2024 Founder's Award

Watch 2024's Founder's Award Ceremony and Panel

Meet the Panelists

Joan Tabachnick

Joan Tabachnick, our honoree for this year's Founder's Award, brings over 30 years of experience developing educational materials and innovative sexual violence prevention programs for national, state, and local organizations. Her primary focus is on preventing the perpetration of sexually harmful behaviors, particularly in adolescents and young adults. Joan is a co-lead of the STARRSA training initiative at Klancy Street with Jay Wilgus, a fellow of ATSA (Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse), of PIRC (Prevention Innovations Research Center) and she just completed a fellowship with the US Department of Justice, SMART Office, with a focus on preventing the perpetration of campus sexual misconduct. She continues her consulting practice and her commitment to opening the door for healing and prevention for those at risk to cause harm.

Joan also serves on a number of national and statewide task forces including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Stop It Now!. Her written work includes National Sexual Violence Resource Center publications titled “Engaging Bystanders in Sexual Violence Prevention,” and “Family Reunification after Child Sexual Abuse,” as well as a publication through ATSA called “A Reasoned Approach: The Reshaping of Sex Offender Policy to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse” not to mention numerous articles and book chapters. Visit www.joantabachnick.com for more information.

Jenny Coleman, LMHC, Director of Stop It Now!

Jenny Coleman, LMHC has been working in child welfare for 30 years; as a clinician, educator and advocate. 

In 2011, she joined Stop It Now! as their Helpline Director, and now serves as their Director, overseeing a national child sexual abuse prevention program. She presents globally; training individuals and youth serving organizations in primary prevention. She serves on the prevention committee for the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), serving also on additional prevention task forces and initiatives.

Interviewed by national news outlets, Jenny has written on topics involving children's sexual safety such as Title IX in the U.S., Abuse in Faith-Based Institutions and others. Her work includes published research, "I Didn't Know Where To Go": An Examination of Stop It Now!'s Sexual Abuse Prevention Helpline, and she is a contributing author on several “soon-to-be-published” chapters and papers reviewing the role of Stop It Now! in the sexual abuse prevention field. She has served on the board for the now defunct National American Association of Child Helplines as vice-chair, and currently serves on the board for 10to10, a intimate partner violence prevention program, as well as on the advisory board for the World Childhood Foundation. Jenny frequently contributes as a task group member in national discussions, with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Dept. of Justice.

Karen Baker, LMSW

Karen Baker is recently retired from Respect Together, which includes The Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. After founding the NSVRC in 2000, she later served as CEO of Respect Together from 2018-2023. She was also a founding member of RALIANCE, a Washington DC-based collaboration working to prevent sexual violence. Ms. Baker obtained a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Kansas, following which, she worked with children and families in the foster care system. During her tenure at Respect Together, Ms. Baker served as an advisor to the CDC, NFL, and other entities; and served on the Board of the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA). She advocates for comprehensive and collaborative prevention strategies.

Ryan Shields, Ph.D.

Ryan T. Shields, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Prior to joining UMass Lowell, he was an assistant scientist and the Associate Director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research is primarily centered on the intersection of criminal justice and public health. He studies child sexual abuse, sexual abuse prevention, and sex crime policy. His research typically focuses on youths and young adults with problematic sexual behaviors. He is one of the co-developers of the Help Wanted Prevention Intervention.

Tyffani Monford Dent, Psy.D.

Dr. Tyffani Monford Dent is a licensed psychologist and consultant as well as a psychologist at a safety net hospital and an assistant professor within the medical school of a major university. Dr. Dent’s primary areas of interests are sexual violence prevention and intervention on the continuum, the role of intersectionality in the lives of Black and Brown girls/women, racial trauma & radical healing, social justice work within the mental health profession, child and adolescent mental health, and culturally informed therapy practices with a focus on decolonizing psychology.

She is a former recipient of the Visionary Voice Award by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center as well as being deemed a Radical Truthteller by the Truth Telling Project in Ferguson, Missouri.

Dr. Dent is the Immediate Past President of the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA), the largest international, multi-disciplinary organization dedicated to making society safer by preventing sexual abuse. ATSA promotes sound research, effective evidence-based practice, informed public policy, and collaborative community strategies that lead to the effective assessment, treatment, and management of individuals who have sexually abused or are at risk to abuse.

Dr. Dent has been featured on local and national news programs and within national magazines including The Atlantic addressing the importance of emotional wellness in Black communities, child/adolescent mental, mental health in times of national crisis, and the school-to-prison pipeline’s impact on Black Girls. She is the author of several books, workbooks, and curricula including You Got This! A Girl’s Guide to Growing Up, Reclaiming Me: Beginning My Journey to Overcoming Human Trafficking (free for therapists/agencies working with teen survivors), and Girl, Get Free: An Expressive Guide for Black College Women, as well the co-author of two others: Becoming Who I Want to Be: A Good Lives Workbook for Young Women and its accompanying Counselor’s Edition, both available through Safer Society Press.

Elizabeth Letourneau, Ph.D.

Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau is Professor in the Department of Mental Health, and Director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. For more than 35 years she has focused on child sexual abuse prevention, practice, and policy. Dr. Letourneau’s work has attracted approximately $35 million in grants and gifts and resulted in more than 120 scientific papers and chapters and the edited volume What Works with Sex Offenders: Contemporary Perspectives in Theory, Assessment, Treatment and Prevention. She has advised the European Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, the World Bank, and other government, corporate, and NGO entities focused on the prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Her research on sex offender registration policies has been cited in several U.S. state supreme court cases, by state legislatures, and by the American Law Institute. Her work has appeared in numerous media, including Bloomberg News, National Public Radio, Rolling Stones Magazine, TEDMED, and TIME. Dr. Letourneau is the 2022 recipient of the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA) Lifetime Achievement Award.

David Prescott, LICSW

A mental health practitioner of 39 years, David Prescott is the Director of the Safer Society Continuing Education Center. He is the author and editor of 25 books in the areas of understanding and improving services to at-risk clients. He is best known for his work in the areas of understanding, assessing, and treating sexual violence and trauma. Mr. Prescott is the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Contribution award from the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA), the 2018 recipient of the National Adolescent Perpetration Network’s C. Henry Kempe Lifetime Achievement award, and the 2022 recipient of the Fay Honey Knopp Award from the New York State Alliance for the Prevention of Sexual Abuse and New York State ATSA. He also served as ATSA President in 2008-09. Mr. Prescott currently trains and lectures around the world. His published work has been translated into Japanese, Korean, German, French, Polish, Dutch, and other languages. He has served on the editorial boards of four scholarly journals.

Cordelia Anderson, MA

For over 43 years Cordelia worked to prevent child sexual abuse/exploitation. Her work ranged from co-authoring educational plays to consulting with a wide variety of organizations including Stop It Now!, Stop It Now! Minnesota, ATSA, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Boy Scouts of America, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and CALCASA, where she and Joan curated and moderated a prevention series. Cordelia served as a consulting therapist with men who committed sex offenses and with survivors of sexual abuse/exploitation. In the mid 1990’s, she trained in restorative justice which she integrated into her trainings while also conducting circles of accountability, healing, and prevention. Through NCMEC, she founded and chaired the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation. For Just Beginning’s Collaborative Cordelia conducted a nationwide mapping of child sexual abuse prevention programs. Through Jacob Wetterling Recourse Center, she designed and facilitates weekend gatherings for families of missing/exploited children.

Cordelia has an MA in human development and has conducted over 2,500 presentations/trainings and media interviews across North America. She is now retired, but is always happy to respond if Joan needs her! Cordelia is a huge fan of Joan and her work, and is deeply appreciative of their varied projects together over the years.

Jane Silovsky, Ph.D.

Jane Silovsky, Ph.D., is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC). She serves as the CMRI/Jean Gumerson Endowed Chair and Director of the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (CCAN). 

Starting in 1996, Dr. Silovsky directed CCAN’s Treatment Program for Children with Problematic Sexual Behavior (PSB). She is a licensed psychologist and an initial developer of the Preschool Treatment Program for Children with Problematic Sexual Behaviors (PSB-CBT-P). With Drs. Bigfoot and Burris, Dr. Silovsky facilitated the development of Honoring Children, Respectful Ways: Treatment for Native American Children with Sexual Behavior Problems training and treatment manuals, which is a cultural adaptation of the treatment for children with PSB through the Indian Country Child Trauma Center (ICCTC; previously funded through SAMHSA). 

Dr. Silovsky has an active research program examining the typology, characteristics, treatment outcome, and implementation of evidence-based treatments for youth with problematic sexual behavior, as reflected in peer reviewed publications, a book, book chapters, taskforce reports and fact sheets on the topic. Dr. Silovsky co-guest edited the Special Issues on Children with Sexual Behavior Problems for the journal, Child Maltreatment and the international journal Child Abuse and Neglect. 

Training and technical assistance on youth with problematic sexual behavior is provided through our National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth (NCSBY), which Dr. Silovsky directs with funding through grants with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). Through NCSBY, teams across the nation are provided training and technical assistance in implementing evidence-based community-based treatment for youth with problematic sexual behavior, child victims, and their families. Further, Dr. Silovsky is regularly invited to serve as an expert on the topic such as on the Association for the Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Abuse (ATSA) taskforce on children with sexual behavior problems, and as the topic expert in the area of Treating Sexual Behavior Problems in Children for the Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare in California, as well as an invited topic expert of the Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative advisory board through the Office of Justice Programs.

In 2023, Dr. Silovsky was honored with a lifetime achievement award from ATSA. For the National Children’s Alliance, the accrediting organization for Child Advocacy Centers, she is the co-chair of their working group on youth with problematic sexual behavior. NCSBY has also collaborated with NCSTN, OneOP, and Military OneSource. Through these collaborations, NCSBY has developed asynchronous learning series, webinars, fact sheets and other resources under Dr. Silovsky’s leadership. The Restoring the Sacred Circle Toolkit was developed through a collaboration of NCSBY and ICCTC.

Meg Bossong, M.S.

Meg has spent her entire professional career in the realms of sexual violence prevention and response, including over a decade of work in higher education with students and professionals.

Meg held several prevention and community mobilization roles with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC), where she worked to train the professional and student staff of a large range of Boston-area colleges and universities. Meg also was the Director of Intimate Violence Prevention & Response and Health Education at Williams College. There, she incorporated leading edge research on problem sexual behaviors in late adolescents into curriculum design and student support, situational prevention through environmental design, and restorative and transformative justice practices into prevention and response. She was a founding leader of the Campus Advocacy and Prevention Professionals Association (CAPPA) and has been a regular presenter at numerous national conferences.