Leadership Team: 

Coalition President:

Katie Hanna

Director of Education and Outreach

U.S. Center for SafeSport

Katie Hanna joined the U.S. Center for SafeSport team in December 2017 and directs the Center’s prevention, education, and outreach efforts.  Hanna’s leadership at the Center includes the following accomplishments: worked with team to set consistent prevention policies and training requirements across all 50 NGBs and the USOPC; trained over 800,000 individuals online;  led team to provide more than 24 in person presentations to 2,021 individuals in 2018; developed four new resources in 2018, including: parent toolkit; free online parent training; online refresher course; and youth athlete training curriculum. Additionally, Hanna established the Youth Advisory Board and convened a youth-led symposium; piloted climate surveys with select NGBs; and convened a briefing on Capitol Hill.

Just prior to joining the Center, she was a Visiting Fellow in the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) at the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to her fellowship, she was the Executive Director of the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence (OAESV), and previously led sexual assault prevention and response at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU).

Katie holds a master’s degree in Counseling from Ohio University and holds a BFA in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She has an Executive Coaching certificate from the Weatherhead School of Management at CWRU and a certificate from the Women Staff Leadership Development Initiative.


Vice President:

Nicole Epps

Executive Director

World Childhood Foundation USA

Nicole G. Epps is the Executive Director of the World Childhood Foundation USA, after 5 years as the Managing Director of Programs and Policy. Before joining the World Childhood Foundation, Epps has been a non-profit leader in the anti-trafficking and street affected, vulnerable youth population, both domestically and internationally.

Epps is the former Associate Director of Court Appointed Special Advocates of Morris and Sussex Counties, where she implemented and managed community outreach and the Fostering Futures program that provided life skills, HIV and STDI screenings for teens in foster care that will age out of the child welfare system. Prior to CASA, Epps led the U.S. office of anti-trafficking organization Apne Aap. She was charged with expanding Apne Aap's community programs to save the lives of human trafficking minority females throughout India. She led workshops, implemented anti-trafficking trainings and forged partnerships with public and private organizations, such as UNICEF, the UN and Morgan Stanley. At Safe Horizon, the largest victim services organization in New York, Epps created, implemented and managed Team Horizon, the first grassroots initiative of Safe Horizon. She served as the primary relationship manager for community- based target accounts and constituents, responsible for leveraging those relationships to maximize engagement through major gifts, corporate initiatives, partnerships and community relations.

Epps has been appointed to the New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect and chairs the Outreach and Engagement Committee. She is a member of APSAC’s Public Policy Committee. She is a member of RAINN’s National Leadership Council. She is a member of the University of Pennsylvania’s James Brister Society and serves in an advisory role for Stop it Now!, Gallop NYC and Visions and Pathways.

Epps is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and earned her B.A. in Political Science and International Relations. She received her MBA in Management and Marketing from the University of Georgia, Terry School of Business. She studied International Law, Economics and Organization at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is pursuing her MSW at Rutgers University School of Social Work.


Additional Steering Committee Members:

Communications Committee Co-Chairs: Susan Britton and Matthew Hartvigsen

Membership Committee Co-Chairs: Janet Rosenzweig and Keith Kaufman

Policy Committee Co-Chairs: Jetta Bernier and Nicole Epp


Immediate Past President: 

Jordan Posamentier

Director of Policy & Advocacy

Committee For Children 

Jordan is the Director of Policy & Advocacy at Committee for Children.  Prior to joining Committee for Children, Jordan was Deputy Policy Director at the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education, Director of Legislative Analysis at StudentsFirst, Legislative Counsel to the California Judges Association, a civil litigator in a boutique health law firm in Oakland, CA, and a New York City public school teacher.  He's currently licensed to practice law in California and still lectures on education policy at UW's College of Education.  Jordan earned his JD from the University of Houston, his MS in education from Queens College (CCNY), and his BA in human ecology from College of the Atlantic.  He lives in Shoreline, WA.


Treasurer: 


Teresa Rafael

Executive Director

Children's Trust Funds Alliance

Teresa Rafael, has been Executive Director of the Children's Trust Funds Alliance since 2002.  She has more than 35 years of professional experience in the child abuse and neglect prevention field, ranging from working for eight years with child protective services, foster care and adoption in her early career to extensive work in the private non-profit child abuse and neglect prevention field.


Secretary

Stacy Pendarvis

Program Director

Monique Burr Foundation

Stacy Pendarvis is the Program Director for the Monique Burr Foundation for Children.  Stacy is a social worker and educator with two Masters degrees from East Carolina University (Social Work and Academic Psychology). She began her career in direct practice in the child welfare field, but soon learned the importance of prevention where she has focused her efforts for more than twenty years. She has developed adult- and child- focused curricula and resources, managed community and agency projects related to child protection, and helped many organizations and communities establish prevention initiatives. She has educated thousands of adults and children on various child protection issues and has also held Social Work and Psychology adjunct faculty positions at several universities in North Carolina and Florida. 

Stacy has been at the Monique Burr Foundation for Children since May, 2011. Her role as Program Director is to oversee all program and prevention related activities. She leads the development of all prevention curricula, trainings, and resources, directs the program evaluation research teams, develops and conducts community and professional trainings, collaborates with a multitude of partners, and works to ensure every child has access to effective, comprehensive, evidence-based prevention programs to help protect them from abuse and victimization. 

Stacy has been a member of the Coalition since 2016. She serves on the Annual Meeting Committee and is also working on an update of the National Plan. 


Past Presidents:

2020: Jordan Posamentier, Committee for Children

2019: Tiffany Sawyer, GA Center for Child Advocacy

2018: Julie Novak, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

2017: Cathy Townsend (retired) Darkness to Light

2016: Les Nichols (retired) Boys and Girls Clubs of America

2015: Jim Hmurovich (retired) Prevent Child Abuse America

2014: Karen Baker, National Sexual Violence Resource Center

2013: Maia Christopher, Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers

2012: Deborah Callins (retired) National Children's Advocacy Center

2005 - 2011: Cordelia Anderson, Sensibilities, Inc.


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