of the National Task

Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence and has served on the

American Bar Association Commission on Domestic and Sexual

Violence since 2010. Rosie received her undergraduate degree from

Georgetown University and her law degree from New York University School of Law.

MONIQUE HOEFLINGER has been active in social justice

movements for the past 20 years, serving as a lawyer, organizer,

strategist and funder. Her work has centered on the criminal

justice system, LGBT rights and gender violence. She has served

in leadership positions at the Ms. Foundation for Women, Obama

for America (2008), National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and

the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. In 2000 she was awarded a

Soros Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Foundation based

on her work with women in prison. Currently she is working with

activists and funders to grow the movement to end child sexual

abuse.

ANGELA HOOTON currently works at the Center for

Reproductive Rights as the State Policy and Advocacy

Director. For six years Angela worked at the National

Institute for Reproductive Health/NARAL Pro-Choice

New York, where she served as the Vice President of

Programs, Co-Interim Executive Director, and Senior

Vice President. Previously, Angela was the Director of

Policy and Advocacy at the National Latina Institute for

Reproductive Health (NLIRH). Angela also worked at

the Center for Reproductive Rights as a Blackmun

Fellow and at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund through the

Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship program. Angela received her B.A.

magna cum laude from Northwestern University and her law degree from Yale Law School.

C. QUINCE HOPKINS is a tenured professor of law

at Florida Coastal School of Law since 2007. Prior to

joining the Coastal faculty, she was an Assistant

Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University,

preceded by creating and directing the Domestic

Violence Legal Clinic at the University of Arizona

College of Law. Hopkins was the Legal Advisor and a

National Advisory Board Member for the RESTORE

Program in Arizona, which engaged in ground-

breaking examination of the use of restorative justice

as a new justice intervention for acquaintance rape

cases. Hopkins and RESTORE Principal Investigator, Dr. Mary P. Koss, PhD, have published

numerous co-authored and sole-authored articles about restorative justice and the RESTORE

project.

NEIL IRVIN is the Executive Director of Men Can Stop Rape

(MCSR), which seeks to mobilize men to use their strength for

creating cultures free from violence, especially men’s violence

against women. He is responsible for leading the organization’s

national work, as well as cultivating strategic partnerships with

state and federal agencies and private and corporate foundations;

and overseeing all programs, which include the award-winning

youth development program, training and technical assistance for

youth-serving professionals, and Strength Media public awareness

campaign. Since joining the organization in 2001, Neil has grown

this program from one site in Washington, DC, to over 100

locations in ten states across the country. In 2007, he brought the

MOST Club to every public high school in the District of

Columbia, the largest city-wide effort of its kind in the country.

TILOMA JAYASINGHE is the Executive Director of Sakhi for

South Asian Women, a non-profit organization working to end gender-

based violence. She was formerly a Social Affairs Officer at the

United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women where she

was responsible for analyzing and identifying policies and practices

eliminating violence against women from an international

perspective. Prior to that, she was the National Advocates for

Pregnant Women’s first Baron Edmond de Rothschild Staff Attorney

Fellow. She is a graduate of New York University and the George

Washington University School of Law. As an associate at the

international law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe and Maw, LLP, she

spearheaded a pro bono project supporting the development and creation of the Asian University

for Women.

MARGARET JOHNSON is an Associate

Professor and Co-Director, Center on Applied

Feminism at the University of Baltimore School

of Law. Her scholarship focuses on feminist

legal theory, social justice and systemic reform

issues relating to domestic violence and the legal

system. At UB, Johnson directs the Family Law

Clinic, which focuses on domestic violence

issues. Prior to joining the UB faculty, Johnson

directed the Domestic Violence Clinic at the

Washington College of Law, American University; was an employment discrimination litigator,

with a special focus on sexual harassment law, at two D.C. law firms and the Washington

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

VAL KALEI KANUHA, an Assistant Professor in the School

of Social Work at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, was the

recipient of W.E.B. DuBois Research Fellowship from the

National Institute of Justice in 2002. First awarded in 1999, the

DuBois Fellowship is made each year to a researcher who will

contribute to the National Institute of Justice‘s research agenda

on crime, violence and the administration of justice. Her work

focuses on community-based research on intimate partner and

sexual violence; Community accountability - community-based alternatives to criminal-legal

sanctions; Design & evaluation of community-based, domestic violence interventions using

Native Hawaiian cultural values & traditions with male offenders and women survivors.

MICHELLE KAMINSKY, author of Reflections of a

Domestic Violence Prosecutor: Suggestions for Reform,

shares her sixteen years of experience prosecuting domestic

violence crimes. Using eleven compelling cases she

prosecuted, Kaminsky illustrates how societal beliefs about

women, inadequate laws, judicial biases, inflexible

prosecution polices, and a lack of resources prevent

meaningful change for battered women in the criminal justice

system. Kaminsky graduated from American University, and

received her law degree from Brooklyn Law School.

RAMANDEEP KAUR MAHAL is a second-year law student at the

University of Miami School of Law. She is currently enrolled with the

Immigration Clinic and is serving on the Executive Board of the South

Asian Law Student Association. She is a member of the Miami Law

Women Society and the Health Law Association. She interned at the

Unified Family Court during the summer of 2013. Before starting law

school, she graduated with a Masters in Business Administration from

India and worked for three years in the administrative and

management departments of companies in the financial and healthcare

industries.

MIMI KIM is a long-time anti-violence advocate and activist

primarily working in immigrant communities in the U.S. In 2004,

she founded Creative Interventions, a resource center creating

models and tools promoting alternative community-based

interventions to domestic and sexual violence. She is a steering

committee member of the Asian & Pacific Islander Domestic

Violence Institute and a founding member of Incite! Women of

Color against Violence. She is also co-founder of two Korean

domestic violence programs, KAN-WIN (Korean American

Women in Need) in Chicago and Shimtuh in Oakland. Mimi is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the

Department of Social Welfare at University of California, Berkeley where she is doing research

on the history of the anti-violence movement and its pursuit of criminalization.

LISA LARANCE founded the Vista and RENEW

Programs which provide gender-responsive intervention,

advocacy, and support for women who have used force in

their relationships. Her work focuses on meeting the needs

of marginalized women and their families. She co-created

Meridians for Incarcerated Women, a prison-based

curriculum, in addition to launching and moderating the

international “W-Catch22” listserv which provides resource

sharing opportunities for advocates, members of the

judiciary, practitioners, probation agents, and researchers. Ms. Larance and Shamita Das

Dasgupta coedited a 2012 Violence Against Women special issue on battered women’s use of

non-fatal force which won the 2012 Violence Against Women Best Article Award.

TAMARA LAVE, Associate Professor at UM Law, after

graduating from Stanford Law School, was a deputy public

defender for ten years in San Diego, California. In 2005,

Professor Lave left the public defender's office to start a

doctoral program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy–an

interdisciplinary law and society program–at the University

of California, Berkeley. While there, she was a graduate

student fellow at the Kadish Center for Morality, Law and

Public Affairs. Lave has worked on issues regarding

violence against women and children from a number of

perspectives. While in law school, she represented battered women at the Stanford Community

Law Clinic in East Palo Alto and at Ayuda in Washington DC. She also worked with street

children in Guatemala City.

ELIZABETH L. MACDOWELL is Associate Professor of Law

at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada

Las Vegas, where she is also Director of the Family Justice

Clinic—a clinic focusing on incarcerated parents and their

families. Her research focuses on intersectional issues of race,

class, and gender, domestic violence, access to justice, and the

impact of criminalization on low-income families. The American

Association of Law Schools recently named her a Bellow Scholar

for her empirical study (with Emily Troshynski of UNLV) of

domestic violence self-help clinics.

MARTHA MAHONEY, Professor at UM Law, has taught law

at the University of Miami since 1990. A former community

organizer, she is coauthor of SOCIAL JUSTICE: PROFESSIONALS,

COMMUNITIES, AND LAW. Her work on criminal law and violence

against women includes two book chapters (SOCIAL JUSTICE Ch.

14, on the movement to end violence against women, and

Oppression or Victimization? Women's Lives, Violence, and

Agency, in THE PUBLIC NATURE OF PRIVATE VIOLENCE: THE

DISCOVERY OF DOMESTIC ABUSE) and articles, EXIT: Power and

the Idea of Leaving in Love, Work, and the Confirmation

Hearings, 65 S. CAL. L. REV. 1283 (1992); Legal Images of

Battered Women: Redefining the Issue of Separation, 90 Mich. L. Rev. 1 (1991). A founding

participant in ClassCrits, an organization of law professors working on economic justice, her

recent articles have focused on class theory, race, and law. Her current work (Why Didn’t WE

Leave?) returns to domestic violence, criticizing scholarly confusion about expert evidence on

intimate partner violence and suggesting new topics for debates on self-defense.

NICOLE MATTHEWS is a member of the White Earth Band of

Ojibwe, and is the Executive Director for Minnesota Indian

Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, a statewide coalition for

American Indian Sexual Assault Advocates in Minnesota. The

mission of this coalition is to strengthen the voices of American

Indian women to create awareness, influence social change, and

reclaim the traditional values that honor the sovereignty of

American Indian women and children thereby eliminating the

sexual violence perpetrated against them. Nicole was one of five

researchers who interviewed 105 Native women used in

prostitution and trafficking for their report: Garden of Truth: The

Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota.

JOAN MEIER is a Professor of Clinical Law at George

Washington University Law School where she founded three

pioneering and nationally recognized interdisciplinary domestic

violence clinical programs. She has published widely on domestic

violence, particularly relating to custody and abuse. Meier is also the

Founder and Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Legal

Empowerment and Appeals Project (DV LEAP). She founded DV

LEAP to provide pro bono appeals in domestic violence cases,

particularly those involving custody. Professor Meier has also

provided numerous trainings for judges, psychologists, lawyers,

domestic violence coalitions, and others on best practices in

adjudication of domestic violence and protective parent litigation.

ANNE MENARD is an activist who has worked on policy,

practice and research issues affecting domestic violence and sexual

assault survivors since the mid-70s. Her particular focus has been

on survivor-defined advocacy and public policy and research

affecting women and their families, especially those living in

poverty. After serving as a senior consultant to the Family

Violence Prevention and Services Program of the US Department

of Health and Human Services during 2005, she returned as

Director of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence

(NRCDV), a position she previously held from 1994-99. Prior to

this national level work, Ms. Menard led the Connecticut Coalition

Against Domestic Violence for over six years, and, in the early

1980s, co-directed Connecticut’s largest domestic violence shelter

and was actively involved in grassroots sexual assault advocacy.

IVON MESA been working to help victims of Domestic Violence since

1993. In 2008, Ivon Mesa was promoted to the Director of the

Coordinated Victims Assistance Center (CVAC) and was charged with

the task of formulating and implementing the policies and procedures of

the Center so that it could become a functional one stop center for

victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Ivon is responsible for

the daily operations of the Center along with the other three outreach

Domestic Violence Outreach Units and 1- million dollar federal grant. In

2013, Ivon Mesa was promoted to the Director of the Violence

Prevention and Intervention services Division of the Community Action

and Human Services Department of Miami-Dade County. In this

position, Ms. Mesa is responsible for all the programs addressing violence of the department

which include the Coordinated Victims Assistance Center, a one stop center for victims;

Safespace North and South, a shelter for battered women; Inn Transition North and South, a

housing program for victims of domestic violence and the Domestic Violence Outreach Units, a

court based advocacy program for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.

KELLY MILLER has worked to end violence against women and

girls for more than 30 years. She is the Executive Director, Idaho

Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence, a statewide nonprofit

coalition engaging voices to create change in the prevention,

intervention, and response to gender-based violence. Kelly is a

member of cohort two with Move to End Violence, an initiative of

the NoVo foundation. Kelly also oversees the Center for Healthy

Teen Relationships promoting youth leadership and healthy teen

relationships as a way to end adolescent relationship abuse and sexual

assault. Before joining the Idaho Coalition, Kelly represented girls

and women who were victims of domestic violence, dating abuse and

sexual assault and individuals with disabilities as an attorney with

Legal Aid Society, an assistant prosecutor in a felony domestic

violence/sexual assault unit in Louisville, Kentucky, and as Deputy Director with Idaho Legal

Aid Services.

SUSAN L. MILLER is Professor in the

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at

the University of Delaware. Her research interests

include violence against women; justice-involved

women; victims' rights; intimate partner violence,

gender, and criminal justice policy; and theoretical

and policy implications of gender and social

control. Dr. Miller has published numerous articles

about the intersection of victimization and

offending among IPV survivors, including a book

Victims as offenders: The paradox of women’s use

of violence in relationships. Her most recent book,

After the crime: The power of restorative justice dialogues between victims and violent offenders,

won the 2012 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

LAVON MORRIS-GRANT is a social, political activist for women

and children’s safety against violence and dedicates much of her time

and efforts to statewide domestic violence and faith-based

organizations. She is a mentor for the Women of Color Network and

was a board member of the New York State Coalition against

Domestic Violence for eight years. Lavon is also an entrepreneur, an

internationally recognized speaker on topics related to violence

against women, and an author. Her book “Whom Shall I Fear: A

Spiritual Journey of a Battered Woman”, tells the true story of being

shot four times by her husband, and the spiritual journey that

transformed into a healing and recovery process for her.

ADELE M. MORRISON is a tenured Associate Professor of Law

at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, Michigan. After

years of working as an anti-domestic violence advocate, and trainer

she enrolled in law school and earned her J.D. from Stanford.

Following law school, as an Echoing Green Fellow, Adele founded

and directed a project focused on same-sex domestic violence. This

public interest fellowship was followed by an LL.M from the

University of Wisconsin Law School where she was a Remington-

Hastie Fellow. Professor Morrison is a Critical Theorist who

teaches, writes and is committed to service in the areas of criminal

law and family law, especially as they converge in addressing

domestic and sexual violence and issues related to race, gender,

sexuality and the law. Her scholarship has appeared in the HARVARD

JOURNAL OF LAW & GENDER, U.C. DAVIS LAW REVIEW, MICHIGAN

JOURNAL OF RACE AND LAW and the TULANE JOURNAL OF LAW AND SEXUALITY, among other

publications.

HEIDI NOTARIO, M.A. serves as the Training and Technical

Assistance Coordinator of the National Latin@ Network for

Healthy Families and Communities, a project of Casa de

Esperanza. She has advocated for the rights of persons with

disabilities and Deaf individuals for more than ten years, working

closely at the intersections of disabilities and violence against

women. Heidi’s interests include a wide variety of issues related to

the treatment afforded to survivors of violence with disabilities and

Deaf survivors by the criminal justice system, service providers,

and society at large. Heidi keeps on the forefront of her anti-

oppression work the elimination of barriers that impact immigrant

survivors and the LGBTQ community.

JODEEN OLGUÍN-TAYLER is Director of Organizing at Caring

Across Generations and has been leading campaigns in progressive

movements for over 12 years and is recognized for working with

innovative projects to build strategic partnerships and advance an

organizational culture of campaigning and leadership development. Her

experience includes Campaign Director for the National Domestic

Workers’s Alliance, Deputy Field Director at MoveOn.org; and Lead

Campaigner with UNITE-HERE. She is currently leading Caring

Across Generations' work to weave together their national field

organizing, on-line campaigning, culture change and Hollywood

engagement in order to bring to scale the activist mobilization and

values shift needed to win national policy change.

MARCIA OLIVO, a Dominican Republic native, is recognized for

her work as a community organizer and advocate for domestic

violence victims. In 1989, Marcia moved to the United States and

began working as a community organizer with both “Mother on the

Move” and “North West Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition,

in the Bronx, New York. Upon relocating to Miami, Florida in

2000, Marcia continued working with organizations such as Florida

Immigrant Advocacy and coordinated the Florida Immigrant

Coalition. Marcia also made a name for herself at Power U for

Social Change, where she organized parents around educational

issues to develop a platform that would improve educational

standards at public elementary schools. In 2002, Marcia became a

full time mom. She resumed her work in 2008 as a Coordinator of a

support group geared towards women and children survivors of domestic violence. Marcia, along

with her colleague, recognized a great need for a long term sustainable organizing group led by

survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. This group would raise awareness around the

impact of violence that women and their families experience as well as address society’s

response to violence against women. Ultimately, Sisterhood of Survivors (SOS) was created in

2008.

LUMARIE OROZCO is a community psychologist, youth

practitioner and trainer. Lumarie previously managed Casa de

Esperanza’s community engagement initiatives including

Fuerza Unida and Youth Initiatives. Her work includes

leadership training and curriculum development, psycho-

educational support group facilitation and program

development and implementation. Lumarie is a trainer for the

National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and

Communities, a project of Casa de Esperanza. Lumarie is a

2011 Practitioner Fellow with the National Institute on Out of

School Time, and a 2012 Practitioner Fellow with the Robert

Bowne Foundation National Writing Project.

EESHA PANDIT is a writer and activist who believes in

social justice movements, the power of intersectionality,

feminism, sisterhood and the power of art. Her writing can be

found at The Crunk Feminist Collective, Feministing, Salon,

The Nation, RH Reality Check, Feministe and In These

Times. She’s also a longtime human rights activist and most

recently served as Executive Director of Men Stopping

Violence. She’s also worked with Breakthrough, Raising

Women’s Voices, the Civil Liberties and Public Policy

Program, Carr Center for Human Rights at

Harvard and Amnesty International Women’s Human Rights

Program.

JACKIE PAYNE is the director of Move to End Violence, a 10-

year movement-building project of the NoVo Foundation. Jackie

began her career in post-apartheid South Africa working on issues

related to gender equality, women’s health and economic

empowerment. She then became a staff attorney at the Legal

Assistance Foundation of Chicago, working on matters of domestic

and sexual violence, public benefits, housing and consumer

protection. Jackie next joined the NOW Legal Defense and

Education Fund, where she led a national coalition of community-

based organizations dedicated to addressing the gender roots of

poverty in America. There she also chaired the National Coalition

to End Domestic and Sexual Violence and helped lead the

successful campaign to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. During this time she also

served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, teaching the course “Gender, Equality

and the Law.

SANDRA S. PARK is a Senior Staff Attorney in the ACLU Women’s

Rights Project. Sandra has advocated for the rights of survivors of

gender-based violence throughout her legal career, and currently

focuses on confronting discrimination faced by survivors in housing,

employment, and schools and holding governments accountable for

addressing and preventing violence. She also was a lead lawyer on a

landmark case that resulted in a unanimous 2013 U.S. Supreme Court

decision invalidating patents on two human genes related to breast and

ovarian cancer. Sandra previously chaired the Committee on

Domestic Violence at the New York City Bar Association and worked

as a Skadden Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of New York,

representing immigrant survivors. She clerked for U.S. District Judge

Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York and is a magna

cum laude graduate of Harvard College and NYU School of Law.

HILLARY POTTER is Associate Professor of Sociology at the

University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a B.A. and a Ph.D.

in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an

M.A. in criminal justice from the John Jay College of Criminal

Justice. Dr. Potter’s research focuses on the intersection of race,

gender, sexuality, and class as they relate to crime and violence.

She is currently researching intimate partner abuse among

interracial couples, men’s use of violence, and anti-violence

activism in Black and Latina/o communities. Dr. Potter is the

author of Battle Cries: Black Women and Intimate Partner Abuse

(New York University Press, 2008) and Intersectionality and

Criminology (Routledge, forthcoming 2014).

JAMES PTACEK has been working on issues of violence

against women in the U.S. since 1981. He has been a batterers’

counselor and has conducted trainings on domestic violence

intervention for hospital, mental health, and legal professionals.

He has done research on men who batter, rape and battering on

college campuses, and battered women’s experience with the

courts. He is the editor of Restorative Justice and Violence

Against Women (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Jim is a Professor of Sociology at Suffolk University in Boston,

and Director of the Master’s Program in Crime and Justice

Studies.

BETH E. RICHIE is The Director of the Institute for

Research on Race and Public Policy and Professor of African

American Studies and Criminology, Law and Justice at The

University of Illinois at Chicago. The emphasis of her

scholarly and activist work has been on the ways that

race/ethnicity and social position affect women's experience of

violence and incarceration, focusing on the experiences of

African American battered women and sexual assault

survivors. Dr. Richie is the author of Arrested Justice: Black

Women, Violence and America’s Prison Nation (NYU Press,

2012) and numerous articles concerning Black feminism and

gender violence, race and criminal justice policy, and the

social dynamics around issues of sexuality, prison abolition,

and grassroots organizations in African American

Communities.

ANDREA RITCHIE is a Black lesbian police misconduct

attorney who has engaged in extensive research, writing,

litigation, organizing and advocacy on profiling, policing, and

physical and sexual violence by law enforcement agents against

women, girls and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)

people of color in over the past two decades. She currently

coordinates Streetwise & Safe (SAS), she serves on the steering

committee of Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), a

city-wide campaign to challenge discriminatory, unlawful and

abusive policing practices in New York City led by grassroots

community groups, legal organizations, policy advocates and

researchers from all five boroughs. She is also co-author of Queer

(In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United

States.

MARÍA RODRIGUEZ has worked to defend basic human rights of

low-income and migrant peoples for 30 years. She became active in the

anti-apartheid and Central America relief/solidarity efforts at an early

age.. She has led several award-winning projects including the

establishment and growth of a housing cooperative and two medical

clinics. She served as Deputy Director for the Human Services

Coalition before becoming the first Executive Director of the Florida

Immigrant Coalition (www.floridaimmigrant.org) where she seeks to

build a diverse, dynamic and proactive movement for the fair treatment

of all people, including immigrants. Her best role is being Dante's

mom.

REBECCA SHARPLESS is a member of the faculty of the

University of Miami School of Law, where she directs the

Immigration Clinic and teaches immigration law. Professor Sharpless

researches and writes in the areas of progressive lawyering, feminist

theory, and the intersection of immigration and criminal law.

Immediately before joining the School of Law's faculty, she was a

Visiting Clinical Professor of Law at Florida International

University's College of Law, where she taught in-house clinics in the

areas of immigration and human rights and a doctrinal course on

immigration law. From 1996 to 2007, Professor Sharpless was a

supervising attorney at Americans for Immigrant Justice (formerly

Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center), where she engaged in extensive

litigation on behalf of low-income immigrants as lead counsel in cases

before the United States Courts of Appeals and United States District Courts as well as

immigration court and the Board of Immigration Appeals.

SANDY SKELANEY has dedicated her career to

eradicating the sex trafficking of children and helping

survivors find a path to healing. As a result of Sandy’s

vision and expertise, Kristi House led the charge to

create specialized programming, a safe house and

change legislation in Florida that will take children

who have been commercially sexually exploited out of

the criminal justice system and provide “Safe Harbor”

and services for these high risk victims. Sandy has

won four awards for her advocacy and program

development, including the prestigious “Women Who Make a Difference in Miami” award from

the Junior League of Miami in 2013.

TERRA SLAVIN is the Lead Staff Attorney at the L.A.

Gay & Lesbian Center where she manages the Domestic

Violence Legal Advocacy Project. Slavin oversees the

delivery of comprehensive legal services for LGBTQ

survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and

stalking. Slavin is on the Governance Committee of the

National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs

(NCAVP). Slavin has been representing NCAVP on the

Steering Committee of the National Task Force to End

Sexual and Domestic Violence, the main coalition of

service providers that worked to re-authorize the

Violence Against Women Act, which included LGBTQ-

explicit protections for the first time, an effort which Slavin Co-Chaired.

SPEARIT is an Associate Professor at Thurgood Marshall School

of Law at Texas Southern University and Fellow at the Institute for

Social Policy & Understanding (ISPU). Prior to joining Thurgood

Marshall, he taught at the Saint Louis University School of Law

and Seattle University School of Law. SpearIt’s research

concentrates on criminal justice, and most recently he has authored

a major report on Muslim radicalization in American prisons.

Currently, SpearIt serves on the Board of Governors for the

Society of American Law Teachers; he is also working on various

projects that include book chapters for The Muslims in U.S.

Prisons and Religion and American Cultures. SpearIt earned a

B.A. in philosophy, magna cum laude, from the University of

Houston, a master’s in theological studies at Harvard Divinity

School, a Ph.D. in religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, and a

J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law.

ANDREW STA. ANA is the Supervising Day One, a

New York City based organization that partners with

youth to end dating violence through legal and social

services, community education and advocacy. At Day

One, Andrew advocates for young survivors where there

experiences intersect with the legal systems including

family court, immigration, public benefits and schools. He

is a graduate of the CUNY school of Law. In 2007 he was

awarded an Equal Justice works Fellowship to implement

the LGBT Initiative at Sanctuary for Families, a program

to confront intimate partner violence in NYC’s Lesbian,

Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities through

legal representation, policy advocacy, community

outreach and education. In September 2011, he was awarded the Courage Award from the NYC

Anti-Violence project for his work to set up and administer a free legal clinic for LGBTQ

survivors of intimate partner violence. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Pride Center

of Staten Island and is a native of New York City.

NAN STOOPS has worked in the anti-violence movement as an

advocate, trainer, and organizer for more than 30 years. Currently,

she serves as the Executive Director of the Washington State

Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a non-profit organization

that works on behalf of 73 community-based domestic violence

advocacy agencies in Washington. Before coming to WSCADV

in 1998, Nan was the associate director of the FaithTrust Institute,

a national organization that mobilizes religious leaders and

communities to address sexual and domestic violence. Nan was a

founding member of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence,

is a past board chair of the National Network to End Domestic

Violence, and has served on numerous boards and advisory

groups.

WAYNE THOMAS is the creator of the legal program at the

GLBTQ Domestic Violence Project in Boston, MA, where he

practices as the Managing Attorney. He handles civil protection

order cases, discrimination, and family law matters and provides

advocacy to victims and witnesses in the criminal justice system.

Wayne served on the advisory board of the American Bar

Association’s Legal Assistance and Education for LGBT Victims

of Domestic Violence Project from 2007-2009. He has served

multiple terms as co-chair of the GLBT Domestic Violence

Coalition in Boston and was a member of the LGBT

Subcommittee that successfully advocated for the inclusion of

sexual orientation and gender identity protections in the

reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. He is also a

co-author of a chapter on intimate partner violence in GLAD’s

book: Transgender Family Law. He is a graduate of the Northeastern University School of Law.

QUANITA TOFFIE started fighting for social and

racial justice in her native Cape Town, South Africa

alongside her parents during the transition from

apartheid to democracy long before the start of her

professional career in the United States. At age twenty-

nine, she leads Florida New Majority’s efforts at

harnessing the power of civic engagement organizing

and capacity building through data-driven campaigns

for change in Florida. Quanita holds a Bachelor’s

degree in Political Theory, Economic Development,

and African Studies from her beloved alma mater Hampshire College, school for social change.

She currently serves as Deputy Director of Capacity & Operations and is on the Senior

Leadership Team at Florida New Majority.

JAMIE LYNN VANARIA is a third-year law student at the

University of Miami School of Law. She graduated from Boston

University in 2007, is bilingual (Spanish-English), and has spent

most of her career working directly with individuals in Latin

America or with Latino/a immigrants. Jamie serves as the Editor-

in-Chief of the Inter-American Law Review. She is also the

president of UM Law’s Chapter of Law Students for

Reproductive Justice (LSRJ UM), and serves as the Service co-

chair for the Society of Bar and Gavel. Jamie’s academic and

extracurricular interests focus on the intersections between

reproductive rights, the environment, and striving towards racial

and gender equality. During the summer of 2013, Jamie was awarded a UM Law HOPE

Fellowship to work at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (HLAB) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At

HLAB, Jamie assisted poor and minority women experiencing domestic violence.

NATALIA VILLEGAS is a bilingual nurse that holds a

Bachelor’s degree in Nursing and a Master’s degree in Nursing

from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She completed

a PhD in Nursing at the University of Miami in May, 2012.

Currently, she works as an Assistant Professor at the School of

Nursing and health Studies. Dr. Villegas is a nurse midwife and

has worked as clinical nurse and research assistant in various

settings. Her research interest lies in women’s health, STI and

HIV prevention and the use of technology for prevention. Her

doctoral dissertation was focused on developing and Piloting an

Internet Based STI and HIV Prevention Intervention among

Young Chilean Women between 18 and 24 years old. In addition,

she works as a co-investigator and project director in the study

SEPA III: The effectiveness trial, a study that targets Hispanic

women at risk of acquiring HIV.

DEBORAH M. WEISSMAN is the Reef C. Ivey II

Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North

Carolina School of Law. Her research, teaching, and practice

interests include gender-based violence law, immigration law,

and human rights in the local and international realm. Some of

her recent relevant publications include Law, Social

Movements, and the Political Economy of Domestic Violence,

(22 Duke J. of Gender, Law & Policy 221 (2013); Global

Economics and Their Progenies: Theorizing Femicide in

Context, in Terrorizing Women, Femicide in the Americas,

(Rosa-Linda Fregoso and Cynthia Bejarano, eds., 2010 Duke

Press); Gender and Human Rights: Between Morals and Politics in Gender Equality (Linda C.

McClain and Joanna L. Grossman, eds. 2009).

CINDY WIESNER, is the National Coordinator of Grassroots

Global Justice Alliance (GGJ). She is also the co-director of the

Climate Justice Alliance (CJA). Cindy has been active in the

grassroots social justice movement for over 20 years. She started

organizing with HERE Local 2850. Cindy then served as

Director of Organizing for People Organizing to Win

Employment Rights in San Francisco, and as an Organizer and

Board member for generationFIVE. Cindy has also been a

consultant for Men Overcoming Violence Everywhere and

Mujeres Unidas y Activas. Before joining GGJ staff she was the

Leadership Development Director of the Miami Workers Center

(MWC) and represented the MWC as a member of the US

Social Forum (USSF) National Planning Committee. In both

USSF's, Cindy was the co-chair of the national outreach working

group and served on the leadership and coordination bodies of

those efforts. After 5 years as GGJ Political Coordinator, Cindy stepped into the role of National

Coordinator in September, 2012.

JESSICA R. WILLIAMS is an Assistant Professor at the

University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies. Her

clinical specialty is in public health nursing and research

interests include adolescent behavioral health, violence

prevention, implementation science and evidence-based practice.

Dr. Williams’ research focuses on better understanding the

interrelationship of different forms of violence and associated

health outcomes. Her research also examines strategies to

increase the implementation of evidence-based practices in

healthcare. She earned a Doctorate of Philosophy in Nursing

(PhD), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and Master in

Public Health (MPH) from Johns Hopkins University and a

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and Bachelor of Arts in

Sociology (BA) from the University of Florida

REBECCA WYSS is an activist in the newly-formed

FuckRapeCulture movement at Ohio University. A junior at

OU’s Honors Tutorial College, she studies English literature

with a minor in history and certificates in creative writing and

law, justice, and culture. A survivor of sexual violence herself,

she works as a Peer Advocate at Ohio University’s (Sexual

Assault) Survivor Advocacy Program. In addition to her duties

on FuckRapeCulture’s protest, consent workshop, and outreach

committees, Wyss writes a weekly column about local rape

culture, gender, and sexuality issues for OU’s campus

newspaper, The Post. She hopes to become an attorney

specializing in international human rights.