2012 Conference Faculty
Terri Bailey
Terri Bailey is the assistant coordinator for the AMP (Achieving Maximum Potential) program and the facilitator for both the Ames and Des Moines AMP councils. AMP is a youth-driven, statewide group that seeks to unleash the full potential for personal growth among foster and adoptive children in Iowa. AMP serves foster, adopted, and kinship teens aged thirteen and older, providing the life skills youth need to become self-sufficient, independent adults. AMP involves young people as advocates for themselves and as a voice for improvements in child welfare policies and practices.
Ms. Bailey has been a foster/adoptive parent for twenty-six years and teaches several classes offered to foster/adoptive parents through the Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parent Association (IFAPA) and the Iowa Partnering for Safety and Permanence: Model Approaches to Partnership in Parenting (PS/MAPP) pre-service foster/adoptive parent training.
Kevin Brennenstuhl
Kevin Brennenstuhl is the program manager for the Menominee Tribal Police Department’s Crime Victims Program. In this position, Mr. Brennenstuhl oversees several staff who provide direct services to all victims of crime within the Menominee Reservation/County and facilitates and manages federal and state grants that focus on tribal victim assistance and violence against women. He has spoken at several national conferences on issues of inter-agency collaboration, partnership building, and multi-jurisdictional team approaches to victim recovery. Prior to joining the Menominee Tribal Police Department, Mr. Brennenstuhl worked as a supervisor for Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin Residential Treatment Facility.
Mr. Brennenstuhl earned his master’s degree in sociology from the University of Minnesota and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. When he is not wearing his victim advocate hat, he can be found playing baseball with his twin sons or playing racquetball at the local recreation center.
Mitch Brown
Chief (retired) Mitch Brown has forty years of law enforcement experience and a passionate belief in community policing. As chief of police in Oroville, California, he introduced and implemented several community policing programs and strategies, including drug endangered children, Ident-A-Child, domestic violence response teams, Safe from the Start, and special enforcement teams that addressed gang and drug issues and supported early childhood pre-school programs. A former assistant chief of the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, Mr. Brown is a nationally known instructor and subject matter expert on drug endangered children, Indian Country, drug enforcement (including clan labs and marijuana cultivation), domestic violence, child maltreatment, early exposure to violence, and firearms/tactics.
Today, Mr. Brown serves as a reserve police officer, consultant, director of training for the Drug Endangered Children Training and Advocacy Center (DEC-TAC) , chair of the California Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, co-chair of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children's First Responders Working Group, Indian Country consultant for the Inter-Tribal Council of California, co-chair of the Butte County Inter-Tribal Task force, and member of the Indian Country committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). Mr. Brown is a credentialed college and high school teacher, former police academy instructor, and manager of the California Department of Justice Advanced Training Center. He has a master’s degree in criminal justice.
Sabrina Byrnes
Sabrina Byrnes is an associate ombudsman in the Office of Colorado’s Child Protection Ombudsman. She has been involved in public and private child welfare since 1994. Her expertise is in the areas of safety and risk assessment, domestic violence, forensic interviewing of latency age children, and substance abuse. Ms. Byrnes has been an ongoing child welfare case manager, adoptions case manager, intake case manager, and intake supervisor. Most recently, she worked for the University of Denver’s Butler Institute for Families (BIFDU) as a child welfare trainer, serving new and advanced child welfare staff, child welfare supervisors, and foster/adoptive parents. Through her position at BIFDU, Ms. Byrnes has presented around Colorado on the issues of child abuse and neglect identification, child safety assessment, and child safety issues as they relate to drug and alcohol issues.
Ms. Byrnes assisted with the creation and implementation of the Colorado Child Welfare New Caseworker Training Academy, as well as advanced supervisor trainings. She currently serves on the planning committee for the West Coast Child Welfare Trainer’s Conference, and is a Certified Core DEC trainer. In 2009, Ms. Byrnes was the recipient of the “Excellence in Practice” Award from the Colorado Department of Human Services for her work on the development and implementation of the Family Integrated Treatment Court in Jefferson County.
Cristi Cain
Cristi Cain is the state child wellness expert for Kansas Project LAUNCH. She previously served as chair of the Kansas Alliance for Drug Endangered Children and the state coordinator for the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention Project. Cristi is a certified prevention professional and has worked in prevention for more than sixteen years.
Ms. Cain has worked across Kansas implementing community-based strategies that address many issues. She has conducted trainings at local, state, and national levels and has provided testimony at a congressional hearing. In addition to providing training, she specializes in partnership development, capacity building, grant writing, and providing technical assistance to communities. She has received specialized training in addiction, drug endangered children’s issues, substance-exposed newborn initiatives, and child abuse prevention.
Ms. Cain earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Kansas State University; she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public health from the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The Honorable Jeri Beth Cohen
Jeri Beth Cohen, JD, is a circuit judge in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, Juvenile Dependency Division. Prior to becoming a circuit judge, she was a trial attorney, assistant state attorney, and county judge. Judge Cohen has presided over dependency drug court for the last fourteen years and has been instrumental in training other drug courts across the country. Her drug court was an original mentor court for the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. She received a four-year National Institute of Drug and Alcohol grant along with The University of Miami School of Epidemiology to study motivational casework in family drug court. She has taught at several statewide and national conferences and judicial colleges, and published numerous articles on family drug courts and child welfare.
Judge Cohen is the chair of the Community-Based Care Alliance in Miami-Dade County and the chair of the Statewide Dependency Court Improvement Panel, which is focusing on improving court practices related to outcomes from the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs). She also serves on the executive board of the South Florida Behavioral Health Network, an entity tasked with redesigning the mental health and substance abuse system in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Judge Cohen received her bachelor’s degree from Boston University, her master’s from Harvard University, and her law degree from Georgetown.
Scott Collier
S. Scott Collier is the diversion program manager for the US Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) – St. Louis Field Division. He has been with DEA since 1986. Currently, Mr. Collier leads DEA’s efforts to prevent, detect, and investigate the diversion of pharmaceutical controlled substances and listed chemicals from legitimate distribution channels as well as new synthetic drugs of abuse in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Southern Illinois. He is responsible for overseeing and coordinating major investigations, and regulating and liaising with the pharmaceutical industry and state regulatory boards, federal agencies, and state and local law enforcement agencies. Mr. Collier has lectured on drug abuse and law enforcement efforts to curtail drug trafficking across the country and at international forums hosted by individual countries and the United Nations. He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Washington State University in 1985.
Agaytha Corbin
Agaytha B. Corbin is the president and CEO of the Community Development Corporation Resource Consortium (CDCRC) and a vice president and senior consultant with Ntegrity Group, LLC. Miss Corbin began her community development career as an emerging market loan officer for Wells Fargo Bank. In this position, she worked to ensure that affordable homeownership opportunities were made available to minority residents without the threat of predatory lending practices. She soon discovered that vast disparities existed not only in minority homeownership, but also in access to capital for small and minority businesses and assistance for small grassroots agencies and ministries.
Miss Corbin’s passion for empowering people and her business acumen led her to found the CDCRC. The CDCRC is a consortium of more than sixty representatives from banks, credit unions, corporations, small businesses, churches, and community organizations as well as local, state, and federal government agencies. These stakeholders have demonstrated their long-term commitment to working with the CDCRC to advance the goal of creating community wealth for individuals, families, and communities.
As vice president and senior consultant for Ntegrity Group, LLC, Miss Corbin utilizes her vast knowledge of strength-based community development to organize and empower others to become change agents within their communities. She has a well-deserved reputation for being a master facilitator of corporate and community collaborations and for getting things done – no matter what it takes. Her compassion for people, coupled with a passion to see her community empowered, has made her a representative voice for her community.
Chris Corken
Christine Corken, JD, is the first assistant county attorney in Dubuque County, Iowa, where she has served since 1984. Previously, she served as assistant state’s attorney in Monroe County, Illinois (1977 – 1980) and as assistant state’s attorney in Jo Daviess County, Illinois (1981 – 1984). Ms. Corken is primarily responsible for sex abuse, homicide, and criminal child abuse cases. She currently represents the Iowa Prosecuting Attorneys Association on the Iowa Medical Examiner Advisory Board and is a member of the Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Grievance Commission. She is also a member of the Steering Committee for the Iowa Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (Iowa DEC) and chair of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children’s Criminal Justice Working Group. She has been an adjunct professor at Loras College in the Criminal Justice Department for the past twelve years. Ms. Corken earned her law degree from St. Louis University in 1977. She is married to Dan Corken, with whom she has six children.
Lisa D'Aunno
Lisa D’Aunno, JD, is the training director at the University of Iowa School of Social Work's National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice and project director for the National Resource Center for In-Home Services, a service of the Children’s Bureau. As an attorney, former social work administrator, and trainer, Ms. D’Aunno has worked on child welfare and child custody issues for twenty-seven years, specializing in issues related to substance abuse, family group decision-making, permanency planning, foster youth in transition to adulthood, paternal involvement, and incarcerated parents.
Ms. D’Aunno served as director of best practice projects for the Office of the Inspector General of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services from 1996 to 2002. During that time, she helped design and administer the Intact Family Recovery (IFR) Project in Chicago, Illinois, an intensive integrated child welfare and substance abuse treatment service for intact families with a substance-exposed infant. One hallmark of the IFR was the selective use of court orders to compel treatment while the children remained in the home. She also co-authored an article published by the Children’s Legal Rights Journal on parental substance abuse and child welfare, trained judges and attorneys in Cook County Juvenile Court on understanding substance abuse recovery, and helped pilot a program using a family group decision-making model for parents in substance abuse treatment.
Ms. D’Aunno has also been an invited speaker at the American Methadone Association annual conference and has provided training for many groups of public and private child welfare workers and substance abuse treatment providers. She served as clinical assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, teaching and supervising students in the Child Advocacy Law Clinic for five years, and taught child welfare law at the University of Chicago School of Social Services Administration. She co-teaches courses in clinical issues in child welfare and child welfare supervision at the University of Iowa School of Social Work.
Dr. Michelle Devlin
Michele Devlin, DPh, is a professor of public health at the University of Northern Iowa. She is the director of the Iowa Center on Health Disparities, a model organization originally funded by the National Institutes of Health to improve health equity for underserved populations through research, outreach, and training on cultural competency, tolerance, and diversity issues. She is the recipient of the One Iowa Award; the Richard Remington Award; the Governor’s Award; the Iowa Civil Rights Award; and other local, state, and national honors for outstanding teaching, scholarship, and service in the health and human rights field.
Dr. Devlin’s primary areas of specialty include refugee, minority, and immigrant care, as well as cultural competency and health communication with underserved populations. She has published multiple scientific reports and books, including Health Matters: A Pocket Guide for Working with Diverse Cultures and Underserved Populations (Intercultural Press) and Postville USA: Surviving Diversity in Small-Town America (GemmaMedia). In addition to her academic expertise, Dr. Devlin has more than twenty-five years of field experience working with public health agencies, nonprofits, corporations, and government organizations, conducting programs both domestically and internationally with vulnerable populations; she is also an international disaster relief volunteer with the American Red Cross. Dr. Devlin is the founder and advisor of the award-winning Global Health Corps, a model service-learning program that has trained more than 500 students in conducting culturally appropriate public health programs with more than 40,000 diverse and underserved clients in the United States and abroad. Dr. Devlin has extensive travel experience, and has worked, visited, or studied in fifty nations around the world. She completed her master’s and doctorate degrees in international public health at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Kay Doughty
Kay Doughty is the vice president of family and community services at Operation PAR, Inc., a substance abuse prevention, intervention, and treatment provider in Pinellas County, Florida. In this position, she supervises prevention services and outpatient services, with a particular focus on women and their children.
Ms. Doughty has spent twenty-five years working in the field of substance abuse as a supervisor of prevention, intervention, and treatment programs, including methadone maintenance. She is a master's-level certified prevention professional and a certified addiction professional. She is also a peer mentor for the state of Florida for evidenced-based practice, secretary of the Florida Certification Board, co-chair of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association’s Prevention Committee, and co-chair of the March of Dimes Prescription Drug Treatment Committee. Ms. Doughty was named "Professional of the Year" by the Florida School of Addictions in 2000 and is listed in the Who’s Who of Prevention Leaders in Florida.
Betsy Dunn
Betsy Dunn is a child protective services investigator in Putnam, Jackson, and Clay Counties in Tennessee, where she has been employed since 1989. Since 1999, she has been involved in numerous cases involving the severe child abuse of children who were living in homes where a methamphetamine lab was in production.
In July 2005, Ms. Dunn was invited to testify before the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources on “Fighting Meth in America’s Heartland: Assessing the Impact on Local Law Enforcement and Child Welfare Agencies.” In June 2006, she was invited to speak at a congressional briefing to examine the impact of meth on foster care, children, and families. Ms. Dunn has appeared on both ABC World News and CNN to discuss the effects of methamphetamine on children. She served as an ex officio member of the Governor’s Methamphetamine Task Force and currently serves as chair of the Tennessee Alliance for Drug Endangered Children and co-chair of National DEC’s First Responders Working Group. She is also a certified Core DEC trainer.
Dr. Kiti Freier Randall
Kiti Freier Randall, PhD, is a pediatric neurodevelopmental psychologist with more than twenty years of experience working with high-risk infant and youth populations. As a consultant for Children’s Network and First Five San Bernardino, Dr. Randall works with the four San Bernardino County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Centers, Desert Mountain Children’s Center, and San Bernardino County Preschools in California. She holds clinical and academic appointments in the departments of pediatrics and public health at Loma Linda University and Children’s Hospital in California and in the behavioral science department at Andrews University in Michigan. She has also held professorship positions at the University of Miami and Brown University.
Dr. Randall specializes in children ages zero to five, and trauma- and drug-affected infants, children, and youth. She has worked with high-risk infants and youth in a number of settings, including juvenile corrections and community mental health and children’s hospitals; she has also served as a school psychologist in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and California.
An internationally known expert in both research and training related to youth high-risk behavior prevention and intervention, Dr. Randall has presented in more than forty countries and throughout the US. In her work, she emphasizes and facilitates moving from understanding risk to promoting resiliency. She co-chairs National DEC’s Child Assessment, Resiliency & Treatment (CART) Working Group and is a member of the California Alliance for Drug Endangered Children and the San Bernardino County DEC Committee. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Distinguished Service Award (2007) and the Centennial Vanguard Award for Wholeness (2006) from Loma Linda University.
Dr. Randall obtained her PhD in clinical psychology from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science; she completed an internship and fellowship in high-risk pediatrics at Henry Ford Hospital and Northwestern University.
Dr. Steve Freng
Steven Freng, PhD, currently serves as the prevention/treatment manager for the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (NW HIDTA), a region of fourteen counties within Washington State that has been designated by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for special law enforcement and chemical dependency initiatives. The programs under his direction focus on several areas, including the development, operation and evaluation of drug courts throughout the NW HIDTA region. He also coordinates substance abuse prevention projects in nine counties within the region, each based on active collaborations with law enforcement agencies and variously emphasizing innovative service strategies, public education activities, and neighborhood development projects.
Dr. Freng has more than thirty years of experience as a chemical dependency professional, having worked in clinical, supervisory, administrative, and managerial capacities in the development and delivery of chemical dependency prevention and treatment services in Washington. During his tenure with the Seattle-King County Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, he worked on the development of public policy, programs, and services directed to the most debilitated and often homeless persons within the community. Dr. Freng has initiated and overseen the construction of service and housing facilities, pioneered new program strategies, and published numerous articles detailing these efforts and accomplishments.
As president of Community Network Services, Inc., Dr. Freng is also active as an independent clinician, international consultant, trainer, and evaluator, having developed inter-disciplinary treatment programs, directed a state-wide needs assessment project, managed prevention projects and provided technical assistance and facilitation on a wide range of topics and disciplines. Dr. Freng serves on a variety of local and regional boards and panels, is active in legislative efforts, and has fulfilled directorial and investigatory roles on several research and service demonstration projects.
Melissa Gallardo
Melissa Gallardo is a manager with the Division of Adult Parole and Community Corrections in the Colorado Department of Corrections. She began working in corrections as a youth counselor in 1994, working with adjudicated girls in a full lock-up setting. She started at the Colorado Department of Corrections as a parole officer in 1997 and became involved with the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children in 2005.
Ms. Gallardo earned her bachelor’s degree from Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado. She is also a certified Core DEC trainer.
Sergeant Jim Gerhardt
Sergeant Jim Gerhardt is currently assigned to the North Metro Drug Task Force in Denver, Colorado. He has twenty-four years of law enforcement experience with the Thornton (CO) Police Department and, since 1992, has worked numerous undercover drug enforcement investigations. He also worked as the project coordinator on a study regarding the environmental impact of indoor marijuana grow operations. Sergeant Gerhardt is a founding member of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children and the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children. He is the legislative liaison for the Colorado Drug Investigators Association and, for the past seven years, he has worked as a contract employee for the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Arkansas.
Cindy Giese
Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) Cindy Giese has been a law enforcement officer for more than thirty years, twenty-four of which have been with the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Currently, she is the supervisor of the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation – Wausau Office (DCI). In this role, she supervises all special agents assigned to the Wausau office and oversees criminal investigations conducted by the Wisconsin DOJ-DCI in the Wausau region.
From 2003 to 2005, SAIC Giese coordinated the Wisconsin Methamphetamine Initiative for the Wisconsin Department of Justice. This included supervising and coordinating approximately 100 members of the Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement and Response (CLEAR) team. In November 2004, SAIC Giese started the Wisconsin Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (WIDEC). As the statewide coordinator for WIDEC, she leads the statewide multi-disciplinary steering committee that provides oversight for the program. A nationally recognized expert in initiating DEC programs, SAIC Giese provides DEC and methamphetamine awareness training throughout Wisconsin and across the nation. She has done extensive work raising awareness of DEC in tribal communities.
SAIC Giese has been the recipient of numerous awards for her work on behalf of drug endangered children, including a Certificate of Commendation from Governor Tommy Thompson, an appreciation award from the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department, the Wisconsin Victim Service Award from the US Attorney’s Office – Western District of Wisconsin, and an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation.
SAIC Giese is a certified Core DEC trainer and a member of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children’s Criminal Justice Working Group. She has a degree in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and has had extensive specialized law enforcement training during her career. She is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command.
Karan Goldsberry
Karan Goldsberry is the product manager for the Drug Endangered Child Tracking System (DECSYS) at the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children. She is a software systems architect with eighteen years of experience designing user applications. Ms. Goldsberry holds a BS in electrical engineering with an emphasis in software systems design from Boston University, and a MBA from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado with emphases in social sector enterprise and marketing.
Lieutenant Edward Gould
Lieutenant Edward A. Gould is the commanding officer of Troop C of the Connecticut State Police in Tolland, Connecticut. A twenty-five year veteran, he previously commanded Troop K in Colchester, Connecticut, and for four years was assigned as an area commander for the Connecticut Statewide Narcotics Task Force. He has been instrumental in establishing drug endangered child training for all Connecticut State Police personnel at both annual in-service and new recruit levels. He is responsible for establishing task force and department-wide policy and procedures for drug endangered children.
Lieutenant Gould is also a member of the Connecticut Air National Guard and currently serves as the Command Chief Master Sergeant of the 103rd Airlift Wing. He has deployed on numerous occasions, including two overseas tours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Dr. Mark Grey
Mark A. Grey, PhD, is a professor of anthropology at the University of Northern Iowa. He is also the director of the Iowa Center for Immigrant Leadership and Integration. The Iowa Center is an award-winning program that provides consultation, training, and publications to Iowa communities, churches, organizations, and employers as they deal with the unique challenges and opportunities associated with influxes of immigrant and refugee newcomers. He is also the associate director of the Iowa Center on Health Disparities.
Dr. Grey has published extensively in academic journals on immigration in the Midwest, including recent articles on human organization and religion and education; he has also published extensively for non-academic audiences. His handbooks include Welcoming New Iowans: A Guide for Citizens and Communities and Welcoming New Iowans: A Guide for Managers and Supervisors. With Dr. Michele Devlin and Aaron Goldsmith, Dr. Grey recently published Postville USA: Surviving Diversity in Small-Town America (GemmaMedia); with Dr. Michele Devlin, he published Health Matters: A Pocket Guide for Working with Diverse Cultures and Underserved Populations (Intercultural Press). He has won numerous awards for his activities, including the One Iowa Award, Iowa Friends of Civil Rights Award, Iowa Council for International Understanding Vision Award, the University of Northern Iowa Distinguished Service Award, and the Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence. Dr. Grey earned his PhD in applied anthropology at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Rebecca Grohs
Rebecca Grohs is a registered nurse and certified case manager. Most of her case management experience has been spent working in the managed care environment. She worked for fifteen years for a managed care health plan in Washington State delivering individualized case and disease management for neonates and the elderly. She has also provided chronic disease management for a nationwide managed Medicare plan delivering care across thirteen states.
Most recently, Ms. Grohs took a position as the research coordinator for a Centers for Disease Control (CDC)-sponsored clinical trial aimed at addressing prescription drug abuse in her area. For the last several months, she has also worked to lead the expansion of an emergency department diversion program to four of her local hospitals. She is active in her local community, serving on numerous committees that are working to address health access issues, patient safety concerns related to mental health, and the delivery of pain management initiatives in her area.
Ms. Grohs is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public health.
Dr. Sharon Guthrie
Dr. Sharon Guthrie is the executive director of the Iowa School Nurse Organization and an assistant professor at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Additionally, she has served in leadership roles for the Iowa Association of Nurse Practitioners, Iowa Nurses Association, and Midwest Dairy Health and Wellness Advisory Council. She has also served as a member of several National Association of School Nurses task forces and chaired the 2005 Healthy Children’s Task Force in Iowa; she was appointed as a Commissioner for Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge’s Commission on Wellness and Healthy Living.
Dr. Guthrie’s experience as a pediatric staff nurse, pediatric nurse practitioner in a school setting, and nationally certified school nurse, coupled with her involvement with adolescent mental health screening, provide the foundation for her expertise. Her areas of interest include school nursing documentation, standardized nursing languages, population-based care, health promotion and disease prevention in populations, innovation, informatics, and use of technology in health care. She teaches on health promotion and disease prevention, health advocacy, population health management, and health policy.
Nikki Hartwig
Nikki Hartwig is the crisis child care program Director at Child Abuse Prevention Services and the coordinator of the Marshall County DEC Alliance. She began her career at Child Abuse Prevention Services in February 2008 and previously worked as a social worker for the Iowa Department of Human Services in Marshall County for seven years. Ms. Hartwig graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in social work.
Lieutenant Dave Haupert
Lieutenant Dave Haupert is a nineteen-year veteran with the Dubuque (IA) Police Department. He regularly participates in narcotics, prostitution, and prescription drug investigations and has participated in hundreds of undercover operations. Since 2004, Lieutenant Haupert has been assigned to the Dubuque Drug Task Force (DDTF). He also completed a short assignment with the Criminal Investigation Division from 2007 to 2009. During this time, he investigated hundreds of methamphetamine labs and meth dump sites, primarily red phosphorous; he has experience with the anhydrous and one-pot methods of manufacture as well.
In 1998, Lieutenant Haupert became a certified Drug Recognition Expert (DRE); in 1999, he became a Drug Recognition Expert Instructor. As a DRE and DRE Instructor, he has conducted dozens of drug impaired driver evaluations and taught several of the Iowa DRE courses. He is also a certified Clandestine Laboratory Investigator and Clan Lab Site Safety Supervisor. Lieutenant Haupert has conducted hundreds of hours of drug related speaking engagements for a wide variety of audiences throughout the community and has completed several specialized training courses. He graduated from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy in March 2004.
Tammi Herbst
Tammi Herbst is a social work case manager with the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS), where she has been since September 2000. Ms. Herbst works with families that have founded abuse cases through DHS. During her time at DHS, she has served on a number of committees, including the Dubuque County Child Abuse Council (co-vice president), Community Partnerships for the Protection of Children, the Dubuque/Delaware County Coalition for Domestic Violence, the Dubuque Area Substance Abuse Council, the Alcohol Risk and Reduction Committee, and the local drug endangered children committee. Ms. Herbst has also participated in committees at the state level, including the Statewide Service Work Group for Ancillary Services, SACWIS GUI committee, IV-E Manual Training Work Group, IV-E Pre-Audit Review Team, IV-E Pre Audit Liaison, and the Out-of-State Birth Certificate Committee.
In 2004, Ms. Herbst began working as a methamphetamine specialist in Dubuque Service Area, where she assisted in coordinating drug testing services for ten counties in Iowa. Since the state of Iowa’s most recent re-organization, she assists in coordinating the drug testing in three counties in Iowa, and trains the drug collectors on accurate collections.
Ms. Herbst graduated from Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Steve Hornberger
Steve Hornberger, MSW, has more than twenty-five years of experience in human services and community building as a social worker, grassroots activist, educator, consultant, and administrator. He provides consultation and technical assistance to government and private agencies on cross-system collaboration, organizational change, family-driven services, and community-based services. He has given numerous keynotes and workshops at local, state, and national conferences on issues of recovery, family involvement, cross system collaboration, and evidence based practices. Currently, Mr. Hornberger is consulting with several Maryland counties on recovery oriented system of care (ROSC) issues, a state Access to Recovery program on improving care coordination, and local Recovery Houses. He is also coordinating the development of a safety net system of care for the under- and uninsured in Florida.
Most recently, Mr. Hornberger was the program director at the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) for Celebrating Families!TM, an evidenced-based program for families in early recovery from alcohol and other drug dependence. Under his leadership, Celebrating Families!TM increased from eight sites to more than seventy sites in twenty-four states to strengthen recovery, improve family re-unification, and increase healthy family living skills. He was also the lead facilitator for the DC Chronic Care Coalition for the Washington, DC Department of Health to improve the access, quality, and outcomes of chronic care in DC.
Previously, Mr. Hornberger was the Child Welfare League of America’s (CWLA) first director of behavioral health. He also served as special assistant to the commissioner of New York City’s Child Welfare Administration, where he co-chaired the MOU between mental health and child welfare systems. As a senior administrator at a child welfare agency in New York, Mr. Hornberger pioneered family-driven peer education and advocacy and support services available to biological, foster, adoptive, and kinship family members living in the South Bronx. He also helped to create – and co-chaired, with a family member – the first Wraparound team in New York.
In 2007, Mr. Hornberger was elected into the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Pioneers; in 2010, he was elected to the board of directors of the National Rural Alcohol and Drug Abuse Network and SAMHSA’s Wellness Campaign Advisory committee; and in 2011, he was elected to the board of directors of American College of Mental Health Administration: The College for Behavioral Health Leadership.
Julie Jagim
Julie Jagim is a public health nurse with the St. Louis County (MN) Department of Public Health and Human Services, serving as a program supervisor for Superior Babies since 2000. She has a thirty-three year career in public health nursing (PHN) and has been a PHN supervisor for the past twelve years. In 2004, she presented the Superior Babies 2004 program evaluation results at the American Public Health Association annual conference. Ms. Jagim received her BSN from Mankato State University and her MS in nursing from the University of Minnesota.
Linda Kalin
Linda Kalin, RN, is the director of the Iowa Statewide Poison Control Center. She has more than twenty-five years of experience in clinical toxicology and poison center activities. Ms. Kalin began her career as an emergency room nurse and, in 1989, became Iowa’s first certified specialist in poison information (CSPI). She was instrumental in the development of the statewide poison control center established in 2000.
Currently, Ms. Kalin is an adjunct faculty member and preceptor for the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy and Drake College of Pharmacy and has been awarded “Preceptor of the Year” by both universities. In 2012, she was named one of 100 Great Iowa Nurses. She has held leadership and service positions in many national and local professional organizations, and is a frequent lecturer and speaker on topics involving drugs of abuse and general poison management.
Wayne Kowal
Wayne Kowal has been with the Connecticut State Police for six years as a trainer with the Statewide Narcotics Task Force. In this role, he has provided training to multiple state agencies, private providers, medical professionals, schools, parent organizations, and drug task force organizations He is a certified Core DEC Trainer and one of the founding members of the Connecticut Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (CTDEC). Currently, he chairs the CTDEC Training Committee.
David LaBahn
David LaBahn is president and CEO of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA), a national association representing elected and deputy or assistant prosecutors and city attorneys. Prior to forming APA, Mr. LaBahn was the director of the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI) and the director of research and development for the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA). In this dual capacity, he directed APRI’s projects, including editing and teaching in the areas of child and adult sexual assault and gang violence. He has also worked with other national organizations to lobby for increased funding to assist in the investigation and prosecution of child abuse. He attended and spoke at numerous national conferences on NDAA’s behalf and applied for and received numerous federal grants to continue NDAA’s efforts to support the nation’s district attorneys.
Before joining NDAA, Mr. LaBahn was the executive director of the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA). Appointed to this position in 2003, he was the primary policy strategist and spokesperson for the organization. He also managed the CDAA’s staff of approximately 50 full-time employees and an annual budget of more than $5 million. In 2006, he applied for and received the largest grant in CDAA’s history from the California Governor’s Office of Traffic Safety. When he first joined CDAA as the deputy executive director in 1996, he was responsible for the training and publications department, applying for state and federal grants, and lobbying the California State Legislature on criminal justice and budget matters. He was also involved in creating CDAA’s first Violence against Women Project, the Circuit Environmental Prosecution Project, and the High Technology Prosecution Project. He partnered with the California Nations Indian Gaming Association to implement training for prosecutors and investigators relating to crimes committed in gaming facilities and helped organize CDAA’s Indian Gaming Committee. He also lectured at statewide MCLE programs on sexual assault and gang crime and edited the Legislative Digest to make certain that all prosecutors were aware of changes in the law.
From 1987 to 1996, Mr. LaBahn was a deputy district attorney in Orange and Humboldt Counties in California. He has received numerous awards, including community service awards for his work with victims and the reduction of gang violence in the City of Westminster, California.
Dr. Linda Lagasse
Linda Lagasse, PhD, is an associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry and human behavior (research) at Brown University and the director of research at the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk. She has had a leadership role in two large National Institute on Drug Abuse–funded longitudinal studies of prenatal cocaine exposure from birth to 16 years [Maternal Lifestyle Study (MLS)] and prenatal methamphetamine exposure from birth to 7.5 years [Infant Development, Environment and Lifestyle study (IDEAL)]. In both studies, mothers were recruited postpartum; exposure was determined by self-report and/or meconium toxicology; and exposed and comparison groups were matched. The overarching goal of these studies is to determine the effects of exposure to the drug on development in the context of co-occurring adversity.
Dr. Lagasse also conducts a cross-cultural study of prenatal methamphetamine exposure in New Zealand, which provides a natural experiment. Unlike the US, there is universal healthcare, less poverty, and no mandatory child removal due to prenatal illicit drug use in New Zealand. These studies are important and have serious public health implications that could also affect policy related to prenatal substance exposure.
Dr. Lagasse earned her BA in psychology from the University of Rhode Island and her ScM and PhD in psychology from Brown University. She completed her post-doctoral studies in developmental psychology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Susan Langan
Susan Langan has been a school counselor at Cedar Falls High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for eighteen years. Prior to that, she was an elementary and middle school counselor for four years and an elementary special education teacher for seven years. She is a member of a number of professional associations, including the Iowa School Counselor Association, where she served as president from 2010 to 2011; the American School Counselor Association; the Iowa Association of College Admission Counseling; the Iowa State Education Association; and the National Education Association. She has been the Cedar Falls Human Rights Commissioner since 2002.
Ms. Langan earned both her bachelor’s in education and master’s in school counseling from the University of Northern Iowa.
Dr. Jennifer Lowry
Jennifer Lowry, MD, is the section chief of Medical Toxicology at Children’s Mercy Hospital (CMH) in Missouri. Her clinical duties include clinical pharmacology and medical toxicology coverage for CMH and staffing the Individualized Pediatric Therapeutics (IPT) Clinic. She also serves as the medical director to the IPT Drug Safety Service which, with the clinic, is a program within the Center for Personalized Medicine at CMH. In addition, Dr. Lowry serves as a toxicologist for the University of Kansas Hospital Poison Control Center (KUH-PCC) and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. She has also served as the director for the Mid-America Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit for EPA Region 7 (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska) since its inception in 2002 and as a medical toxicology liaison to the Region 7 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. She is a frequent lecturer on pediatric toxicology and environmental exposures in the region.
Dr. Lowry has been an active member of the Missouri Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, serving on the steering committee since 2008 and as chair from 2011 to 2012. She is a member of National DEC’s Environmental and Medical Working Group and has presented for several National DEC webinars; she also serves as a consultant for the Ask the Expert questions received through the National DEC website.
Dr. Lowry is board certified in pediatrics and medical toxicology. She attended medical school at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine in Vermillion and Rapid City, South Dakota. She completed a pediatric residency and clinical pharmacology/medical toxicology fellowship at the Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri.
Melissa Lujan
Melissa Luján currently serves as a National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW) program associate at Children and Family Futures (CFF). She works closely with the project co-director and the regional partnership grant (RPG) project director in leading and organizing major training events and grantee meetings. Ms. Luján has more than seven years of experience in program management, grant writing, evaluation, and research. She also assists in the performance outcome monitoring activities for the RPG program area and works with the research and evaluation director in collecting and analyzing qualitative data collected from the RPG grantees. She assists with the development of research publications, reports and products. She specializes in the areas of parent engagement, youth programs, father involvement and trauma-informed interventions and services.
Prior to CFF, she worked in direct service as the program director for a men’s transitional center in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and as a program manager for a family emergency program in Washington, DC. In addition to her community work, she has both quantitative and qualitative research experience from a variety of projects, including a program evaluation of a statewide supportive housing for families program in Connecticut.
Ms. Luján earned a master’s degree in human development and family studies from the University of Connecticut; she is currently a PhD candidate in developmental psychology.
Justin Mazzeo
Justin Mazzeo is the coordinator for the Texas Alliance for Drug Endangered Children. Since 2007, Mr. Mazzeo has traveled across the state advocating for intervention on behalf of children exposed to drug environments and assisted communities in building collaborative, multidisciplinary alliances. He has directly trained or facilitated trainings for over 7,500 Texas professionals and supported 30 multidisciplinary alliances across Texas working to rescue, defend, shelter and support children and families exposed to dangerous drug environments.
Dr. Ken McCann
Dr. Kenneth McCann is the medical director of the Regional Child Protection Center at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa. Dr. McCann has experience evaluating children of all ages for child physical abuse, child sexual abuse, child physical and medical neglect, and medical child abuse (formerly Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy). Dr. McCann has worked as part of multidisciplinary teams to evaluate child abuse and has testified as an expert witness in child physical abuse and child sexual abuse trials.
Dr. McCann is board certified in pediatrics. He earned his medical degree from Kansas City University of Medicine and Bioscience. He completed his residency in pediatrics at Blank Children’s Hospital. After residency, Dr. McCann completed a fellowship in child abuse pediatrics at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University/Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.
Cory McClure
Cory McClure, JD, is an assistant county attorney in Polk County, Iowa, where he has served since 1995. He prosecutes abuse and neglect cases in the Juvenile Division. Mr. McClure began his career at the Youth Law Center representing abused and neglected children in Iowa’s most populated county. He has been very active in child welfare mediation and has worked through the years in applying alternative dispute resolution to the many processes of juvenile court. He also serves on numerous boards and committees whose common thread is children or youth and families at risk.
Mr. McClure has presented nationally on issues relating to juvenile court. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Northern Iowa and Des Moines Area Community College and has taught for the University of Iowa and Grandview College (now University). He has also taught a legal foundations course to Iowa Department of Human Service workers for the past seventeen years and conducts a course on testifying in court. He earned his undergraduate degree and law degree from the University of Iowa. Mr. McClure has three boys, enjoys reading (Joseph Campbell, Elaine Pagels, Philip Roth and John Irving) and movies, and confesses he is consumed by his love for baseball.
Mike McInroy
Mike McInroy is a social work administrator with the Iowa Department of Human Services in the Des Moines Service Area. He has been employed with the state of Iowa since 1998. During his time with the state, he has served as a foster care worker, child abuse assessment worker, service supervisor, and community liaison. Prior to his employment with the state of Iowa, Mr. McInroy worked in several residential facilities for children.
Mr. McInroy earned a BA in criminology from the University of Northern Iowa in 1993; he earned his MSW from the University of Iowa in 2004.
Lori Moriarty
Commander (retired) Lori Moriarty is vice president of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, where she has served since 2006. She began her career in law enforcement in 1987 with the Thornton (CO) Police Department. From 2000 to 2006, she was the commander of the North Metro Drug Task Force, a multi-jurisdictional undercover drug unit. Ms. Moriarty has been instrumental in implementing protocols for the safe investigation of methamphetamine labs and undercover drug operations. She has educated thousands of professionals across the nation about hazardous drug environments and their effects on children, and appeared on ABC News' 20/20, Fox National News, MSNBC, NPR, and PBS. In April 2005, she testified before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC on H.R. 1528, “Defending America’s Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005.”
Ms. Moriarty’s safety stance and public awareness efforts have won her regional and national attention. In 2001, the Office of National Drug Control Policy recognized her as “Drug Commander of the Year”; 2002, the Adams County Bar Association in Colorado named Ms. Moriarty and the North Metro Task Force "2002 Peace Officer of the Year"; and in 2004, she received the “Friend of Children” award from the State of Colorado Court Appointed Special Advocates. Ms. Moriarty serves on multiple boards, including the board of the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children.
Eric Nation
Lieutenant (retired) Eric Nation is currently a training and development consultant with the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children. He began his career in law enforcement in 1995 with the Jasper County (IA) Sheriff’s Office, where he held numerous positions. From 1996 to 2002, he was assigned to an undercover narcotics unit in Polk, Dallas, and Jasper counties in central Iowa. From 2007 to 2012, he served as the commander of the Mid Iowa Narcotics Enforcement (MINE) Taskforce – Eastside, a multi-jurisdictional undercover narcotics unit in central Iowa. While in this position, Mr. Nation was the supervisor of the MINE Taskforce meth lab team, overseeing numerous methamphetamine lab and undercover narcotics investigations.
Mr. Nation is a founder and member of the Jasper County Drug Endangered Children program, where he worked to build collaboration across multiple disciplines and a series of DEC response protocols; he is also a member of the Iowa Alliance for Drug Endangered Children Steering Committee and National DEC’s Criminal Justice Working Group. In 2009, Mr. Nation was honored with the “Ongoing Law Enforcement Victims Service Award” from Jasper County; in 2011, he received the National Drug Endangered Children Collaborative Leadership Award.
A certified Core DEC trainer, Mr. Nation has trained thousands of professionals across Iowa and the United States. He has also appeared on Court TV for Langley Productions’ documentary Methamphetamine Labs in the Heartland, a public education piece about the hazards of methamphetamine and methamphetamine labs in the Midwest.
Dr. Steve Nelson
Steve Nelson, JD, PhD, is a career prosecutor working in the Gang Unit of the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office; he is cross-designated as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Utah. He has tried approximately seventy felony jury trials, including homicides, attempted homicides, robberies, burglaries, rapes, drive-by shootings, and other violent crimes. He also serves as the chair of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children's Needs Assessment and Data Collection Working Group.
Dr. Nelson is the lead author on two law review articles on drug endangered children. These articles detail data and findings from a retrospective, cross-discipline, and multi-agency study undertaken by the Salt Lake City Police Department’s COPS Meth Initiative. Dr. Nelson graduated from the University of Utah’s College of Law, where he served on the Utah Law Review; he holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Utah, where he regularly instructs undergraduate and graduate students.
Dr. Resmiye Oral
Resmiye Oral, MD, is the director of the Child Protection Program at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Iowa. She became involved with child abuse and neglect in 1993 and established the first multidisciplinary child abuse and neglect follow-up team in Turkey, her country of origin.
Dr. Oral has published numerous articles on child abuse and neglect. She wrote a book and three book chapters on child abuse for Turkish physicians and co-authored two training kits published by Ohio State University on physical and sexual abuse. Her interests are international systems building to address child abuse and neglect, drug endangered children, shaken baby syndrome, and early intervention with child abuse to prevent severe and usually irreversible consequences of abuse, including fatality. Dr. Oral believes that recognition of subtle findings of abuse is of utmost importance, which calls for training of all professionals involved with child abuse. She gives fifty to sixty lectures a year on child abuse and neglect to medical and non-medical professionals at regional, national, and international levels.
Dr. Oral is board-certified in child abuse pediatrics. She completed her child abuse pediatrics fellowship at Ohio-State University.
Cathleen Otero
Cathleen Otero is the deputy project director of the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW). In this role, she develops and provides training and technical assistance to states and local jurisdictions to enhance the understanding of substance use disorders in the child welfare system, where she encourages the development of effective and appropriate practice and policy. Ms. Otero has concentrated her presentations and trainings on increasing collaborative efforts between the child welfare, substance abuse treatment, and judicial systems. Her research focuses on issues that intersect with substance abuse and includes collaboration on the “Women with Co-Occurring Disorders and Violence Study” at the University of Southern California, Social Science Research Institute; policy research and analysis relating to the 2003 Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) amendments regarding substance exposed births; and cognitive and personality predispositions associated with depression in children living in low-income communities at Yale University. She has published several publications continuing the discussion around substance use disorders, treatment, child welfare, and outcomes.
Ms. Otero received her BA in psychology from Yale University and her MSW and MPA degrees from the University of Southern California.
The Honorable William Owens
William S. Owens, JD, is an associate juvenile judge in Wapello County, Iowa. He was appointed in November 1998. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Owens served Monroe County, Iowa, as assistant county attorney from 1984 to 1989 and county attorney from 1990 to 1998. At the time of his appointment to the bench, Judge Owens was president-elect of the Iowa County Attorney’s Association and a partner in the law firm of Owens & Albers, LLP.
Judge Owens currently serves as co-chair of the Iowa Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee for Children's Justice; is a member of the State Council of the Iowa Supreme Court Commission for Children's Justice; and is chair of the Juvenile Judge Committee of the Iowa Judge’s Association. He was the recipient of the Iowa Supreme Court’s 2008 Court Innovation Award for initiating a family treatment court in Wapello County, Iowa, that serves the five counties where Judge Owens serves. In 2007, Judge Owens was the recipient of the Outstanding Contributor to Recovery Award from Harold Hughes Hall Association in Ottumwa, Iowa. Judge Owens is a member of the Iowa State Bar Association, Iowa Judges Association, and National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
Judge Owens received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas in May 1981, and his law degree from Drake University Law School in May 1984. He is an avid runner and has competed in eight marathons. Judge Owens and his wife Heidi reside in Ottumwa, Iowa, and they have three daughters.
Commander Jerry Peters
Commander Jerry Peters is the commander of the North Metro Drug Task Force in the Denver, Colorado area. He has twenty years of law enforcement experience with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office and the Thornton Police Department in Colorado. Commander Peters is also the vice president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association (CDIA) and helped lead the effort to have ephedrine and pseudoephedrine available by prescription only in the 2011 legislative session.
Commander Peters is the project director of a study regarding the environmental impact of indoor marijuana grows. The study was funded through a JAG Grant awarded to CDIA and subcontracted by National Jewish Health. The study began in January 2011 and concluded in July 2012.
Carol Peterson
Carol Peterson, LADC, is currently employed by Arrowhead Center. She has been in the field of drug and alcohol treatment for thirty-two years, holding a variety of positions including clinical supervisor and program director. She has been involved in the Superior Babies Program for eleven years. Ms. Peterson earned a BA in sociology with a minor in psychology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She has a two-year associate's degree in chemical dependency and has been licensed as an alcohol and drug counselor since 1980.
Vanessa Price
Vanessa Price is a program development and capacity building consultant (Midwest region) with the Drug Endangered Children Training and Advocacy Center (DEC-TAC). She is also a faculty member with the National Drug Court Institute and Metro-Technology Training Institute, and she consults on a number of community development projects in her community.
From October 1990 January 2012, Mrs. Price was employed as a police officer with Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She retired in 2009 at the rank of inspector and was assigned to Operations Administration as the interim executive director for Weed and Seed Programs and the Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative. Prior to that, she was assigned to the Oklahoma County Drug Court, and was instrumental in the development of the Oklahoma County Drug Court Program, including policy manual development, budgeting, and staff training. As part of the Oklahoma County Drug Court Program, Mrs. Price was assigned to the Narcotics Division and assisted on numerous clandestine methamphetamine lab investigations, search warrants, prescription drug investigations, and undercover operations.
Mrs. Price has provided training to professionals from multiple disciplines across the country and abroad, including more than 1,000 hours of training in the areas of substance abuse, addiction, drug testing (including its value in court cases involving children), program training, development and implementation, and recovery-related services. Mrs. Price spends a significant amount of time working with state agencies, community organizations, and businesses to raise awareness and develop sustainability partnerships for at-risk children. She also works to reintegrate offenders back into the community through drug courts, volunteering, assisting with community needs assessments, and community program development.
Mrs. Price has been honored with the Kiwanis Association Police Officer of the Year Award (1999), Kiwanis Association Police Officer of the Month (August 2007); the NADCP Drug Court in the Media Award (2007); Drug Court of the Year Award (2008); and the CHUMS Unsung Hero Award (2010). She also received a badge of meritorious service from her department in 2003.
Mrs. Price has an associate’s degree from Oklahoma State University in applied police science and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Oklahoma in criminal justice.
Stacee Read
Stacee Read is an associate ombudsman in the Office of Colorado’s Child Protection Ombudsman. She is involved in program development, resolving complaints regarding the Colorado child welfare system, and providing training and education to county agencies and the public on child welfare issues.
Previously, Ms. Read spent five years in the children’s mental health field holding various positions. She specialized in crisis intervention with children and families and crisis assessments for various law enforcement agencies. After her work in the children’s mental health field, Ms. Read began her career in child welfare, holding positions at the state and county levels for more than seven years. Most recently, she was a child protection safety specialist for the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS), where she oversaw institutional abuse and neglect assessments, facilitated the Institutional Abuse Review Team, represented the state on drug issues in child welfare, and provided training and technical assistance to county agencies regarding child safety issues.
Ms. Read has been involved with the Colorado Substance Exposed Newborns Steering Committee, the Rural Law Enforcement Meth Initiative, the CDHS Fatality Review Team, and the CDHS Prone Restraint Workgroup. She has also volunteered and consulted with the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children. Ms. Read has spoken both locally and at the national level on topics involving child welfare issues, collaboration, the risk to children resulting from caregiver drug use, and specific drug issues; she is also a certified Core DEC trainer.
Ms. Read earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Iowa, focusing on abnormal psychology and dependency behaviors; she earned her master’s in social work from the University of Illinois, focusing on mental health and administration.
Dr. Beth Schmitz
Beth Schmitz, PhD, has worked at Orchard Place-Child Guidance Center since 1995, providing outpatient individual, family, and group therapy to children and adolescents from three to nineteen years of age. She frequently provides psychological evaluations of children and adolescents to assist with clarifying their diagnostic and treatment needs. Dr. Schmitz also provides parent therapy as well as consultation and education to groups of parents and professionals on a variety of topics. She has consulted with the Polk County (IA) Drug Endangered Children Alliance for several years and has provided evaluations to children identified through this group as well as parent education sessions directed at birth, foster, and adoptive parents of drug endangered children. Dr. Schmitz helps to plan and conduct a yearly regional training for professionals involved with drug endangered children.
Kate Serrano
Kate Serrano, MPH, is an industrial hygienist in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at National Jewish Health. Ms. Serrano is a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, and currently serves as the vice chair of their Clandestine Laboratory Working Group. Some of her research has focused on solutions for the decontamination of clothing and building materials resulting from clandestine methamphetamine manufacturing. She has multiple publications in national peer-reviewed journals. Her current research is focused on methamphetamine residue dermal transfer efficiencies from household surfaces and associated exposure dose estimates using stochastic human exposure and dose simulation models, and health hazards associated with indoor marijuana grow operations.
Kate earned her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Colorado; she earned a master’s degree in public health with an emphasis in environmental and occupational health from the University of Arizona.
Loretta Severin
Loretta Severin is the drug strategy coordinator for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Previously, she served as the rural state methamphetamine coordinator as part of the Rural Law Enforcement Methamphetamine Initiative (RLEMI) and the state coordinator of the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention Project. She is a certified prevention professional and has more than eight years’ experience working in the field of substance abuse prevention.
Ms. Severin is the vice chair of the Kansas Alliance for Drug Endangered Children and participates in working groups and advisory councils affiliated with the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children. She has worked in communities across Kansas implementing strategies to address substance abuse and drug endangered children. Ms. Severin has conducted trainings at the local, state, and national levels; planned state and national conferences; and coordinated multiple initiatives, including the Kansas Task Force Addressing Methamphetamine and Illegal Drugs.
Ms. Severin received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas.
Jennifer Sleiter
Jennifer Sleiter, ARNP, is a pediatric nurse at the Regional Child Protection Center at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, where she has been since 2004. In this position, she assesses and treats children who are dealing with issues of abuse and neglect. She also cares for drug endangered children, including babies who were exposed to illegal drugs through their mother’s use during pregnancy, children who have been environmentally exposed due to their caregiver’s use, and children who are in homes where methamphetamine is being manufactured. She is also a member of the Polk County, Jasper County and Iowa DEC alliances. Ms. Sleiter has worked as a pediatric nurse and as a certified pediatric nurse practitioner since 1995. She has extensive community involvement serving as one of the medical representatives on local multidisciplinary teams reviewing child sexual abuse cases and general case consultation.
Ben Stansberry
Ben Stansberry is an assistant county attorney in Marshall County, Iowa, where he primarily prosecutes drug cases, including those that involve children. Prior to joining the Marshall County Attorney's Office, Mr. Stansberry was a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa under the HIDTA program, where he focused on clandestine methamphetamine laboratory and interstate drug trafficking cases. He currently serves on the Marshall County DEC team, the Mid Iowa Narcotics Enforcement (MINE) Task Force, and is an instructor for the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. Mr. Stansberry is a 2003 graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law and holds a master’s degree from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
Dr. Nick Taylor
Nicolas Taylor, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and a level III certified addictions counselor in the state of Colorado. He has served as the clinical director for Meth Free Delta County in Delta, Colorado and has a private practice, Taylor Behavioral Health, in Montrose, Colorado. He is the author and program developer for the Delta Community Based Substance Abuse Treatment Model and has published and presented extensively about this approach. In 2008, he coauthored a book with Dr. Herb Covey, Helping People Addicted to Methamphetamine: A Creative New Approach for Families and Communities (Praeger).
Dr. Taylor has been intimately involved in DEC efforts across the nation for the past seven years, focusing specifically on the need for effective community based treatment for drug using parents. He co-chairs the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children’s Treatment and Recovery Working Group and is a member of the Colorado State Methamphetamine Task Force and Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children.
The Honorable Mary S. Timko
Mary L. Timko, JD, is an associate juvenile judge in Buena Vista County, Iowa. She was appointed in 1988. Previously, she was an assistant county attorney in Johnson County, Iowa. Judge Timko is affiliated with a number of associations, including the Iowa Judges Association, the Parent Partners of Northwest Iowa Federal Advisory Board, the Child Protection Council (State Citizen Review Panel), the CASA Advisory Board (Court Appointed Special Advocate), the Native American Advisory Committee for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Siouxland, the Camp Hope Advisory Board, and the Buena Vista County Drug Endangered Children Committee. She is the founder and judge of Buena Vista County Family Drug Court and a judge for the Cherokee/Ida Family Treatment Court. In 1987, she was recognized with the Isabel Turner Human Rights Award from Johnson County, Iowa.
Judge Timko is active in her community, having served with the Faith Hope and Charity Board of Directors, the Storm Lake Softball Association Board, the Storm Lake St. Mary Booster Board, and the local Relay for Life committee. She is also a religious education teacher. A cancer survivor herself, she also serves with the “I Will Not Worry” Foundation (a foundation for those diagnosed with cancer).
Judge Timko earned her BA, MA, and JD from the University of Iowa.
Rosemary Tisch
Rosemary Tisch was the lead author for Celebrating Families!™ and oversaw its adaptation, ¡Celebrando Familias!, for mono-lingual Spanish speaking families. She is the author of numerous curricula for high-risk populations: children of alcoholics/addicts, sexually active teens, individuals with learning differences, and those exposed in utero to alcohol and other drugs. Group models created by her teams have been successfully replicated throughout the US, Mexico, and Russia. Her honors include the 2012 Vernon Johnson Award from Faces & Voices of Recovery; the 2011 Ackerman/Black Award from NACoA, to recognize individuals whose life work has continuously raised awareness about and increased support for children and families impacted by alcohol or drug dependence in the family; and the 2010 California State Director’s Award for Cultural Diversity.
Ms. Tisch holds master’s degrees in counseling psychology from Stanford University and piano performance from College of Notre Dame. She is married with two grown daughters and a new granddaughter.
Diane Torrel
Diane Torrel is a public health nurse with the St. Louis County (MN) Department of Public Health and Human Services. She has been involved with the Superior Babies Program since its inception in 1998. Ms. Torrel has been in the nursing field for thirty-eight years. For twenty of those years, she worked in the mental health field, serving in a community mental health center and as a psychiatrist office nurse. Ms. Torrel earned her BSN degree from Winona State College.
Dr. Jim Verlengia
Jim Verlengia, EdD, is currently the director of partnership services at heartland AEA11 in Johnston, Iowa. Prior to coming to Heartland, Dr. Verlengia served as superintendent of schools at Lewis Central Community Schools in Council Bluffs.
Dr. Verlengia has dedicated his life to education, serving students as a teacher, coach, and administrator. Through his presentations, he continues to support and promote what he believes to be this country’s greatest natural resource -- our children. Dr. Verlengia has received local, state and national recognition as a catalyst in the middle school movement and was the recipient of the Iowa Middle Level Educators Educator of the Year Award. He has also been nominated and appointed to “Leadership Iowa.” In 1989, Dr. Verlengia received one of Iowa’s highest civilian awards, the Governor’s Lifesaving Award, for his rescue of a mother and her son from their burning West Des Moines home. In the process, Dr. Verlengia suffered third degree burns to more than twenty percent of his body.
Dr. Verlengia received his BA from the University of Northern Colorado, his MA from Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado, and his educational specialist and doctorate degrees from Drake University in Des Moines. He has served Drake University as chairman of the president’s national advisory board, chairperson of the School of Education’s national advisory board, and an adjunct professor. He has also received the Drake University School of Education Outstanding Alumni Award.
Kiley Waltz
Kiley Waltz is the education and disabilities coordinator for the Haymarket Center’s Early Head Start Home Based Program. In this role, she oversees Early Head Start services provided to pregnant women and women with children zero to three years of age currently residing in a substance abuse treatment facility.
Ms. Waltz began her work in the field of child development in 2005, specializing in early intervention. Since this time she has gained significant experience working with typically and atypically developing children and their families in the early intervention and education systems. Ms. Waltz received her master’s in child development, specializing in infancy, from Erikson Institute in May 2012.
Sadie Weekley
Sadie Weekley is a detective with the Marshalltown (IA) Police Department and a member of the Marshall County DEC Alliance. Detective Weekly began her career with the Marshalltown PD in 2007 and has been in her current role since February 2009. Her prior work experience includes employment with the Toledo Police Department and the Tama County Jail. Detective Weekley attended the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy in 2006 and graduated from Hawkeye Community College in 2000 with a degree in police science.
Meghan Wheeler
Meghan Wheeler is an independent training and technical assistance consultant in the justice, treatment and social services fields, providing training, grant writing, curriculum development, strategic planning, and technical assistance services. Ms. Wheeler has twenty years of experience in direct service work and training and technical assistance on the national, state, and local levels. She is skilled in leading multi-disciplinary teams to assess and analyze their current operations and make critical changes and sound decisions based on needs and resources.
Currently, Ms. Wheeler serves as a senior consultant for the National Drug Court Institute, Adult Drug Court Planning Initiative, Adult Drug Court Training Initiative, and Family Drug Court Training Projects. She also serves as a family drug court training and technical assistance (TTA) expert consultant for the Center for Children and Family Futures, Inc. (CFF) to provide on-going consultation, assist in the development of training materials, and provide direct TTA to assist CFF in achieving the goals of the Family Drug Court Training and Technical Assistant Program. Ms. Wheeler also serves as a consultant for the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment NIATx Learning Collaborative. She previously worked as a project director for the National Drug Court Institute (2001-2009), where she managed adult and family drug court training and technical assistance activities.
Prior to her work nationally, Ms. Wheeler managed the statewide drug court implementation project for the Supreme Court of Ohio. Her work with drug courts began in 1996 in her position as treatment coordinator for Richland County, Ohio. She was also employed by the Abraxas Foundation, a residential treatment facility for adolescent males involved in the juvenile justice system. Ms. Wheeler has experience in both juvenile and adult treatment and court systems related to clinical intervention, supervision, case management, program management and policy development. She is a CASA volunteer in Richland County, Ohio, and previously held the position of adjunct professor at Ashland University in the area of alcoholism and substance abuse.
Ms. Wheeler received her master’s degree in administration of justice and her bachelor’s degree in psychology and criminal justice from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Sara Wilhelm
Sara Wilhelm is a social work supervisor with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF). She has been employed in the CPS field for more than twenty-five years. During her years in child welfare, she has worked in ongoing treatment services, investigations, special investigations, program review, adolescent services, quality improvement, and research and evaluation. She is currently the co-chair of the Connecticut Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (CTDEC) and is the statewide DEC liaison for CPS. Ms. Wilhelm is a certified Core DEC trainer, providing training for DCF, law enforcement, and other CTDEC member agencies, as well as the broader provider community. Prior to entering the CPS field she worked in law enforcement and the criminal court system. Ms. Wilhelm earned her BA from Connecticut College.
Jody J. Williams
Jody J. Williams is program director of the MALACHI Youth Opportunities Program and a consultant with Ntegrity Group, LLC. She is a community development professional with more than ten years of experience developing federally-funded and community-based programming. She has been a program director for the US Department of Labor, Workforce Development, Youth Opportunities Program for more than nine years. Ms. Williams was an integral component in the program’s inception, management, and ultimate recognition as a best practice model throughout the state of Ohio. Under her leadership, the program expanded into three additional counties and received the Youth Program Excellence award from the state of Ohio in 2007 and 2010. It was the first time an agency was awarded this recognition more than once.
Ms. Williams is also one of a handful of individuals in Butler County, Ohio, who is trained and certified in the use of Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets Framework. Her passion is to help further the advancement of Search Institute’s mission, which is to provide leadership, knowledge and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. In addition to building assets in our nations’ youth, Ms. Williams is advancing her work as a community development consultant and asset trainer by promoting the use of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Model among nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and community groups. The ABCD Model seeks to enhance quality of living for residents while laying a foundation for a strength-based approach to economic growth and community revitalization within challenged neighborhoods.
As a key figure in the conception and development of the Restoring Hope Initiative, Ms. Williams brings vitally important knowledge and expertise to the project. Her guidance ensures the quality and integrity of this strength-based approach to impacting the community by restoring hope in one person at a time.
Katrina Wilson
Katrina Wilson is the founder and CEO of Freedom Community Development Corporation (Freedom CDC) and president of Ntegrity Group LLC. Freedom CDC, whose mission is to reduce crime, strengthen families, and revitalize neighborhoods, seeks to develop strength-based programs and initiatives using the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Model, which builds upon the strengths of a community in order to effect positive change. Ntegrity Group LLC was formed to meet the growing needs of organizations, with an emphasis on grassroots nonprofits that have the ability to develop and maintain powerful relationships with the people they serve.
Mrs. Wilson is a seasoned community development professional and skilled strategist with a fifteen-year track record of success in developing and managing community-based initiatives and programs. She began her community development career in AmeriCorps USA, where she was trained to engage and empower residents to take ownership of their communities in order to bring about positive change. She served faithfully in AmeriCorps for two years within her assigned area of Dayton, Ohio, and was presented with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition from the state of Ohio for each of her two years of service.
Through her quest to find new and innovative ways to deal with age-old problems, Mrs. Wilson introduced the Drug Market Intervention (DMI), to the City of Middletown, Ohio. This US Department of Justice crime prevention strategy is aimed at shutting down the open air drug market while allowing residents in the target area to reclaim their neighborhoods. As a result of Mrs. Wilson’s leadership on this project, she now provides training and technical assistance for other jurisdictions across the country that are interested in implementing this strategy.
Dave Wynos
Detective David A. Wynos is an enrolled member of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. He started with the Menominee Tribal Police Department in April of 1997 and was promoted to Detective in 2006. He has worked high profile drug and gang cases as one of the lead agents for the Native American Drug and Gang Initiative (NADGI) Task Force. He is a member of the Safe Trails Task Force, working closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is also a recipient of several awards, including an Exceptional Service Award in the Public Interest from the FBI. When not in the office, Detective Wynos is an active member in the community promoting the Menominee Tribal Police Department. He helped establish the first Neighborhood Watch program on the Menominee Indian Reservation, coaches basketball for the Menominee Indian High School, and he helps with the girls’ softball program on the Menominee Indian Reservation.
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