Annual Conference
Faculty Speakers/Workshops
Terie Dreussi Smith, M.A. Ed
Plenary Speech: "The Impact of Poverty on Supervised Visitation"
Terie Dreussi Smith has served as Supervisor of Prevention Services at a community alcohol/other drug treatment and prevention organization for over nine years, and was instrumental in the organization's redesign of programs and services for prevention and early intervention clients from generational poverty. She also co-authored Bridges Out of Poverty; Strategies for Professionals and Communities. She is a former public school teacher with years of experience. Terie served as adjunct faculty for several colleges focused on empowering adult students transitioning out poverty. In her recent consultant work as a grant writer and social program manager for youth-based service agencies, community coalitions and schools, Terie assisted communities to embed Bridges Out of Poverty concepts in redesigning policies and services for families and youth in generational poverty.
Dr. Christopher T. Kilmartin
Closing Plenary Session: "Guy Fi: The Fictions that Rule Men's Lives"
Professor Ph.D. Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University
Dr. Christopher Kilmartin is a college professor, author, stand-up comedian, actor, playwright, consultant and professional psychologist. He is a Professor of Psychology at The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. He holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and is a licensed clinical psychologist who has a great deal of experience consulting with businesses, college students, human services workers, and counselors. In 2007, he was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Gender Studies at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. His major scholarly work is The Masculine Self (3rd edition, Sloan, 2007), which is also being translated in Korea. Men's Violence Against Women: Theory, Research, and Activism (co-authored by Julie Allison, Ph.D., Erlbaum, 2007) is his most recent book. The Pain behind the Mask: Overcoming Masculine Depression (co-author, John Lynch, Ph.D.) was published by Haworth in 1999 and translated into Hebrew in 2004. Sexual Assault in Context: Teaching College Men about Gender (2005, Erlbaum) is a manual based on his consultation experiences. Drawing on his background as a professional stand-up comedian, Dr. Kilmartin wrote a solo theatre performance on men's issues entitled Crimes Against Nature.
Judge Jerry Bowles
Special Plenary Session: "Judge Jerry: SVN Court is in Session"
Jefferson Circuit Court
(Family Trial Division)
Jerry J. Bowles is a Circuit Judge in Jefferson County where he presides in the Family Court. Originally appointed by the Governor, he has twice been elected to his current seat. Judge Bowles is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. His experience includes his work as a Trial Attorney with the Jefferson District Public Defenders Office, private practice where he specialized in domestic relations law and general litigation and twelve years as a prosecutor in the County Attorneys Office where he initiated and served as the Director and Chief Prosecutor of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit.
Judge Bowles has been active at the local, state and national level regarding issues of Family Violence. He has served as a member of Kentucky Attorney General's Task Force on Domestic Violence; the Kentucky Legislative Task Force on Domestic Violence; Kentucky Legislative Parenting and Child Custody Task Force; the Jefferson County Office for Women Advisory Council; and as Technical Advisor to the Department of Justice under the Violence Against Women Act. The Judge served as Vice-Chair of the Kentucky Governor's Council on Domestic Violence; on the Jefferson Family Court Emergency Protection Order Committee; the Governor's Judicial Advisory Committee, the Kentucky Medical Association Subcommittee on Domestic Violence, the Kentucky Bar Association Committee on Child Protection and Domestic Violence, and on the American Judges Association Domestic Violence Committee and currently Co-chairs the Louisville Metro Domestic Violence Prevention Coordinating Council and Chairs the Louisville Metro Fatality Review Committee.
Workshop Presenters
Wendy Wolff is the Familyconnect Project Coordinator for Family Alternatives, a private foster care agency in Minneapolis. Her educational background and licensure is in school counseling and she works part time with the Minneapolis Public School system as well. Wendy began her work in child welfare as a child protection worker in Portland, Oregon and is an adoptive and foster parent. Her passion for family visiting grew out of these personal and professional experiences and she has spent the past five years researching, creating, piloting and presenting the familyconnect guides designed to support children and their family visits.
Lynn Riemer has over 10 years of experience with Narcotics. Lynn was a Forensic Chemist with the DEA and spent the last seven years as the Chemist /Criminalist with the North Metro Drug Task Force. She has personally been involved with the processing of over 200 Meth Labs and involved with thousands of drug busts/drug deals. Lynn has trained over 95,000 professionals and Junior & Senior High School students in the areas of Drug Awareness, Drug Endangered Children and Meth Lab Hazards, Recognition & Personal Safety. Over the last four years she has had the state contract with the Colorado Dept. of Humans Services to train everyone that goes into homes as part of their daily job duties on the hazards of all drugs, specifically methamphetamine. She is a recognized expert in Methamphetamine, Manufacturing, Child Abuse, Health Effects and Contamination in many counties in Colorado. Lynn Riemer is also a Coauthor of the book "The Methamphetamine Crisis: Strategies to Save Addicts, Families, and Communities" by Greenwood Publishing, November 2006.
Ona Foster has been working in the domestic violence field for over 10 years and is currently heading up the supervised visitation work at the Vera Institute of Justice. She most recently spent seven years implementing and directing Faith and Liberty's Place Supervised Visitation Center, which is a program of The Family Place Domestic Violence Agency in Dallas, Texas. Previously Ms. Foster spent four years working in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office in the Family Violence Unit, first as a legal advocate in the criminal misdemeanor family violence courts, and then as a supervisor in the Protective Order Division. Prior to working at the DA's Office, she facilitated BIPP (Batterer's Intervention and Prevention Program) groups using the Duluth model at 3 different domestic violence agencies, and also has worked in a women's shelter.
She publicly speaks on the issue of domestic violence nationally and locally, and has trained law enforcement and community groups across the state of Texas for the Dallas County District Attorney's Office. Ms. Foster serves on two committees for the Supervised Visitation Network and is a member of the board. She also serves in a consultant capacity for the Family Violence Prevention fund, Praxis International, The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the Office on Violence Against Women. Ms. Foster is a licensed social worker who holds a master's in social work from the University of Texas, and a bachelor's in sociology and criminal justice from Colorado State University.
Judy Newman MSW, RSW from Toronto, Ontario Canada is the manager of the Supervised Access Program, Ministry of the Attorney General which has 94 site locations across the province. Judy oversees funding contracts with service providers and works with them to develop policies and procedures and training. Judy is a registered professional social worker who previously worked at the Office of the Children's Lawyer working with children and families involved in high conflict custody and access disputes conducting investigations and assisting children's counsel to represent the interests of children before the court. Judy is a field instructor for the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto and York University. She is a recipient of the Judith Wallach President's Award from the Supervised Visitation Network recognizing her contribution to the profession. Judy is a member of the SVN Board and Executive acting as Board secretary and chair of the Standards and Guidelines Committee as well as a member of the Training Committee and the GAR Committee. She is also a frequent workshop presenter at SVN Conferences.
Michael Saini, Ph.D., M.S.W., R.S.W., is Assistant Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. He specializes in child welfare, child custody, parenting after divorce or separation and alternative dispute resolutions including child protection mediation. Dr. Saini is also involved in a number of systematic reviews of interventions related to social work and he supports evidence-based practice, knowledge transfer and evaluation of KT activities and products for professional practice. Barbara Flory received a Master's Degree in Social Work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Human Services, magna cum laude, from Fontbonne University, St. Louis MO. She is a licensed clinical social worker in the State of Missouri. Ms. Flory is currently working as a independent consultant to local and state courts and agencies providing consultation and training on public policy, strategic planning and program administration issues concerning supervised visitation programming. Her consultation, direct practice, research, teaching, and community service have focused on the problems experienced by children, youth, and families involved in the family law and child welfare systems. Much of her work has focused on the development of social service programming that ameliorates at-risk situations and prevents the development of lifelong issues due to membership in family and/or community systems that fail to properly nurture and educate the child. She has planned and implemented two grant funded nationally recognized collaborative programs: Heritage House, a supervised visitation and custody exchange center and Community Links, a multi-pronged project aimed at discouraging gang involvement among refugee youth.
Tracy A. Marschall, Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Indianapolis, is an experienced social work educator, having presented on related topics regularly at both state and national conferences and the Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education. Marschall earned her MSW from Indiana University and has done doctoral work at the University of Illinois. She has extensive practice experience in visitation both as part of an agency, and as an independent practitioner managing both dependency and dissolution cases, often with complex, high-conflict families. Marschall's primary research interests include diverse family systems and theory development; child welfare, custody and therapeutic supervised visitation; and the use of expressive/art therapy techniques for social workers. Marschall was also the 2004 recipient of Indiana University's Summer Faculty Fellowship. She currently teaches courses in the micro/mezzo portion of the baccalaureate curriculum, as well as courses on research, issues of gender, and practice with children and youth.
Brenda A. Tully, LCSW is the Assistant Director of Clinical Services for The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and oversees the Supervised Visitation and Child Empowerment Programs. Ms. Tully has over 14 years of experience working with youth and families in schools, residential foster care, and community-based programs. She is trained in EMDR and Somatic Experiencing. Ms. Tully earned her Master of Social Work degree at Fordham University.
Katheryn Lotsos, LCSW is the Director of Clinical Services for The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and oversees the Trauma Recovery Program. Ms. Lotsos has over ten years of clinical experience working with children and their families and specializes in treating children who have experienced trauma. Ms. Lotsos holds a master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland.
Kathy Stutzman has worked in the business of community engagement and development for over twenty-five years. As a researcher, she has developed methods of fostering private and public partnerships as a model for financial sustainability that integrates her community engagement and development expertise. Recognized nationally for her workshops and training sessions on public and private sector partnering, developing community collaborations and social policy development; Ms. Stutzman is also involved in a number of international community development and financial sustainability initiatives. In addition to being the President of Harbor Building Group, Ms. Stutzman is a consultant for the Parenting Resource Center, a community-based, non-profit organization for which she has facilitated a number of successful and vibrant collaborations. Kathy has Masters Degrees in Management and Administration of Health and Human Services; teaches facilitation and community development; is a facilitator, leadership trainer, and community organizer specializing in project and policy development and developing community-based collaboratives.
Rich Batten is the Administrator of the Colorado Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Community Access Program for the Colorado Department of Human Services. www.coloradodads.com He has worked for Colorado State University Cooperative Extension as a family and consumer science agent and has served as the pastor of family ministries with churches in Iowa, Illinois and Colorado. He has a Masters of Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Masters of Education in Family Studies from Loyola University of Chicago and has maintained certification as a Family Life Educator (CFLE) by the National Council on Family Relations since 1998. He is certified as an instructor and trainer for numerous marriage education and fatherhood programs, and has served as the work and family expert for Denver's News 2 television station. His blog Fastbreak for Fathers may be found online at www.coloradodads.com. Rich is the father of four children - two twenty-year-olds and two teenagers.
Dr. Jerome Perkins is the president and founder of Christlife Ministries, a prison ministry based in Pueblo, CO. He has been active in prison ministry and aftercare transition services for ex-offenders for more than 15 years. He was named the Colorado Fatherhood Council's 2009 Fatherhood Practitioner of the Year for his work with prison fathers, teaching them to build connections with their children while also preparing them for a lasting relationship with their families when they are released. This program is requested by more prison facilities in the southeastern region of Colorado than Dr. Perkins can facilitate. Dr. Perkins and his wife have six children and four grandchildren. Dr. Perkins is also a sought after speaker and vocalist.
Rob Straus is a psychologist and lawyer was Senior Psychologist of the Family Service Clinic from 1982 to 1988, conducting custody and visitation evaluations for the Middlesex County Family Court. From 1988, he served frequently as Guardian ad Litem in high-conflict custody and access disputes. In 1991, Dr. Straus started Meeting Place: Supervised Child Access Service, a program of The Guidance Center, Inc. in Cambridge, MA, providing a safe setting in which children in high-risk situations can visit parents with whom they are not living. He is a founder of the Supervised Visitation Network. He was President of the Network in 1993-94, helped draft the Network's Standards and Guidelines for practice, and has served several terms on the Board of Directors. From 1995 through 2000 he was Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for Supervised Visitation, and in that capacity worked with the Governor's Commission on Responsible Fatherhood and the Supervised Visitation Task Force of the Probate and Family Court, helping draft the Guidelines for Court Practice for Supervised Visitation. Dr. Straus has a private psychotherapy practice, working with couples and children, and remains the Program Consultant to Meeting Place.
Joanne Karolzak is a founding and continuous member of the Supervised Visitation Network. She served seven years on the Board including serving as the network's third President. She is the Director of Community Education and Family Support at Casa de los Ninos in Tucson, AZ. Joanne has been a practitioner of services for over 20 years and has worked extensively in the field. She hosted the first SVN conference and co-hosted it again in 2005. Joanne was one of the U.S. delegates to the first International Conference on Access Programs in France in 1997. She has provided training and consultation to programs throughout the United States. Joanne currently oversees the two different access programs provided by her agency serving both domestic cases and paternity actions and dependency visitation cases.
John Holmberg is a clinical psychologist with expertise in community-based family interventions. For undergraduate training, he attended the University of Colorado, Boulder. John attended Baylor University for his graduate work, followed by two years fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center. For the past 9-years, he has been a researcher, working with Dr. David Olds, at the Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health at the University of Colorado. John has been studying the impacts of a nurse-home visitation model that assists first-time mothers and fathers in making the transition to parenthood and building a foundation for life success. The program, called the Nurse Family Partnership, has been shown to be beneficial for families and youth in three randomized control studies followed longitudinally over the past 30-years. John recently received funding to study fatherhood services that augment or complement services families are receiving in existing community programs. John is a trained facilitator of fatherhood curricula including Boot Camp for New Dads, Caring Dads, and the Nurturing Fathers Program. Further, was trained as a trainer for National Fatherhood Initiative curricula such as Dr. Dad, Inside-Out Dad and 24/7 Dad.
Karen Jenkins, MS, has over 25 years of experience in the public child welfare system at both the county and state level. Ms. Jenkins held the position of Program Director for the Office of Children and Youth Services (OCYF) for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. As Program Director she was responsible for the implementation of numerous statewide initiatives including fatherhood grants, family centers, community collaborative boards, independent living grants, Children's Trust Fund Legislated Board, delinquency prevention grants, State Foster Parent Association, Pennsylvania State Adoption Network, Parent Child Home Visiting Program, and Family Group Conferencing Initiative. Most recently Ms. Jenkins was the Assistant Administrator for Dauphin County Social Services for Children and Youth (DCSSCY). Currently she is the Director of Public Child Welfare Initiatives for American Humane located in the state of Colorado
Ken Sanders has been involved with the Center on Fathering since its inception in June of 1995. My responsibilities with the Center include the day-to-day management of a one-of-a-kind organization that provides comprehensive and targeted services to fathers and their families. I am responsible for the creation and evolution of the curricula used in our core classes - a 15-week "Fathering" class and a 10-week "Conflict Resolution for Dads" class. I also generate grant proposals for funding opportunities for the Center. I am also a manager for the El Paso County Department of Human Services in the TANF Division.
Katie Smith is the Program Coordinator with the Jefferson County Child Support Services. She has been part of a team that developed and implemented one of Colorado's first Child Support Problem Solving Courts. Katie has a passion to connect families involved with the Child Support Services to resources that will help them succeed and thrive. She is the Child Support Services� liaison for Justice Services, the Courts, the Fatherhood Program and other agency collaborations and partnerships.
Tracey Schlafer is currently the Executive Director of AMEND Inc., a batterer treatment program in metro Denver. She provides training and technical assistance to domestic violence programs and community partners regarding batterers and domestic violence issues. She has the opportunity to use her experience and skills in therapeutic assessment and intervention while supervising treatment providers and victim advocates. She is working with law enforcement, victim services agencies, and representatives from the legal system to develop a coordinated community response to needs of traumatized adult and child victims and families. Tracey was employed previously at the Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence as the statewide Child and Youth Advocacy Director. Tracey earned a Bachelors Degree in Sociology and Social Work and a Masters Degree in Social Work with a specialization in Children, Youth, and Families. She has twelve years of experience in the child welfare and mental health fields; serving as a child protective caseworker for eight years in both Texas and Colorado. She also worked as a psychiatric social worker and a managed care administrator for children in the custody of County Departments of Social Services/Child Protective Services.
Sharon Rogers is Executive Director Judge Ben Gordon, Jr. Family Visitation Center. My education and background are in the areas of law and teaching. My first undergraduate program was Education and I eventually added a BA in Legal Administration. Prior to becoming involved with the Visitation Center, I worked with Legal Services and the Guardian Ad Litem program. I was a founding board member of the Judge Ben Gordon, Jr. Family Visitation Center, and moved from that position into the Center's first paid position as the Executive Director. Over the last thirteen years I have assisted in moving this program from a small one-woman show by opening three Visitation Centers that now serve two counties in Northwest Florida. I am a longtime member of SVN, hosted the 2002 annual conference and served for two years on the board of directors. I have also actively participated in the FL Chapter over the years, serving on the board in every capacity, including three terms as President. In the state of Florida, I have served on numerous committees and participated in a variety of projects over the years. These include the creation of the Florida State Data Base, and the recent Report to the Florida Legislature with Recommendations of the Supervised Visitation Standards Committee. I additionally provided review and case examples for A Training Manual for Florida's Supervised Visitation Programs, and Child Sexual Abuse Referrals; A Curriculum for Supervised Visitation Providers.
Julie Kunce Field, J.D. The Executive Director of The Confidentiality Institute, Ms. Field is a nationally recognized expert on legal issues concerning domestic violence and sexual assault, particularly in the area of confidentiality and privilege issues as they relate to domestic violence and sexual assault. Ms. Field has served as a law professor and law clinic director at the University of Michigan, the University of Denver College of Law, and Washburn Law School; she serves as an adjunct and guest lecturer at the University of Colorado at Denver in the Graduate School of Public Affairs. Her primary work and professional interests include domestic violence, sexual assault, custody cases and other family law issues, sex discrimination cases, appeals and other cases that impact women in poverty. She has conducted numerous trainings for attorneys, judges and advocates on issues related to violence against women, and has written articles, books and book chapters on family law and issues related to violence against women. She has recently lent her expertise to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the VERA Institute of Justice, the Battered Women's Justice Project, the Department of Justice, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the American Judges' Association, Carnegie-Melon University, the State of New Mexico, and numerous other state and national organizations. Ms Field received her B.A. from the University of Nebraska in 1982 and her J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1985. She is based in Fort Collins, Colorado. For further information, about Ms. Field or the Confidentiality Institute, go to: www.confidentialityinstitute.org.
Chelsea Baldwin is the Shelter Supervisor at Family Tree Women In Crisis, the only domestic violence shelter in Jefferson County, Colorado. She graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, emphasizing in Women's Studies and has been working with victims of domestic violence and sex assault for the last four years. Chelsea has presented on the topic of Domestic Violence to staff and volunteers at Family Tree as well as to community agencies including law enforcement, victim advocates, church groups, schools, offenders, and victims all over Colorado.
Kevin Albert, Psy.D., received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Denver in 1989 and his license in psychology in 1991. His practice consists primarily of working with the courts as a Child and Family Investigator and Parental Rights (a.k.a, "Custody") Evaluator at the Colorado Family Center in Littleton, Colorado.
Gina Gardner-Wood graduated from Metropolitan State College of Denver with a Bachelor of Science degree with an emphasis in Social Work. She has been with Family Tree since 2006 and is now the Legal Advocacy Program Supervisor. Gina enjoys spending time with her new husband and their dogs Justice and Lola.
Jody Bittrich has been working in the field of Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchanges since 1997. From 1997 to 2007, Jody directed Rainbow Bridge Safe Exchange and Visitation Center which works with low-income families striving for self sufficiency in the areas surrounding Moorhead, MN, and Fargo, ND. As the Program Director, she oversaw numerous staff and a volunteer base of 50-75. All program staff was involved in grant writing, fundraising, marketing, and program activity. Jody was active in the SVN-Minnesota Chapter from 2000 to 2007 and served as the co-chair for three years. In those eight years, the Chapter originated the Orange Ribbon Campaign to promote awareness of visitations centers around Minnesota and was adopted around the world. Jody was also the co-creator of the Orange Ribbon Campaign. The Chapter was also active in facilitating statewide trainings for members and partners. Jody was also active with the SVN - North Dakota Chapter assisting in the creation of the state standards.
In 2007, Jody moved to Denver, Colorado, and is currently the Director of Parenting Time at Family Tree, Inc. Again, she is overseeing program operations of the Parenting Time program which includes supervised parenting time and safe exchanges. The Parenting Time program at Karlis Family Center, which opened in 1995, focuses on keeping both the children and the at-risk parent safe while maintaining a fair and respectful environment for everyone who walks through the doors.
Teri Walker McLaughlin, Executive Director at Children's Safety Centers (CSC), has an extensive business background in both the profit and non-profit sectors. She has over twenty years of experience working with community groups and volunteer organizations primarily in the area of children's needs. She has been with CSC since 1997, taking the organization from near bankruptcy to operating 5 successful centers serving over 800 families in 2009. Currently, CSC is one of the largest providers of supervised visitation and exchanges in Minnesota serving families throughout much of the state. Ms. McLaughlin is the past President of the Multi-National Supervised Visitation Network (SVN) as well as the recipient of SVN's prestigious 2009 Judith Wallach President's Award for Outstanding Contribution and Service to the Supervised Visitation Profession. Ms. McLaughlin is an approved SVN trainer and a consultant for visitation and exchange centers, providing training and consultation to many programs state-wide and nationally. Ms. McLaughlin has opened up CSC's doors to other providers looking to model their visitation centers around the standards and practices that she has helped create for Children's Safety Centers. She is also active on community groups around the twin cities metro area including the Ramsey County Child Abuse Prevention Council, Partnership for Domestic Abuse Services, the Minnesota Chapter of the Supervised Visitation Network and is currently serving on SVN standards and guidelines committee to develop standards for supervised visitation services for cases dealing with domestic and sexual abuse.