Skills for Safeguarding

Dr. Lisa Compton is the assistant director of the PhD in Counselor Education and an associate professor and at Regent University. She has over 26 years of experience as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Trauma Treatment Specialist, and compassion fatigue educator. Dr. Compton has appeared on CBN news and has spoken internationally on trauma and abuse. She is the co-author of the book Preparing for trauma work in clinical mental health and has also published several journal articles related to trauma and absorption vulnerability in Traumatology and the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health. She is the co-founder of The Helpers’ Coach, an agency providing vitality training and consultation for helping professionals.

Rev. David Cook is an adjunct professor in the Psychology Department at Gordon College, an ordained Presbyterian Minister, and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Massachusetts. He has worked in private practice providing court-mandated outpatient treatment to registered sex offenders for over ten years and as a consultant on inpatient sex offender treatment with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for over seven years. Research interests include gender identity, sexually deviant behaviors, toxic shame and guilt, and effective clinical training and supervision.

Dr. Kristi Cronan is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Approved Clinical Supervisor, and Registered Play Therapist who partners with children, adolescents, and adults. In her clinical work, she has partnered with thousands of people to support healthy individual and family development from an ethical, multiculturally competent, trauma-informed, and attachment-driven perspective. She has served as adjunct professor at Regent University and Townsend Institute at Concordia. Her dissertation research was an analysis of Evangelical purity culture on gender- based beliefs.

Dr. Gabriel Dy-Liacco is the founder of the Catholic Safeguarding Institute, associate professor at Divine Mercy University, Licensed Professional Counselor, and organizational consultant for leadership in the Catholic Church. In 2014, Pope Francis appointed Dr. Dy-Liacco to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors as a founding member to advise him in developing the Catholic Church’s policies on safeguarding and to build capacity among local churches. His many other professional roles include serving on the scientific advisory board of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Centre for Child Protection, board director for MAGIS Creative Spaces, and as reviewer for journals on psychology and spirituality.

Dr. Kathie Erwin is a professor at Divine Mercy University, a Fulbright Specialist for teaching and research at the University of Iceland, and chair of the Institutional Review Board. She is a Florida Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Qualified Supervisor who has worked in private practice and developed geriatric group programs over the past 25 years. Dr. Erwin is the author of six professional books on gerontology/aging issues and practice development. She serves as president of the Florida Mental Health Counselors Association, board member of the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology and a guest lecturer for University of Iceland and the International Institute of Postgraduate Education in Ukraine.

Cynthia Fisher is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Massachusetts, and she received graduate training from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.  Cynthia has been counseling for over 25 years and works with clients with complex trauma backgrounds and intimate partner violence in faith-based marriages. Cynthia is the clinical director of a group private practice north of Boston, Massachusetts and is an adjunct professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.  Her cross-cultural experiences include supervising Ukrainian counselors in training and co-conducting a study of supervisory competencies during the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Cynthia is a Ph.D. Candidate at Regent University.

Dr. Kristy Ford is an associate professor and program director for Liberty University’s CACREP accredited clinical mental health counseling online program. She is a Florida Licensed Mental Health Counselor, specializing in clinical supervision and counseling research, with more than 20 years of clinical experience. Dr. Ford’s research has focused on trauma-informed care, attachment-based treatments, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and religious accommodation in evidence-based practice, and she has published research and presented findings at multiple international, national, and regional conferences.  She is the practice owner and clinical director of Hope Springs Counseling Group in Marianna, FL.

Dr. Crista Glover is an assistant professor at Regent University, a Licensed Professional Counselor in Virginia, and an approved clinical supervisor. She specializes in therapy for women and has over 15 years of clinical experience treating women recovering from sexual abuse, assault, and intimate partner violence. In her time working in college mental health, she served as a Title IX coordinator, a women’s center liaison, and community partner with the YWCA. Her research focuses on health promoting behaviors to recover from relational injury and painful life events. 

Dr. Danielle H. Johnson is on the faculty at Grace College and Theological Seminary and an adjunct instructor at Divine Mercy University. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Approved Supervisor in addictions and professional counseling, and chair of the graduate student committee for the International Association for Resilience and Trauma Counseling. Dr. Johnson holds a Certificate of Graduate Studies in Trauma and is a Certified Trauma Healing Group facilitator and trainer through the American Bible Society’s Trauma Healing Institute. She has conducted a trauma awareness training for pastors in the Dominican Republic and strives to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and substance use treatment, particularly within marginalized and faith-based communities. 

Dr. Vanessa Kent is an assistant professor and clinical director for the Master’s Counseling Program, Regent University. She is dually licensed as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Clinical Mental Health Counselor. As a clinician/supervisor for over 25 years, she specializes in complex trauma and adoption support, reproductive trauma, and women/couples. She is trained in EFT, Attachment-focused EMDR and Trust-Based Relational Interventions. She was a consultant for Child Protection Team, leading therapy groups for child incest victims in military families. She is a trainer/consultant for church-based trauma support group for victims of rape/incest. She developed/teaches attachment and emotional regulation curriculum.

Dr. Pensiri Kongkaw-Oden is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology and Counseling at Gannon University. As a Licensed Practitioner, educator, and multicultural individual, Dr. Kongkaw-Oden is adept at teaching complex counseling skills and has presented internationally on transformative listening. Having grown up in both Thailand and Texas, she considers herself a third-culture kid (TCK) and serves as a consultant for the TCK Holistic Care Project, an international, interdisciplinary group dedicated to developing evidence-based assessments and curricula to provide the best support for TCKs. Her research interests include trauma, compassion, multicultural competencies, transracial adoption, and intersectionality. 

Dr. Cindy Palen is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Arkansas and a nationally certified counselor. She is an assistant professor at Liberty University and works as a supervisor for the International Institute of Postgraduate Education in Ukraine. Dr. Palen’s recent publications in the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, Play Therapy Magazine, and her dissertation research with war-torn Ukraine speak to her passion for trauma-focused counseling practices. Dr. Palen’s primary clinical and research interests are trauma-related, including PTSD, sexual abuse, dissociative disorders, eating disorders, wartime trauma, and EMDR. Dr. Palen works in private practice at Oaks Counseling in Arkansas. 

Taylor Patterson is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Virginia and received her graduate training in trauma-informed counseling services and spiritual integration from Reformed Theological Seminary. She has provided counseling services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and clergy abuse in outpatient and residential settings. Her cross-cultural experiences include providing trauma-focused counseling through an interpreter to Spanish-speaking clients, facilitating transnational supervision to masters-level counseling students in Cairo, Egypt, and teaching English to refugees in the United States. She is currently a PhD student in Counselor Education and Supervision and has recent publications in Counseling Today and Traumatology. She is the co-founder of The Helpers’ Coach, an agency providing vitality training and consultation for helping professionals.

Dr. Angela Rinaldi serves at the Institute of Anthropology at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (Italy) where coordinates the English safeguarding programs. She holds a PhD in Social Teaching of the Church and Public Ethics. She has published on sexual abuses of minors within the Catholic Church, abuse of power, the culture of Safeguarding and human formation. She authored three books: Hacia una Iglesia que proteja a los más pequeños, Una migrazione che dà speranza. I minori non accompagnati in Italia, and Dalla parte dei piccoli. Chiesa e abusi sessuali. She researches the consequences of the misuse of power over vulnerable people and their conscience, and social agency from the perspective of Church social teaching and ethics. 

Dr. Kathryn Stamoulis is an Educational Psychologist and Licensed Mental Health Counselor based in New York who specializes in adolescent sexual development. She has served as an expert witness in cases involving the sexual abuse and grooming of minors. Committed to public education, her work has appeared in numerous publications and media outlets. She was featured in the Netflix docuseries Filthy Rich: Jeffrey Epstein and in sources including The New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, and Today.

Dr. Kaitlyn Stafford is an assistant professor and the interim director of the Counseling Programs at the Townsend Institute at Concordia University Irvine. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Workerand EMDR certified therapist and consultant. Dr. Stafford has served as a faculty member, supervisor, and consultant for the International Institute of Postgraduate Education in Ukraine, as chair of the Ukraine Aid Coordination Team and as fundraising coordinator and expert advising board member for the Ukraine Institute of Traumatherapy. Dr. Stafford specializes in working with military service members, veterans and adults with complex trauma histories.

Dr. Karen J. Terry is a professor in the Department Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and on the faculty of the Criminal Justice Doctoral Program at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She holds a doctorate in criminology from Cambridge University. Her primary research interest is sexual offending and victimization, particularly abuse of children in an institutional setting, and she has received nearly $4 million in federal and private grants. Most significantly, she was the principal investigator for two national studies on sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests in the U.S. 

Dr. Mary L. Troy is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling and Human Services at The University of Scranton. Dr. Troy is a national board-certified counselor and a Licensed Professional Counselor in Pennsylvania. She also works as an LPC in a private counseling practice, where she has helped many clients heal from sexual trauma. Dr. Troy regularly lectures on child abuse issues which include physical and psychological signs/effects of abuse, mandated reporting, and how to help survivors of childhood abuse.