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Jody Bittrich, President
Denver, CO.
jbittrich@hotmail.com
Jody has been Program Director of Rainbow Bridge since 1997. Rainbow Bridge is a program of Lakes and Prairies Community Action Partnership, which works with low-income families striving for self sufficiency in the areas surrounding Moorehead, MN and Fargo, ND. Under Jody's direction the program has expanded to multiple sites and has offered parent education, support groups for both parents and children, therapeutic visitations and off-site/in-home supervised visitations. Due to funding cuts in both states, the program has now scaled back to providing the two core services of exchanges and supervised visitations – on/off site and in-home.
Jody works full time at Rainbow Bridge. She oversees 6 program coordinators, several interns and a volunteer base of 50-75. All program staff is involved in grant writing, fundraising, marketing, and program activity. Rainbow Bridge is open seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Jody has been active in the SVN-MN Chapter since 2000 and has served as the Co-Chair for the past three years. In those three years, the Chapter originated the Orange Ribbon Campaign to promote awareness of visitations centers around the state of Minnesota and then around the world. The Chapter is also active in facilitating statewide trainings for members and partners.
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Aaron Wimmer, Vice President
Sioux Falls, SD
aaron.wimmer@mckennan.org
Aaron has been with the Family Visitation Center since 2004 and currently serves as the Director. He possesses his Master of Science Degree in Administration and brings over twelve years experience in working with children and families. As an active community member, Aaron has also served several community committees and has served two terms as the president of the SVN-SD Chapter.
As the largest visitation center in the state the Sioux Falls Center provides on-site supervised visitation and assisted Connection services to children and families referred through the Court System, Child Protection Services, and other local agencies. In addition to visitation and exchange services, FVC also has a contract with South Dakota Child Protection Services providing over 300 hours a month of transportation for children in the custody of the state.
Aaron has overseen a 61% growth in service hours in the last three years and is currently working to transition the agency from a program of regional healthcare provider to an independent 501 c (3) non-profit entity.
Aaron’s family remains the focal point of his life with his wife Rebecca, sons – Seth and Micah, and daughter Lauren continuing to keep things active and interesting.
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Valya Roberts, Immediete Past President
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
bdsupacc@execulink.com
In addition to serving as the President of the board, Valya is the Executive Director of two access Centre's in Ontario Canada
and Co-Chair of the Ontario, Canada Chapter of SVN. She is a graduate of the University of
Waterloo and Mohawk College where she studied Social Work and Child Abuse Studies. For the past
15 years she has been involved with families and children/youth who are in some form of conflict.
She also volunteered on a National Women's organization as the Provincial Representative and been
involved in developing proposals for new community based programmes including the set up of a
Sexual Assault Centre.
For the past few years she worked closely with the Provincial Government
in the expansion of access Centre's to other areas of the province and also developing "best
practices" and a "peer review process". Her goals for the future include; helping to develop an
accreditation process for Access Centres and ensuring the continuation of "best practices" as
a minimal standard for agencies providing Supervised Access.
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Dorie Twist, Treasurer
Alexandria, MN
dorie@wingsfamilyservices.com
As Executive Director of Wings Family Supportive Services, her many accomplishments have included:
· Created and implemented the agency's first advanced statistical database for collecting victim services. Database has been in place since 1999. Worked with other crisis centers in the state of Minnesota helping them incorporate our statistical tracking and database system for their own use.
· Developed and coordinated Hope Connection Safety Center in 2000. Instrumental in writing the United Way, Initiative Foundation, and Blanden Foundation start up grants. Managed the center through very limited funding and developed it into a very well known, full to capacity, visitation center program in center rural Minnesota.
· Prepared budget proposal and assist with writing of the federal grant, “Arrest Program, How to Hold Offenders Accountable”. Hands of Hope Resource Center was 1 of 2 grant recipients in the state of Minnesota to receive this OVW (Office of Violence against Women) federal grant. Attended and Certified at the Office of Justice Financial Management Training in Washington D.C.
· Active participant in perusing legislative funding changes for Visitation Centers across the state of Minnesota. Recently testified on behalf of Hope Connection Safety Center at the House of Representatives hearing on the importance of visitation centers being funded. “
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Sunni Ball, Secretary
Sunni began her career after raising three children and moving about the country and Central America as part of a military family for over 20 years. She has an MA in Clinical Psychology and is a diplomate with the American Psychotherapy Association. She began work in the domestic relations field approximately 15 years ago. She was on staff with Parent Resource Center where she performed Custody Evaluations, Therapeutic Supervised Visitation, Counseling and Adoption Case work. She has been classified by the Fourth Judicial District as an expert witness in the field of family systems and child development. Simultaneously, she worked in the forensic psychology arena.
Sunni is in her fifth year with CASA as the Domestic Relations (DR) Program Development Manager. In this capacity, she is responsible for the DR Advocacy program, Children and Families in Transition education seminars for divorcing parents, and marketing and innovation for the Supervised Exchange and Parenting Time program. She serves on, and as chairman of, various committees and panels in the domestic/visitation arena. She has helped develop standards for supervised visitation in the State of Colorado, as well as organizing the state level training for the standards. She has also completed various publications regarding Supervised Visitation, including an article on developmental recommendations, and an article on recommendations regarding children with special needs. Sunni has completed national, state and local presentations relative to supervised visitation and domestic violence. She serves as a trainer for SVN and has presented at the 2006 and 2007 SVN annual conferences.
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Judy Newman
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Judy.Newman@ontario.ca
Judy Newman MSW, RSW from Toronto, Ontario Canada is the manager of the Supervised Access Program, Ministry of the Attorney General which has 74 site locations across the province. Judy oversees funding contracts with service providers and works with them to develop policies and procedures and training. Judy is a registered professional social worker who previously worked at the Office of the Children’s Lawyer working with children and families involved in high conflict custody and access disputes conducting investigations and assisting children’s counsel to represent the interests of children before the court. Judy is a field instructor for the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. She is a recipient of the Judith Wallach President’s Award from the Supervised Visitation Network recognizing her contribution to the profession. Judy is a member of the SVN Board and Executive acting as Board secretary and chair of the Standards and Guidelines Committee as well as a member of the Training Committee. She is also a frequent workshop presenter at SVN Conferences.
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Ona Foster, LMSW
tfpfaith@familyplace.org
Ms. Foster is the director of Faith and Liberty's Place Supervised Visitation Center in Dallas, Texas.
Previously she spent 4 years working with domestic violence and child abuse cases in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office in the Family Violence Unit.
Prior to working at the DA's Office, she facilitated counseling groups at 3 different family violence agencies, and also has worked in a women's shelter. She publicly speaks about family violence and the effects of violence on children, and trains law enforcement and community groups across the state of Texas for the DA's Office.
Ona has served on two committees for the Supervised Visitation Network. She is a licensed social worker who holds a master's in social work from the University of Texas, and a bachelor's in sociology and criminal justice from Colorado State University.
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Derrick Green
pc-superacc@bmts.com
Derrick Green has served as Program Coordinator for The Salvation Army’s Grey Bruce Supervised Access Program since its opening in 2000 and has been a member of SVN since 2000 also. Derrick has been involved with the social ministries of The Salvation Army for many years, working both paid positions and voluntarily, serving families and individuals from varied backgrounds with many needs. In his current role he is responsible for supervised access centres that operate in Owen Sound, and Walkerton Ont. And is presently working to establish a new centre in Wiarton Ont. Derrick is a current Board member of SVN, and a recipient of the Judith Wallach President’s Award for Outstanding contributions to the Field of Supervised Visitation. Derrick has been an active member of SVN’s Training Committee, SVN’s Standards and Guidelines Committee, and is the current chair of the Knowledge and Resources Committee.
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Karen Oehme
fsuvisit@aol.com
Karen Oehme is the director of the Institute for Family Violence Studies at Florida State University. The Clearinghouse on Supervised Visitation is part of the Institute.
Under Oehme, the Clearinghouse has provided technical assistance to Florida’s SV programs and serves as liaison to judges, the Office of the State Courts Administrator, the Department of Children and Families, and the Florida Legislature on SV issues since 1997. Oehme conducts and writes training manuals on SV programs for staff, judges, and law enforcement; drafts court orders and administrative materials; presents at SV conferences nationally; and has written and co-authored numerous articles regarding SV and family law, custody, and domestic violence. She has provided technical assistance to the Office on Violence Against Women, Safe Havens/Supervised Visitation grantees, and to the National Steering Committee on SV. Formerly a staff attorney at Legal Services of North Florida and the Guardian ad Litem Program of the Second Judicial Circuit, Karen is a current Board member of SVN, a recipient of the Judith Wallach President’s Award for Outstanding contributions to the Field of Supervised Visitation, and the current chair of the SVN Training Committee. In her current role as director of the Institute for Family Violence Studies, Oehme also directs projects on homelessness and domestic violence, and maintains an extensive research library on issues related to family violence.
Oehme received her law degree from Florida State University in 1987.
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Pat Kelleher, Brockton, MA
BFCR180@aol.com
Pat is the founder and former director of the first supervised visitation program in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As the Executive Director of Brockton Family and Community Resources, Inc.(BFCR), a non-profit community based victim service agency, Pat has been successful in expanding visitation services to 45 cities and towns in Southeastern Massachusetts with four scattered site locations. Pat's long history of advocacy for victims of trauma, with a specialization in services for victims of domestic violence and their children, has culminated in the growth of BFCR as one of the state's largest providers of comprehensive community based victim services. Recognizing the need to provide extended services for non-custodial fathers who were re-establishing relationships with their biological children, or who were parenting their partners children, Pat oversaw the addition of “Responsible Fatherhood” programs to the visitation services. Pat is a founding member of the Massachusetts Chapter of SVN and provides consultation to providers both locally and nationally.
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Robert B. Straus, DMH, JD, a psychologist and lawyer was Senior Psychologist of the Family Service Clinic from 1982 to 1988, conducting custody and visitation evaluations for the Middlesex County Family Court. From 1988, he served frequently as Guardian ad Litem in high-conflict custody and access disputes.
In 1991, Dr. Straus started Meeting Place: Supervised Child Access Service, a program of The Guidance Center, Inc. in Cambridge, MA, providing a safe setting in which children in high-risk situations can visit parents with whom they are not living.
He is a founder of the Supervised Visitation Network. He was President of the Network in 1993-4, helped draft the Network's Standards and Guidelines for practice, and served on the Board of Directors.
From 1995 through 2000 he was Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for Supervised Visitation, and in that capacity worked with the Governor's Commission on Responsible Fatherhood and the Supervised Visitation Task Force of the Probate and Family Court; he continues as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Coalition.
Dr. Straus has a private psychotherapy practice, working with couples and children, and remains the Program Director of Meeting Place.
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Georgia Thompson, Los Angeles, California
gajt1019@aol.com
Georgia is program manager for Bienvenidos Family
Services, a social services agency in West Covina, California. She has
been involved in providing supervised visitation services since 1994 and
an active member of SVN for many years. With master’s degrees in both
clinical psychology and business administration, she is uniquely qualified
to address both the human services and administrative aspects of service
delivery. She has developed and teaches a two-day training course for
supervised visitation monitors and is an approved SVN trainer. She states
that in running for the Board she hopes to contribute towards increase in
membership and training. She has demonstrated her leadership abilities
through her work in helping to develop a Southern California Chapter of
SVN that has in the past year been successful in increasing the SVN
membership in that area by about 8 fold. Her experience in working with
other agencies, the court systems and professional monitors could add to
the scope of work as SVN moves towards change and upgrades to the new
standards, best practices, and guidelines. She says she is running for
the Board to assist wherever needed, but would especially like to offer
support in the areas of membership and training.
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Catherine Lewis, LCSW
New York, NY
CLewis@nyspcc.org
Catherine Lewis is the Clinical Director at The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC), New York, NY “Throughout my career I have been driven by a strong commitment to working with children and families, and a desire to help children and parents develop loving, positive relationships with one another in a safe environment. My growing understanding of the complex issues that contribute to parental conflict and child distress guides the work occurring at The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC). I believe my working knowledge of the issues facing families in conflict would be an asset to the SVN Board, as it continues to meet the needs of its diverse membership. The NYSPCC has provided supervised visitation to high risk families since 1992. Five years ago, the program was transformed from an “observation only” model, to one that uses a parent coaching model, called Positive Parenting Plus. As the Director of Clinical Services at The NYSPCC, I have worked to develop the Positive Parenting Plus model since joining the team in 2005. I have integrated knowledge gained in the training I received as a family therapist and in working as both a case worker and supervisor in agencies providing services to children and families for over twelve years prior to joining The NYSPCC. In addition to my responsibilities at The NYSPCC, I am on the teaching faculty at the Ackerman Institute for the Family and have presented nationally and internationally on working with families. I have presented The NYSPCC's Parenting Plus Program at the SVN National Conference in 2006 and 2007 and Prevent Child Abuse New York in 2006, 2007, and 2008. I am a primary author of "The NYSPCC Professionals' Handbook: Supervised Visitation Services for High-Risk Families."
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Barbara Stamper, LSW
Greene County, OH.
BStamper@co.greene.oh.us
“As a Board member, I would strive to increase the awareness and membership of the SVN organization at the state, national and international level, support a data collection method for member programs, and work to improve the training opportunities and resources offered by the SVN. I am very committed to help increase funding opportunities for the SVN, including grant funding and fund raising events. I am excited about the changes within the SVN organization and believe the next few years will be crucial years to enhance the SVN image, and improve and increase the overall operations of the organization. I have 7 1/2 years experience managing the Greene County Family Visitation Center. I have seen the Greene County program grow from an experimental program into a professional program providing over 1500 hours of supervised visitation and almost 1000 exchanges in 2007. I have managed an OVW Safe Havens grant since 2005 developing a volunteer program and initiating an on-site advocacy program. This experience as well as my educational background has prepared me to serve on the SVN Board.”
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Joanne Karolzak
Tuscon, AZ
joannek@casadelosninos.org
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Staff
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Joe Nullet, E.D.
Executive Director, Supervised Visitation Network
Jacksonville, Florida
Executive Director Joe Nullet, a graduate of Harvard University, has led the Family Nurturing Center since 2001. During his tenure, he has guided FNC through an exciting growth period, helped reshape the organizational culture and design to better serve the needs of clients, and has served locally and nationally on numerous task forces, advisory boards, and collaborative partnerships as an expert in the field of supervised visitation.
Joe Nullet and his support staff assummed management of SVN on December 1, 2007. The vision is to utilize the combined resources of the two organizations, with the intention of improving service to membership, increasing financial support to the organization, and enhancing the quantity and quality of training opportunities offered by SVN.
He has overseen the growth of FNC, the first supervised visitation center in the state of Florida, to five locations with a staff of over 40 dedicated professionals. Joe is also a member of the Data Base Review panel funded by the Department of Children and Families to
develop an innovative state wide database to track supervised visitation.
At home Joe enjoys spending time with his wife Trina (also a nonprofit guru)
and three boys Joey 18, Luke 9, and Nicholas 5.
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© 2007 Supervised Visitation Network
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