George Baker serves as GM’s primary interface to the international vehicle crime investigation community. He leads GM’s Global Vehicle Security Team, working with GM’s technical experts to ensure GM understands and counters current and emerging vehicle crime methods to provide optimal vehicle security to GM product owners. George has held a variety of positions at General Motors since 1995, including locomotive program manager in Mexico and Russia, sales/marketing/aftersales director in Moscow, director of GM Military Trucks, and OnStar’s primary liaison to law enforcement. He holds an engineering degree from West Point and a master’s degree in Russian area studies from Harvard University. George is a retired US Army officer following his service on tanks and in the Army’s military liaison program.

Meg Garvin is the Executive Director of the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) and a Clinical Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School. Ms. Garvin is recognized as a leading expert on victims’ rights. She has testified before Congress, state legislatures and the Judicial Proceedings Panel on Sexual Assault in the Military. In her expert capacity she has served on the Defense Advisory Committee on Investigation, Prosecution and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces, the Victims Advisory Group of the United States Sentencing Commission, and the Victim Services Subcommittee, of the Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crime Panel of the United States Department of Defense, as co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section Victims Committee, co-chair of the Oregon Attorney General’s Crime Victims’ Rights Task Force and as a member of the Legislative & Public Policy Committee of the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force.  She has received numerous awards in recognition of her work, including in 2015 the John W. Gillis Leadership Award from National Parents of Murdered Children; in 2020, the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section’s Frank Carrington Crime Victim Attorney Award, and in 2021, the Hardy Myers Victim Advocacy Award from the Oregon Crime Victims Law Center. Prior to joining NCVLI, Ms. Garvin practiced law in Minneapolis, Minnesota and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Pronouns: she/her/hers. 

Chris Newlin is the executive director of the National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC) in Huntsville, AL, where he is responsible for providing leadership and management of the agency, as well as participating in national and international training and leadership activities regarding the protection of children.  The NCAC was the first Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) in the world and provides child abuse prevention and intervention services in Huntsville/Madison County; and also houses the NCAC Training Center, the Southern Regional Children’s Advocacy Center, the NCAC Virtual Training Center, and the Child Abuse Library Online (CALiO).  The NCAC is a past multi-year winner of the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Workplace Ethics; 2012 Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce Non-Profit of the Year; 2016 Federal Bureau of Investigation Director’s Community Leadership Award recipient; (multi-year finalist), winner in 2017 and 2019 of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce Best Places to Work; and a Private Sector Member of the Virtual Global Taskforce.  Chris has more than 24 years of experience working in CACs as a forensic interviewer, victim advocate, clinical director, and executive director. He has provided training in more than 30 countries at numerous international conferences and continues to provide technical assistance on a regular basis to professionals working to develop multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and CACs throughout the world. Chris received his master’s degree in school psychology from the University of Central Arkansas, is a licensed professional counselor, and has completed coursework at the Harvard University Business School Executive Education Program.

Paula Gomez Stordy has more than 25 years of experience working in the field of gender-based violence, of which 17 years were in non-profit management. She is the Senior Director of National Training and Technical Assistance for Esperanza United: National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities, a national resource center with a focus on providing training, research, and policy advocacy to prevent and end domestic violence and sexual assault. Ms. Gomez Stordy directs national training and technical assistance overseeing federal grants, programming, and supervision of staff to enhance culturally responsive approaches and capacity to both mainstream and culturally specific organizations across the country.

Leo Martinez is a Project Manager with Esperanza United, formerly Casa de Esperanza - National Latin@ Network. With Esperanza United he currently works providing Language Access and Cultural Responsiveness training as part of the national resource center on domestic violence in the Latino community; he is a Training and Technical Assistance lead with the Vicarious Trauma Response Initiative, a national initiative funded by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and led by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP); he informs the Intimate Partner Homicide project focused on Latino victims and funded by the Office on Violence against Women (OVW). He also collaborates on the Enhancing Access Peer to Peer project focused on language access, funded also by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). 

Jessica Oppenheim, Esq. retired as the Director of the Criminal Justice Advocacy Program of The Arc of NJ, in June 2021, a New Jersey statewide program providing advocacy for people with IDD involved in the criminal justice system. Prior to joining The Arc of New Jersey 2010, she was an Assistant Prosecutor in the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and a Deputy Attorney General in the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice from 1985 – 2010, including overseeing the County Prosecutor’s Offices and 600 law enforcement agencies on behalf of the Attorney General. She prosecuted Megan’s Law and domestic violence cases and provided policies and protocols for law enforcement agencies and prosecutors throughout the State on domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse, Megan’s Law, and dealing with diverse populations. She is board vice president for Women Aware, Middlesex County’s domestic violence agency, and board president for Legal Reform for Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled people (LRIDD). She has provided training for law enforcement, attorneys, courts, and support providers for people with developmental disabilities and the criminal justice system.

Officer Laurie Reyes has been a Montgomery County Police officer for 24 years. In 2005, she created and implemented what is now called the Montgomery County Police Autism and Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (IDD), Alzheimer's, Dementia Outreach Program and has served in this program since that time. Initially, Officer Reyes started the program to address the increase in calls for service involving individuals with Autism and IDD and Alzheimer's who were the focus of a report for a “missing at risk” person. The program has expanded to provide resources way beyond wandering prevention and awareness to include other calls and concerns from the mundane to the very serious.  

Officer Reyes has received recognition from the White House as a “White House, Champion of Change for Youth and Law Enforcement”. In 2018 she was recognized by the Department of Justice and received the Attorney General’s Award for “Distinguished Service in Policing”. She also received a Governor’s Citation for the creation and continued coordination of the Montgomery County Police Autism/IDD, Alzheimer’s and Dementia Outreach Program. The program is recognized as a national model by such organizations as The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Autism Speaks, and Pathfinders for Autism.

Sergeant Stefan Bjes M.S. is currently the Assistant Director of Campus Safety for North Central College (Naperville, IL) and is a retired patrol sergeant and has served with the Addison, IL Police Department. Stefan has a bachelor’s degree from Valparaiso University in Psychology and Sociology and a master’s degree from Lewis University. He is also a former board member of the DuPage County Juvenile Officer Association. Stefan was named the 2019 Juvenile Officer of the Year by the Illinois Juvenile Officer Association for his work with children with disabilities. In 2021, Stefan was awarded the Missing Children’s Law Enforcement Award by the United States Department of Justice for establishing programs to assist with the prevention and search for missing children with disabilities. Stefan is an instructor for Northeast Multi-Regional Training (NEMRT), Tri-River Police Training Region, and is also an approved instructor regarding autism and intellectual/developmental disabilities for the basic CIT Course with the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board.    

Stefan has written articles for the International Law Enforcement Educators & Trainers Association (ILEETA) Journal, Campus Safety Magazine, and Calibre Press regarding law enforcement interactions with individuals with autism. Stefan is an adjunct faculty member at Waubonsee Community College and the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy at the College of DuPage. He is also the owner of Blue Line Spectrum Safety LLC, which specializes in first responder training regarding autism and developmental disabilities.    

As a father of two sons with autism, Stefan has extensive experience, through his personal and professional life, in interacting with individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

Tauna Szymanski, JD/MPA, is the Executive Director and Legal Director of CommunicationFIRST, the only organization dedicated to representing the rights and interests of the estimated 5 million children and adults in the United States who cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood. Before co-founding CommunicationFIRST in 2019, she spent 20 years working in climate change law and policy, mostly at the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, in their Washington, DC, and London offices. Ms. Szymanski is neurodivergent and multiply disabled and parents a child who relies on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). She received her BA in international relations and environmental studies from Carleton College, her JD from Stanford Law School, and her MPA/MA in economic policy and urban planning from Princeton University's School of Public International Affairs. She grew up mostly outside the United States as the child of US diplomats.

Russell Lehmann is an award-winning and internationally recognized motivational speaker and poet contextualizing autism, mental health, disabilities, and the overall human condition. A graduate of MIT’s “Leadership in the Digital Age” course, Russell sits on the national Board of Directors for The Arc and is a council member for the Autism Society of America.    

Russell showed signs of autism as a newborn, however, he was not formally diagnosed until the age of 12 after suffering through 5 weeks in a lockdown psychiatric facility.    

Russell recently returned from Helsinki after he was invited to the Finnish Parliament to discuss government supports that are needed in Finland for individuals on the spectrum.