Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse

CURRENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Stop the Silence is governed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors, which includes the efforts of special Advisors who support the organization’s mission and work.

Stop the Silence is currently accepting applications for board membership. Please complete a board application and submit your resume, along with a brief paragraph about what you bring to the organization and your desire to work alongside us in ending child sexual abuse, to our board chair at sheri@stopcsa.org. Members are voted in on an ongoing basis and serve for a term of 3 years.

BOARD CHAIR
Sheri Rettew (Aurora, North Carolina)
Sheri will tell you that she’s been an advocate to end child abuse for most of her life.  Using her own 20-year-history of sexual, physical and emotional abuse, Sheri developed a lifelong passion to end abuse in all its forms.  Sheri has an undergraduate degree in psychology, with a triple minor in sociology, religious studies and criminal justice and is currently completing her first graduate degree.   Sheri served as Executive Director and Victim Services Coordinator for Promise Place for 8 years, a nonprofit agency located in New Bern, North Carolina.  In addition to being the agency’s only on-call first responder for child sexual abuse and rape cases, Sheri advocated for victims and worked cases across the country.   Sheri is currently a graduate degree in nonprofit management.  For her this work is a way of life, not just a job.  It is about accepting the reality that abuse and sexual violence exist, and working towards changing society’s attitude and response towards it in a meaningful way.

TREASURER
Doralee Billings (Baltimore, Maryland)
Doralee Billings, Treasurer of the Board, brings over 30 years experience in management, administrative, accounting, and secretarial positions in a diversified list of business fields.  She is – fortunate for Stop the Silence – proficient in all facets of office management, accounting, administration and possesses strong secretarial skills.  She is experienced in system and procedure setup, implementation and training, and project development. In addition to the critical financial eye that she brings to Stop the Silence, Doralee provides excellent organizational skills and problem solving abilities combined with a professional attitude and detail oriented work habits utilizing computer-based control systems. Doralee is the Former Treasurer for the Professional Assn. of Custom Clothiers (both on the local and national level); Former Director of Membership and current President of the Business Women’s Network of Howard County; 2008 Individual Achievement Award Recipient, awarded by Howard County Committee for Business and Economic Diversity; and 2010 Top 100 MBE by Center for Business Inclusion and Diversity.

SECRETARY
Jan Wilhoit
Jan’s bio is coming soon.

DIRECTORS
Carmen Rodriguez (Washington, DC)
Carmen Rodriguez currently works for BET Networks. Carmen is a dynamic, energetic, creative, charismatic, and resourceful leader among her peers, co-workers, and in her community.   A member of Good Shepherd Catholic Church, Arias is a proud graduate of George Mason University with a B.A. in Communications and a minor in Business Administration.  Understanding the power of education, she also completed her Associates Degree in Liberal Arts from Northern Virginia Community College.  Her innovative thinking and drive are evident in her success as an accomplished Human Resource Generalist, Project Manager, and Notary Public.  Fluent in English and Spanish, she was selected to study International Public Relations abroad. Her commitment to her community shines through her consistent volunteerism for such organizations as the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of NAMIC and spearheading the launch of the Latino campaign "Alto al Silencio," (Stop the Silence).  Passionate about the cause to stop child sexual abuse, she is coordinating the communication efforts for the Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc. organization and also headed the sponsorship committee for the 2009 International Race to Stop the Silence.

Jeff Jordan (Falls Church, Virginia)
Jeff is a seasoned nonprofit and for profit international development senior executive with demonstrated leadership skills and track record of achieving and surpassing programmatic goals and driving organizational change.  Jeff’s technical experience spans both domestic and international applications in program development, policy communication and constituency building, institution building, and applied policy research and analysis for FP/RH and HIV/AIDS.  Jeff is also active in international gender issues, and formerly the Chair of USAID’s Inter-Agency Gender Working Group.  His areas of technical expertise include policy analysis and presentation training, participatory policy processes through civil society networks, GIS applications of health survey data, work on demographic linkages to related sectors including the environment and food security, and gender. In the area of HIV/AIDS, Jeff, under the Futures Group, managed the POLICY Project, served as the facilitator for eight African delegations at the Regional Conference on Building Political Commitment for HIV/AIDS in Benin (1999) and again at the ICASA Conference in Burkina Faso. In February 2003, Jeff served as a facilitator at the Europe/Eurasia Chief of Missions Meeting on HIV/AIDS. He was a member of the planning committee for Track E (Program and Policy) of the 2004 AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.  Field applications include work in Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Haiti, India, Ivory Coast Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Tanzania, Ukraine and Zambia.  Jeff speaks French.  He holds a BA in Economics form Davidson College and an M.P.A. in International Development for the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.

ADVISORS

Alan Horn - Development Advisor (Annapolis, MD)
Bio coming soon.

Demetrios Kehagia (New York City, New York)
Demetrios is known as a high-capacity team manager in organizational development, talent management, branding positioning and industry networking initiatives in diverse consumer-facing marketplaces. He has a long-term reputation as a strategic thinker, client advocate and process champion in all aspects of value-based solutions, human resources, organizational growth and executive relationship building. He is recognized as a confident communicator in implementing business strategies and introducing successful growth initiatives with a focused approach; rapid delivery of innovative programs, process improvements and creative troubleshooting. He has extensive experience in resource allocation, needs analysis, interdepartmental support, member follow-up, and account retention with top management, major vendors and key decision-makers. He has launched a wide array of community programs and conducted executive presentations to meet institutional goals. He is highly skilled in building, training, motivating, mentoring and supervising top-performing teams of employees and dedicated volunteers and overseen budgeting and cost controls. He has a solid stewardship background in building and retaining key accounts and profitable relationships in both multinational community and non-profit environments. Demetrios has had a successful career with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He comes to Stop the Silence not only with all of the above but also with extensive exposure to cross-cultural practices and business protocols. He is fluent in Greek and English and currently studying Spanish.

Mildred Mohammed (Clinton, Maryland)
After her children were kidnapped and her inability to go on living without them, she began the silent struggle of looking for them, knowing that if she exposed herself, John Allen Muhammad, the convicted and now executed DC Sniper, would locate her and kill her. She was triumphant in her struggle to get through those 18 months of not knowing where her children were and regained full custody of them.  She fled from her estranged husband and moved to Maryland with the children. She was frightened during the horrific sniper shootings, sat through court proceedings during the trial, and last but not least, began regaining her strength to start a nonprofit organization to assist survivors of domestic violence.  Keeping her promise within herself to help other survivors and with her own personal funds, Mildred began After The Trauma, Inc., as the Founder/Executive Director. (www.afterthetrauma.org)

Mildred has appeared on Larry King Live, The Tyra Banks Show, CNN, BET, Good Morning America, Cable TV interviews and various newspapers and magazine interviews, to include the Washington Post and Newsweek. She has spoken on various syndicated radio shows.  She has appeared in many documentaries surrounding the DC Sniper case aired by TruTV, Discovery ID, MSNBC, A&E, CNN, Investigation Discovery and others.  She has become a "National Spokesperson" for domestic violence and has been honored as being the keynote speaker, telling her story, for many conferences regarding domestic violence. She speaks to victims/survivors of domestic violence, law enforcements, advocates, judges, therapist, counselors, and medical professionals and at various universities.  She is an advocate and accompanies victims & survivors to court. She has received many awards and certificates of recognition for her work in domestic violence. She is a consultant with the Office for Victims of Crime. Mildred’s book, ‘Scared Silent’, was released October 2009 by Simon and Schuster.  She has also written a working journal, ‘A Survivor’s Journal’ specifically for victims and survivors to help with those anxieties that others may not understand.  She is currently enrolled at Everest University and is expected to receive her degree in Criminal Justice in the fall.

John Seraichyk (Providence, Rhode Island)
John Seraichyk’s professional career has been dedicated to assisting executives with career transition, employment search and career consulting.  Offering 30 years of combined career search and consulting experience, John has earned a reputation for engaging with 200k + professionals and executives in a successful effort to advance their professional career status. With his wife, Anita, John built multiple management teams for their organizations and teamed with them to provide unprecedented growth. John & Anita's professional mission has been clearly established, with the mandate of providing the highest quality career management/search services to their clients while always striving to optimize clientele success.  Their aggressive executive reemployment and career change strategies have been recognized and retained by thousands of individuals and corporations. The United States Government has also retained John's former placement and career counseling firm (Barrett Technical Services) in an effort to reemploy veterans transitioning to the private sector. In addition to founding Browning Associates they are the founders of P.O.W.E.R. (People Offering Ways to Empowering Resources), a networking group formerly sponsored by the NK Chamber of Commerce; John and Anita frequently volunteer as guest lecturers at colleges and universities throughout New England. The Seraichyk's participate in a multitude of activities and events supporting individuals in the job market. They have contributed as advisory experts to the media on many career search/change related topics, including numerous publications, websites and television broadcasts. Some of these include: Forbes magazine, Forbes.com, the Wall Street Journal, WSJ Career Journal, the Providence Journal, Providence Business News, Boston Business News, and ABC, NBC, and CBS television affiliates. John has also served multiple terms as a member of the board of directors for the Rhode Island Better Business Bureau.

Ted Thompson, JD (Stillwater, Minnesota)
Ted Thompson is a veteran public policy professional with over 20 years experience working in the policy arena including nine years work for two Members of Congress; consulting services; and work for several non-profit organizations. Currently, Ted is Vice President for Federal Government Relations for the National MS Society, leading the organizations overall federal advocacy effort (recently having been promoted from Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Mission Advancement for the National MS Society, Minnesota Chapter).  Before joining the MS Society, he was the President/Executive Director of the National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children (NAPSAC), where he led the establishment of NAPSAC and NAPSAC Foundation as national organizations focused on a three-legged approach toward ending sexual abuse in America. While at NAPSAC, Thompson coordinated the acquisition of the National Child Protection Training Center (NCPTC) program, managed public advocacy efforts in four states and the District of Columbia, and spearheaded the strategic planning process for the establishment and expansion of NAPSAC. As chief of staff to Congressman Bill Luther, Ted managed offices in the District of Columbia and Minnesota, coordinating legislative, press, and constituent outreach strategies.  In this role he served as the top policy, political and communications advisor to the Congressman.

Stuart Adam (New York City, New York)
Stuart brings over 30 years of experience in working with wealthy families and individuals and is the founder of Adam and Partners Investment Advisors. Stuart's and his company's primary focus is to work for families and individuals and with but not for the financial institutions. Adam and Partners Investment Advisors are the "gatekeeper" and primary advisor to the family. They train the younger members of the family (21+ years of age) on the segments and participants of the wealth management business.  They focus on providing quality investments at institutional pricing with high quality service focusing and paid for by the family and individual.

Richard Gentles (New York City, New York)
Richard is a highly qualified Executive who brings proven leadership, operations, administration, fundraising, media relations, financial management, and strategic planning capabilities to Stop the Silence. He is a visionary with strong interpersonal communication and team building skills.  Richard has worked since 2003 in various positions with and current as the Director of Development and Communications for Animal Care & Control of NYC in New York, NY (formerly, he was the Director of Administration and the Director of Operations, and thus also brings expertise in areas of staff supervision, budgeting, etc.). His work includes operations, human resources, development and fundraising, the volunteer program, special events, field operations and facilities management. As the Director of Development and Communications, Richard heads a new Development Department of the Animal Care & Control, which raised over $1.4 million in the first year. He plans and manages several successful fund raising events and four direct mail campaigns per year and brought in 6,000 new donors in less than a year and a significant increase in shelter donations over previous years, as well as secured over $3 million in capital funding, managed several multi-million dollar capital projects working closely with the City, and increased numerous partnerships and initiatives. He played an active role in revamping and expanding the volunteer program to include over 500 volunteers. Richard directs all aspects of media relations for Animal Care & Control and has been enormously successful at creating and implementing proactive communication strategies based on organizational success as well as external factors, including his monthly appearances in The Today Show’s “Bow to Wow” segment. He is responsible for new marketing materials including a logo, website, brochures and flyers, and three monthly newsletters. Needless to say, Stop the Silence is thrilled to have Richard working with us to help increase both the base of operations and the reach of our work.

Nicholas Panebianco (Beltsville, Maryland) - Race Volunteer Coordinator
Nick is a long-standing children’s advocate and mentor, since 1993 when he joined the Big Brothers Big Sisters program as a Big Brother and program manager.  For over 17 years, he has served three different Little Brother mentees providing friendship and mentorship to boys who did have fathers in their lives.  In addition, Mr. Panebianco created, launch, and maintained the local BBBS chapter’s Web site and e-mail for over 17 years.  He served as the President and Treasurer of the chapter’s Prince Georges Council.  Finally he served on the Board of Directors managing the Run for Kids program for over 10 years.  During this time, the program raised over $500,000 for the agency.  In 2003, Mr. Panebianco founded the Marathon Charity Partners (MCP).  MCP is a non-profit organization that provides coaching, health, fitness, and logistics support to the partner charities.  These charities serve underprivileged children and families around the world.  The runners who train with MCP raise funds for the partner charities.  The charities that MCP supports have raised over $750,000 since the inception of MCP.  In 2006, Mr. Panebianco merged MCP with another non-profit and formed Marathon Charity Cooperation (MCC).  MCC is a non-profit corporation organized as a charitable and educational foundation for the benefit of the public, both locally and globally.  The MCC mission includes funding a cooperative of non-profit member-charities who both benefit from and contribute to the events hosted. Our events provide opportunities for personal and professional growth in addition to education of the public serving people of all ages.  Mr. Panebianco currently reserves as the MCC President and has brought his management, leadership, and organizational skills to the organization.  MCC has doubled in size (membership and revenue since 2006. Stop the Silence (STS) has been an MCC partner charity for the past three years.  Mr. Panebianco currently works for Microsystems Automation Group, Inc. as a Senior Program Manager. He was served the Federal Government for the past 24 years as a Project Manager and Systems Engineer both as an employee and a contractor. He has held positions and supported several agencies including: the Intelligence Community, FAA and the Department of Transportation.  Mr. Panebianco  joined the STS Board in April 2010.

Dr. Paul Zeitz (Washington, DC) - Special Advisor on Policy Issues
Paul is an advocate for global justice. Paul is trained as a public health and global development specialist with nearly two decades of experience working in developing nations around the World.  For the past 11 years, he has focused on advancing strategic political advocacy to achieve the rapid realization of human rights, including campaign design and implementation, including state-of-the-art performance-based approaches that catalyze and strengthen transnational advocacy networks. Paul served for over 10 years of experience as the President and Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance (GAA), which Zeitz co-founded in 2000. Zeitz is an accomplished media spokesperson, appearing frequently on television, print, and radio news programs and publishing op-eds.  He teaches advocacy through the Center for Global Health where he serves on the Faculty of School of Public Health & Health Services, George Washington University. He earned his medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1988 and he completed a Master's in Public Health (MPH), a preventive medicine residency, and a global health fellowship at Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University during 1989-1992. Zeitz is married and has five sons.

EUROPEAN AMBASSADOR
Matthew McVarish (Scotland, England)
Matthew is a playwright, actor, and musician, and is a Fionnghall (a brother) in the U.S. productions thus far of the play that he wrote “To Kill a Kelpie,” which Stop the Silence uses to raise awareness and educate. Matt has a degree in acting from Queen Margaret School of Drama and a Master Degree in Classic and Contemporary text from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Matt has performed in television, radio, and theater for more than 7 years. He steadfastly educates those around him using the powers of the arts to inform, educate and heal. After raising awareness about child sexual abuse through an amazing journey walking from Spain to France in 2011, Matt is planning another walk in 2013 to raise awareness throughout Europe. We wish Matt the best of luck and promise to get him a few good pairs of walking shoes!

FOUNDER, ADJUNCT EX-OFFICIO
Pamela Pine, PhD, MPH, MAIA, CHES (Bowie, Maryland)
Pam has been working in the area of national and international health and development and health communication for more than 30 years.  Her primary foci have been on communicable and other life threatening diseases (TB, AIDS, malaria), chronic diseases, reproductive health, family planning, child survival, violence against women and children, and related issues, with a primary focus on vulnerable women and children.  She has provided a full spectrum of public health assistance: program design, planning, fundraising, research, management, materials development, technical assistance, and evaluation.  She is a driven leader who is known as extremely productive, highly communicative, fair, and honest and a consummate net-worker.  She has worked diligently with numerous coalitions of corporate, faith-based, and philanthropic agencies to enact change in the U.S. and abroad from policy to grass roots organizing.  Having learned about the enormity and devastation of the problems of child sexual abuse, Pam is the Founder of Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc.(www.stopcsa.org), this non-profit company focused on the comprehensive mitigation (prevention and treatment) of child sexual abuse (CSA) nationally and internationally, including a focus on orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC).  She has overseen all aspects of the organization and was the Project Manager for the National Children’s Bench Book Project, an HHS, Ford Foundation, and DOJ-funded project focused on providing information to judges and other court-related personnel about CSA and trauma, as well as the Race to Stop the Silence and its and other media outreach, and numerous other programs and projects under the organization.  In a very short period, Stop the Silence gained an international reputation. She is on the Board of Witness Justice.  She is Co-Chair of the Development Committee of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence (NPEIV), a member of the Media and Outreach and Policy Committees, and is a continuing Planning Committee member for the Institute of Violence and Trauma’s (IVAT, a part of Alliant University) Annual Conference.  Dr. Pine continues, too, to provide assistance to international health and development programs and projects (e.g., Egypt, India). She holds an Appointment with the College of Public Health, University of South Florida. Pam holds her PhD in Public Health Communication from the University of Maryland and her MPH in International Health from Johns Hopkins.  She speaks Arabic and French.