Child Sexual Abuse Conference: Traumatic Impact, Prevention, and Intervention


Sugar Ray Leonard

Photo of Sugar Ray Leonard

Sugar Ray Leonard is one of the legendary sports icons of the 20th century whose very name epitomizes boxing and conjures the image of a champion.

In addition to his recent appearance on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, Leonard was host and mentor of the critically-acclaimed show The Contender, for seasons 1 through 3, which premiered September 4, 2007, on ESPN. The Contender was produced by DreamWorks Television and Mark Burnett Productions. Season 4 of The Contender recently aired on the cable sports channel Versus, formerly known as the Outdoor Life Network. Leonard recently served as a choreographer on the fight scenes for the hit movie Real Steel (October 2011). He is also the author of an autobiography titled The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring (June 2011).

Having learned to box at the age of 14, Leonard's illustrious career includes three National Golden Gloves titles, two Amateur Athletic Union championships, and the 1975 Pan-American Games crown. After winning a gold medal in boxing at the 1976 Olympic Games, he turned professional to help his family defer mounting medical bills incurred because of his father's illness. Blinding speed, tremendous power, and great charm turned Leonard into an immediate media favorite. The late Howard Cosell called Leonard the "new Muhammad Ali."

In 1977, at the age of 20, Leonard won his first professional fight, setting the stage for a collection of the most memorable fights in history. He went on to defeat some of the finest boxers of the modern era, including Wilfred Benetiz, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler, from whom Leonard won the world middleweight title. During his 20-year professional career, Leonard also won world titles in the welterweight, junior middleweight, super middleweight, and light heavyweight divisions. He was the first boxer to win world titles in five different weight classes, a record that stands to this day.

Leonard's sincere, charismatic personality coupled with his ring experience led to a successful career as a television broadcaster for NBC, ABC, HBO, and ESPN. In addition, his celebrity status and tremendous cross-over appeal fostered commercial endorsement relationships with numerous companies, including EA Sports, Vartec Telecom, Track Inc., Ford, Carnation, 7-Up, Nabisco, Coca-Cola, and Revlon. Leonard is also among the most sought-after motivational/inspirational speakers in the world today. His speech, titled "POWER" (Prepare, Overcome, and Win Every Round), is consistently booked with major Fortune 500 companies in the United States and abroad.

Successful business ventures aside, Leonard has always been devoted to the community and to helping those in need. For many years, Leonard has been the international chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk for a Cure. He also participates in a variety of national and international causes benefiting children's charities.

 

Elizabeth Smart

Photo of Elizabeth Smart

The abduction of Elizabeth Smart was one of the most followed child abduction cases of our time. Smart was abducted on June 5, 2002, and her captors had controlled her by threatening to kill her and her family if she tried to escape. Fortunately, the police safely returned Smart to her family on March 12, 2003, after she was held prisoner for nine months. 

Through this traumatic experience, she has become an advocate for change related to child abduction, recovery programs, and national legislation. Smart triumphantly testified before her captors and the world about the very private nightmare she suffered during her abduction, which led to their conviction. Smart is currently involved in the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, and she has helped promote the national AMBER Alert, The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, and other safety legislation to help prevent abductions. She is also a news correspondent for ABC News.

Smart's abduction and recovery continue to motivate parents, law enforcement, and leaders worldwide to focus on children's safety. Her experience underscores a need for the constant vigilance of everyday people in finding missing children — and the belief that there is always hope, and we can never stop searching for each and every missing child. Two years ago, Smart worked with the Department of Justice and four other recovered young adults in creating a survivor's guide, "You're Not Alone: The Journey from Abduction to Empowerment." This guide is meant to encourage children who have gone through similar experiences to not give up — and to know that there is life after tragic events. 

Smart's example and life now are a daily demonstration that there really is life after a tragic event. Her speech not only tells her story, but also discusses topics such as overcoming extreme adversity and not allowing your past to dictate your future.

Smart is studying music at Brigham Young University, with an emphasis on harp performance.

 

Ernie Allen

Ernie Allen

Ernie Allen is the co-founder of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, a private, nonprofit organization which is leading the global effort to protect children from sexual exploitation and abduction. He has served as President and CEO since it was created in 1999.

Under his leadership, the organization has built a global network that includes 20 nations, trained law enforcement in 121 countries, and worked with parliaments in 72 countries to enact new laws on child pornography. New centers on missing and exploited children have been created in Belgium, South Africa, Romania, Russia, and a regional center in the Balkans. He has developed partnership agreements with Interpol, the Organization of American States, and the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

Allen is also co-founder of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and was the first Chairman before becoming President and CEO in 1989. After 23 years, he recently announced he was retiring as President and CEO to become Founding Chairman.

During his tenure at the National Center more than 180,000 missing children were recovered and the organization's recovery rate increased from 62% in 1990 to 97% in 2012. He brought age progressions of long-term missing children photos, facial reconstruction, and other forensic services and technology to local law enforcement and provided training for more than 300,000 law enforcement officers. He created the 24-hour missing children hotline and established the CyberTipline, which serves as the national 9-1-1 for reporting suspected child sexual exploitation and much more.

He is recognized as a world leader in the fight against child sexual exploitation. He created and chairs the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography, which currently includes 34 of the world's leading banking and financial institutions working together to eradicate commercial child pornography, and launched a new unit to help the U.S. Marshals track down more than 100,000 fugitive sex offenders.

Ernie Allen is a frequent keynote speaker at major U.S. and international conferences and has appeared regularly on network and cable news programs on the BBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and FOX, including programs such as Anderson Cooper 360°, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Larry King Live, among others. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters.

He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the Henry Clay Distinguished Kentuckian Award, and was named an "I-Force Hero" by Sun Microsystems for his pioneering use of the Internet for social good. He was the first recipient of Court TV's"Keep America Safe" Award and was named "Executive of the Year" by The Nonprofit Times for his work in reuniting 5,192 missing children with their families in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He was named Hero for Youth by National Safe Place and Southwest Airlines, named one of the "Most Influential People in Security" by Security Magazine, and was honored by the Australian Federal Police for his leadership in the fight against the exploitation of children.

 

Christopher Anderson

Christopher Anderson

Christopher Anderson is the executive director of MaleSurvivor. A passionate advocate for the rights of survivors of sexual abuse, Chris joined the organization in 2007 after coming to understand the extent to which the sexual abuse and trauma he suffered as a child profoundly affected his life. As a peer advocate, he speaks publicly about his own experiences as a survivor of sexual abuse, how MaleSurvivor helped him progress in his own healing, and about how important it is that we offer our support to survivors.

Chris has become an acclaimed speaker about his personal journey from surviving to thriving, presenting to audiences all over the country. In 2007 he created the presentation, "Ten Things Every Therapist Should Know about Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse." He is currently working on a follow-up presentation titled "Ten Things Every Partner of a Male Survivor of Sexual Abuse Needs to Know." In addition, he has collaborated with PAVE founder Angela Rose on the presentation, "Hope, Healing, and Support: The Elements of Recovery."

Chris also collaborated with a number of other MaleSurvivor Weekend of Recovery alumni on Dr. Howard Fradkin's upcoming book, Joining Forces. Chris has attended three MaleSurvivor Weekends of Recovery and was one of the 200+ survivors who took part in the historic Oprah Winfrey Show special episodes highlighting the truth of male sexual abuse and its effect on the victims and society at large that aired in November 2010.

Chris is also a founding member of the Males for Trauma Recovery workgroup organized by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. A member of Local One, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Chris worked as a stagehand on and off Broadway until 2011. He currently lives in New York City with his wife, Jane. Chris graduated in 1996 from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts.

 

Lucy Berliner

Photo Berliner Photo

Lucy Berliner, MSW, is director of the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress and clinical associate professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Her activities include clinical practice with child and adult victims of trauma and crime; research on the impact of trauma and the effectiveness of clinical and societal interventions; and participation in local and national social policy initiatives to promote the interests of trauma and crime victims. Berliner serves on the editorial boards of leading journals concerned with interpersonal violence, has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has served/serves on local and national boards of organizations, programs, and professional societies.

 

Sharon W. Cooper

Sharon W. Cooper photo

Sharon Cooper is the CEO of Developmental and Forensic Pediatrics, a Pennsylvania consulting firm that provides medical care, research, training, and expert witness experience in child maltreatment cases, as well as medical care for children with disabilities. She works regularly with numerous national and international investigative agencies on Internet crimes against children cases.

Cooper spent 21 years in the Armed Forces, retiring as a Colonel, and has worked, for the past several years, in both the civilian and military arenas in child abuse and developmental pediatrics. She holds a faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a consultant to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children where she teaches about the victim aspects of Internet crimes against children and sexual exploitation through commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth. She has evaluated many victims of child pornography and testified on their behalf in numerous courts of law.

Cooper has testified before the United States Congress, the Russian Duma (Parliament), the European Commission, and, most recently, the Italian Senate on child sexual exploitation. She is presently a member of the Attorney General's National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence.

 

David Finkelhor

David Finkelhor

David Finkelhor, PhD, is director of Crimes against Children Research Center, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory, professor of sociology, and university professor at the University of New Hampshire. He has been studying the problems of child victimization, child maltreatment, and family violence since 1977.

He is well known for his conceptual and empirical work on the problem of child sexual abuse, reflected in publications such as A Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse (Sage, 1986) and Nursery Crimes (Sage, 1988). He has also written about child homicide, missing and abducted children, children exposed to domestic and peer violence, and other forms of family violence. In his most recent book, Child Victimization (Oxford University Press, 2008), he has tried to unify and integrate knowledge about all the diverse forms of child victimization in a field he has termed Developmental Victimology. This book received the Daniel Schneider Child Welfare Book of the Year award in 2009. Altogether, he is editor and author of 12 books and more than 200 journal articles and book chapters.

Finkelhor has received grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the U.S. Department of Justice, and a variety of other sources. In 1994, he was given the Distinguished Child Abuse Professional Award by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, in 2004 he was given the Significant Achievement Award from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, in 2005 he and his colleagues received the Child Maltreatment Article of the Year award, and in 2007 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology.

 

Keith L. Kaufman

Dr. Keith Kaufman is a licensed clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. He has chaired state prevention committees in Ohio and Oregon and co-chaired the committee that created Oregon's first statewide sexual violence prevention plan. Kaufman is also a member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation. He has served on the board of the National Alliance of Sexual Assault Coalitions and is a past president of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. His clinical work has involved the assessment and treatment of both child sexual abuse victims and juvenile sexual offenders and their families. Kaufman has provided program consultation in the areas of prevention, juvenile offender assessment and treatment, program evaluation, and research. He has developed psycho-educational treatment programs for juvenile sex offenders in the custody of the State of Ohio's Department of Youth Services and the Oregon Youth Authority.

Kaufman has authored two books, a variety of book chapters, and numerous research articles addressing sexual violence and sexual violence prevention. This work has been supported by more than $2 million dollars in federal, state, and local grants. His most recent book, The Prevention of Sexual Violence: A Practitioner's Sourcebook (NEARI Press, 2010), is a comprehensive sexual violence prevention volume. Kaufman co-authored the first prevention chapter to be included in Interpol's member manual. He was also recently awarded a Vision of Hope grant by the Pennsylvania Coalition to Prevent Rape, to support the development of a prevention self-assessment strategy based on the Situational Prevention Approach. This approach is being developed for use by the more than 4,000 Boys & Girls Clubs of America nationwide to create even safer settings for the youth whom they serve. Plans are in motion to expand the use of this approach with other community-based organizations.

 

Julie Larrieu

Julie Larrieu Photo

Julie A. Larrieu, PhD, a developmental and clinical psychologist, is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Tulane University School of Medicine. She is a senior trainer at the Institute for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and the associate director of the Tulane Infant Team, a multidisciplinary team that provides intensive intervention to maltreated infants and their families. Larrieu is the director for the Tulane site of the Early Trauma Treatment Network within the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative. This program, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is a collaboration of four national programs that provides training in child-parent psychotherapy, an intervention for young children listed as evidence-based in the SAMHSA National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.

Larrieu's ongoing research interests include developmental psychopathology, child abuse and neglect, and symptoms arising from early trauma. She has more than 20 years of experience working with high-risk infants and families.

 

Bruce D. Perry

Bruce Perry Photo

Dr. Bruce D. Perry is the senior fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy, a not-for-profit organization based in Houston, Texas, and adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. He serves as the inaugural senior fellow of the Berry Street Childhood Institute, an Australian-based center of excellence focusing on the translation of theory into practice to improve the lives of children.

Perry is the author, with Maia Szalavitz, of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog, a bestselling book based on his work with maltreated children, and Born For Love: Why Empathy Is Essential — and Endangered. Over the last 30 years, Perry has been an active teacher, clinician, and researcher in children's mental health and the neurosciences, holding a variety of academic positions.

Perry was on the faculty of the Departments of Pharmacology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago School Of Medicine from 1988 to 1991. From 1992 to 2001, he served as the Trammell Research Professor of Child Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. During this time, Perry also was Chief of Psychiatry for Texas Children's Hospital and vice-chairman for research within the Department of Psychiatry. From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Perry served as the Medical Director for Provincial Programs in Children's Mental Health for the Alberta Mental Health Board. He continues to consult with the government of Alberta on children's issues and serves as a founding member of the Premier's Council on Alberta's Promise.

Perry has conducted both basic neuroscience and clinical research. His neuroscience research has examined the effects of prenatal drug exposure on brain development, the neurobiology of human neuropsychiatric disorders, the neurophysiology of traumatic life events, and basic mechanisms related to the development of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain. His research has also examined the cognitive, behavioral, emotional, social, and physiological effects of neglect and trauma in children, adolescents, and adults. This work has been instrumental in describing how childhood experiences, including neglect and traumatic stress, change the biology of the brain — and, thereby, the health of the child.

His clinical research has been focused on integrating emerging principles of developmental neuroscience into clinical practice. This work has resulted in the development of innovative clinical practices and programs working with maltreated and traumatized children, most prominently the Neurosequential Model©, a developmentally sensitive, neurobiology-informed approach to clinical work (NMT), education (NME), and caregiving (NMC). This approach has been integrated into the programs at dozens of large public and nonprofit organizations.

Perry has served as consultant following high-profile incidents involving traumatized children, such as the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine school shootings, the September 11th terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the FLDS polygamist sect, the earthquake in Haiti, and the tsunami in Tohoku, Japan.

Perry is the author of more than 400 journal articles, book chapters, and scientific proceedings and has received numerous professional awards and honors. He has presented about child maltreatment, children's mental health, neurodevelopment, and youth violence in a variety of venues and has been featured in a wide range of media and documentaries. Many print media have highlighted Perry's research, including a Pulitzer Prize–winning series in the Chicago Tribune, U.S. News and World Report, Time, Newsweek, Forbes ASAP, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone.

Perry, a native of Bismarck, North Dakota, was an undergraduate at Stanford University and Amherst College; attended medical and graduate school at Northwestern University, receiving both MD and PhD degrees; and completed a residency at Yale University School of Medicine, and a fellowship at The University of Chicago.

 

Penelope K. Trickett

Penny Trickett photo

Penelope Trickett is the David Lawrence Stein/Violet Goldberg Sachs Professor of Mental Health in the School of Social Work and Professor of Psychology in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at the University of Southern California. Trickett obtained a bachelor of arts degree in psychology, with honors, from Bryn Mawr College, and a master of arts in psychology from the University of Denver. She earned her doctorate from the New School for Social Research, New York.

Trickett is a developmental psychologist whose research, for three decades, has focused on the developmental consequences of child abuse and neglect on children and adolescents and on the characteristics of families in which such abuse occurs. She earned an Independent Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health titled "The Developmental Consequences of Child Abuse and Violence." In addition, Trickett has been conducting a longitudinal study, for more than 20 years, of the psychobiological impact of familial sexual abuse on girls and female adolescents. She is also the Principal Investigator of another longitudinal study, now in its 12th year, of the impact of neglect and other forms of child maltreatment on adolescent development, funded by the National Institutes of Health.

She served as member, and then chair, of the American Psychological Association's Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, and was member-at-large of the executive committee of the Section on Child Maltreatment of APA's Division of Child, Youth, and Family Services. She is a Fellow of APA's Division 7 (Developmental Psychology). Trickett has also directed a university-wide interdisciplinary violence research initiative at the University of Southern California and is currently co-director of the School of Social Work's research cluster, "Child Development and Children's Services," located within the Hamovitch Research Center.

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