My role as a nurturer began long before motherhood, and have spent countless hours immersed in community service work. I’ve worked in hospitals and nursing homes to hazardous waste sites.
In 1992, I partnered with DePaul University and the then Children’s Memorial Hospital of Chicago to open a ‘family center’ on the second floor as a respite place for visiting parents and siblings to the childhood cancer ward.
I have worked with Miseracordia, Make a Wish Foundation, Heatland Blood Centers and St. Vincent DePaul, among many others.
I was the State Intern for the Sierra Club in Columbus Ohio, and my first professional career was as an environmental scientist.
I worked as a government agency liaison for collaborative environmental site remediation efforts, including coordination with FEMA, Department of Natural Resources, and the Environmental Protection Agency. I performed Phase 1 Environmental Risk Assessments (ESA), commissioned by corporations to ascertain contaminant levels of purchased or prepurchased property parcels, involving extensive multi agency records research, empirical data collection and interpretation, property use and ownership history to determine potential use of hazardous materials onsite and need for a Phase 2 ESA. I participated in numerous Phase 2 ESAs, which included soil sample collection and sample bore tests. Through this work I learned to deliver complicated scientific material to non-science based clientele in a concise, easy to understand format.
Concurrent to my work as an environmental technician, I also was certified in Hazardous Materials Emergency Response, and participated in response drills with FEMA.
My work supporting victims of violence began when I connected with Tina Swithin of One Mom’s Battle. A pioneer in the field of post separation abuse and family court advocacy, Tina created safe spaces for other women navigating the complex intersection of domestic violence, child abuse and family court.
It was in Tina’s Lemonade Club that I first met Kathy Sherlock, another protective mama and friend. Six months after we met, Kathy’s 7 year old daughter Kayden was murdered by her abusive father, despite Kathy’s repeated warnings about the violent and volatile nature of her former spouse.
Kathy raised alarms to law enforcement, child protective services and the family courts, but none of them had the proper training to identify the very real risks Kathy presented, and no one acted in time for Kayden.
Kayden’s story is not unique, and it is not unique to the United States. Over 800 children have been killed by a violent parent who was awarded custody. As quoted by my colleague Danielle Pollack, Policy manager at the National Family Violence Law Center, “… throughout the world, dangerous parents are using family court systems to harm children and former partners, continuing their post-separation abuse with little oversight and accountability.”
On August 1, 2021, one hundred women and I filed a formal complaint with the United Nations against the United States Government and states therein regarding human rights violations of women and children and an expressed complaint for the failure to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Our complaint alleges ongoing human rights violations that include systemic gender bias, discrimination on the basis of sex, and facilitation of physical, sexual, financial, legal and emotional abuse of women and children. Our Complaint stresses the need for coercive control to be recognized nationwide as domestic violence, and we asked for mandated education for law enforcement, child safety and judicial and court professionals.
Our complaint was immediately recognized in the family advocacy community, and in partnership with Danielle Pollack and Joan Meier, founder and director of the National Family Violence Law Center at George Washington University, our groups One Mom’s Battle and Custody Peace merged to become the National Safe Parent Organization.
By December 2021, our group of 100 women grew to over 100,000 women strong. Angelina Jolie joined our efforts, and in collaboration with Senators Durbin, Ernst, Feinstein and Murkowski, I am honored to have worked together to pass The Keeping Children Safe From Family Violence Act or "Kayden’s Law”, which was signed into law by President Biden on March 16, 2022 as part of the protracted reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
The following day I participated in a panel discussion about parental alienation at the United Nations.
Family court continues to allow for the weaponization of child protective actions, and protection is renamed alienation.
Kayden’s Law asks states to make three changes to their current custody laws, which includes restricting testimony in cases alleging child or sexual abuse to expert testimony only, limiting the use of reunification camps and therapies, and providing ongoing evidence-based training to judges, court personnel and other professional first points of contact for children involved in high conflict custody situations, including law enforcement and child protective services. The training and education on family violence subject matter includes child sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, coercive control, implicit and explicit bias, trauma, long and short-term impacts of domestic violence and child abuse on children; and victim and perpetrator behaviors.
I have had the honor of participating in panel discussions at the UN Women’s Counsel on topics such as child protection in family court and parental alienation, and I remain active at the United Nations. Systemic gender based violence and human rights violations against women and children in family courts is a world wide crisis.
In addition to family court advocacy, I have extensive experience advocating for the rights of sexually abused children. Illinois was the first state to mandate sexual abuse prevention education with the passage of Erin’s Law. “Erin’s Law”, named after childhood sexual assault survivor, author, speaker and activist Erin Merryn, requires that all public schools in each state implement a prevention-oriented child sexual abuse program which teaches students how to recognize child sexual abuse and how to report it, trainings and assistance for school personal, parents and guardians, and how to provide needed assistance, referrals or resource information to support sexually abused children and their families.
Abuse impacts every domain of a child’s development, including mental health and academics. As such, special education law, policy and supports are a critical component of my advocacy work, as is the promotion of the need to incorporate trauma informed policy and practice across all touchpoints, including healthcare, education and public safety.
My findings and experiences are not in vain nor isolation, and are not limited to women and children.
I have spent hundreds of hours as a civil court observer. I have witnessed our systems of justice penalize persons of color, based solely upon their beautiful color.
During my tenure in court, I watched as several men of color were sent to jail for an inability to pay a lawyer $10,000.
Weeks later, I watched these same men as they returned to court shackled, with no means to earn the $10,000 from a cell.
I have witnessed blatant disregard for our Latino community, in every system, but especially through our systems of law enforcement and child protection. I am especially concerned about the state and nationwide trends of under investigated sexual assault reports especially in our Latino communities. Our community faces an epidemic of missing Latinas, and a genocide of unhomed citizens.
As a result, I have a special interest in the global application of domestic violence reduction strategies applied on a macro level in an effort to promote systemic changes utilizing evidence based trauma informed approaches in untraditional, multidisciplinary applications, as a tool for community healing and social justice.
I am well versed with the recent findings report by the Justice Department, and understand intimately the challenges faced both by the community, and by law enforcement, as we work towards collective change.
It is my belief that first responders are naturally positioned to lead communities as ambassadors of civic accountability, and have a unique ability to validate to the public first hand a city’s commitment to ALL communities served. First responders are the interactive faces of city government, and through demonstrative validation of past or ongoing social injustices can communicate to a community a commitment to reform, leading and healing the community forward through action, word and deed.
I am passionate about equality in all of its forms. My current project and inquiry is titled “RIP:Racism in Policing”, an effort to bring awareness and education directly to law enforcement in an untraditional format.
The Department of Justice is responsible to uphold the constitutional rights of every citizen, regardless of one’s race, religion, gender, mental acuity or housing status.
I am excited to be a part of the community during this time, as I believe that together, Phoenix is ready to rise.
In addition to my advocacy work, I am a musician and an artist, and have over 150 copyrighted works registered at the United States Library of Congress.
I have over 20 years experience in leading creative teams in product development and brand strategy, and won the prestigious Global Innovations Award for a new all-in-one steamer-vacuum at the National Housewares Show in 2017. As a celebrity photographer, I won the Nickelodeon Parent’s Choice Award (2014), Red Tricycle Best Chicago Photographer Award (2010) and the Best Portrait Studio in Chicago for many years in a row (2014-2019). My work has been featured in many publications, including People magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, Huffington Post, Men’s Fitness and more. I am also a published children’s book author.
I designed private label housewares, lawn and garden products for almost all major retailers including Target, Lowe’s, Walmart and many others, and I have extensive knowledge in product procurement, global supply chain processes and all other areas of running a successful manufacturing and importing business.
I am a student of life, and a lifelong learner. I have scholastic concentrations in environmental science, computer science and psychology. I attended DePaul University, Ohio State University and Northwestern University, and was an adjunct professor of computer science at College of Lake County.
I had the honor of selection as a Presidential Scholar and a Congressional Scholar, and won the voices of Voices of Democracy award. I believe social change begins with attentive and authentic listening to all the voices in our democracy, which I have found is best achieved through direct community mobilization, organization and participation in events such as protests and marches in order to better understand the needs and pulse of the community.
A comprehensive list of my professional associations and community outreach affiliations is beyond the scope of this summary (LINK HERE), but does include the following groups: Center for Judicial Excellence, Custody Peace, National Safe Parents Organization, PLEA charities, Black Lives Matter, RAINN, Volunteer Phoenix, St. Vincent DePaul, the ERA Coalition, and more.