Steering Committee

Ramona Gonzalez is the presiding judge in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. She was first elected as a circuit judge in 1995 and re-elected in 2001, 2007, and 2013. Judge Gonzalez is a highly sought expert on family law issues, specializing in particular on national and international matters relating to child abduction and domestic violence. She has participated in conventions, conferences, seminars, and workgroups throughout the world as a representative of the United States judiciary and regularly addresses national and international audiences as a trainer and keynote speaker. Judge Gonzalez has extensive experience with the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, including training international audiences on issues relating to the Convention and participating in numerous national and international conferences and commissions on the Convention. She is also a member of the Board of Directors and a national trainer on domestic violence issues for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Interpretation Technical Assistance and Resource Center at the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence. Judge Gonzalez received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Loyola University in Chicago in 1978 and her law degree from the Marquette University Law School in 1981.

Lyman Legters currently serves as the Senior Director at Casey Family Programs and has been with Casey Family Programs since June 2002. He has managed direct service and served as a strategic consultant for the foundation. Most recently he served as a Senior Fellow at the US Department of Justice. Mr. Legters has over 30 years of experience serving in juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Facilitating systems integration and coordination, improving outcomes for vulnerable children, and achieving racial equity, have been particular areas of focus during Mr. Legters’ career. Mr. Legters serves on the Steering Committee for the Youth Transition Funders Group, and is affiliated with the Georgetown Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps, the Steering Committee for Linking Systems of Care initiative out of the Office for Victims of Crime, and recently served on the national planning teams for both the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention and Cities United.

Natalia Aguirre is the National Director of the Family Justice Center Alliance. She provided training and support to developing and operating Family Justice Centers worldwide. Natalia also develops and maintains new products and tools which are utilized by Family Justice Center staff and partner agencies. Natalia also leads our Polyvictimization Initiative which provides planning and support services to the six demonstration sites.

Clare Anderson is a Policy Fellow at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Her work focuses on using research, policy, and fiscal levers to improve outcomes for vulnerable children, youth, and families, and the systems serving them. Anderson currently works with state child welfare agencies, and their partners, engaged in large-scale systems change efforts to create a strategic direction; implement evidence-based screening, assessment, and interventions; and better integrate the goals of children’s safety, permanency, and well-being.

Prior to joining Chapin Hall, Anderson was the Deputy Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF). There, she was responsible for federal programs addressing child abuse and neglect, runaway and homeless youth, domestic and intimate partner violence, and teen pregnancy prevention. During her tenure at ACYF, Anderson colead, alongside Commissioner Bryan Samuels, the development and implementation of a well-being policy agenda. She was among the chief architects of the effort to address trauma, adverse childhood experiences, and toxic stress in children known to the child welfare system. Anderson spent a decade at the Center for the Study of Social Policy helping states and urban jurisdictions change policies and practices to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families. This work included foundation-sponsored initiatives such as Family to Family and the Community Partnerships for Protecting Children, as well as federal court ordered oversight and monitoring of child welfare systems. Starting her career as a frontline social worker, Anderson has a deep appreciation of the challenges faced by families and systems working to make lasting changes so that children and families can thrive. Anderson holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Alabama.

Jacquelyn L. Boggess is the Executive Director of the Center for Family Policy and Practice, a policy organization that works toward economic security and stability for children and their parents. Her work is focused on services for low-income parents and families, on equity for families and communities of color, and on low-income men as parents. Ms. Boggess is a Lecturer on race and ethnicty in the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and she holds a JD from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Sally Wilson Erny is Chief Stakeholder Engagement Officer with the National CASA Association. In this capacity she works with legislative, judicial, executive and national partners, in addition to leading resource development, in the advancement the CASA/GAL mission.

During her 20 year career with National CASA, Sally has served in a number of roles including director of program development and Chief Program Officer before assuming her current position.

Prior to joining National CASA, Sally served 13 years as Executive Director of CASA of the River Region in Louisville, Kentucky, and earlier served as a policy analyst for Kentucky Youth Advocates.

She is a 1981 graduate of the University of Louisville School of Justice Administration.

Janet has been at the forefront of victim rights and services throughout her 35 years in the victim advocacy field. She began her career as a prosecutor-based Victim Witness Advocate, among the early leaders in the criminal justice system’s Victim Rights Movement. She directed victim witness assistance programs in the two largest district attorneys’ offices in Massachusetts, where she founded and directed their respective Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs). She participated in community crisis response efforts in local communities, and as a member of the National Crisis Response Team from Massachusetts at Ground Zero in New York after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
On the state level, Janet served as the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance for over a decade, where she was responsible for the administration of federal and state funding; professional training and community education programs, and the establishment of the MA Victim Assistance Academy. She also led successful victim rights legislative and other policy initiatives and helped guide various statewide interagency, cross-disciplinary efforts to improve systems’ responses to victims and survivors. She is also Adjunct Faculty at Northeastern University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

On the national level, she served on the Board and Executive Committee of the National Children’s Alliance (NCA) where she helped guide the creation and revisions of the national CAC accreditation standards, and is a national accreditation site reviewer. She provides consultation and training nationally and internationally for victim advocacy programs, multidisciplinary teams, CACs, and organizations seeking to develop responses to vicarious trauma.
Janet provides consultation to several multi-year federal Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)-funded initiatives, including the National Center for Victims of Crime’s State Victim Assistance Academy (SVAA) Resource Center, the International Chiefs of Police (IACP) Collective Healing Project, the Vicarious Trauma Toolkit (VTT) Project, the Linking Systems of Care for Children and Youth National Steering Committee, and for OVC’s Training and Technical Assistance (TTAC) program.

She also serves on the World Society of Victimology’s United Nations Liaison Committee, and as a representative at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Deanee Johnson is a Visiting Fellow at the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime focusing on assisting OVC to better address victim-centered responses to victims of child sexual exploitation. Ms. Johnson has wide-ranging experience in serving children and families, and possesses a wealth of relevant crime victim services expertise. Ms. Johnson has over 15 years of experience in the crime victims’ field, working directly with victims and survivors, partnering with multidisciplinary professionals and teams to meet the needs of victims, advising large scale training and technical assistance efforts, and managing organizations. Her expertise and professional qualifications includes: working as the Program Manager for the Center for Children and its Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program, in La Plata, MD; working for the National Center for Victims of Crime’s Stalking Resource Center, where she managed intensive training workshops across the country to train service providers on all aspects of stalking; and serving as the director of ContactLifeline’s Sexual Assault Network of Delaware, and as a forensic interviewer of children and adults with disabilities. Ms. Johnson has a master’s degree in counseling and her Ph.D. in child development. Within the context of her fellowship, she has assisted OVC’s efforts to identify the range of child sexual exploitation programs available Nationwide, illuminate best practices, and advise OVC on ways to weave together the various systems and programs encountered by victims of child sexual exploitation throughout their lives.

Bart Klika, MSW, PhD is the Chief Research and Strategy Officer with the national organization Prevent Child Abuse America . His research examines the causes and consequences associated with child abuse and neglect in an effort to prevent its occurrence. On multiple occasions, Dr. Klika served as a research consultant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examining issues related to the prevention of child abuse and neglect. In 2011, he was selected for the inaugural cohort of fellows for the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being, a national fellowship providing support and mentorship for doctoral students seeking innovations in the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Dr. Klika is on the national Board of Directors for APSAC and is the chair of the APSAC prevention committee. Recently, Dr. Klika served as the senior editor for the APSAC Handbook on Child Maltreatment (4th Ed.).

Chris Newlin, MS LPC, is the Executive Director of the National Children’s Advocacy Center where he is responsible for providing leadership and management of the NCAC and participating in national and international training and leadership activities regarding the protection of children. The NCAC was the first Child Advocacy Center in the world and continues to provide prevention and intervention services for child abuse in Huntsville/Madison County, AL; and, also houses the NCAC Training Center, the Southern Regional Children’s Advocacy Center, the NCAC Virtual Training Center, and the Child Abuse Library Online (CALiO). The NCAC is a past multi-year winner of the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Workplace Ethics, 2012 Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce Non-Profit of the Year, 2016 Federal Bureau of Investigation Director’s Community Leadership Award, 2016 Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce Best Places to Work, and a Private Sector Member of the Virtual Global Taskforce. Chris has provided training in more than 26 countries throughout the world at numerous international conferences, and he also provides technical assistance on a regular basis to professionals working to develop Children’s Advocacy Centers throughout the world. Chris graduated from Hendrix College, the University of Central Arkansas, and the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program.

Suamhirs Piraino-Guzman, is currently the Senior Program Coordinator for the Washington Anti-Trafficking Response Network. Suamhirs graduated from the University of California San Diego with a Masters in Psychology, he has years of experience developing curriculum and providing training on trauma informed care, mental health, human trafficking, evidence-based practices and more to a diverse range of audiences. Suamhirs’ professional experience also includes direct services to vulnerable youth, program management, policy advocacy around foster care and human trafficking, and co-coordination of the National Survivor Network. As a male survivor and an expert in behavioral psychology, Suamhirs has been an active consultant for the Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime, subject matter expert Consultant for the Department of Health and Human Services National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistant Center, The International Association of Human Trafficking Investigators and is a member of the National Council for Community Behavioral Health. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and has worked with the UN and Vital Voices to develop curriculum and training on engaging men in gender-based violence initiatives.

Peter Pollard, is a Visiting Fellow at the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), U.S. Dept. of Justice. He has worked for 30 years as a violence prevention and intervention specialist, including 15 years as a state, child-protection social worker; as public education director for two national organizations addressing sexual violence prevention and intervention; and as a group facilitator for males participating in a intimate-partner-violence-prevention program. Since 2003, he has served as the Western Massachusetts coordinator for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).

Nancy Saitta is a former Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court having served as a member of the judiciary for 20 years. She began her judicial career in 1996 when she was appointed as a Las Vegas Municipal Court Judge. Two years later, she was elected a judge in the 8th Judicial District Court. During this time, she created the specialized Complex Litigation Division for streamlined case management of construction defect and other significant matters such as medical malpractice. Her work received national recognition as one of the top programs in the country. Consequently, she was asked to be a presenter at the Brookings Institution regarding judicial training on complex case litigation. While in the 8th Judicial District, Justice Saitta served as the lead settlement judge. In order to address the backlog of complex cases, she held a minimum of two settlement conferences per week. As a result, she has conducted hundreds of settlement conferences in all areas of complex litigation.

In 2006, Justice Saitta was elected to the Supreme Court and served as Chief Justice from 2011 to 2012 and then retired from public service in 2016.

On August 24, 2009, Mr. Thomas was 26 years old and just three weeks from going to Europe to play professional basketball. As he left a convenience store, he was approached by two men intent on robbing him and he suffered two near-fatal gunshots to his back, ending his basketball career. Aswad’s story was featured in the New Yorker, Marshall Project, NPR, Sacramento Bee, and the Hartford Courant. He went on to become one of Connecticut’s most outspoken supporters of additional resources for victims of gun violence and has been a leader in building coalitions across racial lines to advance justice reform and prevent gun violence.

Aswad Thomas currently serves as the Chapter Development and Membership Director for Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, a flagship project of Alliance for Safety and Justice. Aswad is developing Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice Chapters in Alliance for Safety and Justice’s partner states (and beyond) and organizing a national network of crime survivors to include those most commonly affected by violence (including young men of color) to help elevate those voices and experiences in state and federal policymaking debates.

Aswad received an MSW, with a concentration in Community Organization and focused area of study in Urban Issues, from the University of Connecticut, and a B.A. in Business Management from Elms College. He currently lives in Atlanta with his wife.

Heather Warnken, J.D., LL.M., is a Visiting Fellow at the U.S. Department of Justice, working across the Bureau of Justice Statistics and Office for Victims of Crime in the first-ever position designed to improve the dissemination and translation of statistical data and social science research for the crime victim assistance field. Before joining DOJ, she spent five years as Legal Policy Associate at the Warren Institute on Law & Social Policy at University of California (UC) Berkeley School of Law. While there, Ms. Warnken led multidisciplinary projects to bridge the gap between research, policy, and practice, including two statewide needs assessments on how to improve access to services and compensation for underserved victims of crime. Ms. Warnken also worked with the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department to develop policies and procedures to improve outcomes for youth; as Mitigating the Effects of Poverty Program Director for the national project Partners for Each and Every Child, advancing recommendations of the congressionally-chartered Commission on Education Equity and Excellence; and as research partner to Californians for Safety and Justice. She served as a Law Clerk on Court of Appeals of Maryland, and has provided pro bono legal services in domestic violence and child welfare matters. She was a 2015 Women’s Foundation of California Criminal Justice Fellow, a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow, and was profiled in Refinery29’s Month of Visionaries series for her innovative work improving the response to crime victims. She holds an LL.M. from UC Berkeley School of Law; a J.D., cum laude with pro bono distinction, from Suffolk University Law School, and a B.A., with honors, from Johns Hopkins University.