W. Lee Fjelstad brings audiences the skills of a humorous, highly animated, and dynamic presenter with over two decades of experience as a professional speaker and entertainer. As the vice president of the Verbal Judo Institute and an expert in how language affects people under stress, Mr. Fjelstad teaches how to communicate effectively during difficult situations where highly charged emotions can be both frustrating and dangerous. He holds second degree black belts in both Japanese and Korean karate and, schedule permitting, still teaches self-defense seminars to government agencies, corporate clients, and the airlines. He has been profiled on CNN, CBS, ABC, FOX, and the CBC in Canada. Mr. Fjelstad’s satirical approaches to conflict are ideal entertainment for highly stressed professionals in the workplaces of today, offering both an outlet for frustration and tactics that truly work for reducing conflict and stress.

M. Claire Harwell, JD, is a national trainer for police, prosecutors, medical providers, civil attorneys, judges, and counselors. She developed a sexual assault victim services training curriculum and a volunteer advocate training curriculum for use in the United States Air Force worldwide. She has trained attorneys across the nation under a grant from the Department of Justice to the Victim’s Rights Law Center in Boston, where she served as the national trainer for the technical assistance provider to attorneys representing victims of sexual assault under the Civil Legal Assistance to Victims Grant. She was formerly the division director for the New Mexico Attorney General’s Violence Against Women Office. While practicing in New Mexico, she prosecuted a variety of high profile violent offenses and conducted extensive training for law enforcement, medical providers, civil attorneys, counselors, and prosecutors, on a variety of topics. Ms. Harwell received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and her juris doctorate from the University of New Mexico School of Law. She was a state-certified law enforcement officer in the state of North Carolina.

Kelly Kuenstler is the newly appointed director of the Administrative Office of the District Attorneys. Ms. Kuenstler holds a masters degree in public administration from New Mexico State University and has 20 years of experience in state government.

David Lisak, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he conducts and supervises research on the causes and consequences of interpersonal violence. In particular, he has studied the motives and characteristics of “undetected” rapists – men who rape but who are never prosecuted. He also studies the long term effects of childhood abuse in adult men, and the relationship between early abuse and the later perpetration of interpersonal violence. His research has been published in leading journals in psychology, trauma and violence, and he was the founding editor of the journal, Psychology of Men and Masculinity. In addition to his research and teaching, Dr. Lisak has served as faculty for the National Judicial Education Program, and the American Prosecutors Research Institute, and has served as a consultant to judicial, prosecutor and law enforcement education programs across the country. He has conducted workshops nationally, and consults widely with universities, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, and other institutions regarding sexual assault prevention and policies. Dr. Lisak consults frequently with law enforcement and prosecutors on sexual violence and homicide cases across the country, and also serves as an expert witness in death penalty cases where issues of child abuse are pertinent.

Tim Manning is the deputy administrator for Protection and National Preparedness (PNP) at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Prior to this assignment, he served as the secretary of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and Homeland Security Advisor to the Governor. He was named the Department’s first director by the Governor in April 2007, having previously been appointed to the Cabinet as director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security in 2005. Before that he served as the state director of Emergency Management. Deputy Administrator Manning has previously served as a deputy cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and has a diverse background in emergency services, working in a number of positions in the State’s emergency management agency. Prior to his service with New Mexico, Deputy Administrator Manning served as a firefighter, EMT, rescue mountaineer and hazardous materials specialist. He received a bachelor of science degree in geology from Eastern Illinois University and is a graduate of the Executive Program at the Center for Homeland Defense and Security of the Naval Postgraduate School.

Robert J. Martin is widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading experts on predicting and assessing violently inclined situations. He is a 28-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), where he founded and commanded their Threat Management Unit, the first of its kind in the nation and is a founding member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. He served two years as commanding officer of LAPD’s Personnel Division, directing employment matters for 11,000 officers and staff including the Employee Assistance Program. He has served as a consultant to the Chicago Behavioral Assistance Team Project Planning Committee as they developed a region-wide response team to deal with mentally ill offenders. He authored a chapter on police response to the mentally ill in The Criminal Justice System and Mental Retardation. Most recently, he authored the chapter on stalking in the just published, two-volume work Trauma Psychology: Issues in Violence, Disaster, Health and Illness. He has qualified as an expert in Federal Court on issues related to threat assessment, served on the board of directors of the San Diego Family Justice Center Foundation and is currently the vice president of the National Family Justice Center Alliance. Mr. Martin is the vice president of Gavin de Becker & Associates.

Ted Poe was sworn in to serve a third term representing the Second Congressional District of Texas in the United States House of Representatives in 2009. He has taken leadership roles in Washington, DC to advocate on behalf of victims and children and recognized nationally for his efforts to secure our borders and establish a plan for energy independence. As a matter of first priority after taking office in 2005, he established the bipartisan Victim’s Rights Caucus to advocate on behalf of victims in our nation’s capitol.  Serving as the caucus founder and co-chair, Congressman Poe has been pivotal in passing legislation to safeguard our children, such as the Child Predator Act that later became the Adam Walsh Child Safety Act, and to ensure that the needs and issues facing victims of crime are equally represented. As the leading voice in Washington, DC on border security, he travels regularly to the southern border to meet directly with local law enforcement and residents.  He has been instrumental in the fight to free many in the law enforcement community that have been unjustly prosecuted for actions in the line of duty. Before serving the 2nd Congressional District, Congressman Poe was a prosecutor and judge for 30 years in Houston, Texas. He was known for his creative sentencing of criminals and hard-nosed approach to enforcing the law. He garnered national media attention for his “Poetic Justice” punishments – he ordered thieves to carry signs in front of stores from which they stole; commanded sex offenders to place warning signs on their home after serving jail time; and directed murderers to securely place a photo of their victims on the wall of their prison cells reminding them of their crime. Today, Congressman Poe brings that same no-nonsense style to Congress. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, he is able to offer his unique perspective and professional experience to the committee membership. In addition, he serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. 

Steve Siegel joined the Denver District Attorney’s Office in 1983 where he serves as the director of the Special Programs Unit. He is the past chair and current member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Victims of Crime and was recently appointed by the Governor as a founding member of the Colorado Criminal Justice Commission. Over the course of his thirty-two year career he has been a catalyst for the development of interagency protocols that have been replicated nationwide on domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and victimization of the elderly and disabled. Mr. Siegel served as one of the crisis team leaders in the response to the Columbine High School tragedy. He has continued his support of the services to the Columbine community by serving on the executive committee of the Mile High United Way/McCormick Tribune“Healing Fund Foundation.” He is on the executive planning group for a Department of Justice Symposium on Response to Terrorism and is the team leader for the Technical Assistance to Community Leadership in the Aftermath of mass tragedy. Mr. Siegel co-chaired the committee that led to the passage of the Colorado Constitutional Amendment for Crime Victims Rights. He is a past president, current executive board member and co-chairperson of the Legislative Committee of the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance.

Gael B. Strack is the chief executive officer of the National Family Justice Center Alliance which provides technical assistance to over 100 existing and pending Family Justice Centers across the world. In July 2009, the Alliance launched the FJC Legal Network which provides legal services to victims of domestic violence. Prior to this position, Ms. Strack served as the director of the San Diego Family Justice Center from October 2002 through May 2007. In that capacity, she worked closely with 25 on-site agencies (government and non-profit) who came together in 2002 to provide services to victims of domestic violence and their children from one location. The San Diego Family Justice Center was recognized as a model program by President Bush in October 2003 and was the inspiration for the President’s Family Justice Center Initiative which launched 15 Centers across the nation. Prior to her work at the Family Justice Center, Gael was a domestic violence prosecutor for 17 years at the San Diego City Attorney’s Office. In her spare time, Ms. Strack is an adjunct law professor for California Western School of Law teaching “Domestic Violence and the Law.” She has been honored with numerous awards and is an internationally recognized trainer on domestic violence and strangulation.

Laura van Dernoot Lipsky has been working with trauma survivors for over two decades. After regularly spending nights volunteering in a homeless shelter at age 18, she went on to work with survivors of child abuse, domestic violence, acute trauma and natural disasters. Also active in community organizing and social-justice movements, she has acquired an intimate knowledge of the toll that trauma can take on those who are called to help. With her theory of Trauma Stewardship she combines the age-old wisdom of traditions from around the globe with the most cutting-edge contemporary research, inviting those of us who have been exposed to hardship, suffering, or trauma, whether directly or indirectly, to reinvent how we approach caring for others and ourselves. She has shared her practice of Trauma Stewardship through workshops and gatherings, traveling across North America and around the world to bring this work to a dizzyingly broad array of workers—from community organizers and health care workers in Japan to zookeepers and reconstruction volunteers in the post Katrina New Orleans, from U.S. Air Force pilots to Canadian fire fighters, from public school teachers to private practice doctors. Laura continues her work with Trauma Stewardship, collaborating with others to develop sustainable work practices and maintaining a private counseling practice for individuals. She is also the founder and director of a Spanish-language preschool and grade school enrichment program that offers an environmental and social-justice curriculum.

Michelle Aldana is the director of forensic services for All Faith’s Receiving Home where she manages the interviewing of children, adolescents and developmentally delayed adults
who were alleged sexual/physical abuse victims. She coordinates multidisciplinary teams consisting of law enforcement, District Attorney’s Office, and Child Protective Services from around the state of New Mexico and provides training and oversight of new forensic interviewers. Prior to this position she worked as a clinical forensic interviewer with All Faith’s
and was also a utilization review manager, scheduling coordinator and milieu counselor at Desert Hills Psychiatric Hospital.

Michael Archibeque received his degree from the University of New Mexico. He joined the Albuquerque Police Department in 1996 and is currently the sergeant of the eastside team of
the School Resource Unit.

Nico Ashe is the network director for the NM Children’s Safehouse Network. She has been with the Network since May 2009.

Julia C. Barker, MA, LPCC, is experienced in the provision of clinical evaluation and treatment of children and families, forensic supervision, consultation and training. Her
experience and expertise are drawn from the perspective of evaluation and treatment of childhood trauma, understanding the impact of culture and trauma on the investigation and
interviewing process, program administration and community development. Ms. Barker has extensive experience in the development and administration of child forensic interviewing and advocacy services and the multidisplinary approach to investigation of child abuse. She trains professionals regionally and nationally in the areas of child forensic interviewing and investigative interviewing of child maltreatment. She serves as a contract trainer for the
National Children’s Advocacy Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Ms. Barker has a master’s in counseling from The University of New Mexico and is a licensed professional clinical counselor.

Dawn Dougherty is the national project director at WATCH, a court monitoring and research organization based in Minneapolis, MN. Prior to coming to WATCH, she was the director of Public Education and Outreach at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. She has been an educator and trainer working to end domestic violence and sexual assault since 1994.

W. Lee Fjelstad, see his biography in the keynote presenters

M. Claire Harwell, JD, see her biography in the keynote presenters

David Lisak, PhD, see his biography in the keynote presenters

Brett Loveless graduated from the University of New Mexico with a bachelor of arts degree in political science and in 1995 graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law.
That same year he passed the bar exam. In his 14+ years of practicing law, he has worked with Toulouse & Associates, P.A., the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office, the Crimes Against Children Division (CACD) of the DA’s Office and the Economic Crimes Division. Later Mr. Loveless went into private practice for two years doing civil defense, representing governmental entities and police officers in employment discrimination and civil rights lawsuits, before returning the DA’s office in 2006.

Cheryl L. Padilla became interested in working with deaf and hard of hearing children while earning her degree from the University of New Mexico. Ms. Padilla began her career with
the New Mexico School for the Deaf in Santa Fe before moving to Desert Hills as a lead milieu counselor. She continued working with deaf and hard of hearing children as a program coordinator at La Familia, where she created programs to help clients live independently. Ms. Padilla is currently the director of special programs at the New Mexico Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons. She is responsible for assembling people in various fields to establish the New Mexico Abused Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advocacy Center, Inc.

Sharon L. Pino, JD, was appointed as New Mexico domestic violence czar for the Office of the Governor in January 2007. She received her bachelor degree from the University of New
Mexico and her juris doctorate from University of New Mexico School of Law in 1999. She is a former assistant district attorney for the First Judicial District Attorney's Family Violence Unit, and a former board member for Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families. Ms. Pino was in private practice for four and a half years, and during this time she handled family law cases and maintained a contract with Eight Northern Peacekeepers Domestic Violence Program to provide domestic violence prosecution services in tribal court for the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos.

KC Quirk, a social worker, has worked in New Mexico at Esperanza Shelter For Battered Families, Inc. in Santa Fe and the Rape Crisis Center of Central New Mexico for the past
eight years as the executive director. Her work experience includes designing and developing direct services and outreach and education programming aimed at promoting equity and access to people who have been disenfranchised by discrimination and oppression including: survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence, women in prostitution, those who are addicted or abuse drugs and alcohol, people struggling with mental health issues, gay men, lesbians, transgender individuals, homeless/runaway and low income youth and adults, disadvantaged pregnant women and people at risk of transmitting or contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STI’s).

William Roseman is originally from North Carolina and came to New Mexico in 1990 with the United States Air Force. He joined the Albuquerque Police Department in 1994 and has been the commander of the Juvenile Section for the past two years.

Corrine Sanchez, a Tewah Towah woman from San Ildefonso Pueblo, NM, is co-director of Tewa Women United and program manager of TWU’s V.O.I.C.E.S. Program. Ms. Sanchez is also a forensic interviewer and co-founded Brave Voices Forensic Interviewing Program, which is now a program under the V.O.I.C.E.S. Program. She helped to establish the first co-location site in New Mexico for child sexual abuse investigations. She co-coordinates and facilitates the Rio Arriba/Los Alamos County Multi-Disciplinary Team and conducts training for state, city, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies, school personnel, early childcare providers and community members on preliminary assessment, handling disclosures, the investigative process, cultural competency/sensitivity and the “how to’s” of interviewing children. Ms. Sanchez is the former president of the New Mexico Children’s Safehouse Network, former board member of the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Board, and vice president of the Native American Children’s Alliance.

Gael Strack, see her biography in the keynote presenters

Marie Suthers McCabe, DVM, is the vice president of the Human-Animal Bond Division of American Humane where she oversees Humane Education, Animal-Assisted Interventions
and The Link. Previously she served as director of community education for Heifer Project International and at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine to develop
and direct the Center for Animal Human Relationships. Dr. McCabe earned her DVM degree from Ohio State University and was a practicing veterinarian prior to serving as director of the Veterinary Technology Program at Columbus State Community College in Ohio. She has been actively involved in the field of human-animal interaction for over 12 years, starting with developing an Animal Assisted Therapy and Education Certificate program at Columbus State in 1997. She serves on the board of directors of the International Society for
Anthrozoology and the Association for Veterinary Family Practice.

Michael Swanson moved to Albuquerque in 1978. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and in 1995 was hired by the Farmington Police Department. He later transferred to the Albuquerque Police Department where he was assigned to and worked four years with the School Resource Officer division. He has also worked as the Crimes Against Children Sergeant for three years. Sgt. Swanson has a bachelor of science degree in occupational education, criminal justice from Wayland Baptist University.

Melissa L. Tatum specializes in tribal jurisdiction and tribal courts, particularly in the context of domestic violence and protection orders. She is the author of several articles on the
subject, and has served on task forces in Michigan and New Mexico charged with developing procedures to facilitate cross-jurisdictional enforcement of protection orders. Professor Tatum has taught seminars on domestic violence and protection orders throughout the United States for judges, attorneys, law enforcement, and victim advocates, including at the National Tribal Judicial Center. She joined the University of Arizona faculty in January 2009, after serving as a faculty member at the University of Tulsa for more than thirteen years. As part of her work at Arizona Law, she coordinates the IPLP LL.M. and S.J.D. programs, as well as serving as director of the IPLP certificate program (part of the JD).

Patrick Trujillo is a member of and resides in the Pueblo of Cochiti and he is also a member of the Jemez Pueblo. He is a practitioner of traditional and spiritual ways. Currently, Mr. Trujillo is a consultant and teacher and is a certified fetal alcohol syndrome prevention trainer. He is a certified Gathering of Native Americans facilitator and trainer, Low Ropes Initiative Course facilitator and trainer, wellness trainer for youth, family, elders, women and men, leadership facilitator and trainer, and motivational facilitator and trainer. He received the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award in drug/alcohol studies through University of New Mexico and has served as a substance abuse counselor for the Five Sandoval Indian Pueblos, Inc., the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, and the Two World’s Project of
the All Indian Pueblo Council, Inc. Mr. Trujillo frequently presents programs of wellness specially tailored for audiences of men, women, and youth in affiliation with the University
of Oklahoma, the American Indian Training Institute (AITI) and The Gathering of Native Americans (GONA).

Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, see her biography in the keynote presenters

John Wheeler is the cabinet secretary for the NM Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.