8/25/04 — Mary V. Mentaberry has been selected as the new Executive Director of the Reno, Nevada-based National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, effective October 1, 2004.

A graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, Ms. Mentaberry is a 30-plus year veteran of the NCJFCJ, and was the second person employed when the NCJFCJ relocated to the University of Nevada, Reno campus in 1969. She worked in a number of positions over the past three decades, and since 1996 has been the Director of the organization’s Permanency Planning for Children Department. Among the many projects and initiatives of which she has had responsibility is the NCJFCJ’s Victims Act Model Court Project which oversees and assists 25 Model Courts and others nationwide that are implementing strategies designed to improve the courts’ handling of child abuse and neglect cases. Ms. Mentaberry was instrumental in the development, publication and dissemination of the NCJFCJ’s 1995 publication, RESOURCE GUIDELINES: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases, relied upon in juvenile and family courts throughout the country. During the past year, she has also served as the organization’s principal legislative liaison in Washington, D.C.