Family Re-Union 10: Back to the Future

Panelists & Presenters

Speaker Biographies

J. Lawrence Aber, Ph.D., is Director of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) and Professor of Public Health at the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.  The mission of NCCP is to identify and promote strategies that reduce the number of young children living in poverty in the United States and that improve the life chances of the millions of children under age six who are growing up poor. Dr. Aber has served on the faculties of Barnard College and Columbia University where he directed the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development, co-directed the Columbia University Project on Children and War, and co-founded the Columbia Institute for Child and Family Policy.  He has continued to consult with community-based programs for children, youth and families as well as local, state and federal agencies and UNICEF.  Dr. Aber has conducted both basic and applied research studies relevant to child and family policy.  His basic research focuses on the social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development of children and youth at risk due to family and neighborhood poverty, exposure to violence, abuse/neglect, and parental psychopathology.  His applied research focuses on rigorous process and outcome evaluations of innovative programs and policies for children and families at risk.

Bernard Arons, M.D., is Director of theCenter for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and has had a diverse career focused on the improvement of mental health services. CMHS is charged with providing national leadership in improving mental health services for all Americans.  As a psychiatrist and administrator at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital from 1973-1987, Dr. Arons served in a number of positions, including as Director of the Dixon Implementation Office, with responsibility for the major clinical care and deinstitutionalization plan, and, later, as Chief Clinical Advisor. In November 1993, Dr. Arons was appointed Director of CMHS, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He worked closely with Surgeon General David Satcher to publish the first-ever Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, which is enhancing national awareness of mental health issues.  Dr. Arons has led CMHS in addressing issues, from stigma to cultural concerns, that traditionally impede access to quality services. From studies on parity in mental health coverage to initiatives on school violence, CMHS has become a leading voice on mental health issues for the country.  Dr. Arons continues to practice psychiatry at the Center for Mental Health, Inc., a private, nonprofit clinic in the District of Columbia. He also currently serves as a clinical professor of psychiatry on the faculty of the Georgetown University School of Medicine.  Dr. Arons is a graduate of Oberlin College and the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Alfred Babington-Johnson is founder, President and CEO of the Stairstep Initiative Companies. The Stairstep Initiative brings together African-Americans of all income and resource levels in the Twin Cities metropolitan area to participate in the articulation of community values, and in the operation of businesses consistent with those values.  Mr. Babington-Johnson is chair of the board of Siyeza, Inc., a frozen food manufacturing company located in the inner city of Minneapolis, of which Stairstep, Inc. is a majority owner.  He is also a member of numerous boards, including the Advisory Board of the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. He previously served as vice-chair of the Minneapolis Public Housing Commission, was co-chair of the Mayor’s Task Force on Business Regulation, and was President of the National Association of Minority Contractors of Minnesota. Mr. Babington-Johnson is also an ordained elder at Grace Temple Deliverance Center. He was honored as Bethel Seminary’s Alumnus of the Year for 2000 and received its first Presidential Distinguished Medal; of Honor. In 1996, Mr. Babington-Johnson, his wife, Denise, and their three children were honored as Family of the Year by the Minneapolis Urban League.

Richard Baron is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of McCormack Baron & Associates in St. Louis, Missouri, a firm specializing in the development and management of mixed-income housing with an emphasis on large-scale redevelopment projects in central city locations. The firm has developed 83 projects in 23 cities with a development cost in excess of $1 billion throughout the country.  McCormack Baron worked closely with former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros and his staff to design the Hope VI program, and is currently involved in twelve Hope VI projects nationally. Mr. Baron is also the founder and developer of the Center of Contemporary Arts in University

City, a community-based visual and performing arts center that serves more than 50,000 children annually.  Mr. Baron currently serves as the co-chairman of the Vashon Education Compact which has targeted 10 low-performing schools in the City of St. Louis for major transformation. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Louis University and the Advisory Board for the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy of The Brookings Institution.  He is a past-member of the Board of Trustees for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Milagros Batista is a founder of “Best Beginnings,” an inter-agency collaboration between Alianza Dominica (a multi-service community development organization in northern Manhattan), the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where she pioneered a new method for working with families in their homes.  She has worked extensively on homeless issues through the Crisis Intervention Program that was responsible for shutting down several of New York City’s substandard shelters.  For the past ten years she has been working with Alianza Dominica, the largest Dominican community-based organization in the United States.

Michael L. Benjamin is Executive Director of the National Council on Family Relations, following five years as Executive Director of the Institute for Mental Health Initiatives in Washington, D.C. He has a broad and extensive background in mental health promotion and mental health service delivery, working on family issues including work and family, mental health and the family, fatherhood, substance abuse and violence prevention, and cultural diversity. He has served on numerous boards in Washington, D.C., and nationally. He has professional links with policy makers and professional associations, and has published articles on mental health and substance abuse.

Diane Bock is founder and Director of Community Cousins, a non-profit aimed at combating racism by “helping people re-define ‘Us’ and ‘Them’."  Based in Encinitas, CA, Community Cousins has served more than 400 families. After the riots in Los Angeles, Ms. Bock and her husband, Larry, decided to work against prejudice at the grass roots level by helping people of different races to become genuinely acquainted and develop a personal stake in each others lives. Community Cousins pairs families of different races to become “Cousins”. The families initially meet at all-cousins events, which are held every couple of months, and are then encouraged to interact in any way that fits their lifestyles and time schedules. They may attend each others' birthday parties and ball games, share recipes, dinners or a movie. Community Cousins hopes to share the concept with communities across the country.  There are currently chapters operating in collaboration with the YMCA in Boise, ID and San Juan Capistrano, CA.  The Bocks two children, ages 13 and 9, have benefited from the many friendships they have made through the group. Ms. Bock previously worked in marketing for the Carnation Company in London, England, and in advertising and publishing in Los Angeles, California.

Jim Bueermann is Chief of Police and Director of Housing, Recreation and Senior Services in Redlands, California. Prior to his appointment to these positions in May 1998, Chief Bueermann worked for the Redlands Police Department for 20 years. In 1994, he directed the development and implementation of Community Policing in Redlands. In 1997, he supervised the consolidation of Housing, Recreation and Senior Services into the police department as a preventive strategy for reducing crime and problem adolescent behavior in Redlands. Chief Bueermann subsequently directed the research and development of Risk Focused Policing as a crime prevention model and community building tool. He is currently involved in projects to integrate the concepts of healthy cities and sustainable communities into community policing.

Donna Butts is Executive Director of Generations United, the only national membership organization focused solely on promoting intergenerational policies, strategies and programs. Generations United fosters communication and collaboration and brings together groups representing children and youth as well as elders and grandparents. The organization is supported by more than 100 national organizations, numerous state and local organizations, and hundreds of individuals. She has more than 25 years of experience working with non-profit organizations, including the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention; the National 4-H Council; Covenant House; and the YWCA. In 1998, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala appointed Ms. Butts to serve on the National Kinship Care Advisory Panel.

Ken Canfield, Ph.D., is a research scholar specializing in fatherhood and the history of the family.  He is founder and President of the National Center for Fathering, a non-profit education and research center dedicated to inspiring and equipping men to be responsible fathers in Kansas City, Kansas. He is a consultant to national, state and community officials and served as one of the founding members of former Vice President Gore’s Father to Father Initiative. He is the author of The Heart of a Father, as well as three other books including the award-winning 7 Secrets of Effective Fathers. Canfield has been interviewed on The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s World News Tonight and many radio programs as an authority on fathering skills and research, as well as the negative consequences of father absence. In 1993, Dr. Canfield was chosen as Father of the Year by the National Congress for Men and Children.

Matthew Cavedon is a seventh grade student in Berlin, Connecticut and a child advocate.  He is co-chair of the Junior Advisory Board of Boundless Playgrounds, an organization that helps communities develop fully integrated, universally accessible playgrounds where children of all abilities can laugh, play and grow together. Matthew relied upon his own experiences in playgrounds to design “The Dreamer” a glider boat swing for Boundless Playgrounds.  The swing, which is large enough to hold two people in wheelchairs and up to six typically able people, is now prominently featured in several playgrounds throughout the country.  Matthew works to promote awareness of the need for fully integrated playgrounds through public speaking engagements, playground tours and interviews with local and national media. In April 2001, he spoke at the National United Cerebral Palsy convention in San Francisco.  This year he also testified on behalf of Connecticut Senate Bill 33, which was passed in July 2001 and will provide one million dollars in matching grant money and Boundless Playgrounds technical assistance to communities throughout Connecticut. Matthew also enjoys, swimming, student council, the Academic Bowl team and attending Winners on Wheels, a Scout-style group for children who use wheelchairs.

Yvonne Chan, Ph.D, is Principal of the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Los Angeles, California which serves 1200 elementary students living in poverty.  She is a driving force behind bold public school reforms which include the implementation of academic restructuring, high learning standards and the provision of human and social services.  Under Dr. Chan’s leadership, student achievement at Vaughn increased, student attendance is almost perfect, class size has been reduced to 20 in all grades, and the school saved $1.2 million dollars during its first year as an autonomous charter school. Dr. Chan is also an adjunct professor at UCLA and California State University.  She serves on the board of Public/Private Venture in Philadelphia, the President’s Advisory Board at California State University, Northridge, and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. She has received numerous awards including the National Educator Award from the California State Department of Education, and the McGraw Hill Distinguished Educator Award.

Jeffrey Cole is Director of the Center for Communication Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. Mr. Cole is Principal Investigator of the UCLA World Internet Project, a long-term longitudinal look at the effects of computer and Internet technology on all aspects of society.  He was previously Principal Investigator of the Network Television Violence Monitoring Project  which issued annual reports to the television networks, congress and the nation.  There was unanimous nationwide praise for the quality of the reports and their contribution to the television violence debate.  In 1994, the Center co-sponsored “The Superhighway Summit” with former Vice President Gore as its keynote speaker. Participants included the leaders of most of the nation’s major media companies. Mr. Cole has testified before Congress on television related issues and has spoken as a keynote and panel member at more than 200 conferences on communication issues.  Mr. Cole has produced films for the openings of the 1995 through 2001 Family Re-Union Conferences.

James Comer, M.D., the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine’s Child Study Center, has been a Yale medical faculty member since 1968.  During these years, he has concentrated his career on promoting a focus on child development as a way of improving schools.  His efforts in support of healthy development of young people are known internationally.  Dr. Comer, perhaps, is best known for the founding of the Comer School Development Program in 1968 which promotes the collaboration of parents, educators, and community to improve social, emotional, and academic outcomes for children that, in turn, helps them achieve greater school success. His concept of teamwork is improving the educational environment in more than 500 schools throughout America.  A prolific writer, Dr. Comer has authored seven books and more than 150 articles; he has served as a consultant and as a Director or Trustee of numerous Boards and has received 40 honorary degrees.

Debra Delgado is a Senior Associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  Ms. Delgado’s primary responsibilities are to develop and manage the Foundation’s investments in the areas of adolescent reproductive health and family-centered youth development.  Prior to her work at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Ms. Delgado was the Associate Director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Program Office for School- Based Health Care.  She also served as the Director for the Title X Family Planning Project in Washington, D.C. The primary theme that cuts across these positions in Ms. Delgado’s commitment to increasing access to health care for adolescents, especially racial, ethnic and language minority youth.   In addition to her current work at the Foundation, Ms. Delgado serves on the Board of Directors for Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families as well as the Board of the Funders’ Affinity Group for Reproductive Health Rights. 

Jose Ricardo Diaz is a senior at the University of Southern California and the Youth Coordinator for the Mar Vista Family Center in Culver City, California.  The Mar Vista Family Center was founded in 1977 as a parent participation preschool and has since grown to offer additional services such as a summer camp, community center, and youth programs for leadership, writing and the study of nature. It is adjacent to the Mar Vista Gardens Federal Housing Project and serves an at-risk community of primarily low-income Latino and African-American families.  Jose is responsible for developing educational programs for the youth leadership group at the center.  For the past year, Jose has been working to establish the By Youth For Youth National Network and he coordinated a national youth conference at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He is currently working on the 2^nd Annual By Youth For Youth National Conference to be held in Los Angeles, California. Jose has also served as president and vice-president of Chicanos for Progressive Education, a student run high school outreach program, and is currently president of the Beta Gamma Nu fraternity at the University of Southern California.

Lucia Diaz is Executive Director of the Mar Vista Family Center and the Mar Vista Institute in Culver City, California. The Mar Vista Family Center was founded in 1977 as a parent participation preschool adjacent to the Mar Vista Gardens Federal Housing Project. It has since grown to offer additional services such as a summer camp, community center, and youth programs. The Mar Vista Family Center serves an at-risk community of primarily low-income Latino and African-American families. In 1981, Ms. Diaz came to the center as a parent participant with her children in the child care program. She then enrolled in the UCLA Extension Program at the Center to earn her certificate as a preschool teacher. In 1985, Ms. Diaz began serving as a Mar Vista Family Center head teacher and the following year she was promoted to the position of Program Director. She became the Executive Director of the Center in 1995. Ms. Diaz has received numerous awards including the “Angels Over LA” award from the Los Angeles Commission on Children, Youth & Their Families, Staples Center “Community Star”, the “Pioneer Woman” award from the Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Westside Coalition “Champion of Peace Award.”

Dr. Paula Duncan, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont School of Medicine, Youth Health Director for the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program and faculty with the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality. As Vermont’s Maternal Child Health Director and then Planning Director, her focus has been public health, results oriented planning and community–state partnerships. During her years on these partnership teams, Vermont has made significant progress on child abuse, adolescent pregnancy, teen smoking, health insurance for children and practice-based quality improvement efforts. Nationally, she’s the past chair of AAP’s School Health Committee, current chair of the Community Pediatrics Action Group and a member of the Council on Committees Management Team. She has worked on national initiatives in early childhood, adolescence and school health with MCHB, CDC, foundations, and school health organizations.

Gaetana Ebbole is Executive Director of the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach, Florida. Ms. Ebbole has worked with Palm Beach County funders, providers and citizens to develop services designed to enhance families' abilities to successfully raise children to become physically, socially and emotionally healthy adults.  She has received numerous awards for her work in the community with agencies and organizations on behalf of Palm Beach County's children and families.  Ms. Ebbole's career has focused on developing services and programs to improve the quality of life of children and families. Before joining the Children's Services Council, she worked in Virginia in the foster care system, in southeast Texas investigating child abuse and neglect referrals, and in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan working to improve the foster home care system.  In Florida, Ms. Ebbole held several positions with Nova University, developing and implementing social service programs, serving as director of national training and assisting in the development and administration of a residential program for youthful sex offenders.

Brenda Krause Eheart, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Generations of Hope ("Hope"), a non-profit corporation dedicated to improving the lives of children through adoption and the establishment of caring intergenerational communities. Dr. Eheart is also the Director of Hope for the Children Research and Policy Program in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs and a Research Specialist with the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. At the University, she seeks to connect social scientific research and policy studies with child development and successful aging in intergenerational neighborhoods. Dr. Eheart and Hope have received many honors including President Clinton’s 2002 Excellence in Adoption Award (1998), the "Use Your Life Award" from Oprah Winfrey (June, 2000) and HUD’s Regional Best Practices Award (2000). In 1996, Ted Koppel featured Dr. Eheart and Hope on Nightline. In the past year, “Children and Youth Services Review” published a special double issue on Generations of Hope; a book called Hope Meadows was published recounting the real-life stories of many of the children and seniors who live at Hope Meadows, the neighborhood Generations of Hope created.

Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D., is Director of the University of Minnesota’s Children, Youth and Family Consortium, which promotes university-community partnerships that link research to practice and policy for the well-being of children and families. Her longitudinal research on parent-child attachment and strategies for breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse has informed the work of health care providers, family support professionals, and policy makers in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Erickson is author of Infants, Toddlers, and Families: A Framework for Support and Intervention (Erickson & Kurz-Riemer; 1999). She also is author of many journal articles and book chapters, as well as the weekly parenting column "Growing Concerns," featured in family publications across the country.

Lisa Farnin is an industrial engineer and cancer support advocate.  At Ford Electronics and Refrigeration Corporation she was a leader of the Work/Family Initiatives Task Force and a founding member of the in-plant Customer Delight Task Force.  In 1996, she was selected as Working Mother of the Year by Working Mother Magazine.  Later that same year, Ms. Farnin was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant with her second child.  Ms. Farnin has since become active as an advocate and board member of the local affiliate of Gilda’s Club, an international non-profit organization that provides free social and emotional support for cancer patients and their families.  She was recently honored as a Local Hero by the Susan G. Komen Foundation for her efforts related to the fight against breast cancer. Prior to the birth of her two children, Ms. Farnin was a eucharistic minister at her church.

Preston Garrison is Executive Director of the National Practitioners Network for Fathers and Families, Inc (NPNFF).  He is working to build NPNFF into the leading support organization serving the needs and interests of fatherhood program practitioners, and to establish a formidable national level advocacy voice to ensure that the perspective of practitioners is heard in the growing public policy agenda on fathers, fatherhood, and fragile families. Mr. Garrison previously served as National Executive Director for the National Mental Health Association. Much of his early training in community organization and community development was through the Office of Economic Opportunity’s national training programs. Mr. Garrison has served on numerous state and national commissions, advisory councils, and task forces, including the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Human Services Planning Task Force, the Florida Service Network for the Severely Emotionally Disturbed, the National Mental Health Leadership Forum, and the President’s Commission on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities.

Gordon Gee, J.D.,Ed.D., is Chancellor of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.  A leader in the field of higher education, he comes to Vanderbilt having presided over such institutions as Brown University, The Ohio State University, the University of Colorado, and West Virginia University. He is the co-author of six books and the author of over twenty-five papers and articles in fields relating to both law and education.  The recipient of a number of awards and honors, he was a Mellon Fellow for the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies and a W.K. Kellogg Fellow. Active in a number of professional and service organizations, Mr. Gee has been a Trustee for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation since 1995.  A member of the Presidential Leadership Group of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention since 1997, he is currently serving a five-year term as president. In addition to membership on the Board of Trustees for the National Hospice Foundation, he sits on the boards of the American Council on Education, the Historic Black College and University Advisory Committee of the Kresge Foundation, The Campus Compact, Dollar General Corporation, Massey Energy Corporation, Boy Scouts of America, and American Red Cross.  He is also a member of the President’s Council for Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges Advisory Council of Presidents, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation Board, and the Business-Higher Education Forum.  Most recently, he chaired the Director Search Advisory Committee to the Board of Public Education in Metropolitan Nashville, was appointed vice chair of education for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and agreed to serve a three-year term on the Leadership Nashville Board of Trustees

Al Gore is the former Vice President of the United States. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976 where he served eight years representing the then 4th District of Tennessee. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and was re-elected in 1990.  He was a member of the Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Space, Science and Technology Subcommittee. He was inaugurated as the 45th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993, re-elected in 1996 and was the Democratic nominee for President in 2000. He served as President of the Senate, a member of the Cabinet and the National Security Council, and was the leader of a wide range of Administration initiatives in environmental policy, technology, science, communications, community empowerment, and cutting the cost of government. Vice President Gore started and led the National Partnership for Reinventing Government reducing the size of the federal government to its smallest level since President John F. Kennedy's Administration. Together with his wife, Tipper Gore, through their annual Family Reunion policy conferences, he has been a strong voice for America's families and the issues that are critical to them. He has worked to expand lifelong learning for the 21st Century, and to increase investments in quality after-school care and has advocated a national plan for universal pre-school.  He has been a champion of efforts to create new jobs, investment and growth in cities across America and to build more livable communities.  He is the author of Common Sense Government and four other books on management and reinvention. His efforts to stop global warming, protect the earth's ozone layer and to clean up toxic-waste dumps were outlined in Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992), now published in more than 25 languages.  Al Gore is the son of Pauline Gore and the late former U.S. Senator Albert Gore, Sr. After graduation from Harvard University he served in the Vietnam War.  Upon returning from Vietnam, he became an investigative reporter with the Tennessean in Nashville, where he also attended Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School and Law School.

Tipper Gore is one of the nation’s foremost advocates for quality mental health care and for solutions to the problem of homelessness. She was the Mental Health Policy Advisor to President Clinton during her husband’s tenure as Vice President. She chaired the first White House Conference on Mental Health, which involved tens of thousands of Americans in over 1,000 cities across the country.  As the Special Advisor to the Interagency Council on the Homeless, Mrs. Gore led representatives from 17 member agencies to improve the effective delivery of federal homeless assistance resources and program coordination at the state and local level. She co-founded and chaired Families for the Homeless in 1986, a non-partisan partnership of families that raises public awareness of homeless issues.  She forged a partnership with the National Mental Health Association (NMHA) to produce a major photographic exhibit entitled, Homeless in America: A Photographic Project, which toured the nation.  In 1996, Mrs. Gore published Picture This, A Visual and donated the proceeds to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, headquartered in Nashville, TN.. She contributed to the formation of the Congressional Wives Task Force, serving as Chair in 1978 and 1979.  The task force sought to draw attention to the violence that children were exposed to through the media.  She subsequently co-founded Parents' Music Resource Center in 1985 to promote parental and consumer awareness of themes in popular entertainment marketed to children and authored her first book, Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society, a guide to parenting and the media.   Mrs. Gore is a graduate of Boston University and holds a Master's degree in Psychology from George Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. She worked as a newspaper photographer for the Nashville Tennessean until her husband was elected to Congress in 1976.

Neal Halfon, M.D., MPH, is Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Professor of Community Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and is a consultant in the Health Program at RAND. Dr. Halfon is currently Director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, and Director of the Child and Family Health Program in the School of Public Health at UCLA. He also directs the federally funded Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s National Center for Infancy and Early Childhood Health Policy Research. Dr. Halfon’s primary research interests include the provision of developmental services to young children, access to care for poor childrem, and delivery of health services to children with special health care needs, with particular interest in children who have been abused and neglected and are being cared for by the foster care system.  His recent work has attempted to define a developmentally focused model of health production across the life course, and to understand the implications of such an approach for the delivery and financing of health care.  Dr. Halfon is a member of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.  He chairs the National Community and Academic Consortium on Family-Centered Community Bulding.

Beverley Johnson is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Family-Centered Care in Bethesda, Maryland. Beginning her career with clinical and administrative responsibilities at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., she later served as a trustee for the hospital. She has been the project director of numerous federal and private foundation grants on family-centered issues and provided training and technical assistance to over 100 hospitals and health systems across North America. Ms. Johnson has co-authored books on family-centered practice in maternity care, newborn intensive care, and pediatrics.  Her most recent publication is Advancing the Practice of Patient- and Family-Centered Geriatric Care. Working with patient and family advisory councils across North America, she provided leadership for the development of the brochure, Your Role in Safe Medication Practice: A Guide for Patients and Families. Ms. Johnson is the recipient of the Lloyd Bentsen Award and the Humanitarian Award from Pediatric Nursing. Ms. Johnson serves as a faculty member with former Vice President Gore for a year-long course, Creating Family-Centered Communities, taught at two universities in Tennessee.

Joseph Jones, Jr. is founder, President and CEO of the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, Inc. (CFWD) in Baltimore, Maryland. He is also founder of Men’s Services for Baltimore’s federally funded Healthy Start Program. Mr. Jones served on former President Clinton’s Work Group on Welfare Reform, the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference, and the United States Agency for International Development’s delegation to Jamaica. He is a founding board member of the National Practitioners Network for Fathers and Families (NPNFF), and a member of the fatherhood advisory committee for the National Conference of State Legislatures. He serves on several boards including the Board of Directors, Campaign For Our Children and on the Board of Trustees of the Open Society Institute-Baltimore.

Linda Langham is a staff development specialist in special education for the Warren County Schools in McMinnville, Tennessee.  In 1992, Ms. Langham helped found WE CARE for the Manchester City Schools of Manchester, Tennessee.  WE CARE is an outgrowth of the first Family Re-Union Conference and provides new clothing, shoes, medical care, immunizations, toiletries, undergarments, school supplies, and haircuts at one site to students at or below the poverty level.  Funding is provided by individuals and civic organizations with in-kind contributions from businesses and the school system.  WE CARE has served over 1800 students with the assistance of over 1500 community volunteers.  In 1998, the National Exchange Clubs of America awarded the Outstanding Youth Service Award to WE CARE.  In 1994, WE CARE and Ms. Langham were recognized by a joint resolution of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Lorna Lathram is CEO of the Omidyar Foundation (TOF), a foundation dedicated to “helping all of us rediscover the importance and benefits of community in our lives.” TOF’s strategies include partnerships with higher education institutions, community organizations, and national nonprofit and philanthropic entities.  Ms. Lathram is guiding TOF to adapt its own approach to highly engaged philanthropy by combining practices from venture capital investment, entrepreneurial start-ups and traditional philanthropy.  Ms. Lathram began her career with a major multinational chemical firm and helped launch innovations and new products for the scientific, technology and agriculture industries.  She has also worked with three young California based companies creating, managing and implementing diverse services for new technology and bio-technology products and services.

Brandon Laws is in the sixth grade at the J.W. Eater Middle School in Rantoul, Illinois.  In July 1995, he moved to Hope Meadows and was adopted by Jeanette Laws through the Generations of Hope Program, a non-profit corporation dedicated to improving the lives of children through adoption and the establishment of caring intergenerational communities.  Over the years Brandon formed a loving relationship with Irene Bohn his senior mentor and tutor from Hope Meadows.  With the support of his mother and Irene, Brandon has become an honors student, a member of the cross-country team and a yellow belt in karate.           

Jeanette Laws is a counselor and outreach worker at Storefront School, an alternative high school for at risk students ages 16 through 21. She has also been a foster mother to 13 children through Generations of Hope, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of children through adoption and the establishment of caring intergenerational communities. Ms. Laws currently has three adopted children including Brandon Laws and one foster child. She is also a member of the Champaign County Mentoring Network, the University of Illinois Martin Luther King Advocacy and Scholarship Committee, and is a church youth worker.

Richard M. Lerner, Ph.D., is the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science at Tufts University.  A developmental psychologist, Lerner received a Ph.D. in 1971 from the City University of New York.  He has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society.  Prior to joining Tufts University, he was on the faculty and held administrative posts at Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Boston College, where he was the Anita L. Brennan Professor of Education and the Director of the Center for Child, Family, and Community Partnerships. Lerner is the author or editor of 45 books and more than 300 scholarly articles and chapters. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and of the new journal, Applied Developmental Science.  He is known for his theory of, and research about, relations between life-span human development and contextual or ecological change.  He has done foundational studies of adolescents’ relations with their peer, family, school, and community contexts, and is a leader in the study of public policies and community-based  programs aimed at the promotion of positive youth development.

Ranny Levy is founder and President of the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media.  The Coalition’s mission is to teach children critical viewing skills and enable them to make their own good media choices and increase the visibility and availability of quality children’s programs. Ms. Levy also developed the KIDS FIRST program to provide a tool for parents to easily select quality children’s media programs. A KIDS FIRST endorsement assures that a program is non-violent, non-biased, doesn’t demean or model unsafe behaviors, and, at the same time, is entertaining and children have indicated they would watch it again, share it with a friend, or buy it with their own money. KIDS FIRST utilizes professionally designed criteria and evaluation tools to rate children’s media and engages a nationwide volunteer jury comprised of more than 3300 child development professionals, teachers, parents, and children of diverse geographic, socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Ms. Levy previously worked in the production, marketing, and distribution of educational films and created an award-winning television series, Kidnetics, for PBS affiliate, WNIT.       

Aaron Lieberman is President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Jumpstart.  Aaron founded Jumpstart in 1993 during his senior year at Yale University.  The idea for Jumpstart came out of experiences Aaron and Jumpstart's co-founders had at Ramapo Anchorage Camp, a summer camp for preschoolers with special needs in upstate New York. After graduating from Yale, Aaron taught for a year as a lead preschool teacher at the South End Head Start in Boston, where he received his Child Development Associate Degree from the Council on Early Childhood Professional Recognition.  As Jumpstart has grown from a campus-based program to a national network of universities in eight cities, Aaron has been increasingly recognized as a national leader for his entrepreneurial approach to education. Aaron has received several national awards including the Do Something Brick Award, Echoing Green Public Service Fellowship, Youth Service America's Social Entrepreneur Award and was selected as one of 30 national education leaders to serve on the U.S. Department of Education's Back to School Steering Committee. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Ramapo Anchorage Camp and The Friends of Titus Sparrow Park, a local neighborhood association in Boston's South End.

Jack McConnell, M.D., is founder and chairman emeritus of the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a free health clinic that enlists retired medical personnel to provide care.  He also founded the Volunteers in Medicine Institute, a non-profit organization that has helped 17 other towns develop free health clinics and an additional 25 clinics are currently underway across the nation. Dr. McConnell previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry where he co-invented and directed the development of the TB Tine Test; directed the development of Tylenol Tablets; directed the development of the first commercial MRI system in the United States; wrote the Senate Bill authoring the Human Genome Program; and was co-founder of the Institute for Genomic Research.   

Anne McGintis is the Parent, School and Community Involvement Coordinator for Hamilton County Schools in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In this position, she works to strengthen relationships between families and schools and helps parents become active participants in their children’s education.  Ms. McGintis is also the director of the city’s first Family Resource Center and helps oversee after-school programs in 10 rural and inter-city cites. She helped plan and presented at the past six Family Re-Union Conferences. Ms. McGintis was selected as JC Penny’s Afterschool Ambassador. She served on the U.S. team of delegates and was a presenter for the fifth meeting of the U.S.-Brazil Summit in Saul Paulo, Brazil on enhancing business, community and family involvement in education. She also developed partnership programs for parent, school and community involvement in Halifax, Canada, Nova Scotia and Honolulu, Hawaii and other U.S. cities.  Ms. McGintis’ work has been featured in Southern Living and In Focus magazines.

Jennifer McGintis is a senior and student body president at Boyd-Buchanan School in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  She has been a ballet dancer for fifteen years and currently dances with the Ballet Tennessee dance company in Chattanooga.  Jennifer has shared her talent with the community as a class demonstrator for “Dance Alive,” a summer program that gives children a chance to experience the world of dance.  She also participated in “Cultural Arts at Home,” a program in which the company dancers of Ballet Tennessee dance at a local nursing home. She performed in the Nutcracker as part of “Lights On,” an afterschool program that invites families to see the ballet free of charge.  She has danced at elementary schools and for various civic and service organizations including an NAACP birthday celebration honoring the late Reverend Martin Luther King. Jennifer is also student body president, president of the Girl’s Service Club, captain of the varsity cheerleading squad, and a youth Sunday school class teacher.

Daniel Moretz is a fifth grade student at Lake Forest Hills Elementary School in Augusta, Georgia and an advocate for organ donation awareness. He was born with complex congenital heart disease and has undergone twelve heart-related surgeries.  At age 8, he received a new heart and an opportunity to have a normal childhood.  Since age 5, Daniel has served on the Children’s Advisory Council at the Medical College of Georgia Children’s Medical Center in Augusta where he helps to make the hospital a better environment for children.  He has also become a strong advocate for organ donation awareness. Daniel has served as a Heart-to-Heart Kid with the American Heart Association and participates in the activities of the Medical College of Georgia’s Children’s Heart Program, an organization founded by his mother Julie in 1994. Daniel also enjoys participating in the hospital’s Wee Can Ski events and is a member of the Bell and Angel Choirs of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection.

Shazeen Mufti is a community and women’s rights activist and a non-profit management professional who has been an active participant in the Community Cousins program in southern California (See Diane Bock).  She is an outspoken advocate for international human rights and has conducted numerous diversity training workshops on South Asian, Muslim and women’s rights issues. Ms. Mufti is the former Executive Director of the South Asian Network (SAN), where the Census Bureau recognized her for her work during the 2000 Census with the diverse populations from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal in Southern California.  Ms. Mufti has also served as a Business Manager for a homeless shelter and a Business Director for the YMCA of Orange County and is the former publisher and editor-in-chief of Perspectives: The Magazine of Islamic Culture. In addition to being a non-profit business and development consultant, Ms. Mufti is currently the Director of Interfaith Programs for Orange County Chapter of NCCJ— The National Conference for Community and Justice, a human relations organization dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry and racism in America by promoting understanding and respect among all races, religions and cultures through advocacy, conflict resolution and education.  

Sally Newman, Ph.D., is Emeritus Faculty/Researcher at the University Center for Social and Urban Research, University of Pittsburgh and founder and former executive director of Generations Together, an intergenerational studies program of the University of Pittsburgh. As director, she was responsible for initiating intergenerational programs that annually involve more than 1,000 older adults and 10,000 children and youth in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and have been replicated in communities across the United States. As an educator, Dr. Newman has developed and co-taught intergenerational courses on the rationale, structure, and outcomes of intergenerational initiatives in society. She has pioneered several intergenerational program models, including intergenerational child care, a program that responds to the growing number of families needing child care and the decreasing number of quality child care settings available. She edited and co-authored the first textbook on intergenerational issues, titled Intergenerational Programs: Imperatives, Strategies, Impacts, Trends.  In 1999, she was named co-chair of the International Consortium for Intergenerational Programs.

Kayt Norris is a junior at Quincy Senior High School in Quincy, Illinois. In third grade, Kayt started a volunteer group called Helping Hands that now has 150 members with over 10,000 service hours. Projects include planting a butterfly garden, a tulip garden, holding a Nickelodeon network “Big Help” and numerous other service projects for the community.  Helping Hands has completed 2 in a series of 12 videos on famous citizens of Quincy who have had an impact on the nation, such as Arthur Pitney and Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets.  The group has also started a mentor program to get elementary students involved in community service.  Kayt is vice-president of her high school, a cheerleader and a member of the debate team, theater guild and choir. She is also vice-president of TEAM, an anti-discrimination, pro-acceptance group that recently sponsored a forum on Islam and Middle Eastern cultures. In 2000, Kayt spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California.

Anne. Peretz is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Family Center, Inc., a family systems clinic, family support program and training institute in Somerville, MA. She has been a consultant to the Massachusetts Department of Social Services Community Connections program and is a developer of the Boston Foundation's Community Building curriculum.  She lectures on strategies for change in families and communities at Cambridge College and writes curricula for programs in domestic violence, parent education and support, and community development.  She has been a consultant to Family Re-Union conferences and is a board member of a number of community organizations, including STRIVE, an employment program; the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development; and Peace Games.

Moises Perez is founder and Executive Director of Alianza Dominicana, Inc. (ADI), a multiservice, community-based organization for children, youth and families. With a staff of 150, ADI has evolved into one of the largest and most comprehensive community development organizations in north Manhattan, New York. ADI offers a wide range of programs and services including: La Familia Unida Daycare and After School Program; the Center for Employment and Training; the Center for Rehabilitation, Education, and Orientation; and the Family Assistance Program.

Kyle Pruett, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Child Psychiatry and Director of Medical Studies at the Yale University School of Medicine. He is principal investigator of the country’s only long-term study of the developmental impact on children of involved fathering, and co-principal investigator with his wife Marsha of the Collaborative Divorce Project, focusing on the impact of divorce on young children.  Dr. Pruett is Past President of Zero to Three, Washington, D.C.’s leading think-tank for babies and their families. His publications include the award winning Fatherneed: Why Father Care is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child. Millions of parents of new born babies have seen Begin With Love, the video-tape Dr. Pruitt co-hosted with Oprah Winfrey. He is also a professional musician who has helped found the field of performing arts medicine.

William Purcell became the fifth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, on September 21, 1999. The priorities articulated by Purcell during his mayoral campaign and affirmed by the electorate stressed the importance of good schools in every neighborhood, safe neighborhoods in every part of the city, and a quality of life shared by all Nashvillians.  In his first public acts as mayor, Purcell renewed the city's ethics policy and established two new offices within the office of mayor - an Office of Neighborhoods and an Office of Economic and Community Development to help ensure that the economic blessings of the city are equally shared throughout it.  Mayor Purcell first entered public service in 1986 when he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. A former House Majority Leader and former Chair of the Select Committee on Children and Youth, Purcell's efforts in the legislature put him at the forefront of a host of reforms in education, criminal sentencing, health care, and workers compensation. During his tenure in the leadership, Tennessee was twice ranked the best managed state in the country. The state also earned distinction at that time as the lowest taxed state in America. After serving five terms, Purcell left the legislature to devote more attention to issues affecting families and children. Most recently, Purcell served as director of the Child and Family Policy Center at the Vanderbilt Institute of Public Policy Studies (VIPPS), a nationally recognized center building a bridge between academic research, politics and best practice to benefit children and their families. An attorney by profession, Purcell received his law degree from Vanderbilt.

Louis Quijas is Chief of Police for the City of High Point, North Carolina, a position he has held since 1997.  He is also co-director of the Division for the Prevention of Youth Violence and Aggression at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He previously served 25 years with the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department. In 1996 he was appointed by the Mayor of Kansas City as one of four vice-chairs of the citywide Task Force on Assessing Race Relations. Chief Quijas has served on the board of directors of many national organizations including, as president of the National Latino Peace Officers Association, and the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association.  He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and is also a member of the organization’s Civil Rights Committee.  

Samina Quraeshi, the Henry R. Luce Professor in Family and Community at the University of Miami, is an award-winning artist, designer and author who has devoted her life to advocacy for the arts, education and the built environment.  She brings a global perspective to her work, enhanced by experiences in a wide variety of settings that include New York, London, Kansas City, Denver, Boston, and Pakistan, the country of her upbringing.  Since her appointment in 1998 as the Luce Professor, Ms. Quraeshi’s efforts have focused on the complex, interconnected problems that challenge our urban communities.  Working in Miami’s inner cities, Ms. Quraeshi is guiding an interdisciplinary team of faculty, students and community leaders to integrate research, teaching and service to provide networks that better support family life in impoverished urban environments. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Quraeshi served as Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts. During a time of political turmoil, she oversaw grants awarded in the design disciplines and directed leadership initiatives such as The Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a program that educates elected officials to the importance of good city design. In 1995, the Endowment convened an urban design workshop in Oklahoma City to facilitate rebuilding efforts after the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. Until 1994, she served for two decades as a principal in her own firm, Shepard Quraeshi Associates, in Boston, supervising design for a diverse national and international clientele. 

Robert Ross, M.D., is President and Chief Executive Officer for The California Endowment, a $3.5 billion, private foundation (the largest private health foundation in California) established in 1996 to address the health needs of Californians. Prior to his appointment in September 2000, Dr. Ross served as director of the Health and Human Services agency for the County of San Diego. Dr. Ross, a Diplomate of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has an extensive background as a clinician and public health administrator. His service includes: Commissioner, Philadelphia Department of Public Health and medical director for LINK School-Based Clinic Program, Camden, N.J. Dr. Ross is actively involved in community and professional activities at both the local and national level and has received numerous awards and honors including the "Youth Advocacy Humanitarian of the Year" award, 1999 and the "Outstanding Community Service Award" from the Volunteers of America in 1999.

Ann Segal has been the Senior Program Manager and Director of the Washington Office for Building National Capacity for Children for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation since August 2000.  She focuses on increasing national, state, and local commitment to issues affecting poor children, youth, and families and maintains a particular interest in the effects and the reauthorization of the welfare legislation.  Prior to joining the Foundation, Ann was the Deputy Assistant for Policy Initiatives in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Her principal areas of responsibility were issues related to welfare reform, a wide variety of issues related to children, youth, and families, and the management of ASPE. Before becoming a Clinton/Gore Administration political appointee, Ann served at HHS for nearly 20 years in a number of career policy and management positions:  as Deputy to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy (dealing with welfare reform and a variety of human services issues), as the Director of the Division for Children and Youth Policy, as the Executive Assistant for the Assistant Secretary, and as a child care specialist.  Before entering federal service, she founded and directed several child care centers, worked with several other programs for low-income children and families, taught elementary school, and was a child activity specialist at Boston Children's Hospital.  Ann has a degree in child study from Vassar College and a master's degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Andy Shookoff, J.D., is Associate Director of the Child and Family Policy Center at the Institute for Public Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University and Associate Professor of the practice of law at Vanderbilt Law School. Through the Child and Family Policy Clinic, a collaborative project of the Law School and the Center, Judge Shookhoff works with third year law students to identify problems within the foster care system and to develop and implement strategies to address those problems. Judge Shookhoff also heads the Center’s efforts to involve religious organizations in community outreach. Prior to joining the Center, Judge Shookhoff served an eight-year term as Nashville’s Juvenile Court judge. In 1995, President Clinton selected Judge Shookhoff as one of ten presidential appointees to the National Commission on Crime Control and Prevention. He was named "Judge of the Year" in 1996 by the National Court Appointed Advocate Association and his court was designated a "Model Court" by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges for its innovation in the handling of neglect and abuse cases.

Ralph Smith is the Vice President of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private philanthropy dedicated to help building better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. The primary mission of the foundation, which Smith joined in 1994, is to foster public policies, human-service reforms and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. Smith was a member of the law faculty of the University of Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1997 and is founding director of the National Center on Fathers and Families and the Philadelphia Children’s Network. He has spent the last decade working with foundations, civic organizations, public agencies and school boards across the country on issues relating to education reform, child and family policy and public sector system change.

Terrell Smith is Administrative Director of Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, a position she has held for the past 9 years. In May 2000, the Hospital began construction on a new 216 bed children’s hospital that will open in October 2003. Ms. Smith served as a Peace Core volunteer in Brazil and has held leadership positions at Children’s Hospital of Alabama, and Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans. She began her career as a pediatric intensive care unit nurse at the Children’s Hospital of Alabama.

David Walsh, Ph.D. is founder and President of the National Institute on Media and the Family, a non-profit organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The National Institute on Media and the Family was inspired by Family Re-Union 4 and is dedicated to maximizing the benefits and minimizing the harm media have on children through research, education, and advocacy. The Institute does not advocate censorship of any kind. Instead, it seeks to provide the research based information that allows parents, other caregivers and policy makers to make informed decisions about the role of media in children’s lives. Dr. Walsh has written six books including the award winning Selling Out America’s Children and the recently released Dr. Dave’s Cyberhood.

Faith Wohl is President of the Child Care Action Campaign.  She was previously on the staff of the National Partnership to Reinvent Government (NPR) where she was responsible for accelerating the use of family friendly policies in the federal workplace.  As part of the Clinton Administration’s welfare-to-work initiative, Ms. Wohl also worked to obtain more affordable child care for low income workers. Ms. Wohl was on loan to NPR from her position as Director of the Office of Workplace Initiatives at the U.S. General Services Administration.  In that position, she oversaw policy and development of worksite child care centers (108 centers in 71 cities and 31 states) and telecommuting centers for federal employees. Before becoming a government employee, Ms. Wohl was director of human resources for the DuPont Company. She pioneered the company’s initiative to help employees balance their family lives and careers, and oversaw many of the company’s efforts to improve its workplaces for women and minorities.  As one of the company’s first women in senior management, she was also its spokesperson on women and family issues to the community and the national media, and an advocate and resource to women at all levels in the corporation.    

Lily Yeh is an internationally celebrated artist and the Executive Director of the Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She was born in China and studied classical Chinese landscape painting in Taiwan. Over the past 15 years, Ms. Yeh has established the Village of Arts an Humanities on the site of a previously abandoned lot in Philadelphia. Most of the public art in the village has been created by other artists and community residents under the guidance of Ms. Yeh’s vision and sensibility. She has transformed urban blight into beauty, hope and urban renewal. From 1993, to the present, Ms. Yeh has also been working with residents of Korogocho, a settlement near a huge garbage dump on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. During her residency in Korogocho, Ms. Yeh converted a barren and dusty church and schoolyard into a colorful garden of painted and sculpted angels and flowers. In 1999, Ms. Yeh traveled to Dzegvi in the Georgian Republic to conduct workshops for 110 street children. She also traveled to Matera, Italy to conduct workshops for children who used to live in the ancient caves in Sassi.  Ms. Yeh has received many awards, including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a Lila Wallace-Arts International Fellowship.

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