Domestic Violence Advisory Committee
The Avon Foundation's Domestic Violence Advisory Committee is comprised of experts in the field of domestic violence. Each year the committee reviews grant proposals for the annual Speak Out Against Domestic Violence RFP program. Through their combined years of service and unwavering passion to the cause, Avon Foundation values the Committee's understanding and knowledge of the complexities surrounding this issue, and honors their commitment to help end domestic violence.
Nancy J. Cline
Consultant
Nancy J. Cline has over 18 years of experience with training, education, and technical assistance in the areas of public health prevention models as well as intervention in domestic and sexual violence. Most recently, Nancy served as a project manager for the Sexual Violence Prevention Initiative-a technical assistance partnership between the Vera Institute of Justice and the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault and its 21 member organizations. Prior to that position, she served as a project director for technical assistance to three demonstration sites charged with implementing the Judicial Oversight Demonstration Initiative (JOD)-a project of the United States Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women designed to enhance community, criminal justice, and court responses to acts of domestic violence. Currently, her work also focuses on exploring the impact of childhood exposure to domestic violence with a special emphasis on the needs of children who have lost one or both parents to a fatal act of intimate partner violence.
Originally from Louisiana, Nancy has a bachelor's degree in social work from Southern University at New Orleans, and a Master of Science degree from Columbia University's School of Social Work in New York City.
Suzanne Groisser, Esq.
Coordinator of Legal Services, Rachel Coalition
Suzanne Groisser is Coordinator of Legal Services for the Rachel Coalition, a non-profit domestic violence service agency of Jewish Family Services in Metro-west New Jersey. Suzanne provides direct representation to clients in family court and training for pro bono attorneys, domestic violence agency staff, DYFS workers, court staff, and advocate volunteers. Suzanne is a graduate of Harvard Law School where she co-founded the Harvard Battered Women's Advocacy Project. From 1991-1997, Suzanne was an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. She has lectured to numerous groups and written several articles about the problem of domestic violence. She has served on the Boards of the New York Asian Women's Center and The Health Care Foundation of New Jersey, and on the Executive Committee of the Essex County Family Justice Center.
Casey Gwinn, J.D.
President
Casey Gwinn, J.D. serves as the President of the National Family Justice Center Alliance. Casey has been recognized by The American Lawyer magazine as one of the top 45 public lawyers in America.
Casey served for eight years as the elected City Attorney of San Diego from 1996 to 2004. Prior to entering elected office, Casey founded City Attorney's Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Unit, leading the Unit from 1986 to 1996 - prosecuting both misdemeanor and felony cases. In 1993, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges recognized his Child Abuse/Domestic Violence Unit as the model domestic violence prosecution unit in the nation. During Casey's tenure, the Unit's work was honored for playing a major role in the 90 percent drop in domestic violence homicides in the City of San Diego over the last twenty years. San Diego now has the lowest domestic violence homicide rate of any major city in the nation. In 1986, Casey co-founded the San Diego Task Force on Domestic Violence. In 1991, he founded the San Diego Domestic Violence Council.
In 2002, Casey saw his vision of a comprehensive, "one stop shop" for services to victims of family violence become a reality in San Diego. The Family Justice Center opened its doors in downtown San Diego on October 10, 2002. In January, 2003, Casey and the San Diego Family Justice Center were profiled on the Oprah Winfrey Show as leading the way for other communities in its coordinated approach to co-locating services for victims of domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and sexual assault. In October, 2003, President George W. Bush announced a national initiative to begin creating Family Justice Centers across the country and asked Casey to provide leadership to the effort. Casey currently oversees a national technical assistance team that supports all existing and developing Family Justice Centers in the United States and around the world, speaks in communities across America, and provides leadership to the YWCA of San Diego County.
Casey has received many local and national awards, including the Stephen L. Lewis Lecturer of Merit Award from the National College of District Attorneys, the San Diego Domestic Violence Council's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Women's International Living Legacy Award, the Men's Leadership Forum Hometown Hero Award, Sharp Healthcare's Excellence in Education Award, the San Diego Press Club's Diogenes Award, the San Diego Mediation Center's Peacemaker Award, the San Diego Ecumenical Council's Christian Unity Award, Lifetime Television's Times Square Salute Award, Advocate of the Year Award presented on Disability Independence Day from the disabled community in San Diego, and most recently, in 2007, the California Peace Prize from the California Wellness Foundation.
Anne Menard
Director
Anne Menard is an activist who has worked on policy, practice and research issues affecting domestic violence and sexual assault survivors since the mid-70s. After serving as a senior consultant to the Family Violence Prevention and Services Program of the US Department of Health and Human Services during 2005, she returned as Director of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV), a position she previously held from 1994-99. At the NRCDV, she directs technical assistance, training, resource development and special projects to support domestic violence intervention and prevention efforts in the U.S. Prior to this national level work, Ms. Menard led the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence for over six years, and, in the early 1980s, co-directed Connecticut's largest domestic violence shelter and was actively involved in grassroots sexual assault advocacy.
Rob Valente
General Counsel
Rob Valente, J.D. is General Counsel for the National Network to End Domestic Violence. She also serves as Senior Policy Advisor to the Domestic Violence Resource Network (the consortium of HHS-funded national Resource Centers on domestic violence) on policy issues in the domestic violence field, with specialized interests in protection order enforcement, child custody issues, federal laws and interventions addressing domestic violence, and tribal issues relating to domestic violence. In 2009, the National Congress of American Indians presented Ms. Valente with the NCAI Public Sector Leadership Award for working with Indian women to obtain additional resources and authority necessary to bring safety and justice to Native communities. From 2006 to 2008, she was Assistant Director of the Family Violence Department of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Prior to that, she served as a consultant or advisor on civil legal issues regarding domestic violence for various organizations, including the Alaska Native Women's Coalition, the National Congress of American Indians, and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Ms. Valente served as one of the lead coordinators of the legislative work to develop the Violence Against Women Act of 2005. Ms. Valente has also served as Attorney Advisor to the Office on Violence Against Women of the U.S. Department of Justice. She was the founding Director of the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence and, prior to that, worked for AYUDA, Inc., a legal services program for battered immigrants. She is the author of several articles on domestic violence issues and family law. She received her J.D. from the George Washington University School of Law in 1991, and is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and before the Federal Circuit.
Joan Zorza, Esq.
Joan Zorza, Esq. has edited Domestic Violence Report for 14 years and edited Sexual Assault Report for its first 12 years. She has been working to end violence against women and children for more than 30 years. A member of the bars of Massachusetts, New York and the District of Columbia, she has written extensively on child custody, domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault matters, and is the author of the three volume set of books, Violence Against Women (2002, 2004, 2006) and Guide to Interstate Custody: A Manual for Domestic Violence Advocates (1992, 1995).
She was awarded for her work on custody by the Department of Justice in 1998, the City of New York Human Resources Administration for her work on behalf of victims of domestic violence in 2000, and the Sunshine Lady Foundation for her work on violence against women in 2002. She is a member of the boards of the American Bar Association's Commission on Domestic Violence and End Violence Against Women International, and represented or supervised lawyers and law students in cases on behalf of more than 2,000 battered women and almost 200 sexually abused children as an attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services and at the National Battered Women's Law Project of the new defunct National Center on Women and Family Law. She no longer represents clients, but remains involved with many organizations and through her writings and speaking to increase the safety of women and children.
