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CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
 Victor Rivers
Actor, athlete, activist and author, Victor Rivers’s dramatic personal story reflects an amazing portrait of a young man overcoming the odds. Born in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, he came with his family to this country at the age of two, enduring horrific child abuse and witnessing domestic violence on the level of torture at the hands of his father. At age fifteen, Victor took the then unprecedented legal action against his father, going on to live with a series of foster families. Thanks to the intervention of his community, he turned his life around dramatically—going from hard-core gang-member to senior class President and lettering in four sports. He attended Florida State University on a full four-year football scholarship, where he was a team captain and scholar athlete, and was mentored by Coach Bobby Bowden, before his 1978-79 seasons as a free agent draft pick with the Miami Dolphins. Michael Nerney
Michael Nerney is a consultant in substance abuse prevention and education, with over 18 years’ experience in the field. The former Director of the Training Institute of Narcotic and Drug Research, Inc.. Mr. Nerney’s areas of expertise include Psychopharmacology, Adolescent Chemical Dependency, Relapse Prevention, Gender Differences in Communication, and Managing Violent Incidents. Mr. Nerney’s understanding of adolescent issues also is drawn from 12 years’ experience as a junior high school and high school-level teacher and coach, including three years with the Adirondack Mountain School, a residential school for boys. He is a certified instructor in violence prevention and management with the Crisis Prevention Institute and lectures frequently to national and international audiences, as well as serving as a consultant to a number of federal and state agencies.
 Rita Cameron Wedding
Rita Cameron Wedding, Ph.D. is the Chair of the department of Women’s Studies and a professor of Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies at Sacramento State University. Dr. Cameron Wedding’s scholarship focuses on race and gender disproportionality in institutions like child welfare, education and the juvenile justice system. Dr. Cameron Wedding has taught courses and developed curricula for child welfare and family court personnel for over six years. She wrote the curriculum Addressing Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare, One Social Worker, One Solution at a Time excerpts of which were integrated into the California State Framework for social work education.
 Randy Lockwood
Dr. Randall Lockwood is currently Senior Vice president for Anti-cruelty Initiatives for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Lockwood has worked with humane societies and law-enforcement agencies serving as an expert on the interactions between people and animals. He has testified in dozens of trials involving cruelty to animals or the treatment of animals in the context of other crimes, including dog fighting, child abuse, domestic violence and homicide. His efforts to increase public and professional awareness of the connection between animal abuse and other forms of violence were profiled in a 1999 British Broadcast Corporation/Arts & Entertainment Network documentary entitled ”The Cruelty Connection”.
The Missouri Division of Youth Services Treatment Program Tours
The Missouri Division of Youth Services welcomes conference participants to a student-guided tour of their treatment programs for delinquents. The treatment programs of the Missouri Division of Youth Services are widely considered to be among the best in the country and have received international attention. Tours of the Hogan Street Regional Youth Center, located 15 minutes from the hotel will be conducted throughout the conference. In addition, on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 you can participate in tours of a day treatment facility and residential facility both designed from the ground up by the Missouri Division of Youth Services. The Wednesday tour is located 45 minutes from the hotel, so please plan accordingly!
Transportation from the hotel to the Hogan Street Regional Youth Center and the day treatment and residential facilities will be provided by the Missouri Division of Youth Services. For more information, contact Lew Mueller at (314) 340-6904.
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Past Programs 
