Vicarious Trauma Response Initiative (VTRI) Training Series

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).