MAY 15th-17th, 2015

Battered Women, Abused Children, and Child Custody:An International Crisis

Clarion Empire Hotel Secaucus, New Jersey

BMCC XI: Hands Across the Water

2The 11th Battered Mothers Custody Conference Co-Sponsored by:

National Coalition Against Domestic ViolenceNOMAS - National Organization for Men Against Sexism

The Nurtured ParentChildrens Justice Campaign

Mothers for Judicial AccountabilityMothers Against Court Custody Abuse / MACCA

Voices of Women Organizing ProjectStop Abuse Campaign

California Protective Parents AssociationNational Family Court Watch Project

BMCC XI Faculty

Renee BeekerMelanie BlowRobert BrannonDara Carlin Rhonda Lee CaseJoseph CoeHolly CollinsJennifer CollinsClara ColonJane DoeRiane EislerNancy S. Erickson Phyllis B. FrankRose GarrityRuth Glenn

Barry GoldsteinMaude GormanDavid GreenePaul Stanley HoldorfDr. Karin HufferDonna Ivery Sabra JacksonJacob JacquezNelly JouanToby KleinmanKathy LeePatrica LenowitzMichael LesherDoreen LudwigLenelah Maddox

Leah MarieMaralee McleanLiliane MillerWayne MorrisWendy MurphyDr. Amy NeusteinVirginia NyeRich PompelioSandra RamosTammy RisalitiAlan RosenfeldMoshe RozdialKelly RutherfordWafaa SaadKarli Singer

Raquel SinghEvan StarkAnne StevensonDr. Anita TarnaiMo Therese HannahRosaura TorresDr. Jen TrachtenbergRebecca TrippSam VakninConnie Valentine, M.S. Garland WallerGloria WoodsGregory R. WhiteQuenby WilcoxAndrew Willis

Conference Staff

Ashley SarvisChrysanne SpanuoloMoriah McCloskeyCarly MurthKerrin Mulhall

Wayne Van NostrandWill HannahLaura WojdylaJoe LombardoBetty Ann Grimes

Siena College Student Team

Brenda CostabileMoriah McCloskyKaitlyn RyanBrittany DAmbrosioRaquel GutierrezEdgar RosaHaley Milos

Lauren CollinsSami MartinezKerrin MulhallCynthia AustinLauren CollinsTaylor WilliamsKatie Kresser

Cover art by Lexi Hannah

The BMCC XI gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Quenby Wilcox and the generous financial support of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism.

Program design & layout by Victoria Kobilca

3Program design & layout by Victoria Kobilca

Battered Mothers Custody Conference XI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 15TH

Starting 8:00 a.m. .. REGISTRATION AND CHECK IN, LOBBY Book Table and Silent Auction available now and all weekend

10:00 10:45 ......... OPEN: Welcome and Greetings: Mo Hannah, Chair; Liliane Miller, Vice-Chair; Rose Garrity, President of the Board, NCADV 10:45 11:15 ......... KEYNOTE #1: Toby Kleinman: Dual Relationships, the Interplay between Mental Health Professionals and the Law, and how Litigants Can Avoid Pitfalls in Custody Cases Toby Kleinman is a NJ attorney and a partner in the law firm of Adler & Kleinman. She has litigated domestic violence, child custody and abuse cases and has been a consultant in legal cases dealing with domestic violence and child abuse in over 45 states.

11:15 Noon ......... KEYNOTE #2: Sam Vaknin (by Skype): The Narcissist and His Children The narcissist regards his children as extensions of himself, mere avatars of his inner constructs, pawns in the grand chess game that is his Life, props in the theatre of his False Self (sources of narcissistic supply), potential competitors, and bargaining chips in the inevitable showdown with a hostile world as reified by his reneging, traitorous spouse. In a custody battle, all these figments of his psychodynamics need to be adtroitly addressed to achieve a favorable outcome as far as the children involved are concerned.

12:15 - 1:30 ........... LUNCH ON OWN

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 16TH

1:30 2:00 ............. Patricia Lenowitz and Rich Pompelio: WE THE CHILDREN: A New Jersey Grassroots Social Justice Revolution WE THE CHILDREN, a revolutionary movement in the area of child victims rights, is made up of members from every county in the state of New Jersey. Represented by Patrice Lenowitz and Rich Pompelio, this discussion will address a statewide grassroots project that calls for family court and child protective services reform.

2:00 3:00 ............. Barry Goldstein and Andrew Willis: The Quincy Solution: How we can save $500 Billion by Preventing DV and Reforming Custody Courts As we struggle to better protect battered and sexually abused women and children, communities in the US have successfully reduced domestic violencedramatically. And saved millions and millions of dollars. If the Quincy Solution was adopted in the rest of the country, we could save $500 billion! And millions of women and children would sleep at night, knowing they no longer had anything, or anyone, to fear. Learn about a group of best practices that dramatically reduced domestic violence crime in communities like Quincy, Nashville and San Diego. Discover how the Safe Child Act can protect children and their mothers in the custody courts. You will leave this interactive plenary session equipped to work as part of a team to start implementing The Quincy Solution and the Safe Child Act in your community and throughout the country. Together we can reframe the conversation we have been losing and stop the horrific stories that always end with childrens lives being ruined.

3:00 3:15 ............. BREAK

43:15 4:15 ............. Nancy S. Erickson, J.D., Karin Huffer, Ph.D., and Jane Doe, DV Survivor: Invisible Injuries of Battered Women: How the Americans with Disabilities Act Can Help in Court Domestic violence survivors often suffer from invisible injuries, especially PTSD and depression. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) can be used to help a person with a disability (PWD) in many areas, but for a battered woman with a disability who is involved in a court battle, it is especially important to know that all courts are mandated to comply with the ADA. The ADA sets out steps that court administrations must follow when a PWD seeks accommodations or when the court becomes aware that the person needs accommodations. Accommodations could include, for example, protection in the courtroom from her abuser who is litigating against her, the presence of a disability advocate, or a service animal. Attendees -- whether attorneys, DV survivors, advocates or others -- will learn how to deal with the court system for themselves and others. Nancy S. Erickson, J.D., L.L. M, M.A. (Forensic Psychology) practices in New York. Karin Huffer, Ph.D., M.S., M.F.T. is a Marriage and Family Therapist. Jane Doe is a disabled D.V. survivor and advocate. 4:15 - 5:15............. CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS SESSION 1

1. Massachusetts Protective Mothers: Advocating for Protective Mothers: Whose Business Is It, Anyway? Roots, Wings andLets Get With A New Program! This presentation is a more advanced, specialized advocacy training for those who actively support protective mothers--social service/dv program victim advocates, attorneys, etc.We will briefly look at victim advocacys feminist roots - how original perspective translates to the sophisticated tactics of torture- tolerated by and employed through government sponsored systems today, how we bring advocacy into the present and prepare for the future. This presentation will examine and define Researchers, Advocates and Stakeholders from our working standpoint with a critical look at how offenders/systems may replicate each others models and actually contribute to procedures that abuse and revictimize. We will give specific examples of effective new strategies and point out those standards needing immediate overhaul. We will end with a New Plan Proposal for Advocacy that can be adopted globally: we will share what we know is the power of victim advocacy and what you can do from your position to drive the needed change! Massachusetts Protective Mothers are seasoned, certified, senior victim advocates from the legal, educational and social work fields demonstrating our nonprofit organizations unique experience, best advocacy practices and new approaches aimed at preventing the re-victimization of protective mothers and their children in family court and its related processes.

2. Quenby Wilcox: Domestic Violence as a Human Rights Violation Gonzalez vs. USA, 2011 (Inter- American Commission on Human Rights) and Gonzalez Carreno vs. Spain, 2014 (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW) are two major landmark decisions recognizing domestic violence as human rights violations under a States obligation to protect and the principle of due diligence. This presentation will include an explanation of the significance of these two cases in combating the problems within family courts, and in lobbying government for action and solutions.

3. Raquel Singh and Sabra Jack: Voices of Women Organizing Project Organizing for Social Change Healing as Individuals The workshop examines how community-organizing benefits the healing process of survivors of domestic violence both individually and collectively. When a person is victimized they experience the individual trauma of the violence. They are also traumatized by the society that has moved their partner to violence, the systems in place to assist them that have failed and a culture that marginalizes their experience. The only way to address the violation/mistreatment is to organize together for social change, while healing as individuals. This is complicated by a tension that occurs when we choose to organize around a victim identity.We will explore the following questions during the workshop: How does that identity impact a womans ability to successfully navigate systems?

Battered Mothers Custody Conference XI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

5 How does internalized oppression impact how a survivor interprets her abuse and others who have similar experiences? Does this create a false separation between women who have been abused and those who experience sexism in other ways? Does simply replacing the term victim with survivor really empower women to reclaim their lives? How can we skillfully craft and integrate our personal stories into a wider social-political context as part of our organizing?

5:15 6:15 ............. CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS SESSION 2

1. Holly & Jennifer Collins: Asylum Across the Water In the 1990s we started to notice a silent revolution where more and more protective mothers fled the United States to protect their children from abuse when the American justice system failed to protect the most vulnerable American citizens. Now that these children are turning 18 years old, have aged out of the system and are legally protected from the grips of the family court and their abusive parent, we are starting to see them come out of hiding and return home to the United States. We will discuss what happens to these children from the moment they go on the run, living as a fugitive, obtaining safety (sanctuary, asylum, etc) returning home and starting over. We will highlight the different countries which have protected battered women and their children and discuss the ways in which they have done so. We will openly discuss failed attempts, being arrested, incarcerated and will not encourage any mother to break the law. If other mothers or children want to share their story (good or bad) of life on the run overseas please contact Jennifer Collins.

2. Melanie Blow, Barry Goldstein, Greg White, Andrew Willis: Using the Quincy Model in Erie County, N.Y.: How One Community is Organizing to Stop DV and Child Abuse Discover how community leaders in Erie County, New York are working together to implement evidence based programs that will stop child abuse, neglect and domestic violence. Learn how the Stop Abuse Campaign lobbied public officials and organized DV and child advocacy groups to develop a plan, centered on the Quincy Solution, and adjusted to community circumstances to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). This interactive workshop will give you the tools you need to drive change in your community. Learn how to organize natural allies in support of a program to prevent DV and child abuse. Find out how to engage community leaders and legislators to support practices that protect children. The huge potential financial savings provide an incentive for public officials to stop tolerating DV giving you the first realistic opportunity to reform the custody courts and prevent domestic violence and child abuse in your community.

FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 15TH

7:30 End ............. Special evening session with Marilee McLean: Media coverage from CNN PRESENTS: INTERNATIONAL Parental Alienation

Battered Mothers Custody Conference XI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

6SATURDAY MORNING, MAY 16TH

9:00 9:30 ............. Greetings from Ruth Glenn, Executive Director, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

9:30 10:00 ........... KEYNOTE #4: Marilee McLean: Prosecuted But Not Silenced Marilee will discuss her tragic legal journey and how it led to her grass roots efforts on behalf of Protective Mothers. She will describe her work with Joan Pennington, the guru of the Protective Parent Movement in the 1980s. Maralee Mclean is a child advocate, speaker, expert witness, protective mother and author of PROSECUTED BUT NOT SILENCED (Courtroom Reform for Sexually Abused Children) 10:00 10:30 ......... Rhonda Lee Case & Nelly Jouan: THE FRENCH CONNECTION: Two Mothers Stories Reflect American Family Court Failures and French Family Law Successes in Protecting Children Rhonda Case, Co-Coordinator, We Will Speak Out: Oregon and Portland; Liaison for the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence Nelly Jouan, Author of Jai Aim un Manipulateur (about psychological abuse) translated into 10 languages under pen name Caroline Brhat, and Administrator of To The Moon And Back - art work by protective mothers. Rhonda Case and Nelly Jouan are protective mothers who fought lengthy battles in the family courts of Oregon and _________. They were able to retain custody of their children but not to prevent their abuse. Their cases both involved Hague convention issues and the family law court systems of both America and France. Nelly appears by Skype to read a letter she wrote to the Appeals Court Judge in France who saved her daughters life. She offers a proposal: a European-American association that would create a Manifesto for the Rights of Children of Divorce, to be signed by American and European psychiatrists, academics,and attorneys so as to protect children in cases of contested child custody. Rhonda reads her essay, The Sounds of the Silenced (from her upcoming book, Best Case Scenario) and will share some of her sons poetry and songs in which he gives voice to his experience of abuse. She will recount briefly how her sons life and death inspired her to work with Dr. Riane Eislers Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence and with the We Will Speak Out Campaign to end sexual and gender-based violence.

10:30 10:45 ......... BREAK

10:45 11:45 ......... NOMAS Council: Phyllis B. Frank, Moshe Rozdial, Jacob Jacquez, Rose Garrity, David Greene, Robert Brannon, Gloria Woods, Wayne Morris, Joseph Coe and Barry Goldstein: Introducing NOMAS and Our Support for Protective Mothers This is the fourth year the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) has co-sponsored the BMCC. We know the abuser rights groups who call themselves advocates of fathers rights misframe the custody dispute as one between mothers and fathers. We believe it is a dispute between the vast majority of men and women who believe children should be protected from abusers against a small group of extreme abusers. Accordingly it is important for mens organizations to learn from protective mothers and speak publicly to support them.. Barry Goldstein is co-chair of the NOMAS Child Custody Task Force and is proud to introduce his colleagues on the Council to his friends at the BMCC. In this plenary session, NOMAS will introduce the men and women on our Council and some of the issues we work on to stop oppression. We want to use this conference to listen to protective mothers and find out how we can help you. We are excited to participate in a conference we have long admired.

11:45 1:00 ........... LUNCH ON OWN

Battered Mothers Custody Conference XI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

7SATURDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 16TH

1:00 2:00 ............. Alan Rosenfeld: What Ive Learned In 30 years Representing Battered Mothers Alan Rosenfeld began representing mothers of sexually abused children in custody cases in 1984. His solo practice has included representing adult survivors of child sexual abuse in some of the first civil lawsuits against abusers, battered moms fighting to protect their children in high conflict custody cases, and criminal defense of mothers who have taken their children into hiding to protect them from abuse and were subsequently charged with parental kidnapping. Alan will be talking about what he has learned in 30 years representing battered women in the hope of inspiring and challenging us as a society to care about the best interests of our children. 2:00 - 3:00............. Garland Waller: The Silent Scandal Media Failure and the Family Courts People often ask, Why havent there been more stories in the mainstream media on the failure of the family courts? Theres a reason. For starters, there is cultural gender bias and there is failure to tie together the hundreds, really thousands, of stories related to batterers and abusers getting custody. But that really is just for starters. Find out whats the problem with getting media coverage and what to do about it. Garland Waller is Producer/Founder of Garland Waller Productions and Director of the TV Graduate Program at Boston Universitys College of Communication.

3:00 3:15 ............. BREAK

3:15 3:45 ............. KEYNOTE #5: Riane Eisler (Skype) Riane Eisler is a social scientist, evolutionary theorist, and cultural historian best known for her bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 25 foreign editions, including most European languages and Chinese, Russian, Korean, Hebrew, Japanese, Urdu, and Arabic. Her newest book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking, by former President of Iceland Vigdis Finnbogadttir as an essential tool for government leaders, politicians, and economists, and by Jane Goodall as a call for action proposes a new approach to economics that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and for our natural environment. Riane will discuss the experiences that led her to dedicate herself to the work she has done and continues to do to bring about a critical transformation of our culture. She will connect her concept of the dominator model to the unjust and gender-biased legal landscape facing fit, loving mothers who are seeking protection from abuse. As time allows, she will answer questions from the audience.

3:45 4:45 ............. CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS SESSION 3

1. Tammy Risaliti & Doreen Ludwig: Fathers Rights, Fatherhood Funding, and Litigation: Call to Action This workshop will inform attendees how each source of fatherhood funding impacts litigation. We will discuss the role fathers rights played in program implementation including some of their current tactics. In conclusion, we will issue a Call to Action to brainstorm a campaign to attack this funding. This workshop is not intended to be a solution for individual cases; it is a next step for mothers and advocates who are ready to confront the root cause into the future.

2. Dara Carlin, Connie Valentine, & Kathy Lee: The Power of Prayer 1. In an informal survey of the women who contact CPPA (well over 3000 in the past decade) nearly all have said they were prayerful people, with the vast majority saying they were Christian. We surmise that sociopaths deliberately prey on Christian women who do not want to go to hell by giving into their earthly emotions and breaking the sixth commandment.

Battered Mothers Custody Conference XI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

8 2. Bible scripture, passages, references and resources to support and inspire survivor moms under persecution from the family court system to help them endure and/or consider their ordeals from a spiritual perspective 3. Stories and accounts from the nightly prayer line 4. Perspectives and coping skills from different faiths

3. Leah Marie and Rebecca Tripp: Transcend into a Better Life Do you feel that you are not living to your fullest potential? Are you often feeling drained by certain environments, people or situations? Do you find yourself living the same patterns over and over? Are you looking for more joy and fulfillment with purpose in your daily life? Your life is your choice and your responsibility, but you dont have to walk this path alone. With this workshop, we provide attendees with a personal toolbox full of powerful, time-honored self-help tools that are effective in removing limited belief systems stored in the subconscious. Leah and Rebecca will help attendees uncover and remove those blocks to feeling balanced, present, and less stress even when facing difficult challenges. Actual holistic and natural approaches to self-care, stress management and mental housecleaning will be demonstrated such as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique-proven to be effective for managing PTSD), meditation, positive visualization, setting clear intentions, along with self-worth, forgiveness and gratitude exercises. Participants will also learn what the different levels of brain consciousness are and how to use them to ones advantage.

4:45 5:45 ............. CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS SESSION 4

1. Jennifer Collins and Karli Singer: Kids Reaching Out From Sea to Shining Sea Child abuse can have devastating and debilitating effects on ones life. Jennifer and Karli have spoken out against the injustices done to them during childhood and shared the pain of their pasts. Now as we continue to heal, we redirect our focus on improving ourselves so we can better help the children of today. Karli is in medical school and Jennifer is preparing to attend law school. We are continuing on our paths as child advocates and would like to share where we are now, what we are doing to help children and how we intend to do even more in the future. We would like to offer an uplifting message of hope for the future for those who are in the middle of fighting the hardest battle of their lives.

2. Strengthen our Sisters: Sandra Ramos, Donna Ivery, Wafaa Saad, Virginia Nye, & Lenelah Maddox: Mothers and Children: Worth More Than Gold In this session, we will discuss the illusions of deception that grasp women, children and even men into a web of destruction. We will discuss what happens when you speak out against the abuse, blow the whistle and become further alienated by the very systems that have been put in place for protection. Then we will discuss how to get out of the system, save time, money and redirect your potential energy to rebuild. Regardless of who we are, we were not created to be doormats for people to walk over and abuse. There is a difference between confidence and arrogance. We have a right to be strong, stand up and speak up for our children and ourselves. We can trick ourselves into believing that a persons abusive behavior is a sign of their love for us, especially if this is how we allow them to treat us. A person who hurts another is not a healthy friend, lover or confidant. Remember, feelings of love can be anything, depending on what you want them to be. But if you think about love as a behavior, then you cannot stay in an abusive relationship. Panelists are Sandra Ramos, from Strengthen Our Sisters, Donna Ivery, Ed.M., from Quest For Excellence, Wafaa Saad, Ed.M., from Wafaa House, Lenelah Maddox, M. Psy., author and public speaker, Clara Colon, public speaker and survivor, and Rosaura Torres, award winning bilingual author of Behind the Blue Wall.

3. Renee Beeker and Paul Holdorf: Improving Justice in Family Courts: Building a Foundation of Safety for Families and Communities. The National Family Court Watch Project is a collaborative action research project, teaching the importance of community involvement to bring about change. We have a uniform observational instrument for recording family court proceedings. We have already used this to collect data on family court proceedings in six different states. BMCC attendees will be familiarized with the project. We will also share some interesting data points discovered

Battered Mothers Custody Conference XI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

9in the Family Court Watch Project. We are building relationships at several universities and expanding our effort to increase the involvement of members of educational and local communities. Renee Beeker is a mother, activist, speaker, author, wife, Founder & President of National Family Court Watch Project. Paul Holdorf, J.D. is an author, teacher, and retired attorney and is an Officer on the Board of Directors of the National Family Court Watch Project.

DINNER ON OWN 5:45 7:00

7:00 9:00 p.m. ..... Special Evening Extended Workshop: Evan Stark: The Battered Mothers Dilemma: Building a Case for Coercive Control.

SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 17TH

8:30 9:00 ............ KEYNOTE #6: Amy Neustein: Never Give Up: How I Built the Protective Mothers Movement from Scratch and Why I Believe It Will SucceedFaced with extreme adversity I sprang into action, fortified by my loving parents, sustained by my faith, and emboldened by my own self confidence. Now, three decades later, I look back at the family court tsunami and share some of the unspoken details of how I found the fortitude to fight the gladiators who ripped my child from me, and how that strength served to galvanize many other protective mothers throughout the country. One hears of those extraordinary stories of how a car accident victim is able to suddenly lift a ton of rubble from their chest. This was how I felt when I lost my daughter: suddenly I was empowered with this super human, almost inexplicable strength to fight a deadly system. I banged on doors loud enough to be heard. I stirred the New York State Legislature to hold over a half dozen hearings and got the ear of a Congressional Committee, which took my complaint seriously enough to hold hearings in the early 90s where I brought some of todays BMCC protective mothers, such as Maralee McLean, to testify. This talk is a retrospective of the past 30 years and a prospective on hope, love, and persistence and why those forces never die.

9:00 9:30 ............ KEYNOTE #7: Michael Lesher: Sex Abuse and Institutional Inattention If everybody deplores child sexual abuse and loathes abusers, why is it so hard for victims to find justice? If statistics show that children are more likely to be sexually abused by close family members or by trusted clergymen, teachers or professionals than by strangers, why do we hear so much more about children snatched by passing strangers than about systematic abuse cover-ups in nearby religious communities, or about the judicial kidnaping of children in the family court system from parents who try in good faith to protect their children from suspected abuse? The answer, I think, has a lot to do with patterns of institutional attention to such matters -- and by institutions, I mean the court system, law enforcement agencies, child protective services, religious leadership, and the popular media as well. As an author, a lawyer and an advocate, I have spent years documenting the way institutions that should be protecting children have either tolerated or contributed to cover-ups of child sexual abuse, and trying to explain this appalling paradox. I believe everyone who has a child, or who may have a child, or who cares about someone who has a child, might want to know how sex abuse is being ignored or concealed in cases occurring much closer to them than most people would suspect.

9:30 9:45 ............. BREAK

9:45 11:00 ........... Wendy Murphy, Patrice Lenowitz, Kelly Rutherford, Dr. Jen Trachtenberg: The Childrens Justice Campaign The Childrens Justice Campaign seeks to protect childrens constitutional rights and promote their health and wellbeing in law and society. We believe the public cannot protest what it doesnt know, so join us in spreading the word! Panel discussion led by co-founder, actress Kelly Rutherford, co-founder Patrice Lenowitz, and CJC board members Wendy Murphy and Dr. Jen Trachtenberg.

Battered Mothers Custody Conference XI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

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Battered Mothers Custody Conference XI SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

11:00 Noon ......... CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS SESSION 5

1. Phyllis Frank, Greg White, Rose Garrity, Wayne Morris and Barry Goldstein: The New York Model Batterers Program: Its Not What You Think The only responses to domestic violence shown to be effective are accountability and monitoring. Therapy, anger management, and substance abuse treatment can benefit people with these problems, but they are not effective in preventing domestic violence. The NY Model is an accountability program. It provides courts with an additional sanction when laws and practices make a more serious consequences unrealistic. NY Model programs hold men accountable for following the rules such as being on time, paying the weekly fees, acting respectfully during the classes and coming alcohol and drug free. In order to maintain our ethics, we must be accountable to the local DV program and avoid promises that the program will change mens behavior. Our best advice for partners is to be prepared for the man you know. Custody courts could use the program as a condition that must be completed before unsupervised visits are considered. The court would need to make that decision based on a range of issues in that even compliance does not guarantee his being safe to be with his children,

2. Anita Tarnai: An overview of key arguments and strategies employed to take custody away from a protective mother; a Brooklyn Family Court case study This workshop will draw upon lessons learned from a Brooklyn Family court case in which a mother loses custody to the abuser despite mounting evidence against the father and his demonstrated lack of prior involvement in the childs life. In this case, both the fathers attorney and the forensic psychologist are advocates commonly hired by abusive and affluent men who seek to take the children away from their mothers, a mission these two, prominent legal professionals accomplish at an alarming rate. Because of the recognized status and success rate of these professionals, their legal strategy deserves special attention. Attendees will learn about some of the most persuasive arguments and strategies used against protective mothers, and the roles gender bias and unfavorable views of victims of domestic violence play in legal proceedings. The workshop will conclude with a handout of a questionnaire aimed to gather data on the frequency of the particular practices outlined during the workshop. Participants will have the option to indicate which of these strategies have been used in their case and to what extent, how successful these strategies were in their legal proceedings, what other strategies they have noted, etc. The goal of the workshop is to collect data on the key arguments commonly used in court against protective mothers and generate awareness thereof.

3. Rhonda Case, Co-Coordinator We Will Speak Out: Oregon and Portland Liaison for the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence Nelly Jouan, Author of Jai aim un manipulateur (about psychological abuse) translated into 10 languages under pen name Caroline Brhat, and Administrator of To The Moon And Back - art work by protective mothers. Rhonda Case and Nelly Jouan are protective mothers who fought lengthy battles in the family courts of Oregon and New York. They were able to retain custody of their children but not to prevent their abuse. Their cases both involved Hague convention issues and the family law court systems of both America and France. Nelly appears by Skype to read a letter she wrote to the Appeals Court Judges in France who saved her daughters life. Rhonda reads her essay, The Sounds of the Silenced (from her upcoming book, Best Case Scenario. She will recount briefly how her sons life and death inspired her to work with Dr. Riane Eislers Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence and with the We Will Speak Out Campaign to end sexual and gender-based violence, a project of IMA World Health. NOON 2 p.m. ..... LUNCH SERVED IN MAIN BALLROOM: Speakers: Anne Stevenson, Journalist & Maude Gorman, Miss Massachusetts World

2:00 p.m. ............... FAREWELL

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The National Organization for Men Against Sexism is an activist organization of men and women supporting positive changes for men. NOMAS advocates a perspective that is pro-feminist, gay affirmative, anti-racist, dedicated to enhancing mens lives, and committed to justice on a broad range of social issues including class, age, religion, and physical abilities. NOMAS has long admired and supported the work of the Battered Mothers Custody Conference. This is our fourth year co-sponsoring the event and we are excited that this year our council will be participating in the conference.

Jack Straton and Barry Goldstein are co-chairs of our Child Custody Task Force and have a long history in support of protective mothers. Among the many lies promoted by the abuser rights groups is the claim that contested custody is a dispute between mothers and fathers. In reality contested custody are overwhelmingly domestic violence cases in which the vast majority of good men and women must work to protect children against an extreme group of abusers who are all too willing to hurt children in order to regain control over their victims. This is why it is so important for mens organization to provide strong support for protective mothers. We hope protective moms will speak with council members during the conference and learn more about the work NOMAS does. While we dont have the resources to help on individual cases, we can sign letters of support or join in amicus briefs. We want to continue learning from protective moms and find out what we can do to help. NOMAS supports the Quincy Solution and the Safe Child Act and hope mothers who can will join the campaign to dramatically reduce domestic violence and reform the custody courts by requiring that the health and safety of children become the first priority in all custody and visitation decisions.

NOMAS NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MEN AGAINST SEXISMBMCC XI Co-Sponsors

NCADV is a proud supporter of the 11th Annual and First International

Battered Mothers Custody Conference!

Thank you, BMCC, for all you do to support and assist battered women seeking protection for

themselves and their children from an abusive spouse or partner.

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BMCC XI FACULTYRENEE BEEKER is the founder and President of the National Family Court Watch Project. A speaker and advocate for reform of the judicial system since 1996, Renee is a respected contributing member to many professional and grassroots organizations. Renee has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences around the United States. Renee has designed a comprehensive Court Watch observational instrument that is being used in the National Family Court Watch Project. Renee is currently the Administrative Vice President of Michigan National Organization for Women. She is also the former President and Legislative Vice President of Michigan NOW and former National NOW Board member representing the Great Lakes Region. Renee is chair of Michigan NOW Family Law Task Force and chairs the National NOW Family Law Advisory ad hoc committee. Renee is Co-Founder of Freedom to Travel USA (FTTUSA), a civic group who is working to regain freedoms taken away by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). FTTUSA is fighting against the completely illegal, warrantless strip searches of our citizens, and fighting against the coerced, inappropriate physical touching, including very private parts of citizens bodies. Freedom to Travel USA was successful in having their amicus brief accepted by the First Circuit United States Appeals Court, as well as given time in addition to the principles for oral argument in Redfern v Napolitano. Renee serves on various committees both in her state and nationally, and is extremely concerned for the loss of liberty and freedom. Renee holds a Master of Arts degree in Educational Leadership from University of Mount Union and a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Communications from Eastern Michigan.

MELANIE BLOW is an incest survivor, a biochemist, and a writer who is absolutely passionate about ensuring that every child has a safe home. She leads Stop Abuse Campaigns campaigns NY projects, is a member of the Board of Directors for Prevent Child Abuse NY and sits on the Rochester Regional Coalition Against Human Trafficking. She blogs for the Stop Abuse Campaign, testifies in front of legislators and talks to anyone who wants to learn about child abuse or how to prevent it. Melanie lives in Rochester, NY.

DARA CARLIN, with a masters in Marriage & Family Counseling, is an independent Domestic Violence Survivor Advocate who has spent the majority of her career working in CPS-related and non-profit social service agencies. A survivor of both child abuse and domestic violence herself, she now spends most of her time fighting to correct the system she used to work in. Dara is a practicing Catholic and Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) teacher at her parish in Hawaii.

RHONDA CASE is the Portland Liaison for Dr. Riane Eislers Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence and Co-Coordinator for the We Will Speak Out campaign to end sexual and gender-based violence, a project of IMA World Health. She is a survivor of institutional betrayal trauma and domestic violence. Her son, Louis, victim of traumatic abuse, was the subject of a costly contested custody dispute in Oregon. He took his life in December 2014. May his memory be a blessing.

JENNIFER AND HOLLY COLLINS Just before Christmas in 1992, Jennifer Collins was torn from her loving mothers arms and handed over kicking and screaming to the father who had so abused her. A family court judge had ordered a change in custody for both Jennifer and her brother Zachary, based largely on the junk science of parental alienation syndrome. The court was not interested in hearing from the children. The court then further silenced Jennifer and her brother by telling them they were not allowed to even talk about the abuse they continued to suffer at the hands of their father. If they did, they would no longer be allowed to see their mother at all. So, believing that there was no other choice, in 1994 Jennifers mother Holly heroically rescued her and her brother and fled on an incredible journey in search of safety. They made it to the Netherlands where, after living in refugee camps for 3 years, they were the first Americans to receive Asylum! It has been two decades since she was forced to live with her abuser but unfortunately little has changed. Still too many children are forced to suffer the same fate as Jennifer and Zachary.

JANE DOE is a domestic violence survivor. Because of the abuse she suffered, she, like many other battered women, suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -- an invisible disability. Like a soldier who has PTSD from the horrors of the war, she has PTSD from the horrors of the abuse. After the divorce, she was forced to go to court against her abuser and needed accommodations from the court so that she would not have severe PTSD symptoms in the courtroom and during the ongoing litigation that would interfere with her ability to participate fully and fairly in the litigation on an equal basis. She will discuss going through the procedure of seeking accommodations and some of the problems she encountered. She will also discuss how she uses her service animal to help her cope with the symptoms of PTSD and the illegal roadblocks that have been set before her with regard to her service animal in places of public accommodations.

RIANE EISLER consults for business and governments on practical applications of the partnership model introduced in her work. She has been a leader in the movements for peace, environmental sustainability, economic equity, and human rights pioneering the extension of human rights protection to womens rights and childrens rights. Her work is widely applied in many organizations. She is also author of the award-winning books Tomorrows Children: A Blueprint for Partnership Education in the 21st Century and The Power of Partnership as well as Sacred Pleasure, a daring reexamination of sexuality and spirituality, and Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life, documenting the key role of womens status in a nations general quality of life. She has written over 400 articles in publications ranging from Behavioral Science, Challenge, Political Psychology, Brain and Mind, the Christian Science Monitor, and the UNESCO Courier to the Human Rights Quarterly, the International Journal of Womens Studies, Futures, and the World Encyclopedia of Peace. Riane Eisler is the only woman among 20 great thinkers including Adam Smith, Hegel, Marx, and Toynbee selected for inclusion in Macrohistory and Macrohistorians in recognition of the lasting importance of her work as a cultural historian and

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BMCC XI FACULTYevolutionary theorist. She has received many honors, including honorary Ph.D. degrees and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundations 2009 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award, and is in the award-winning book Great Peacemakers as one of 20 leaders for world peace, along with Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King.

NANCY S. ERICKSON (J.D. Brooklyn Law School, LL.M. Yale Law School, M.A. Forensic Psychology John Jay College of Criminal Justice) is a consultant on issues relating to law and psychology, particularly child custody evaluations and domestic violence. For eight years she was a Senior Attorney at Legal Services for New York City, Brooklyn Branch, representing low income clients primarily battered women in divorce and other family cases. For over ten years, she was a professor of law, teaching at New York Law School, Cornell, Ohio State, New York University, and Seton Hall Law School. She has also been an attorney for the City of New York, a Legal Services attorney with the National Center on Women and Family Law (no longer in existence due to funding cuts), and an attorney in private practice. She has written books and articles on family law, including domestic violence, child support, custody, marital property, attorneys for children, custody evaluations, and adoption. She is currently researching and writing in the area of custody evaluations. PHYLLIS B. FRANK is the Associate Executive Director of VCS, a forty five year old non-profit agency in New City, NY offering counseling, community education and social justice programs. Phyllis is a founding board member of Rocklands Center for Safety and Change and the NYS Coalition Against Domestic Violence - where she is a past president of the Board of Directors. In 1978, Phyllis developed and launched the first batterer program in New York State and the third oldest in the United States.

In 2002, that program, called the Domestic Violence Program for Men, became the template for the NY Model for Batterer Programs which was adopted by the NYS Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the NYS Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) and the NYS Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NYS NOW). Ms. Frank is nationally known on domestic violence, racial justice and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender issues. She has delivered speeches, workshops and trainings for professionals and lay audiences across the United States.

ROSE GARRITY is the former Executive Director (retired) of A New Hope Center, Tioga County, N. Y. (from founding in early 1986 through 12-31-2014). She developed all aspects of this well known domestic violence/sexual assault program, opening with a single staff to become one with 16-20 staff and many programs. Rose has written and trained extensively on various aspects of domestic violence and sexual assault as well as economic justice, anti-racism, classism and other oppressions. She is a co-founder of the NY Model for Batterer Programs Model and developed one of the earliest domestic violence coordinated community response networks in New York while developing the batterer program work. She also oversaw the development of the first pet rescue related to domestic violence project in the northeast. Rose is a well known writer and trainer and has received numerous awards for her work. She has also served on several boards, including the NYS Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the NYS Coalition Against Sexual Assault. In her retirement she remains committed to social justice activism. She is currently the President of the Board of Directors of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and remains on the Leadership Council of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism.

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BMCC XI FACULTYBARRY GOLDSTEIN is a nationally recognized domestic violence author, speaker and advocate. He is responsible for some of the leading books about domestic violence and custody, including Domestic Violence, Abuse and Child Custody (the second volume is now being printed) co-edited with Dr. Mo Therese Hannah, Representing the Domestic Violence Survivor co-edited with Elizabeth Liu, Scared to Leave Afraid to Stay and his newest book, The Quincy Solution: Stop Domestic Violence and Save $500 Billion. Barry has been an instructor in a NY Model Batterer Program since 1999. He is co-chair of the NOMAS Child Custody Task Force and on the board of the Stop Abuse Campaign which is working to implement the Quincy Solution and the Safe Child Act. Barry was an attorney for 30 years, but now is a nice guy.

MAUDE GORMAN is a 21 year old communication and journalism student at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. She is the president and founder of her own anti-bullying non-profit organization and has served as a faithful volunteer to the American Red Cross, Avon Walk For Breast Cancer, New England Aquarium, Horizons for Homeless Children, and Autism Speaks. Gorman also enjoys volunteering as a piano instructor for struggling teens at a local community center, and organizing beach clean-ups throughout Massachusetts. Continuing on, Gormans efforts have helped raise over $4500 for the Epilepsy Foundation, Childrens Miracle Network, and World Wildlife Fund. In her downtime, Gorman enjoys snowboarding competitively for the United States of America Snowboarding Assocation and has earned herself several national and international rankings over the years. Gorman has also claimed the privilege of working as a co-host on Henrys Baseball Show, as well as a media-directed marketing volunteer for

the TV series Obsessed With The Dress. Throughout her reign as Miss Massachusetts World America, Gorman plans to promote her platform statement of sexual assault awareness by working directly with fellow survivors. To request Miss Massachusetts World America for an appearance please contact: gormanmaude@aol.com, info@newenglandpageants.com

MO THERESE HANNAH, Ph.D., Conference Chair, is a Professor of Psychology at Siena College. She is a licensed New York State psychologist with a specialty in couples therapy and relationship dynamics. She is an Advanced Clinician in Imago Relationship Therapy and an Academic Faculty member of Imago Relationships International. Her clinical and research interests revolve around couples therapy, intimate partner violence, and transpersonal psychology. She serves as the Editor of Family and Interpersonal Violence Quarterly and has published seven books,including as Co-Editor, with Barry Goldstein, Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Child Custody: Legal Strategies and Policy Issues, Volumes 1 (2010) and 2 (in press). In 2004, she co-founded and continues to serve as Chair of the annual Battered Mothers Custody Conference (BMCC; batteredmotherscustodyconference.org)

PAUL STANLEY HOLDORF is a retired New York corporate lawyer who volunteered with Trial Lawyers Care to help 9/11 victims. In 2006, he joined the Family Court Watch Project as an observer in New Jersey and is now on the Board, and Program Director, of the NFCWP. He has volunteered for various missions to help abused women. In his spare time, he compiles archaeological reports and publications on Bronze Age excavations in Jordan and Israel, and has read papers at annual meetings of The American Schools of Oriental Research.

Mothers for Judicial Accountability Foundation, Inc.

211 E 70th St., Suite 23B, NY, NY 10021 email: contact@mjafoundation.com website: mjafoundation.com

Bridget Grace Marks Protective Mothers Rights activist and Mothers for Judicial Accountability Foundation

wish all mothers of lost children Godspeed !! MAY YOU BE REUNITED SOONEST !!!

BMCC XI Co-Sponsor

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DR. KARIN HUFFER is a marriage and family therapist, author, speaker, and ADAAA advocate living in Colorado Springs, CO. As a therapist, work and research led to the identification of a very human response to the pressures of prolonged litigation, legal abuse syndrome. She is director of Equal Access Advocates, an online site training ADA advocates for mental and non-apparent disability accommodations. As a keynote/guest speaker, Karin addresses professionals devoted to improving the judicial experience for the invisibly disabled. Overcoming the Devastation of Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS) and Unlocking Justice, her second book, are available.

DONNA IVERY, Ed.M. is a national public speaker and a member of Screen Actors Guild, Toastmasters International and other well-known organizations. She participates in closed educational policy meetings at the Harvard University, Program on Education Policy and Governance. As an active member of Kappa Delta Pi The International Honor Society of Educators, she is among outstanding educational leaders who hold various certifications through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She is a member of the American Sociological Association and participates in research regarding domestic violence, its effects on the family, and the acts of domestic terrorism unleashed on the American family through the American legal system, and Child Protective Services due to their lack of knowledge and coordination. Ivery is a former officer of the Superior Court of New Jersey and is trained in various levels of Operational Risk Management and Emergency Preparedness through the Civil Air Patrol an Auxiliary of the United States Air Force. Ivery and her children are survivors of the acts of domestic violence and domestic terrorism.

SABRA JACKSON is a parent organizer and family advocate at the Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP). A graduate of CWOPs East Harlem Parent Leadership Curriculum, an intensive skill and community service building program for parents involved with the child welfare system, Sabra also serves as Initial Child Safety Conference Coordinator for the East Harlem Community Partnership Initiative. Prior to her work at CWOP, Ms. Jackson had over 10 years experience working in the social service field as a health educator focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, as well as a youth outreach and development coordinator and a case manager working with women and families receiving welfare or involved in prevention services with ACS. Also, since 2002, she has been a very active member of the Voices of Women Organizing Project (VOW), a self-help and advocacy organization for survivors of domestic violence, which she represents on the ACS Parent Advisory Work Group. In addition, she is a member of the ACS City-Wide Headstart Policy Council and 1 of 2 family advocates for the New York County Law Association subcommittee on Family Court chaired by the Honorable Howard Miller. Ms. Jackson has an understanding of child welfare policy and practice as both a client and a service provider.

NELLY JOUAN is the Administrator of the FB page To The Moon And Back, an artistic project throwing light on the suffering endured by mothers and children who have been separated by court orders. She is the author of two books on domestic violence and a survivor of domestic violence. Her contested custody dispute in New York involved daughters allegations of abuse; it ended in 2014 when French courts granted Nelly full custody of her daughter. Her case has been covered in the French press.

TOBY KLEINMAN Toby Kleinman is a NJ attorney and a partner in the law firm of Adler & Kleinman. She has litigated domestic violence, child custody and abuse cases and has been a consultant in legal cases dealing with domestic violence and child abuse in over 45 states. She is an Associate Editor of The Journal of Child Custody, published articles and editorials in the Journal of Child Custody, written a Legal Affairs column for the Trauma Psychology Newsletter of Division 56, the American Psychological Associations Division on Trauma, has published articles in The New Jersey Law Journal, has two chapters in the book, The Broken Family Court and is co-author of Social Work and The Courts: A Casebook, now in press. Ms. Kleinman has taught at the Harvard School of Public Health, is an Adjunct Professor Center for Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University, Ft Lauderdale, Fla., is a Director of the Advisory Board to the Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence (LC), is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Domestic Violence and Legal Empowerment Project at George Washington Law School. Ms. Kleinman was an invited Participant, to the National Council Of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NJIDV) Faculty Development presented by the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence, in partnership of Futures Without Violence, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. Having given Keynote addresses at the Institute on Violence Abuse and Trauma in San Diego, the Association of family and Conciliation Courts and The Battered Mothers Custody conference Ms. Kleinman was also the keynote speaker at the Cummings Foundation Broken family Courts conference. Voted a NJ Super Lawyer, Ms Kleinman has trained family court judges in several states, is an adjunct Professor to the Center for Psychological Studies at Nova Southeastern University in Ft Lauderdale Florida, and is called as a guest expert on network television, including Good Morning America and World News Tonight.

BMCC XI FACULTY

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BMCC XI FACULTYPATRICE LENOWITZ is a domestic violence survivor, advocate and activist. She is the founder and co-facilitator of The Nurtured Parent Support Group, a weekly support group empowering survivors of domestic abuse. Of paramount importance to her work is advocating for victims rights and to unravel why family court often fails to protect the most vulnerable among us, victims and their children in crisis seeking a life free from abuse. Patrice is also the co-playwright with author Lundy Bancroft of FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT, a theatrical production that tells the true stories of family court victims, and raises questions about the improper court response to domestic violence and child abuse. FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT is expected to open to audiences in the fall of 2015. Last year, Patrice co-founded the Childrens Justice Campaign with actress Kelly Rutherford. The CJC is a national organization that seeks to protect childrens constitutional rights and promote their health and wellbeing in law and society. As a Community Educator for the Center for Hope and Safety, Patrice speaks publically to a wide range of audiences on the dynamics of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking, and their palpable threat to our nations women and children. To further address these issues in her home state, Patrice and crime victims attorney Rich Pompelio have teamed up to form a statewide grassroots project that calls for family court and child protective services reform. WE THE CHILDREN is a revolutionary movement in the area of child victims rights and made up of members from every county in the state of New Jersey.

MICHAEL LESHER is an attorney and a prolific writer who co-authored (with Amy Neustein) From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running from the Family Courts -- and What Can Be Done about It (Northeastern, 2005). He contributed to Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities & Child Sex Scandals (Brandeis, 2009). His most recent book is Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities (McFarland & Company, Inc.) -- the first book ever on sex abuse cover-ups among Orthodox Jews.

LEAH MARIE is a certified holistic life, stress management coach, Reiki Master and teaches life enriching techniques such as various meditation styles, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT-tapping) and other mindfulness approaches to improving your life. She is also certified in corporate wellness, ThetaHealing and Practical Yoga. Leah Marie, a was directed to her spiritual path after having a near death and out of body experience in 2001 when she was injured in an equestrian accident where her body went into cardiac arrest and she was resuscitated by her father. She describes her journey to the other side as the most loving, peaceful and eye-opening experience of her life. During her time spent out of her body, she felt a higher level of consciousness that her soul experienced first-hand. She feels that it is part of her souls purpose to tell the story of this amazing trip and share the knowledge of another state of afterlife consciousness with others. Leah is currently providing stress management and holistic practices for well-being continuing education programs to various

medical and health care facilities throughout New England. She has also facilitated meditation classes at the University of Massachusetts Second Half Learning Center. She holds individual sessions, workshops and online webinars. To learn more visit: www.mindhealthcoach.com

MARALEE MCLEAN is a child advocate, protective parent, domestic violence expert, professional speaker, and author of PROSECUTED BUT NOT SILENCED: Courtroom Reform for Sexually Abused Children. Maralee has several articles published in the ABA Child Law Journal and in Womens E-News about the problem of our family courts not protecting abused children. Maralee is affiliated with the Womens Media Center (WMC), SheSourceExpert, NPEIV (National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence) and is with RAINN speaker bureau. Her passion for advocacy developed through living a mothers worse nightmare. Fighting the system both body and soul, she gained the insight that this was not her nightmare alone. She organized a National Rally of Mothers at the Capitol and is involved in legislative work that spans over two decades. She testified before Congress to promote judicial accountability to better protect sexually abused childrens rights in our courts. Her story has been covered by many media outlets and internationally on CNN.

LILIANE HELLER MILLER, Conference Vice-Chair, is a paralegal, writer, researcher, Internet designer, and non-custodial mother living in Charlotte, North Carolina. She holds a B.A. from Furman University in Special Education and completed graduate work in Fine Arts at Duke University and University of NC at Greensboro. Together with Mo Hannah, Liliane co-founded and serves as Vice-Chair for the Battered Mothers Custody Conference. She created and continues to develop the conference web site and other national online data gathering and networking projects for battered mothers and their advocates. She has a special interest in developing legislation and legal strategies to bar batterers from initiating custody disputes and to hold attorneys, judges, and court appointees to elevated ethical and procedural standards in any case involving the welfare of children. In her 12-year experience with the family court system, Liliane has represented herself in state and federal court at both the trial and appellate levels.

WAYNE MORRIS returned to New York in 2013 and was elected, once again, to the National Council of NOMAS, the National Organization for Men Against Sexism. Wayne was instrumental in the development of the VCS Domestic Violence Program for Men and the NY Model for Batterer Programs, where he is currently an Instructor and Senior Supervisor. Wayne was also faculty for the first VCS National Training Institute, in 1994, on Batterer Programs and Domestic Violence Offender Accountability. Wayne Morris attended the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyonds Undoing Racism Workshop and combined with his understanding of sexism, has been a national leader on work to ending both of these oppressions.

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WENDY MURPHY is adjunct professor of sexual violence law at New England Law|Boston where she also co-directs the Womens and Childrens Advocacy Project under the Center for Law and Social Responsibility. A former Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School, Wendy prosecuted child abuse and sex crimes cases for many years. In 1992 she founded the first organization in the nation to provide pro bono legal services to crime victims. Wendy is an impact litigator whose work in state and federal courts has changed the law to better protect the constitutional and civil rights of victimized women and children. Wendy writes and lectures widely on the rights of women, children and criminal justice policy. She is a contributing editor for Womens eNews and writes a regular column for The Patriot Ledger. Wendy has published numerous scholarly articles on novel legal issues including the first law review article to describe the legal relationship between sexual assault on campus and Title IX. Dubbed the Goddaughter of Title IX by the Godmother of Title IX, Dr. Bernice Sandler, Wendys impact litigation in the area of campus sexual assault, beginning in the 1990s, includes a first of its kind case against Harvard, which was filed with the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education in 2002 and led to widespread awareness and reforms in the redress and prevention of campus sexual assault. Other impact litigation and topics of scholarship include: ensuring that anti-bullying laws are not used to inhibit the publics understanding of sexual harassment as s civil rights injury; using due process and standing doctrine to address gender bias in criminal rape cases; using constitutional privacy rights doctrine to protect victims therapeutic counseling files; forcing state courts to comply with the American with Disabilities Act and grant testimonial accommodations to disabled crime victims; protecting the parental rights of women who become pregnant

from rape; protecting child rape victims from court-ordered rape; protecting the free speech rights of victims so they can use words such as rape and victim during trial. Wendy is a popular and bold speaker on the lecture circuit who describes herself as fiercely non-partisan. Wendy is also a well-known television legal analyst who Emmy Award-winning journalist Emily Rooney calls the best talker on television with a finger on the pulse of victims and womens rights. Wendy has worked for NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox News. She regularly provides legal analysis for network and cable news programs. Her first book, And Justice For Some, was published by Penguin/Sentinel in 2007.

DR. AMY NEUSTEIN is co-author of From Madness to Mutiny; editor of Tempest in the Temple; and editor of eight academic books. Dr. Neustein is the recipient of the pro-Humanitate Literary Award (shared with co-writer Attorney Michael Lesher). From Madness to Mutiny was profiled in the Chronicles of Higher Education and reviewed in the NY Law Journal and by nearly a dozen academic publications. Dr. Neustein received the Mother of Valor: Lifetime Achievement Award at the BMCC in 2005. Today Dr. Neustein runs a think tank in northern New Jersey for the design of language tools to interpret social media posts and tweets. Her work with protective mothers is a lifelong passion; she frequently meets with journalists and government agencies to talk about solutions. And although she is still tragically separated from her daughter, Sherry Eve, her daughter has devoted herself entirely to the reform of educational systems for the neglected and disadvantaged child. Dr. Neustein and her daughter follow a long line of family members devoted to reform of social institutions starting with Dr. Neusteins grandfather who endowed the Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood Health Center in Brooklyn.

BMCC XI FACULTY

The verses below reportedly were written on the wall of Mother Teresas home for children in Calcutta, India, and are widely attributed to her.

People are often unreasonable, irrational & self-centered. Forgive them anyway.If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends & some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.If you are honest & sincere people may deceive you. Be honest & sincere anyway.What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity & happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have & it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.In the final analysis it is between you & God. It was never between you & them anyway.

Dara Carlin, M.A.Independent Contractor

(808) 218-3457stopDVhawaii@yahoo.com

Domestic Violence & Abuser Examiner

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RICH POMPELIO is a practicing lawyer in the State of New Jersey for over 40 years, serving as counsel to the law firm of DiFrancesco Batemen in Warren. For over a quarter century, Richs entire law practice has been devoted to the representation of crime victims in the criminal and civil justice systems. In 1989, Richs 17-year-old son, Tony, was murdered. He soon discovered the harsh reality of the criminal justice system for crime victims. The inappropriate treatment of his family resulted in his establishing the New Jersey Crime Victims Law Center; the first pro bono law clinic in the United States devoted to protecting and advocating the civil rights of crime victims in the criminal justice system. The Victims Law Center has served over 10,000 victims of violent crime since it was founded in 1992. Rich led grassroots crime victims rights movement in New Jersey, and has dedicated the last two decades to serving victims and training and educating the legal profession and the public on the subject of victims rights. In 2003, he was appointed to serve as the Chairman of the New Jersey Victims of Crime Compensation Board, and has had the opportunity to be involved in the writing of much of the victims rights legislation in New Jersey, including the Victims Rights Constitutional Amendment in 1991 and the Alex DeCroce Bill of Rights in 2012. As an attorney, Rich has appeared before the New Jersey Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States in significant cases involving the rights of victims. In 2009, he received the prestigious American Bar Association Criminal Justice Lawyer of

BMCC XI FACULTYthe Year Award for his work in victims rights, and in 2013, he was awarded the Unsung Hero Award by the Russell Berrie Foundation at Ramapo College. Rich has teamed up with Patrice Lenowitz to form a statewide grassroots project that calls for family court and child protective services reform. WE THE CHILDREN is a revolutionary movement in the area of child victims rights and made up of members from every county in the state of New Jersey.

SANDRA RAMOS is presently the director Strengthen Our Sisters, a shelter and supportive service program for homeless, battered women and their dependent children. The program has been guided by Sandra Ramos since its inception in 1970 when Sandra founded the first shelter for battered women in North America. Sandras work was profiled by NBC in four stories in March 1998, and she received the 2001 Russ Berrie Top Honor Award for Making a Difference. She and her three children shared their home with women and children fleeing domestic violence, and the program grew to become a full-fledged shelter project. Its mission was to help victims of domestic dysfunction find peace, safety, and independence. Over the years, Ramos opened several safe houses in New Jersey, established The Family Transitional Institute, and fought for legislation to protect victims and families from abuse.

Mothers Against Court Custody Abuse is a new organization founded to exposeFatherhood funding of family court by educating the public and legislature,

demanding accountability and reform.

GET THE FACTS: at the workshop Sat. 3:45 - 4:45

at the website - www.MACCAbuse.org

GET THE BOOK: Motherless America: Confronting Welfares Fatherhood Custody Program

(to be released: Fall, 2015)

MACCA is evolving. Have patience as we develop our campaign.

Mothers Against Court CustodyAbuse

Launching JOIN US!

BMCC XI Co-Sponsor

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ATTORNEY ALAN ROSENFELD has been practicing law in a solo practice primarily representing battered women and mothers of sexually abused children in high conflict custody cases for more than 30 years. A graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School (1983) Alan was initially admitted to practice in Vermont and subsequently moved to Colorado. He was one of the pioneers of the challenges to the statutes of limitations that prevented adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse from suing their abusers for damages and his law review article (The Statute of Limitations Barrier In Childhood Sexual Abuse Cases: The Equitable Estoppel Remedy, Harvard Womens Law Journal, Volume 12 Spring, 1989) was considered seminal to the positive changes in the law ultimately adopted around the world. Alans work on behalf of mothers charged with parental abduction has made him one of the leading experts on the crisis facing protective parents. He defended April Curtis in California in the early 1990s, represented Holly Collins and many others and is currently defending Dr. Genevieve Kelley in her criminal case in New Hampshire.

KARLI SINGER is the founder of Hear Us Now! Incorporated, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to abused children. She is a survivor who was not protected as a child by the family court system, so she has been committed to ensuring childrens safety, while offering a secure place for victims to receive support

and guidance. Karli has observed that abused children develop tremendous strength in being able to communicate with other survivors like themselves. Currently, Karli is a medical student in Arizona to become a pediatrician so she can contribute to childrens health and well-being, and be an advocate they can depend on. She has worked with Child Abuse Pediatricians during her training and has recognized some of the benefits and inadequacies in the child protective services. Being a part of Courageous Kids, she works with other adult survivors to educate the public in an effort to create change related to the epidemic that still exists in the family court system. She is optimistic for the time when children and their protective parents will be listened to, believed, and given justice.

RAQUEL SINGH, (Executive Director, Voices of Women Organizing Project) is a non-profit leader with more than 10 years of experience in program development, organizational management, strategic planning, and resource development. A key strategic and tactical contributor in efforts to impact systems, Raquel brings valuable management and development insight to VOW. Throughout her career, Ms. Singh has raised monies to improve the lives of women and children and is consistently dedicated to helping them succeed. Raquel Singh has a B.S. in Public Administration and lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

BMCC XI FACULTY

The Childrens Justice Campaign seeks to protect childrens constitutional rights and promote their

health and wellbeing in law and society.It is with The Childrens Justice Campaign that we will support, protect and build resiliency

to overcome the negative effects of toxic stress on a childs long term health.- Jennifer Trachtenberg MD, Pediatrician, Author, Co-founder Baby Bundle App,

Assistant Clinical Professor at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine

childrensjusticecampaign.org

BMCC XI Co-Sponsor

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EVAN STARK is a sociologist, forensic social worker, widely published author and award-winning researcher with an international reputation for his innovative work on the legal, policy and health dimensions of interpersonal violence, including its effects on children. Dr. Starks award-winning book, Coercive Control: The Entrapment of Women in Personal Life (Oxford, 2007) has had a major impact on research, policy and legal reform throughout the world. A founder of one of the first battered womens shelters in the US, Dr. Stark and Dr. Anne Flitcraft co-directed the Yale Trauma Studies, path-breaking research that documented the significance of domestic violence for womens injury, child abuse a range of health problems. Professor Stark has served as an expert in more than 100 criminal, family, civil, federal and child welfare cases, including Nicholson v. Williams, a successful federal class action against New York City that ended the removal of children from non-offending victims of domestic violence. Dr. Stark has held numerous federal and state appointments and has trained law, justice, judicial, child welfare, health and mental health professionals throughout the world. At Rutgers University, from which Dr. Stark retired as Professor Emeritus, Dr. Stark was Director of Public Health and held appointments at the School of Public Affairs, Rutgers Medical School and the Department of Women and Gender Studies. In 2013, Dr. Stark was the Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh.

ANITA TARNAI, Ph.D., is an educator. Her research focuses on the impact of trauma on perception and language use. She has received her doctorate from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Columbia University, where she has taught

Contemporary Civilization, a survey course on the history of ideas that have informed and defined our communities. As part of her research, she regularly translates genocide victim and survivor narratives for the US Holocaust Museum and is employed as a testimony indexer by the Shoah Foundation, University of Southern California. As a creative writing facilitator she is invested in helping trauma survivors heal and works with populations such as at-risk children, victims of interpersonal violence and mental health patients. In addition, she is currently co-facilitating a reading and discussion group on war and literature for veterans at the Brooklyn Vets Center, New York.

REBECCA TRIPP - Known as The Metaphysical Flight Attendant, Rebecca Tripp is an author, spiritual coach, and creative manifestress on a mission! Through speaking engagements, workshops, and global events, she shares the wisdom of a life lived at 35,000 feet, and helps people from all walks of life tap into the innate power of their personal spiritual connection. After 35 years as a Sky Goddess with United Airlines, Rebecca reinvented herself as a spiritual teacher, coach, and healer. A teacher of meditation and creative visualization since 2004, her work integrates several proven modalities to help clients and students heal themselves and create their ideal lives through the power of positive thought. Her book, Secrets of a Metaphysical Flight Attendant, is a spiritual memoir which shares the fascinating story of Rebeccas adventure-filled life in the skies while simultaneously providing readers with tools, reflections, and exercises to help them harness the infinite power of their own innate divinity.

BMCC XI FACULTY

California Protective Parents AssociationPO Box 15284 Sacramento CA 95851-0284 cppa001@aol.com

Proud Co-Sponsor of the BMCC XI

The Mission of the California Protective Parents Association is to protect children from incest and family violence

through research, education and advocacy.

www.protectiveparents.com

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The Voices of Women Organizing Project (VOW) is the lead initiative of the Battered Womens Resource Center. Our mission is to bring together survivors of domestic violence to improve the

systems meant to provide safety and justice for abused women and their children.

VOW provides training, support, and technical assistance so that survivors can reclaim their power, identify their needs, and collectively craft public recommendations. VOW members

organize to promote long-term systemic change by documenting institutional failures, testifying at hearings, creating position papers, and meeting with local and state officials.

VOW is dedicated to ensuring that the voices of survivors are heard, recognized for their expertise, and included in the decision-making process

Battered Womens Resource Center Voices of Women Organizing Project PO Box 20181 Greeley Square Station, New York, NY 10001 Phone: (212) 696-1481 Email: info@vowbwrc.org Website: http://vowbwrc.org

BMCC XI Co-Sponsors

The Nurtured Parent Empowering Survivors of Domestic Abuse

The Nurtured Parent support group assists adults seeking the opportunity to heal from the debilitating effects of abuse.

Now in its 6th year, The Nurtured Parent operates on the front lines supporting survivors through free weekly support group meetings, therapeutic outings and workshops, and public awareness conferences. Of paramount importance to this cause has been to advocate for victims rights and to unravel why family court often fails to protect the most vulnerable among us, parents and their children in crisis seeking a life free from abuse.

Phone: (201) 849-3000 E-Mail: patrice@nurturedparent.orgWebsite: http://nurturedparent.org

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BMCC XI FACULTYSAM VAKNIN ( http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com ) is the author of Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East, as well as many other books and ebooks about topics in psychology, relationships, philosophy, economics, international affairs, and award-winning short fiction. His YouTube channel is http://www.youtube.com/samvaknin. As per Sams discussion on narcissisms effect on children, see https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/narcissisticabuse/conversations/messages/4727

CONNIE VALENTINE, M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling, is the co-founder of CA Protective Parents Association (CPPA) and has been instrumental in creating Mothers of Lost Children, a social movement to counteract the efforts of batterers and molesters to regain power and ownership over women and children. Mothers of Lost Children began with three mothers in prayer in Davis CA Central Park over a decade ago. We patterned ourselves after the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina, mothers protesting the capture and torture of their adult children by government forces.

GARLAND WALLER is the Director of the Television Graduate Program, an assistant professor, at Boston University, and an award-winning producer-writer-director of nationally syndicated and local television and independent film programs. No Way Out But One, her second indie feature documentary, won a Silver Award at the Colorado Film Festival and was a selection for the Bare Bones International Film Festival. She has also won an Indie, an Accolade, and a Telly award. No Way Out But One, initially a documentary short, was selected for The Unspoken Film Festival on Human Rights and also won a Telly. Screenings have taken place in New York, California, Colorado, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Florida, and Washington, DC, to name only a few. The documentary focused on Holly Collins, the first American woman to be granted asylum by the Dutch government on grounds of domestic violence. The goal of No Way Out But One is to expose the failure of Americas family courts to protect battered women and their children. (http://www.nowayoutbutone.com). Small Justice: Little Justice in Americas Family Courts, her first independent production, was produced under the banner of Garland Waller Productions. National awards include Best Social Documentary, NY International Independent Film Festival, GirlFest Indie Award, Award for Media Excellence 8th International Conference on Family Violence, and the Key West Indie Film Fest. Wallers early awards for television productions include the Grand Prize and the Gold Prize at the International Film Festival of New York, the Iris Award for Best Entertainment, two Ohio State Awards, five New England Emmys and two Action for Childrens Television Awards.

GREGORY R. WHITE is founding staff member of Catholic Charities Domestic Violence Program for Men since its inception and has served as Director for twenty-three years. During his thirty-three years with Catholic Charities, he has been involved in social justice, domestic violence community coordination, and offender accountability efforts. Mr. White is a member of the NYS Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team, the National Council of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS); and Co-Director of the National Training Institute NY Model for Batterer Programs. He has been an invited presenter at the First and Second World Conferences for Women Shelters, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and Washington, DC; the United States government sponsored him as presenter at the Partners of the Americas Caribbean Regional Conference on Domestic Violence and Womens Rights in South America that brought together constituents from numerous Caribbean, South America and the United States which led to a Domestic Violence Project for Jamaica, W.I. whereby he provided training to multi-disciplinary professionals, including speaking engagements and national radio interviews across that country.

QUENBY WILCOX is the Founder of Global Expats, an Internet start-up whose mission is to assist expatriated families around the world. It is through her own experience with family courts and their failure to protect victims of domestic abuse, that she has become involved in promoting gender violence and domestic abuse as human rights violations. In using her own case against the Spanish government, she is demonstrating how rampant discrimination against women and lack of due process within family courts, are human rights violations with serious criminal consequences for judicial actors who fail to fulfill their professional duties and obligations. Her case, Wilcox vs. Spain, builds on Gonzales Carreo vs. Spain (CEDAW), challenging the Spanish governments defense of inadmissibility due to judicial error, demonstrating the governments legal responsibility in their failure to assure good governance, transparency, and accountability within Spanish family courts. Her research into the issues has examined the human rights, womens rights, and domestic violence movements of the past 50 years, and the dichotomies between the three movements. The results of her research and advocacy work are posted on www.warondomesticterrorism.com.

ANDREW WILLIS is the CEO of the Stop Abuse Campaign. Born in Hong Kong, he was schooled in Great Britain and has been travelling ever since. A Captain in the British Army, he spent much of his life practicing integrated marketing communications for global brands like IBM, American Express, HP, Citi and the Royal National Institute for the Blind. A survivor of both child sexual abuse and domestic violence, Andrew has dedicated the second half of his life to ending abuse and alleviating the suffering of those involved.

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The National Family Court Watch Project is dedicated to providing an impartial assessment of the effectiveness of family courts in dealing with child

protection, family violence, custody, visitation, support and property issues.

Renee Beeker Founder and PresidentNational Family Court Watch Project

510 Highland Avenue, NO 414 Milford, MI 48381

(248) 752-8623www.nfcwp.org

BMCC XI Co-Sponsors

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BMCC XI Co-Sponsor