Advisory Board
Debra Kalmuss, Ph.D.
Debra Kalmuss, a sociologist and social worker, is a professor of Population and Family Health in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Intimate partner violence has been a longstanding interest of hers. Prior to completing her graduate training she worked at a wife abuse shelter in Michigan. She has done research and published a series of papers on IPV and sexual coercion. She also has worked with women’s shelters to help them conduct needs assessments and evaluations of their services. Finally she has worked with clinical colleagues in the departments of OB/GYN and Pediatrics at the Columbia University Medical Center to incorporate routine screening for IPV into their clinical protocols. Dr. Kalmuss has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research skills as well as program development and evaluation. She will enthusiastically contribute her expertise to this project.
Mayowa Obasaju, Ph.D.
Mayowa Obasaju, PhD is a clinical and community trained, trauma focused psychologist at Barnard College. Her professional and research passion center around systemic, clinical and community based approaches to trauma intervention and prevention, interpersonal, relational, and community violence with a focus on childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, and work with women of color, and transformative and social justice. She is involved in numerous community based organizations in the New York City in areas of sexual assault prevention, reproductive justice, and social service provision. She serves on the board of the Journey of Powerful Voices project in an advisory capacity in the area of interview question development in the context of trauma dynamics. She is happy to contribute in support of this project.
Rob Henry
Rob Henry is a producer and director based out of Los Angeles and has had a hand in a half dozen feature films, hundreds of hours of television and created his own series. His role on the advisory board is to aid, abet and facilitate the filmmakers and process with 24/7 technical and creative support specific to their filmmaking needs. This will include consultations on any and all technical questions and challenges. Additionally, he’ll devise with the filmmakers an optimized production and post-production media acquisition workflow for the project and proper protection and archiving of the stories they document on their journey.
Dianne Marshall
Dianne Marshall is a member of the California Association of Drug Court Professionals Board of Directors for whom she serves as secretary, conference planner and web manager. Currently, Ms. Marshall is focusing on the establishment of the California Collaborative Justice Courts Foundation for the state of California to fund participant and staff development needs through the use local or private financial support. Ms. Marshall is founder and president of the Board of Directors for the Foundation. Throughout her experience in human services and administration, Ms. Marshall has been keenly aware of role of violence in the family and in the home. She is glad to be a part of The Journey of Powerful Voices as it brings attention to a problem that can be solved especially if it comes out of the shadows.
Sandra Maresca
As an advisory board member of the Powerful Voices Project, Sandra Maresca brings to her role more than 40 years of personal experience and perspective involving the historic evolution of women’s and individual rights in American society. During her 14-year teaching career and 22 years in the corporate world, she witnessed firsthand the psychological and professional damage of sexual abuse as well as the subsequent benefits of legislation protecting against sexual discrimination and harassment. Her diverse background attracted the attention of United Against Sexual Assault (now Verity, Sonoma County’s 24-hour hotline and support system for victims of sexual abuse), where she served for four years on the board of directors. Sandra holds an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and graduate degrees from UCLA and Pepperdine University. She and her husband Jim have three adult children and live in Guerneville, CA.