Forward Together: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Protecting Children from Abuse

Catherine Campbell is the Executive Director of the California Protective Parents Association (CPPA). Prior to joining CPPA in 2017, Catherine focused her career in marketing and communications where her roles ranged from traveling the world as a spokesperson for Disney to launching Microsoft products with Ogilvy & Mather to ensuring Medicare’s Meaningful Use programs are followed by oncologists. Being a protective parent, concerned with child safety issues in the family court system for many years, Catherine transitioned into a passionate, committed advocate for all children. Her advocacy has made a meaningful impact on state and federal legislative efforts, which includes H. Con. Res. 72, a federal resolution that passed unanimously in the U.S. House of Representatives, recognizing child safety as a first priority in custody adjudications. As a senior advocate, she has significantly contributed to successful efforts securing the first-ever audit of the Commission on Judicial Performance. With a passion to raise awareness of the family court crisis, she continues to organize conferences and film screenings to educate and ultimately help to pass laws in CA for child safety. Catherine’s volunteer work has included teaching Sunday school for more than a decade and co-leading a Divorce and Relationship Recovery program for seven years. For fun and enjoyment, Catherine cherishes spending time with her two adult children, cooking, hiking, reading, and taking photos.

Moses Castillo serves as Chief Investigator for Dordulian Law Group. As chief investigator, Castillo plays a pivotal role in the process of securing justice for clients, applying his decades of law enforcement experience and unique investigative expertise to the firm’s most important cases.

For nearly 30 years, Castillo was a decorated detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. His career in law enforcement began in 1989 as a Reserve Officer in various locations throughout Southeast Los Angeles including Hollenbeck, Rampart, and Newton. In 1991, Castillo graduated from the LAPD’s distinguished academy, officially becoming an officer in the third-largest police force in the U.S.

In 1992, Castillo was an officer in the department’s Hollenbeck Division during the Los Angeles riots that captivated the nation and garnered world attention. Shortly thereafter, he progressed into the narcotics division’s Juvenile Narcotics School Buy Program, tackling the issue of drug use on school campuses through undercover work.

In 1993, Castillo worked out of the Hollenbeck station as an Area Patrol & CRASH-Gang Unit officer, where he remained for two years before transferring to the Personnel Division in 1995. There, he was tasked with conducting background investigations on incoming applicants wishing to join the LAPD.

In 1998, following a return to the Juvenile Narcotics Division, Moses Castillo was promoted to the rank of Detective. In May of 1999 he began working out of the Newton station in their elite sex crimes division. It would mark a chapter of Detective Castillo’s esteemed career that would prove to be transformational, as it provided him with an opportunity to discover his true passion within law enforcement, one that he would personally describe as a “higher calling,” helping survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Shortly thereafter, Castillo was promoted to the rank of Detective Supervisor.

In June of 2005, Castillo was a prominent leader in the Juvenile Division for Abused Children. As Detective Supervisor, Castillo was able to positively impact the lives of thousands of Angelenos by investigating some of the city’s most high-profile and troubling sex crimes cases involving children. Detective Castillo successfully closed countless cases where some of the city’s most detestable criminals were prosecuted with life sentences for their abhorrent crimes.

Detective Castillo spent nearly 15 years in the Juvenile Division for Abused Children. In that difficult (and often harrowing) position, Detective Castillo closed cases on criminals guilty of committing reprehensible acts against children such as physical and sexual abuse, internet crimes, child trafficking, and murder. He was a highly regarded member of the LAPD’s Sexually Exploited Child Unit, and noted for his excellent closure rate for sexual abuse cases, some of which — such as The Stuart House — received national attention.

Detective Castillo closed his career with the LAPD in the Central Traffic Division, investigating severe cases of traffic crime such as hit & run collisions resulting in fatalities. He officially retired on March 26, 2020, concluding nearly three decades spent serving the residents of Los Angeles.

Jennifer J. Freyd, Ph.D., is a researcher, author, educator, and speaker.  Freyd is the Founder and President of the Center for Institutional Courage, Professor Emerit of Psychology at the University of Oregon, and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Medicine, Faculty Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and Affiliated Faculty, Women's Leadership Lab, Stanford University. She is also a Member of the Advisory Committee, 2019-2023, for the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education, National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Freyd was in 1989-90 and again in 2018-19 a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Freyd currently serves as the Editor of The Journal of Trauma & Dissociation.

Freyd is a widely published and renowned scholar known for her theories of betrayal trauma, institutional betrayal, institutional courage, and DARVO. She received her PhD in Psychology from Stanford University. The author or coauthor of over 200 articles and op-eds, Freyd is also the author of the Harvard Press award-winning book Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse. Her most recent book Blind to Betrayal, co-authored with Pamela J. Birrell, was published by John Wiley, with seven additional translations. In 2014, Freyd was invited two times to the U.S. White House due to her research on sexual assault and institutional betrayal. In 2021 Freyd and the University of Oregon settled Freyd’s precedent-setting equal pay lawsuit.

Freyd has received numerous awards including being named a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, an Erskine Fellow at The University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In April 2016, Freyd was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation.  Freyd was selected for the 2021 Christine Blasey Ford Woman of Courage Award by the Association for Women in Psychology.

Joan Meier is a Professor of Clinical Law and Director of the National Family Violence Law Center at the George Washington University (GW) Law School. Professor Meier has been a clinical law professor for 29 years at GW Law, where she founded three pioneering and nationally recognized interdisciplinary domestic violence clinical programs. She has published widely on domestic violence, custody, clinical teaching, criminal procedure, and various Supreme Court decisions. Her major study, “Child Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Parental Alienation and Abuse Allegations,” funded by the National Institute of Justice, was completed in 2019. Its findings have been written about in scholarship and multiple media outlets including The Washington Post and The New Yorker. 

In August 2019, Professor Meier stepped down from the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project (DV LEAP), the nonprofit she founded in 2003 to provide pro bono appeals in domestic violence cases. While at DV LEAP, she was the co-author of eleven amicus briefs and three party briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. She also represented domestic violence organizations and survivors of domestic violence in state court appeals all over the country and in Washington, DC. DV LEAP’s cases involved custody and child protection, enforcement of civil protection orders, criminal prosecution of batterers, and other issues.  Professor Meier has provided numerous trainings for judges, psychologists, lawyers, domestic violence coalitions, and others on best practices in adjudication of domestic violence and family court litigation and on her empirical research.

DV LEAP and Professor Meier have received several awards, including among others, the American Bar Association’s first ever Sharon L. Corbitt Award, which recognizes exceptional service and leadership in improving the legal response to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and/or stalking; and the Outstanding Leadership Award from Justice for Children in 2007. Professor Meier received the Cahn Award from the National Equal Justice Library for her article on domestic violence and welfare reform. She was featured as a commentator in “Breaking the Silence: Children’s Voices,” the PBS documentary that aired in October 2005.

She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1980, cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School in 1983, and clerked on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Dr. Sandra Murray attended both medical school and pediatric residency at the University of California, Irvine.  After her residency, she worked in general and in-patient and out-patient pediatrics for two years.  She then completed a fellowship in Family Violence at the Chadwick Center for Children in San Diego.  Dr. Murray is board certified in general pediatrics and in the sub-specialty child abuse pediatrics.  She is the past medical director of the Riverside Child Assessment Team in Riverside County and the Child Abuse Service Team in Orange County. She is currently the medical director of the Child Abuse and Protection Team at Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital (MCWH) in Long Beach.  She is now a retired professor of pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine where she is still working as a child abuse pediatrician at UCI Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and Child Abuse Services Team (CAST).

Dr. Murray is an active member of several organizations that focus on prevention and education about child abuse and family violence:  WE CAN Coalition, Chapter 4 AAP Section on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention, the UCI Institute to End Family Violence, The Raise Foundation, The Clinic in the Park, the OC Child Death Review Team, and Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect teams at MCWH, CHOC, UCIMC, and the Orange County Wide SCAN team.

Dr. Murray is involved in research projects focusing on safe sleep, bone strength, and fall injury.   These projects are in collaboration with UCI campus researchers, the Orange County Coroner Office, and UCI SOM medical students. 

Danielle Pollack is the Policy Manager for the National Family Violence Law Center at George Washington University (GW) Law School in Washington D.C. She works in collaboration with state and federal lawmakers, partner organizations, advocates and families to create child-centric policy reform and provide public education on family courts. She has developed and advised on child protective statutory language for several states, including most recently for Connecticut, Colorado, and Pennsylvania with Kayden’s Law, as well as federally for a section of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Her short documentary film, Voices for Reform, has been used to raise awareness on family court and family violence issues, including at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). 

Jodi Quas, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine. She is internationally recognized for her work on children’s eyewitness capabilities, memory, and suggestibility; and the consequences of exposure to family violence and legal involvement on children and adolescents. She has received numerous awards for her research and student training, including the Nicholas Hobbs Award for Career Contributions from the Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice, and the Outstanding Mentoring Award from the American Psychology and Law Society. She is dedicated not only to pursuing rigorous science on crucial topics relevant to identifying and intervening on behalf of violence exposed youth, but also to disseminating findings to diverse audiences. She conducts workshops for law enforcement, legal professionals, educators, and social service professionals in the U.S. and abroad about how best to identify and address the needs of youth who have experienced or witnessed family violence and as a result become immersed in legal cases in juvenile, family, and criminal court contexts.

Assemblywoman Blanca E. Rubio represents the 48th Assembly District in the California State Assembly. The district includes Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bradbury, Covina, Duarte, El Monte, Glendora, Industry, Irwindale, Monrovia, West Covina, and the Los Angeles County unincorporated communities of Bassett, Charter Oak, Citrus, East Arcadia, Ramona, Valinda and West La Puente.

During this year that has held struggles for her constituents, Rubio has held food drives, PPE giveaways to healthcare facilities, and fought hard to pass legislation like AB 323 to protect local journalism.

In the 2018-19 California state budget, Rubio supported record investments in schools and universities, responsible funding of the Rainy-Day Fund and combating homelessness and poverty. She has authored bills that help children in foster care and assist immigrant communities.

As a former educator, Rubio fully backed additional funds for K-12 schools, help make college more affordable for California students, and increase childcare funding.

As Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Domestic Violence, she pushed for a significant fund investment in services for domestic violence survivors. She was able to set aside $10 million to invest in services for survivors and another $10 million for temporary housing solutions for survivors fleeing domestic violence.

Rubio was elected to the Assembly in November 2016.

In Rubio’s first year, she immediately made an impact with six of her bills signed into law and in her second term she had an impressive 12 Bills signed into law by Governor Brown. During budget negotiations, she obtained millions of dollars for San Gabriel Valley transportation projects.

Prior to serving in the Assembly, Rubio spent 16 years as a public school teacher and 20 years in elected office, serving on the Valley County Water Board, and Baldwin Park Unified School District. She is a proud mother of two children.

Rubio was born in Juarez, Mexico, and came to the United States with her parents at a young age. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Master’s Degree in Education with a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from Azusa Pacific University.

Grant Wyeth is a Melbourne-based writer and academic. Formerly of the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. He is a longstanding columnist for the Asia-Pacific affairs publication, The Diplomat. Alongside this, his work has been widely published in an array of current affairs publications in Australia, the United States, and Europe, including Foreign Policy and World Politics Review.

Although his background is in political science and international relations, over the past year Grant has turned his attention to the behaviour of family courts worldwide, and more broadly violence against women and girls. In his work on the family court he has sought to understand why the courts are often proving hostile to mothers and children, what are the social and political forces that drive this behaviour, what are the concepts that have come to dominate custody cases, and what are the perceptions of mothers, fathers, and the household that influence decision-making processes. Seeking to comprehend the political implications of these trends.

He has a forthcoming journal article in Family & Intimate Partner Violence Quarterly on what he has seen as the ideological conversion of the family court over the past few decades.