#UAFEARLESSCONF
Sexual Violence and the LGBTQ+ community
Jen Hoefle Olson is the Director for LGBTQ Affairs through the Dean of Students Office. She earned a Master of Arts in Applied Sociology from Northern Arizona University in 2001. She has over ten years experience in higher education as both a faculty member and a student affairs professional. She was an adjunct faculty member for five years at NAU where, among other courses, she taught a Sociology of Sexuality and a special topics course in Race, Class and Gender. Since 2007 she has served the University of Arizona campus. She was the Program Director for Social Justice Education Programs
MONICA J. CASPER, PH.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
@ THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
JEN OLSON
DIRECTOR OF LGBTQ AFFAIRS
@ THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
JAI SMITH
PROGRAM MANAGER
@YOUTH LIFE PROJECT (YLP)
ELISE LOPEZ
COORDINATOR OF SEXUAL ASSUALT PREVENTION PROGRAMS
@THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
CLAIRE SWINFORD
WRITER
@SOUTHERN AZ GENDER ALLIANCE
Monica J. Casper is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Inclusion in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona. A feminist sociologist, she writes about gender, health, bodies, sexuality, reproductive justice, trauma, and disability. She is author of the award-winning book The Making of the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery, co-author of Missing Bodies: The Politics of Visibility andThe Body: Social and Cultural Dissections, and co-editor of Critical Trauma Studies: Understanding Violence, Conflict, and Memory in Everyday Life. Monica’s creative writing has appeared in Florida Review, Slow Trains, Spilling Ink Review, The Linnet’s Wings, Vine Leaves, Mojave River Review,Moonsick Magazine, and more. Visit www.monicajcasper.com for additional information.
Opening Plenary
ABE WEIL
GENDER AND WOMEN'S STUDIES
@THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Sexual Violence and the LGBTQ+ community
Jai Smith is a Program Manager with the Youth Life Project (YLP) through Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, where he works within public high schools teaching sexual and dating violence prevention. Prior to her work with YLP, she worked for the Reaching Adolescents Prevention Project (RAPP), teaching substance abuse prevention and sexual health risk reduction, and the Eon Youth Lounge, Tucson’s LGBT youth center coordinating HIV testing, sexual health risk reduction and education related to sexual self-efficacy. He is a graduate of the University of Arizona and has dedicated her studies to prevention, public health, and the LGBT community.
When she’s not doing amazing work at SAAF, Jai can be found on her bike, long-distance cycling – she just successfully completed the 2016 AIDS LifeCycle! Jai loves to perform, and is a singer with the Reveille Men’s Chorus. She’s supported by a most caring, supportive, and often times, patient partner, Sasha. She is the proud pet co-parent of Indy, their dog, and Camila and Charles Phillip Arthur George, their two guinea pigs.
*Jai uses masculine and feminine pronouns, as reflected in this profile.
Writer, Performer, Activist and self described queer femme Claire Swinford is currently a board member of the Southern AZ Gender Alliance, where their focus is community organizing and healthcare advocacy. Their previous work has included training and support of sexual assault advocates, building and integrating policy and training programs for domestic violence shelters to assure affirming care of transgender clients, sex worker outreach within the transgender community, and harm reduction programming for Intravenous drug users. Claire's writing and performance work explores gender transition and societies oppression of trans populations through a queer feminist lens. Their writings have appeared in the NY Times Online edition, CNN iBlogs, and Bi-Women quarterly. Claire currently writes for #Boom Magazine, and performs locally.
Elise Lopez, DrPH (ABD), MPH is the Coordinator of Sexual Assault Prevention Programs in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at The University of Arizona. In this role, she oversees several federally-funded research projects on sexual assault and misconduct prevention and response. She also serves as the site preceptor for undergraduate and graduate sexual violence research interns. Since 2004, Ms. Lopez has worked primarily on public health and criminal justice-related projects that focus on the design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions related to substance abuse, trauma-informed behavioral health care, sexual health, and interpersonal violence. She holds degrees in Public Policy and Management, Criminal Justice, and Public Health. She has received numerous honours for work in community health programs, including recognitions from the Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona, Hispanic Heritage Foundation, and Compass Behavioural Health Care Dynamic Duo Awards. She was the recipient of the inaugural Youth, Family, and Community Evidence-Based Practice Award from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2007. In 2016, she received the Abstract of the Year Award from the American Public Health Association’s Law Section for her work that explores the potential to situate restorative justice for sexual misconduct resolution in U.S. institutions of higher education within the boundaries of existing federal guidance and statutes. She has co-authored published and forthcoming book chapters on sexual violence prevention and response as well as articles in The Civic Research Institute’s Sexual Assault Report and City University of New York Law Review. She is a Wildcat for life—her bachelor degrees are from the UA Eller College of Management, and she holds an MPH from the UA College of Public Health!
Abraham Weil is a PhD candidate in Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona whose research focuses on radical geographies, anti-blackness, poststructuralism, continental philosophy and trans-theory. He earned a Master of Arts from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 2012 and a Bachelor of Arts from University of Redlands in 2009. His current project focuses on radical political formations, anti-black racism, and trans* theory.
OLIVIA GATWOOD
WRITER
Spoken Word Performance & What I Never Wrote Workshop
Olivia Gatwood is a writer and teaching artist from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her work has been featured on HBO, Upworthy, Verses & Flow, Button Poetry, Muzzle Magazine and Huffington Post, among others. She is graduate of Pratt Institute's fiction program, a former member of SPEAK LIKE A GIRL, and a contributing sex and relationships writer at Bustle and HelloFlo. She lives in New York City.
KRISTEN NELSON
POET
@ THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Sexual Violence and the LGBTQ+ community
Kristen E. Nelson is a queer poet and community builder. She is the author of Write, Dad (Unthinkable Creatures, 2012); a founder and the Executive Director of Casa Libre en la Solana, a non-profit writing center in Tucson, Arizona (casalibre.org); and the Program Coordinator for the University of Arizona’s Institute for LGBT Studies (lgbt.arizona.edu)
Thea is the Coordinator for Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention at the University of Arizona. She is a double Indiana University graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Classical Studies and Latin and Master's degree in Health Promotion. Thea enjoys working closely with students and has had extensive experience in developing and supporting student leaders on a college campus. Additionally she is deeply passionate in creating meaningful campus sexual violence prevention programs and Indiana University basketball.
Alyssa Contreras is a senior at the U of A with a Psychology major and a Spanish minor. This year she is the Director for SPEAC (Students Promoting Empowerment and Consent) in the Women's Resource Center.
ALYSSA CONTRERAS
SPEAC STUDENT DIRECTOR
@THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
THEA COLA
COORDINATOR FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT AND VIOLENCE PREVENTION
@THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
MICHAEL BRASHER
MEN'S EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPERVISOR
@EMERGE CENTER AGAINST DOMESTIC ABUSE
After completing a Master’s in Latin American Studies in 2013, Michael moved from Miami to Tucson, where he works at the Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse. Michael has transitioned from working with women and children in the Emergency Shelter program to supervising Emerge’s Men’s Education Program (MEP). The MEP has been a transformational experience for Michael, as it teaches men to take leadership with other men in the community on the issue of violence against women. In partnership with Pima County Adult Probation, Michael also facilitates regular Domestic Violence Orientation workshops for men that focus on consent and personal responsibility. Michael and his partner just had their first child, a 6 month old boy named Seth.
Sexual Violence Prevention Panel
Sexual Violence and the LGBTQ+ community
Sexual Violence and the LGBTQ+ community
Sexual Violence Prevention Panel
KEYNOTE
Engaging men panel
DR. NOLAN CABRERA
ASSOCIATE PROSESSOR
@THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Engaging men panel
Dr. Nolan Cabrera is an Associate Professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. He studies the racial dynamics on college campuses, with a particular focus on Whiteness, and was the only academic featured in the MTV documentary White People. Dr. Cabrera is also involved in the controversy surrounding the Tucson Unified School District's former Mexican American Studies program. He is a recipient of the prestigious education early career award, the Spencer/National Academy of Education postdoctoral fellowship. Dr. Cabrera's publications have appeared in the leading education and higher education journals such as American Educational Research Journal, Review of Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, and Research in Higher Education, and his work has been used extensively in education, policy, and legal environments. Dr. Cabrera is a UA College of Education Erasmus Scholar, Emerging Scholar for the American College Personnel Association, Faculty Affiliate with UT Austin's Project M.A.L.E.S., and Faculty Fellow for the American Association for Hispanics in Higher Education. He completed his graduate work at UCLA in Higher Organization & Organizational Change and Dr. Cabrera earned his BA from Stanford University in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (Education focus). He is a former Director of a Boys & Girls Club in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is originally from McMinnville, Oregon
Bryant Valencia, M.A. is a Doctoral student in the College of Education studying Higher Education. As a first generation student, he received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Arizona (UA) in 2012, and earned his M.A. in Higher Education from the UA in 2014. Throughout his academic career, Bryant has held multiple positions at the UA from Student Union Catering to Graduate Assistantships at the Guerrero center. Bryant is currently in his third year as a Graduate Assistant in the Office of Early Academic Outreach, where he coordinates the “Man Up! And Go to College” initiative, which seeks to increase the number of first-generation, low-income, and men of color who consider college as a future pathway. Recently, he helped establish a partnership between Early Academic Outreach and the Center for the Study of Higher Education’s Project SOAR program to encourage undergraduates to mentor young men in the Sunnyside Unified School District. Over the past two years he has instructed a pilot course on masculinity and intersection with various identities, which has recently become a 3 unit upper level elective. His research interests include access and retention to higher education for underrepresented communities, particularly Native American and Latina/o youth. Bryant aspires to become a professor conducting research and practice that aids in increasing access to higher education for underrepresented communities.
Engaging men panel
BRYANT VALENCIA
DOCTORAL STUDENT
@THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Vaughan Bagley graduated from Stanford University in 2012 with Honors in Ethics in Society for her thesis work examining human trafficking policies in the state of California. After moving to New York to serve as a paralegal in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office Human Trafficking Bureau, Vaughan worked as the Marketing and Engagement Manager at the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children for two years where she managed the organization's digital marketing and event planning. Now at the Joyful Heart Foundation, she assists the Managing Director with the planning and oversight of the organization's 50-state strategic planning effort to end the untested rape kit backlog in the United States, as well as the documentary social action campaign surrounding our founder, Mariska Hargitay's upcoming documentary.
Documentary screening + Discussion
VAUGHAN BAGLEY
SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER
@JOYFUL HEART FOUNDATION
SPEAKERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL Order of Appearance
SARAH HAACKE BYRD
MANAGING DIRECTOR
@JOYFUL HEART FOUNDATION
Documentary screening + Discussion
Sarah Haacke Byrd is Managing Director of the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national organization dedicated to ending sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse through education, advocacy, and healing programs. Joyful Heart was founded a decade ago by Mariska Hargitay. In her role, Sarah works directly with the CEO to drive day-to-day operations, including Joyful Heart’s national effort to eliminate the backlog of hundreds of thousands of unprocessed rape kits across the United States.
​
For more than 15 years, Sarah has been building, guiding and leading non-profit organizations in Boston, Washington, D.C. and New York. She joined Joyful Heart after a successful tenure as Director of Operations for the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture. Before joining NYU, She worked for Facing History and Ourselves, as Director Choosing to Participate, that organization's key national outreach program. Sarah began her career as Director of Leadership Development at the Anti-Defamation League in Boston.
​
Sarah is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and holds a Masters in Positive Organizational Development and Change Management from Weatherhead Institute at Case Western Reserve University.
Engaging Men Panel
Timoteio Padilla is a public health educator, organizer, and community activist working within the anti-violence movement, both on a grassroots and professional level. Timoteio organizes and engages men in social justice movements to end violence against women, and build solidarity with LGBTQ identified folks in dismantling systems of oppression, while considering intersections of privilege and power as they relate to masculinity. Timoteio has worked professionally with survivors of domestic violence, providing domestic violence education and safety planning, in addition to facilitating men’s groups with both men who have been arrested for Domestic Violence and men within the community. Timoteio also facilitates anti-violence curriculum, addressing dating violence and sexual violence with adolescent youth of all genders, and facilitates trainings and groups that engage men to challenge hetero-normative patriarchal male supremacy. Timoteio currently serves on the TUSD Comprehensive Family Life Committee working in revising TUSD’s comprehensive sexual health curriculum, as well as being involved in Tucson’s Take Back The Night, serving as the Co-Chair for Tucson’s Take Back The Night 2017.
TIMOTEIO PADILLA
CO-CHAIR
@TUCSON'S TAKE BACK THE NIGHT
Opening Panel
Dr. Stephanie Troutman is a Black feminist scholar, single mother and first-generation college student. She is the Assistant Professor of Emerging Literacies in the Rhetoric, Composition and Teaching of English program. A former high school and middle grades public school teacher, Stephanie is a scholar-activist who has been recognized across a variety of community and campus spaces for her mentorship, student advocacy, and social justice leadership. Her passion is working with marginalized students in the university setting at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Dr. Troutman is the University of Arizona faculty fellow to African-American Student Affairs. She is also a faculty affiliate with the University of Arizona’s LGBT Institute.
Dr. Troutman is also the Faculty Coordinator of Wildcat Writers and Director of the Southern Arizona Writing Project. Both of these programs are public engagement outreach projects between The University of Arizona English Department and Tucson schools. Her research interests include social justice, feminist pedagogy, critical race theory, film, and cultural studies at the intersections of schooling and education.
Some of Dr. Troutman's public scholarship can be found at The Feminist Wire. She is the book review editor for the journal Feminist Formations and Co-Chair of the Advisory Board for the National Women's Studies Association's Women of Color Leadership Project.
She is a series editor for Queering Teacher Education Across Contexts (Peter Lang Press) and co-editor of the forthcoming book, Race & Ethnicity in US Television (ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Press.) Her work has appeared in several edited collections and academic journals including, The Sexuality Curriculum & Youth Culture (Peter Lang, 2011) and Interrogating Critical Pedagogy: The voices of People of Color in the movement. (Routledge, 2015) and the Journal of Girlhood Studies (GHS) and the Journal of Race Ethnicity & Education (REE). Aligned with Dr. Troutman’s research interests, each of these projects focus in different ways on the intersections of race, gender and sexuality, literacies, pedagogy, popular culture, social justice feminism, education and identity.
DR. STEPHANIE TROUTMAN
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
@THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
