Childhood USA Program Advisory Council
Childhood USA´s Program Advisory Council is an external group of experts, who serve two-year terms and assist in the assessment of Childhood USA’s project applications. Its members read all applications, meet with Childhood USA´s Program Committee to discuss, and give recommendations to the Childhood USA Board of Directors.
The members of Childhood USA´s Program Advisory Council are survivors, experts, researchers, and practitioners in many fields regarding children´s rights, healing work, LGBTQ+ and human rights, violence and sexual abuse of children, and preventive work with children and families at risk; they also possess a thorough knowledge of the United States and evaluation and monitoring of programs.
Dr. Nina Agrawal
Child Abuse Pediatrician (American Academy of Pediatrics)
Nina Agrawal is a pediatrician and founder of Child Health Solutions LLC. She is board certified in child abuse pediatrics and an experienced clinician and educator on the medical evaluation of child abuse victims. As a member of the WCF Advisory Council, she was a featured expert in “Out of the Shadows” an Economist documentary on child sexual abuse prevention. Dr. Agrawal hold leadership roles with the American Academy of Pediatrics, including New York state facilitator the Community Access to Children’s Health grant program which works to reduce health disparities. She has received state and national awards for her research and advocacy on gun violence prevention. Her current work is focused on trauma informed care to mitigate the health effects of exposure to violence on children. Dr. Agrawal enjoys writing and has been published in the New York Times, New York Daily News, and other publications. She has also been interviewed by CNN, the BBC, and PBS.
Jenny Coleman Executive Director, STOP IT NOW!
Jenny Coleman, LMHC has been working in child welfare for 30 years; as a clinician, educator and advocate. Her background has been steeped in community and
relationship based approaches, grounded on non-violence and trauma-informed models. In 2011, she joined Stop It Now! as their Helpline Director, and now serves as their Director, overseeing a national child sexual abuse prevention program. She presents globally; training individuals and youth serving organizations in primary prevention. She serves on the prevention committee for the Association for the
Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), and is a member of the National Coalition to
Prevent Child Sexual Abuse. Jenny frequently contributes as a task group member in national discussions, with organizations such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Dept. of Justice.
Dr. Jon Conte
Professor Emeritus, University of Washington School of Social Work
Diana Freed
Assistant Professor of Computer and Data Science, Brown University
Diana Freed, PhD is an Assistant Professor at Brown University in Computer Science and Data Science, a visiting scholar at the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School, and a Faculty Associate at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She completed a joint Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and The Center for Research on Computation and Society at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Her research investigates the intersection of technology and society, with a focus on youth safety, security and privacy, human-computer interaction, digital literacy, behavioral health, and technology policy aimed at enhancing online safety and well-being for vulnerable and marginalized populations.
Britta Holmberg
Deputy Secretary-General and Program Director, World Childhood Foundation
Britta Holmberg is the Deputy Secretary General and Program Director at World Childhood Foundation. At Childhood she oversees the work to prevent abuse and sexual exploitation of children in ten countries – which includes the pioneering work with perpetrator prevention, AI to accelerate the fight against child sexual abuse and support to grass-root organisations reaching the most vulnerable children. She has a Master´s degree in Child and Youth Science and has also studied Eastern European Sciences and Slavonic languages. Before joining Childhood she worked at Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). She also has long experience as project manager, mainly in the area of development of social work with vulnerable families and children in Russia, at the Department for Social Work, Stockholm University.
Teresa Huizer Chief Executive Officer, National Children’s Alliance
Teresa has served at every level in the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) movement, beginning her career in a CAC in 1997. She subsequently served in executive roles at the local center, the State Chapter, the Western Regional CAC, and finally with the national organization, which she has led since 2008. Over the course of her career in the movement, she has successfully advocated for the passage of legislation and policy initiatives that help child victims of abuse at the local, state, and national levels.
Under Teresa’s leadership, National Children’s Alliance ensures the highest standards of practice, anchored in evidence, for CACs delivering comprehensive care to child victims of abuse. The national association and accrediting body for 961 Children’s Advocacy Centers and 50 State Chapters, NCA provides training, technical assistance, financial support, and access to innovative research and education to improve outcomes for children. NCA represents the CAC movement on Capitol Hill and to the federal agencies that support CACs. NCA also leads special projects in mental health treatment and issues such as child sex trafficking and child-on-child abuse.
Dr. Vince Palusci Child Abuse Pediatrician, NYU Medical Center
Vincent J. Palusci, M.D., M.S. is Professor of Pediatrics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. He is a general and Child Abuse Pediatrician at NYU Langone Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital, seeing patients and teaching trainees. His research and publications have focused on the medical evaluation of child maltreatment, child fatalities, prevention and education. He has held leadership positions in the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children and is currently editor in Chief of Child Maltreatment, APSAC’s flagship journal.
Dr. Janet Rosenzweig Senior Policy Analyst the Institute for Human Services
Dr. Rosenzweig earned a bachelor’s degree in individual and family studies, then earned certification as a sex-educator while completing a master’s degree in health education. (Penn State) She was recruited to work on one of the first sexual abuse programs in the US (1978) staffing a 24-hour sex-abuse helpline. The success of this project led to the development of a 5-county clinical demonstration project for treating families involved with child sexual abuse, a grant to become a federal regional training center and several research grants. This cemented her career-long focus on child sexual abuse, and she went on to earn a PhD in social work and public policy (Rutgers) and an MPA (Harvard), with academic research projects focusing on child welfare.
She has held multiple teaching positions focusing on child welfare and/or public service (Rutgers University, Rider University, The University of Pennsylvania) as well as positions in research and cabinet-level public service. She has served national NGO’s as the Vice-President for Research and Programs for Prevent Child Abuse America, and Executive Director of The Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children.
Rosenzweig is a strong advocate for promoting sexual health and safety and wrote the book ‘The Sex-Wise Parent’ promoting the ideal that parents must be the primary sex educators of their children, supporting sexual health and safety in the home and community. She trains nationally, is a Senior Policy Analyst for the Institute for Human Services and a member of the board of directors of The National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation. Read more and see samples of her work at www.SexWiseParent.com
Dr. Mel Schneiderman
Senior Vice President at New York Foundling
Dr. Mel Schneiderman is former Senior Vice President and co-founder of New York Foundling’s Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection and is former Senior Vice President of Mental Health Services at the New York Foundling. He is currently on the American Psychological Association Advocacy Coordinating Committee and serves on the Advisory Board of the World
Childhood Foundation. He serves on the executive committee of the National Initiative to End Corporal Punishment, the New York State Initiative to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and the Psychological Maltreatment Alliance. He has served on several Board of Directors including the Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children and Prevent Child Abuse New York. He has published over twenty-five articles in peer review journals and presented at over fifty conferences and workshops.
Viola Vaughan-Eden
Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children
Viola Vaughan-Eden, PhD, MSW, MJ is a Professor and the PhD Program Director with the Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work at Norfolk State University. She is also the President and CEO of UP For Champions, a non-profit in partnership with The UP Institute, a think tank for upstream child abuse solutions. As a forensic and licensed clinical social worker, she has conducted more than 2500 child abuse evaluations and provided expert testimony more than 700 times. As an educator, she has trained nationally and internationally on child welfare to multidisciplinary groups of professionals.
Dr. Vaughan-Eden serves on several national boards and committees including the Beau Biden Foundation for Child Protection and the National Initiative to End Corporal Punishment. She is President Emerita of the Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children, President Emerita of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence, and Past-President of the National Organization of Forensic Social Work.
Additionally, she served as a panelist on two congressional briefings – 2015 Spare the Rod, Protect the Child: A Reconsideration of Corporal Punishment of Children in Homes and Schools and the 2016 Protecting Child Safety in Family Court. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters on child maltreatment and violence prevention. She was also co-editor of the 2012 and 2023 APSAC Practice Guidelines on Forensic Interviewing of Children and one of the editors-in-chief of the six-volume 2022 NPEIV Handbook on Interpersonal Violence.
Dr. Vaughan-Eden is the recipient of several honors including the 2023 CRISP Outstanding Individual in Academia, the 2020 NOFSW Sol Gothard Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2012 NASW-Virginia Chapter Lifetime Achievement Award. She has a PhD in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University, a Master of Social Work from Norfolk State University, and a Master of Jurisprudence in Children’s Law and Policy from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. See www.violavaughaneden.com