Guest Host Biographies

OVC Web Forum Guest Host sessions offer an impressive roster of experts discussing best practices for a wide variety of victim issues. You can read about the guest hosts here. For more information, questions, or comments about the sessions, send an e-mail to OVCproviderforum@ncjrs.gov.

To view a biography, click on the guest host's name below. To learn more about previous years’ guest hosts, visit the Guest Host Biographies Archive.

Current Guest Hosts

Suzanne Koepplinger
01/27/2010 online discussion host
Topic: Serving American Indian Victims of Sex Trafficking

Suzanne Koepplinger, M.A., is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, which provides social services and education to American Indian women and their families. She is of Canadian Mohawk and European ancestry, and has a background in international project development, communications, domestic violence advocacy, and fundraising. Ms. Koepplinger serves on the American Indian Community Development Corporation Board, the MACC Alliance of Connected Communities Board of Directors, and the Greater Twin Cities United Way Council of Agency Executives, Executive Committee. She also serves on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Civil Rights Advisory Group, the Steering Committee of the Sheila Wellstone Institute, and as an international team leader for Global Citizens Network, which brings volunteers into indigenous communities around the globe. Ms. Koepplinger is a recipient of the Minneapolis FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award and the 2008 Sheila Wellstone Gold Watch Award from WATCH. She received her master’s degree in the Art of Leadership from Augsburg College.

Alexandra (Sandi) Pierce
01/27/2010 online discussion host
Topic: Serving American Indian Victims of Sex Trafficking

Alexandra (Sandi) Pierce, Ph.D., is an adjunct faculty member of the Sociology Department and the Master’s Program in Community Psychology at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota. Dr. Pierce is of Seneca and European descent and is the principal investigator and author of "Shattered Hearts: The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of American Indian Women and Girls in Minnesota”. She is the senior consultant for Othayonih Research and Evaluation Services LLC, with more than 15 years of experience in community-based participatory research and program evaluation with American Indian, African-American, Southeast Asian, and African-born refugee and immigrant communities and nonprofit organizations. Dr. Pierce’s primary areas of study and practice are health disparities, substance abuse, domestic and sexual violence, racial inequality, and identity formation. She has worked as a research scientist at Wilder Research and at the Minnesota Department of Health. Dr. Pierce earned her master’s degree and her doctorate in sociology from the University of Minnesota. She also holds basic and advanced certificates in substance abuse counseling from the University of California Santa Cruz.

Past Guest Hosts

Jeffrey Bergman
11/18/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Working with Victims of Gang Violence

Jeffrey Bergman is a Detective with the Gang Unit of the Youth Services Division of the Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) specializing in Asian gangs and Asian-related street crimes, and a Co-regional Director for the Virginia Gang Investigators Association. Detective Bergman joined the FCPD as a Police Officer in 1991, and in 2002, after serving as the gang coordinator for the Fair Oaks District of Fairfax County, he became a Detective with the Gang Unit. Detective Bergman is certified as a general instructor, as well as a firearms instructor, by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justices Services. In addition to investigating ongoing gang cases, he takes time to regularly teach new recruits and present to in-service classes at the Fairfax County Criminal Justice Academy. He has also taught at the Virginia State Police Academy’s Gang School in Richmond, and the Northern Virginia Police Academy. Detective Bergman has presented to a wide range of audiences, including school children, citizen groups, medical examiners from throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, and attendees of the INOVA Nurses Critical Care Conference. He also teaches participants in the Trauma Nurse Fellowship Program at Fairfax Hospital.

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Miriam Berkman
10/26/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Helping Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

Miriam Berkman, J.D., M.S.W., is an Assistant Clinical Professor in Social Work at the Yale University Child Study Center and is coordinator of the Child Development-Community Policing (CD-CP) Program’s Domestic Violence Intervention Project. The CD-CP Program is a model collaborative effort by the Child Study Center, the New Haven Department of Police Service, and other community partners to intervene on behalf of children and families exposed to violence and trauma. Through the CD-CP Program, Ms. Berkman is involved in providing consultation and training to New Haven police officers and others regarding children’s experience with violence and effective collaborative approaches to intervention, with a particular focus on domestic violence. She is also involved in providing direct clinical services to children and families in the New Haven community who have been affected by traumatic violence. As a member of the faculty of the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence at the Yale Child Study Center, Ms. Berkman provides consultation and training to professional groups and community collaborations across the country regarding the impact of domestic violence on children and interventions to reduce the potential consequences of these experiences. Ms. Berkman received her law degree from Yale University Law School and her degree in social work from the Smith College School for Social Work. View this Guest Host's photograph.

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Rebecca Dreke
01/19/2010 online discussion host
Topic: Stalking in the Workplace

Rebecca Dreke is a Senior Program Associate with the Stalking Resource Center at the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC). Ms. Dreke is responsible for training law enforcement, prosecutors, victim service providers, and other professionals on all aspects of stalking, including the use of technology to stalk, campus stalking, and stalking and sexual assault. She has trained thousands of practitioners nationally on various topics, including stalking, sexual assault, domestic violence, and hate- and bias-motivated violence. Prior to joining NCVC, Ms. Dreke had worked as a social worker, victim advocate, and public school teacher. She received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Texas at Austin, and a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

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Katya Fels Smyth
08/26/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Responding to Homeless Victims of Sexual Assault

Katya Fels Smyth is founder and principal of the Full Frame Initiative, a campaign to ensure that the most marginalized individuals, families, and communities throughout the country receive the tools, support, resources, and services they need to thrive. She has two decades of experience in program development and services, community networking, and creating social will to address seemingly intractable social problems; and is a research fellow at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Prior to launching the initiative in 2007, Ms. Smyth founded On The Rise, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation. On The Rise, Inc. provides innovative and effective support and community to the area’s most disenfranchised women. During her 11 years as its director, the organization helped more than 1,000 women to achieve new levels of safety and personal agency, and changed the community’s dialogue about who can be helped.

Ms. Smyth speaks and consults nationally on the design and implementation of programs that work with highly marginalized women, and has participated in training efforts for domestic violence advocates in Japan and the Czech Republic. She is a Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Clark University's Graduate School of Management, where she is helping to develop its new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program, and a member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council to Address Sexual and Domestic Violence, where she co-chairs the System Change and Integration Committee. She also is a fellow with the Eos Foundation, where she advises on their urban anti-poverty effort, Boston Rising.

Ms. Smyth and the organizations she has founded have been profiled in numerous local and national publications. She was named 1 of 5 "Moms Who Change the World" by Working Mother magazine in 2006; recognized as an "Agent of Change" in the 22d edition of Government by the People; profiled in the Boston Business Journal's “40 Under 40” in 2002; and named 1 of 125 women leaders in Massachusetts by the Women's Educational and Industrial Union.

Ms. Smyth holds an artium baccalaureate in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University and an honorary doctorate of divinity from the Episcopal Divinity School. View this Guest Host's photograph.

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Linda Foley
07/08/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Providing Services for Child Identity Theft Victims

2/23/05 online discussion co-host
Topic: Identity Theft

Linda Foley cofounded the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nationally recognized victim assistance and public education organization, with Jay Foley in 1999 in response to an epidemic rise in identity theft crimes. She is a recognized expert on identity theft issues with a focus on family, child, and domestic victimization. A former victim herself, Ms. Foley serves as a victim advocate and works to increase public and corporate awareness of the crime. She has testified at state and federal legislative hearings, the Federal Trade Commission, Social Security Administration, California Department of Consumer Affairs, California Attorney General ID Theft Task Force, and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

In addition to speaking before general audiences and businesses, Ms. Foley frequently addresses college students, parents, and seniors. She has more than 250 publishing credits, including feature columns in monthly newspapers and a book published by Children's Press. She has been featured on The Montel Williams Show and San Diego People as well as in Biography, Reader’s Digest, and Time magazines. Ms. Foley is a recipient of the Attorney General’s National Crime Victim Service Award and the Foundation for Improvement of Justice Award, and in 2005 was named the Victim Service Provider of the Year by the Victim Coordination Council of San Diego. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from California State University, Northridge and has two life-time teaching credentials.

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Sherry Hamby
10/26/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Helping Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

Sherry L. Hamby, Ph.D., is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Sewanee, the University of the South, studying the methodological and measurement challenges of violence research and cross-cultural issues in measuring and intervening for violence. She also holds appointments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Université de Lausanne in Switzerland. Dr. Hamby is a co-author of the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire—the core of the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, which is the largest survey conducted on youth victimization and the source of the most up-to-date and comprehensive statistics on exposure to family violence. She is also author or co-author of more than 50 other publications on family violence and youth victimization, including The Conflict Tactics Scales Handbook and Sortir Ensemble et Se Respecter, the first dating violence prevention program to be published in Switzerland. Dr. Hamby has also been appointed as the Incoming Editor (effective Jan 2010) to a new American Psychological Association journal, Psychology of Violence. A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Hamby has received awards from the National Register for Health Service Providers in Psychology and the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. She also has been principal investigator on grants from the National Center for Health Statistics, the Indian Health Service, and other agencies. View this Guest Host's photograph.

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Jessy Haywood
08/26/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Responding to Homeless Victims of Sexual Assault

Jessy Haywood is a community educator and trainer with The Center for Women and Families, a private nonprofit organization with facilities in Kentucky and Indiana that works to end domestic violence, sexual violence, and economic hardship. Ms. Haywood provides education on domestic violence and sexual assault throughout Kentuckiana that raises awareness, helps victim services and allied professionals develop and enhance their skills, and works to prevent these crimes.

Prior to her work at the center, Ms. Haywood advocated for child victims of abuse, neglect, and sexual assault with Maryhurst, Inc., the oldest operating child welfare agency in Kentucky, which has provided high-quality therapeutic services to children for more than 160 years. She is a recipient of the Richard Campbell Smith Memorial Award for Excellence in Philosophy, and her written work has been featured in the Steven Humphrey Philosophy Colloquium. Ms. Haywood graduated magna cum laude from the University of Louisville with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a concentration in the social sciences. View this Guest Host's photograph.

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Heather Kamper
07/22/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Addressing Sexual Violence Against Individuals with Disabilities

Heather Anne Kamper, LMSW, is the Training Specialist for Disability Services ASAP (A Safety Awareness Program) of SafePlace in Austin, Texas, where she conducts presentations and workshops for victim advocates and disability service professionals on topics such as identifying and responding to violence and abuse, increasing accessible services for survivors with disabilities, and understanding the unique dynamics and impact of violence against people with disabilities. She also conducts educational workshops through the Texas Protective Services Training Institute, a statewide collaboration that provides training for protective services workers. Ms. Kamper has a wide range of experience providing professional services to people with disabilities, including individual and group counseling, abuse prevention education, and mentorship of children with disabilities.

Ms. Kamper has contributed to numerous Disability Services publications, including Stop the Violence, Break the Silence: A Training Guide and Resource Kit; Balancing the Power: Creating a Crisis Center Accessible to People with Disabilities; and Beyond Labels: Working with Abuse Survivors with Mental Illness Symptoms or Substance Abuse Issues. Previously, Ms. Kamper gained considerable experience working as a psycho-education and training specialist at a rape crisis center that was expanding its services to better meet the needs of survivors with disabilities in western Pennsylvania. Ms. Kamper earned her masters degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. View this Guest Host's photograph.

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Pamela Kelly
11/18/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Working with Victims of Gang Violence

Pamela Kelly, M.Ed., serves victims and witnesses in four police jurisdictions as a Victim Advocate for the Fairfax County Police Department’s Victim Service Section. As the “in-house” victim advocate assigned to a police district station, Ms. Kelly dispenses comprehensive services to crime victims and conducts community outreach programs. She is knowledgeable about the critical issues associated with gang violence and has extensive experience working directly with police officers responding to victims of gang-related crimes. She also has experience in working with victims of domestic violence, as both a system-based and community-based advocate; and in training volunteers and student interns on issues related to victimization.

Ms. Kelly’s proficiency in Spanish has enhanced her ability to deal effectively with Spanish-speaking crime victims in need of specialized support. She is a member of a number of professional organizations and has been recognized for her outstanding work. She also has developed counseling programs and therapeutic groups to support the needs of children who witness domestic violence. Ms. Kelly received her bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Radford University and her master's degree in education from George Mason University.

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Alison Kiss
09/09/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Providing Campus Crime Awareness

Alison Kiss, M.S., is the Director of Programs at Security On Campus, Inc. (SOC), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she provides support to victims of college campus crime and oversees all SOC programs, including National Campus Safety Awareness Month and the Safe On Campus Peer Education Program. Ms. Kiss is a faculty member with the Jeanne Clery Act Compliance Training Program, where she teaches the Victim Support Services Module. She also serves as an adjunct lecturer at surrounding colleges and universities. She is a member of the Rapid Response Project, a collaborative effort by the Office on Violence Against Women and the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse to create a national network of experts who can respond to current violence-related issues and has presented internationally on trauma, crisis response, and issues specific to sexual assault on college campuses.

Prior to joining SOC in 2005, Ms. Kiss was a crisis counselor and manager of education at a community domestic violence shelter. She has served as an expert witness for court proceedings on sexual assault on college campuses, and presented to the National Attorneys General Task Force following the 2006 shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State College. Ms. Kiss has contributed to articles in CosmoGirl, Reader’s Digest, and SEEN magazines, and has appeared on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Anderson Cooper 360, CBS The Early Show, and other networks to discuss sexual assault and stalking in college. Ms. Kiss earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and Spanish from The Catholic University of America and a master of sciences degree in criminal justice from Saint Joseph University in Philadelphia. View this Guest Host's photograph.

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Jenifer Markowitz
09/30/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Sustainability of Victim Assistance Programs

Jenifer Markowitz, ND, RN, WHNP-BC, is the Medical Advisor for AEquitas: The Prosecutor’s Resource on Violence Against Women. As such, she presents on a variety of forensic-related topics, including medical-forensic examinations, strangulation, drug- and alcohol-facilitated sexual assault, and expert witness testimony. She also conducts research; provides expert testimony, case consultation, and technical assistance; and develops training materials, resources, and publications. In addition, Dr. Markowitz manages a project for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center regarding the sustainability of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs, which is funded by the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). She also maintains a clinical practice with the DOVE Program in Akron, Ohio, where she sees sexual assault, domestic violence, and elder abuse/neglect patients.

A forensic nurse examiner since 1995, Dr. Markowitz has presented as an expert and a facilitator for organizations such as the National District Attorneys Association, several state prosecuting attorneys associations, and the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. She has worked with OVW to develop a national protocol and training standards for sexual assault forensic examinations, with the U.S. Department of Defense to revise the military’s Sexual Assault Evidence Collection kit and corresponding documentation forms, and as an Advisory Board member for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Dr. Markowitz is the author of multiple publications, including The Color Atlas of Domestic Violence. She is also the editor of Forensic Health Online, an independent Web site dedicated to increasing online access to clinical forensic education.

Dr. Markowitz received a bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University; completed her clinical doctorate in nursing at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; and is board certified as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (Adult/Adolescent). View this Guest Host's photograph.

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Paula Pierce
07/08/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Providing Services for Child Identity Theft Victims

Paula Pierce, J.D., is the Managing Attorney for the Victims Initiative for Counseling, Advocacy, and Restoration of the Southwest (VICARS), a program of the Texas Legal Services Center, where she serves victims of identity theft and financial fraud. Prior to joining VICARS in 2007, Ms. Pierce served on the Legal Services to the Poor in Civil Matters Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and as an attorney for the Texas Legal Services Center, where she provided legal assistance to elder, disabled, and economically disadvantaged individuals and handled crime victim compensation claims. She has extensive experience in public interest law and has authored numerous publications for victims and attorneys. A frequent speaker on identity theft, Ms. Pierce has presented at the Texas Poverty Law Conference, testified before the Texas House Committee on Business and Industry, and spoken to numerous community groups. She received her bachelor’s degree from Trinity University, and her law degree from South Texas College of Law, where she served as brief writer to the school's moot court teams and technical editor of the South Texas Law Journal.

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Michael Proctor
01/19/2010 online discussion host
Topic: Stalking in the Workplace

Michael Proctor is a nationally recognized expert in the field of stalking and stalking investigation. He currently consults throughout the United States and abroad on the topics of stalking, stalking investigation, and the development of anti-stalking legislation and programs. As a 32-year veteran of law enforcement and a former detective with the Westminster (California) Police Department’s Family Protection Unit, Mr. Proctor has investigated and consulted on more than 200 stalking cases. He developed a stalking protocol that is in use by many police departments; and has authored several publications, including How to Stop a Stalker, a guide to better understanding the stalking phenomenon. Mr. Proctor has appeared on numerous national radio and television programs—including America's Most Wanted, CNN, FOX, 20/20, Nancy Grace, and American Justice Files—in an effort to assist those who have been victimized by stalking.

In 2003, Mr. Proctor received the Defender of Justice Award from the California State Assembly for his work in the field of stalking. He is currently a member of the Stalking Advisory Committee for the University of Southern California, and the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. Mr. Proctor received his bachelor’s degree from California State University Long Beach. He also holds a Lifetime Standard Secondary Teaching Credential and a Community College Credential.

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Melissa Riley
11/04/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Serving Elder Abuse Victims in Indian Country

Melissa Riley manages the Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country Training and Technical Assistance Project for Unified Solutions, where she conducts research, develops culturally appropriate training materials for American Indian and Alaska Native communities, and provides training and technical assistance to faith-based grantees. Ms. Riley has several years of experience working with tribal communities on elder abuse investigation, elder program development, and modifications to community elder protection codes. She has incorporated her knowledge and background as a medical assistant into her efforts to address elder abuse, which have elicited a successful response from the community and increased collaboration between tribal service providers. As the supervisor and coordinator for a local senior companion program, Ms. Riley trained local elders to communicate with and care for fellow elders in the community.

As a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe of New Mexico, Ms. Riley has been able to use her own culture, tradition, work experience, and education to help American Indian and Alaska Native communities enhance and sustain community programs that work toward social justice and health promotion. She is the co-author of a 10-module training curriculum; and co-producer of Healing Journey, a video that highlights the successes of the Faith-Based Project in Indian Country. She has successfully developed human service programs that target services for victims of crime and offenders by utilizing whole-health concepts from a traditional perspective. Ms. Riley also serves as an adjunct professor at a New Mexico State University branch community college where she provides instruction on curriculum development and implementation for undergraduate students majoring in education, early childhood development, and criminal justice. She received her bachelor’s degree in human and community services and her master’s degree in education from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, where she is currently a doctoral candidate pursuing a degree in curriculum and instruction. View this Guest Host's photograph.

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Steven D. Walker
12/08/2009 online discussion host
Topic: Examining Correlations Between Substance Abuse and Victimization

Steven Walker, Ph.D., is Associate Dean of the College of Social Sciences at California State University (CSU), Fresno, where he previously served as chair of the Criminology Department. As a licensed clinical psychologist and an educator, he has 25 years of experience developing victim service education programs, and has conducted numerous workshops on alcohol and drug treatment, victim services, and victim service education standards. Dr. Walker coauthored the original proposal for the establishment of the National Victim Assistance Academy, and has been a consultant to numerous states on the development of State Victim Assistance Academies and standards in victim services. He has directed several drug treatment programs, including the Comprehensive Alcohol Program of Fresno, CA, and the Kings View/Kingsburg Hospital Alcohol & Drug Program; and was a consultant for the Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program at Lemoore Naval Air Station, among other organizations. He currently serves on the California Victim Assistance Academy Project Team, as well as the Executive Board of the Joint Center on Violence and Victim Studies.

Dr. Walker expanded the Victim Services Certificate program and created the first Victim Services Summer Institute in 1989. He designed and implemented the first victimology major in the United States at CSU, Fresno, in 1992; and subsequently created the victim services major at Kansas City Kansas Community College and assisted in developing the victim/survivor services major at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. These programs represent three of the five complete victim service education programs in the United States. Dr. Walker was the founding Vice President of the American Society for Victimology from 2003 to 2006, and for a number of years, he facilitated the development of the first doctorate in victimology.

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