Event Registration - The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children
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The Importance of Child Advocacy Studies (CAST), in partnership with the Zero Abuse Project (ZAP) (Intermediate)
8/13/2020 - 8/13/2020
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Event Description
Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) is an academic curriculum designed to better prepare child-serving professionals as their work pertains to child maltreatment prevention and intervention. In this session we will discuss the historic lack of child maltreatment content in higher education, its consequences on the workforce, and how CAST is changing the academic landscape to generate a new workforce ready to end child abuse. Over forty years of research shows both undergraduate and graduate programs provide insufficient maltreatment content, Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) is a curriculum created to combat the inadequacies observed across all child-serving professions. Eighty-four institutions utilize CAST programming. Eight studies demonstrate CAST's ability to prepare the front lines of child protection for the realities of responding to child maltreatment. In this Zoom Chat, meet the professionals behind CAST and learn how to bring the resource to your community! 

Tyler Counsil:
Tyler has worked over six years in both the public and private laboratory sector, having been employed as a Microbiologist, DNA Specialist, Quality Assurance/Quality Control Manager, and Forensic Scientist throughout the span of his laboratory career. His most recent venture involved working as a Forensic Scientist with the Indiana State Police, Laboratory Division. Tyler’s forensic training also includes knowledge in the following fields: drug analysis; questioned document analysis; firearms; fingerprinting; photography; trace evidence analysis; crime scene investigation; child forensic interviewing.

In addition to his laboratory service, Tyler has extensive experience working in post-secondary education. With over seven years of professional work experience at institutions of higher education, he has served as an Associate Professor for traditional and online learning platforms, with a combined five years of program development and directorial leadership experience for Child Advocacy Studies (CAST), Criminal Justice and Forensic Science programs. Tyler also possesses an in-depth understanding of program assessment and accreditation for both traditional and non-traditional curricula. Tyler’s academic duties continue outside the classroom through work as both a manuscript reviewer and editorial board member for a variety of peer-reviewed publication outlets.

As both a lab analyst and educator, Tyler has come to appreciate the need for engagement-based learning that prepares professionals from all walks of life to identify and respond to the varying forms of child maltreatment that exists. Tyler is dedicated to using his experience as a scientist and educator to support child advocacy initiatives and improve both academia and research within this realm. As the Director of CAST for the Zero Abuse Project, he pledges to assist faculty with training, development, and implementation as it pertains to CAST programming at their institutions.

Dr. Counsil has a B.A. in Biology from Hanover College (Hanover, IN), a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Oakland City University (Oakland City, IN), and both a M.S. and Ed.D. in Biology from Ball State University (Muncie, IN).

Professional Memberships:

  • American Academy of Forensic Sciences
  • Midwestern Association of Forensic Scientists
  • National Alliance on Mental Illness
  • National Science Teachers Association
  • Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences
     
Victor Vieth:
Victor Vieth is currently Director of Education and Research at the Zero Abuse Project. He gained national recognition for his work addressing child abuse as a prosecutor in rural Minnesota. He is the 2018 President of the Academy on Violence and Abuse. He has been instrumental in implementing 22 state and international forensic interview training programs as well as undergraduate and graduate programs on child maltreatment. He has written several books including On This Rock: A Call to Center the Christian Response to Child Abuse on the Life and Works of Jesus (Wiff & Stock 2018).


Stacie LeBlanc:
Stacie LeBlanc, J.D., M.Ed., is the President of APSAC and the former Executive Director of the New Orleans Children's Advocacy Center (NOCAC) and Audrey Hepburn CARE Center, non-profit programs of Children's Hospital New Orleans that provide forensic exams for over 1,500 children annually.

Twenty-seven years ago, Stacie began her career as a child abuse prosecutor, started CACs in urban and rural parishes, became the chief of the Felony Child Abuse Division and began the Family Violence Program. As assistant district attorney at the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office, Stacie led a successful child abuse felony prosecution program for ten years that reached a 94% conviction rate. She helped start a child abuse pediatric fellowship and along with her child abuse pediatricians published a book, Check Out the Check-Up.

Stacie has created three sought after programs which provide interactive adult learning for the translation and dissemination of research into practice including Beyond Mandatory Reporting; Teens, Sex, and the Law; and Painless Parenting and has provided over 400 trainings. She has trained over 27,412 individuals in the last five years. She has also created a social media campaign, Dear Parents, which aims to translate the most prevalent risk factor for child physical abuse, corporal punishment, utilizing images of community leaders and national experts.

Stacie was recognized for 11 successful legislative amendments and named the Champion for Children for Policy and Legislation. She has received the FBI Directors and Community Leadership Award, Outstanding Prosecutor Award and Health Care Hero Award by New Orleans City Business.

Stacie is the President of the Louisiana Alliance of Children’s Advocacy Centers and the President of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC). Victims and Citizens Against Crime awarded Stacie the Lifetime Achievement Award. Stacie is thrilled to implement her CAST certification at Tulane University and the pilot class was highly rated by over 100 undergraduates.


Betsy Goulet:
Betsy Goulet DPA, joined the Public Administration Faculty full time in August 2012.  In 1992 she began teaching as an adjunct instructor for UIS in the Human Services program and then began teaching in the MPA program in 2010.

In 1986 Dr. Goulet began working in the field of child sexual abuse, beginning with her first position as the victim advocate at a rape crisis center. She was the founding director of the Sangamon County Child Advocacy Center from 1989-1995 and organized the Illinois Chapter of Children’s Advocacy Centers, serving as that organization’s first president. From 1995 until June of 2002 Dr. Goulet was the Children’s Policy Advisor to the Illinois Attorney General.

Dr. Goulet trains nationally on child protection and child advocacy issues. After completing the Child Advocacy Studies curriculum faculty training in 2010, she developed the first completely online CAST certificate program and has now implemented CAST at UIS.

Dr. Goulet’s 2020 co-authored study with Dr. Theodore Cross, Yu-Ling Chiu, and Susan Evans entitled “Moving from Procedure to Practice: A Statewide Child Protection Simulation Training Model” appears in the Journal of Public Child Welfare. Her research with Dr. Ted Cross was published in a chapter entitled “What Will Happen to This Child If I Report? Outcomes of Reporting Child Maltreatment” in Mandatory Reporting Laws and the Identification of Severe Child Abuse and Neglect (2015), an international book on Mandated Reporting edited by Ben Matthews and Donald Bross.  She was also instrumental in the development and advocacy for the passage of legislation to require mandated reporter training for teachers.  Dr. Goulet is currently working on a book with a colleague which addresses mandated reporting practices in elementary schools.  Through a contract with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Dr. Goulet and her colleagues have developed a model for frontline training for child protection that emphasizes experiential learning. Dr. Goulet has been principal investigator for several grants related to child protection training.

A native of Springfield, Betsy has four grown children & seven grandchildren.


References:
  • Vieth, V., Goulet, B., Knox, M., Parker, J., Johnson, L., Steckler Tye, K. & Cross, T.P. 2019. Child advocacy studies (CAST): a national movement to improve the undergraduate and graduate training of child protection professionals. Mitchell Hamline Law Review. 
  • Parker, J., McMillan, L., Olson, S. et al. Responding to Basic and Complex Cases of Child Abuse: a Comparison Study of Recent and Current Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) Students with DSS Workers in the Field. Journ Child Adol Trauma (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-019-00297-7
  • Johnson, L. 2015. An innovative approach to providing collaborative education to undergraduate students in the area of child maltreatment. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 29(3), 271-272.
  • Brand, B.L., Kumar, S.A. & McEwen, L.E. 2019. Coverage of child maltreatment and adult trauma in graduate
    psychopathology textbooks. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.
    6. Donaruma-Kwoh, M.M.
    2009. An old song resung: the future of child abuse education. Pediatrics. Retrieved online November 14, 2019.
    Retrieved from: https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/old-song-resungthe-future-child-abuseeducation.
  • Sinanan, A.N. 2011. Bridging the gap of teacher education about child abuse. Educational Foundations, Summer-Fall,
    59-73. 8. Bronagh, E.M. & Dillenburger, K. 2009.
  • Child abuse and neglect: training needs of student teachers.  International Journal of Educational Research, 48(5), 320-330.