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DomesticShelters.org Contributing Writers

  • Amanda Kippert

    Amanda Kippert

    Editor-in-Chief, DomesticShelters.org

    Amanda Kippert is an award-winning freelance journalist and the content editor of DomesticShelters.org. She is a trained domestic violence advocate and has volunteered with the emergency help line of her loc...

  • Allison Thomas

    Allison Thomas

    Allison Thomas is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant with more than 20 years of experience. Beyond contributing to DomesticShelters.org, she also writes for various publications and clients in the fi...

  • Barry Goldstein

    Barry Goldstein

    DV Author, Speaker and Advocate

    Barry Goldstein is a nationally recognized domestic violence author, speaker and advocate. He is the author of five leading books about domestic violence and child custody including The Quincy Solution: Stop...

  • Brian F.  Martin

    Brian F. Martin

    Founder and CEO, Childhood Domestic Violence Association

    Brian Martin is the Founder and CEO of the Childhood Domestic Violence Association and author of the New York Times Bestseller Invincible: The 10 Lies You Learn Growing Up With Domestic Violence and the Trut...

  • Charlotte Maya

    Charlotte Maya

    Charlotte Maya was widowed in 2007 when her husband died by suicide, leaving Charlotte and their two young children. She writes from an insider’s perspective as the mother (and now step-mother) to four young...

  • Connie Sloane

    Connie Sloane

    Founder, The Soda Foundation

    Connie Sloan is an author, philanthropist, consultant and revitalization coach, and the Founder of The Soda Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps survivors of domestic abuse rebuild their lives.

  • Donna Kaz

    Donna Kaz

    Donna Kaz is the author of UN/MASKED, Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour, which follows her surprising 25-year journey as a survivor of domestic violence at the hands of a Hollywood movie star and subsequen...

  • Erica  Wilcox, LPC

    Erica Wilcox, LPC

    Founder /Executive Director, Wilcox Wellness, LLC

    Erica Wilcox is a licensed professional counselor and certified EMDR therapist who dedicates her work to holistically helping individuals and groups heal from stress and trauma. She is the founder and direct...

  • Evan  Stark, PhD

    Evan Stark, PhD

    Evan Stark Ph.D. is a leading authority on woman battering and child abuse and an associate professor of public administration, director of the master's in public health program at Rutgers-Newark and directo...

  • Hannah Kay  Herdlinger

    Hannah Kay Herdlinger

    Founder, Thread Talk

    Hannah Kay Herdlinger is a domestic violence survivor and the founder of Thread Talk, a company that spreads opportunity with comfort. Thread Talk sells blankets and other cozy keepsakes and donates a portio...

  • Heather Poole

    Heather Poole

    Heather Poole is a flight attendant for a major U.S. carrier, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet.

  • Janice  Fuller-Roberts

    Janice Fuller-Roberts

    Survivor, and Volunteer Coordinator, CNS Hospice

    Janice Fuller-Roberts is a freelance writer, novelist, and blogger living in the metropolitan Detroit area. She has a popular advice column called “Ask Janice” at SuzyKnew.com, a site dedicated to the sexual...

  • Jill Filipovic

    Jill Filipovic

    Jill Filipovic is author of The H Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness and senior contributor writer for cosmopolitan.com. A frequent speaker and on-air commentator on gender, political and legal issues, ...

  • Katherine Fugate

    Katherine Fugate

    Screenwriter, Director, Creator

    Katherine Fugate is an activist, mom, survivor and the creator and executive producer of Army Wives, and the screenwriter of Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve.

  • Kit Gruelle

    Kit Gruelle

    Survivor, Advocate, Community Educator

    Kit Gruelle is a survivor of domestic violence who has worked as an advocate for battered women and their children for almost 30 years. She is a renowned community educator, lecturer and subject matter exper...

  • Lisa Aronson Fontes, PhD

    Lisa Aronson Fontes, PhD

    Child Abuse & Domestic Violence Expert

    Lisa Aronson Fontes Ph.D. is a popular speaker, workshop facilitator and senior Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts. She is the author of Invisible Chains: Overcoming Coercive Control in Your Intimat...

  • Lori Day

    Lori Day

    Educational Psychologist and Consultant, Lori Day Consultant

    Lori Day is an educational psychologist, consultant and parenting coach with Lori Day Consulting in Newburyport, MA. She is the author of Her Next Chapter: How Mother-Daughter Book Clubs Can Help Girls Navig...

  • Lynn  Fairweather, MSW

    Lynn Fairweather, MSW

    Founder, Presage Consulting

    Lynn Fairweather, MSW is an abuse survivor who has worked in violence response and prevention for more than 30 years. As president of Presage Consulting and Training LLC, she is responsible for providing a d...

  • Melissa Jeltsen

    Melissa Jeltsen

    Senior Reporter, HuffPost

    Melissa Jeltsen is a senior reporter at HuffPost, where she covers domestic violence and other issues related to women’s health, safety and security. 

  • Neda Yildirim

    Neda Yildirim

    Neda Yildirim recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political Science from SUNY University at Buffalo. She currently works as a legal assistant at a law firm in New York City. Prior to her current p...

  • Rita Smith

    Rita Smith

    Vice-President of External Relations, DomesticShelters.org

    Rita Smith is a nationally recognized expert in domestic violence who has been interviewed by hundreds of newspaper reporters, appeared on many local and national radio and television news shows, including t...

  • Rosemary Lombardy

    Rosemary Lombardy

    Rosemary Lombardy is a financial advisor and portfolio manager with over 35 years of experience. Although her professional expertise is in financial matters, her perspective on marital abuse, divorce, and re...

  • Samra Zafar

    Samra Zafar

    Samra Zafar is an international speaker, human rights activist, scholar, author and social entrepreneur. She also serves as Governor for the University of Toronto and is the founder and president of the nonp...

  • Shelley Flannery

    Shelley Flannery

    Advocate, Freelance Writer and Editor

    Shelley Flannery is a trained domestic violence advocate long-time freelance writer and editor whose experience includes domestic violence reporting as well as law enforcement. She strives to make stories co...

  • Sherry  Hamby, PhD

    Sherry Hamby, PhD

    Sherry Hamby, Ph.D., is a research professor of psychology at Sewanee, the University of the South. You can visit her at her websites, Life Paths Research Center and The Vigor.

  • Stephanie Thurrott

    Stephanie Thurrott

    Stephanie Thurrott is a journalist and trained domestic violence advocate who has contributed more than 50 articles and counting for DomesticShelters.org covering topics that range from the costs of escaping...

  • Suzannah Weiss

    Suzannah Weiss

    Freelance Writer

    Suzannah Weiss is a writer whose work has also appeared in The Washington Post, Salon, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie Claire and Seventeen, among others. She holds degrees in Gender & Sexuality Studi...

  • Wendy  Patrick, PhD

    Wendy Patrick, PhD

    Attorney

    Wendy L. Patrick, PhD., is a career trial attorney, author of Red Flags: Frenemies, Underminers, and Ruthless People, and co-author of Reading People.

  • Liz Bailey

    Liz Bailey

    Liz Bailey is a survivor, published author, fierce feminist mama, and co-host of The Pretty Truth podcast.  She lives in Austin, Texas and when she isn’t writing, speaking, or doing the mom thing, she can b...

  • Hannah Craig

    Hannah Craig

    Senior Content Creator and Strategist, DomesticShelters.org

    Hannah Craig joined the DomesticShelters.org team in 2021. As Senior Content Strategist and Creator, Hannah focuses on helping more people find DomesticShelters.org and its domestic violence education resour...

  • Aileen  Fullchange

    Aileen Fullchange

    Aileen Fullchange, PhD is a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project and a licensed Taiwanese-American psychologist who serves diverse teens, individuals, couples, and families on Caddo, Witchta and Comanche...

  • Dr. Christine Marie  Cocchiola, DSW, LCSW

    Dr. Christine Marie Cocchiola, DSW, LCSW

    Dr. Christine Marie Cocchiola, DSW, LCSW is a Coercive Control Educator, researcher and survivor. She is a full-time college professor teaching social work for the last 20 years and has been a social justice...

  • Aura Cares

    Aura Cares

    Aura is a leader in intelligent safety solutions, providing all-in-one digital protection for consumers. By bringing together security, privacy and parental controls on an intelligent platform, Aura makes ad...

  • Casey Gwinn

    Casey Gwinn

    President & Co-Founder, Alliance for HOPE International

    Casey Gwinn, J.D. is the President of Alliance for HOPE International. He is the former elected City Attorney of San Diego and helped pass California’s Suspicious Injury Reporting Law as a prosecutor in 1994...

  • Gael Strack

    Gael Strack

    CEO & Co-Founder, Alliance for HOPE International

    Gael Strack, J.D. is the Chief Executive Officer of Alliance for HOPE International. She served as the first Director of a Family Justice Center anywhere in the United States. She is the founder of the Train...

  • Joyce Bilyeu

    Director of Operations, Sacramento Regional Family Justice Center

    Joyce Bilyeu is an advocate and survivor. She currently serves as the Director of Operations at the Sacramento Regional Family Justice Center.  She survived being shot at close range by her abuser many years...

  • JoAnna Baanana

    JoAnna Baanana

    Partner, O’Brien Communications Group

    JoAnna Baanana is a mother, survivor, advocate, writer, and marketer. In 2019, she left her abusive marriage and began to untangle the threads of her new life as a survivor. While she’s grateful for the less...