Nebraska Anti-Violence Conference Agenda

Day 1

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

• Registration
• Quiet Room
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be heavy in nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room. 

1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

• Replenish Workshop
  • More information coming soon!
  • Presenters: Jo Bair; Andrew Aleman
• TBD Workshop
  • More Information coming soon!
• Quiet Room
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be of a heavy nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room. 

5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

• Social Event (network organizations only)
  • More information coming soon!

Day 2

8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.

• Registration
• Quiet Room
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be of a heavy nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room. 

8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

• Welcome & Keynote
  • More information coming soon!
• Quiet Room
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be of a heavy nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room. 

10:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.

• Break
• Quiet Room
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be of a heavy nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room. 

10:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

• Prevention Panel
  • Stephanie Olson is a speaker, an author, a podcaster, and the CEO of The Set Me Free Project ®. Stephanie helps leaders build resilience. Her work on teaching resilience in leadership has inspired people across the United States with topics such as leadership, trauma, a toxic workplace, mental health, and resilience. 
  • Libby Valerio-Boster is the ACEs Training Specialist at BraveBe Child Advocacy Center. Through research-based trainings and sessions, Libby provides information to professionals and caregivers, equipping them with strategies to understand trauma, support healthy development, and promote resilience. She is committed to raising awareness and helping communities create safer, more supportive space for children and families.
  • Aubrey Yost is a Training & Outreach Coordinator at BraveBe Child Advocacy Center, where she has worked for a decade. Aubrey has dedicated her career to advancing the child welfare field. She presents locally and internationally on topics such as child abuse and neglect, trafficking, trauma, and survivor empowerment, drawing on both her professional expertise and lived experience as a survivor. Passionate about educating and supporting others, Aubrey leverages her knowledge to inspire meaningful change in communities.
• One Goal, Many Roles: Bridging Advocacy and Child Welfare to Support Survivors and Their Children
  • Domestic violence advocacy and child welfare have long served many of the same families, but often from different lenses and divergent roles. These differences can lead to strained relationships and siloed efforts, even when everyone is working toward the same goal of safety and healing for survivors and their children. In 2021, the Lancaster County Safe and Healthy Families Initiative was launched to begin bridging that gap. The aim? To foster stronger, more collaborative relationships between advocacy and child welfare, and to build a coordinated response that is both DV-informed and grounded in the realities of the work. This session brings together voices from both sides of the bridge, highlighting what’s worked, what’s been hard, and how partners are learning to move forward together. 
  • Presenters: Jamie Bahm, MS, IMH-E is an Assistant Project Director with the Nebraska Resource Project for Vulnerable Young Children at the University of Nebraska’s Center on Children, Families, and the Law. Lindsey Turner, MA, LIMHP is the Associate Executive Director at Voices of Hope. Kim Lauenroth is the Domestic Violence Team Supervisor with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Division of Children and Family Services.
• Changing the Narrative of Gender Based Violence: How to Engage with Local Media to Tell Your Story
  • More information coming soon!
  • Presenter: Jill Heggen is the Communications Director at the Women’s Fund of Omaha, where she works with grantees and community partners to ensure consistent messaging and a clear understanding of all initiatives and campaigns--internally and externally.
• Quiet Room 
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be of a heavy nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room. 

11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

• Lunch
• Quiet Room
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be of a heavy nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room. 

1:00 p.m - 2:30 p.m.

• From Story to Strategy: Shifting the Rural Narrative, One Voice at a Time
  • Rural communities are often painted as quiet, safe, and simple, but for many survivors, they can also be isolating, resource-limited, and resistant to change. In this session, Misty Rowley will take participants on a journey from surviving domestic violence in a rural town to directing life-saving services in the very same environment. She will explore the layered complexities of providing support where everyone knows everyone, where a sheriff might also be a neighbor, and where driving over 100 miles for services is the norm. This presentation blends personal narrative with real-world strategies for supporting survivors in rural and underserved areas. Attendees will walk away with a renewed understanding of how prevention and intervention go hand in hand and how every voice matters when shifting the narrative.
  • Presenter: Misty Rowley is the Program Director of Bright Horizons’ rural offices in Ainsworth and O’Neill, Nebraska.
• Presenting Uncomfortable Topics of Violence to Youth from a Cultural Perspective
  • This presentation will focus on engaging youth in intimate partner violence awareness and prevention. This interactive workshop will showcase examples and best practices for working with youth to address intimate partner violence and healthy relationships.
  • Presenter: Kirby Williams (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) is the executive director for Nebraska Tribes Addressing Violence Coalition (NETAV). 
• Staying Responsive In A Changing Landscape
  • More information coming soon!
  • Presenter: Darin J. Dorsey (Project Lead) is an expert in violence prevention, policy advocacy, and organizational change management. 
• enCourage DVIP
  • More information coming soon!
• Quiet Room 
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be of a heavy nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room. 

2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.

• Break
• Quiet Room
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be of a heavy nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room. 

2:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

• Medical Care for Survivors Panel
  • Anne Boatright
  • Kathy Chiou, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her program of research is aimed at understanding the bio, psycho, and socio-determinants of cognitive functioning and outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Dr. Chiou has particular interests in studying TBI in at-risk, marginalized, and underserved populations, including survivors of intimate partner violence. She hopes that research in this area will help bring about systematic changes to service delivery that ultimately improve outcomes and quality of life for all survivors with brain injury. 
  • Kalen Knight is the Forensic Nursing Specialist in the Education & Publications Department with the International Association of Forensic Nurses. He has extensive experience in clinical practice and education development from his prior professional nursing experiences, including emergency, trauma, infectious disease, biocontainment/quarantine, nursing education, and forensic nursing. He is a practicing SANE-A at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, Neb., a Medicolegal Death Investigator in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and an adjunct lecturer for the Master in Forensic Nursing Program at Oakland University for the Quality, Legal, Matters of Death Course and Clinical.
• Leading From Everywhere
  • As Advocates in the field of domestic and sexual violence, it is important to embrace leadership beyond the top down, one-dimensional models where only a couple of people are considered to be the “leaders”. Everyone is a leader, regardless of their role or title. Leading from Everywhere centers our “Leader Within” as we nimbly identify and shift to appropriate ways to share leadership and collaborate with our team. Whether we are leading from the front, behind, beside, or the field, we acknowledge that leadership is strengthened by recognizing a multidimensional approach that includes a range of styles. In order to navigate the ongoing challenges of our changing world, we must learn how to lead from everywhere, allowing us to make the most of the diverse talents and abilities of all. 
  • Presenter: Lynne Lange, B.A., CPCC, brings over 30 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and capacity building to her work as a leadership coach, consultant, and facilitator.
• Not Just in Your Head: Reclaiming The Body and Rewiring the Narrative
  • The first portion of the workshop will focus on education around brain development, trauma’s impact on neural networks, and how healing is possible through neuroplasticity. Using accessible visuals and simple language, we’ll explore:
    • The roles of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex in trauma responses 
      How trauma gets “stuck” in the nervous system and interferes with memory, language, and self-perception 
    • The science of neuroplasticity and how new, healing narratives can be built through repeated experiences of safety and connection 
    • Why “talk therapy alone” isn’t always enough—and how body-based and sensory interventions engage the brain’s natural repair system 
  • In the second portion, we’ll explore:
    • Somatic grounding techniques to increase felt safety and emotional regulation 
    • How EMDR’s use of bilateral stimulation supports integration and desensitization of traumatic material 
    • Parts work (IFS/ego state-informed) as a tool for helping clients understand and soften internal conflicts, protective mechanisms, and feelings of shame 
    • How to help clients begin shifting internal narratives from "What’s wrong with me?" to "What happened to me—and what do I need now?
  • Presenters: Miranda Stoll is a licensed independent mental health practitioner and a licensed alcohol and substance abuse counselor. Breana Songers is a clinical mental health therapist who specializes in sexual assault.
• Know Your Rights
  • More information coming soon!
• Quiet Room
  • The content and subjects featured during the conference may be of a heavy nature. Please take care of yourself. If you need to take a break, you are welcome to visit our quiet room.