Michael A. Saini, PhD, MSW, RSW, is a full professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and cross-appointed with the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. He holds the endowed Factor-Inwentash Chair in Law and Social Work and is the Co-Director of the combined JD / MSW program. He is the current AFCC President. In 2019, he was awarded the AFCC Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award. He was awarded the Meyer Elkin Essay from the Family Court Review in both 2018 and 2024.

Hilary Linton, JD, LLM, is a former family and civil law litigator. She established Riverdale Mediation in 2001, one of Ontario’s first full-service family dispute resolution firms. With five colleagues, she works as a mediator, arbitrator, parent coordinator, child interviewer, and family violence screener. She has designed innovative training for FDR professionals and extensive curriculum in screening for power imbalances including family violence for lawyers, mediators, parenting coordinators and arbitrators. The author of the Ontario Judges’ and Lawyers’ Guide to Safety Planning, she was a member of the Advisory Group that developed Justice Canada’s HELP Toolkit: Identifying and Responding to Family Violence for Family Law Legal Advisors (2022). She has spoken and written on the research, tools and best practices to support professionals with their duty to “do no harm.” Her work has been recognized with awards of excellence from the Ontario Bar Association and the Family Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario.

Amy G. Applegate, JD, is a clinical professor of law and Ralph F. Fuchs Faculty Fellow, and the director of the Civil Protection Order Clinic at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. She has introduced screening for intimate partner violence or abuse (IPV) with clients seeking civil protection orders and taught mediation theory and practice in the clinical law program she developed. She and her colleagues developed the Mediator’s Assessment of Safety Issues and Concerns (MASIC), and recently the shortened MASIC (MASIC-S). She has tested methods of screening for a history of IPV in cases seeking family mediation, so that mediators are aware of IPV and consider the possible impact of IPV on the mediation process, conducting randomized controlled trials testing the effectiveness of family law interventions, including different mediation approaches (for both families with and without histories of IPV) and online parent education programs.

Elisabeth Godbout, MSW, PhD, received her MSW and PhD in social work from Laval University. She completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Toronto and the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières. She is currently an associate professor at Laval University’s School of Social Work and Criminology. Her research focuses on family transitions (separation, divorce, and stepfamilies) and, more specifically, on high conflict separation and divorce (including conflicts surrounding parenting plans and children's exposure to conflict and domestic violence). She is interested in children's adaptation in these contexts, as well as respect for their rights and interests. She also conducts research on the accessibility of psychosocial and legal services for separated families.

Anadelle M. Martinez-Mullen, JD, has been working in the field of violence against women for more than 20 years. She began her work in this field as an advocate assisting victims of intimate partner violence. Upon graduating law school, she practiced family law. Before joining the Battered Women’s Justice Project (BWJP), she represented victims of violence in civil protection order actions. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Florida Coastal School of Law.

Tracy Shoberg, JD, is the deputy director of the National Legal Center on Children and Domestic Violence with the Battered Women’s Justice Project (BWJP). In this role, she has trained thousands of legal practitioners to enhance their practice surrounding domestic violence, including how to effectively use the SAFeR approach. Tracy holds BAs in English and Gender Studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a JD from the University of Minnesota Law School. She committed herself to this work in 2012 when she began working at End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin.

Lisa Heslop, PhD, joined the team at the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children (CREVAWC), Western University following career managing a clinical crisis intervention team with the London Police Service. She co-leads initiatives at CREVAWC related to family violence and family law and also co-leads Awareness to Action, moving from screening and assessment to developing appropriate parenting plans after family violence in the family justice system. Lisa has a doctoral degree in developmental psychology from the University of Toronto. She is the co-author of articles and book chapters related to gender-based violence and its impact; trauma and violence informed practice; and the criminalization of persons with mental illness. She is a member of the Clinical Panel of the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, and a consultant at Navigating Onward, London Family Court Clinic.

Katreena Scott, PhD, is a psychologist and a professor in applied psychology within the Faculty of Education at Western University, and a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Ending Child Abuse and Domestic Violence. She serves as the academic director of the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children, where she leads a dedicated team of students and research associates who are working to understand and prevent violence in relationships. Katreena is internationally recognized for her research on empirically and ethically sound policies and practices for intervening with men who have used violence against their partners and/or children.

Hon. Rosemary Collins (Ret.), was the presiding judge of the 17th Circuit Family Court in Illinois and of the Coordinated Family Violence Courts that combined civil and criminal courts dealing with family violence issues in one division. A trained mediator, she launched the court’s mediation project, which provided free trained mediators for self-represented litigants in small claims court. Retiring after 30 years on the bench, she now trains across the country on family violence, immigration law training for family court judges, and judicial leadership.

Kathleen McNamara, PhD, is a psychologist in private practice in Fort Collins, Colorado. She received her master’s in counseling from The Ohio State University and her doctorate in counseling psychology from Penn State. She was a tenured associate professor of psychology at Colorado State University before devoting herself to full-time practice. She specializes in working with high conflict families. She is a past chair and current member of the Colorado Psychological Association Ethics Committee. She is a past president of the Colorado Chapter of AFCC and remains involved in program planning and chapter development. She also serves on the AFCC Executive Board, Conference Committee, Continuing Education Committee, and Finance Committee.

Angelique Jenney, MSW, PhD, RSW, is an associate professor and the Wood's Homes Research Chair in Children's Mental Health in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. She has 25 years of experience in intervention and prevention services within the gender-based violence, child protection, and children's mental health sectors. Her community-based, simulation research and practice interests focus on trauma-informed approaches to working with young people with childhood experiences of intimate partner violence and their families.

Peter Jaffe, PhD, is a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario. He is also the director emeritus for London Family Court Clinic. For over 40 years, most of his research and clinical work involves adults and children who have been victims of abuse and involved with the criminal, family and civil court systems. He has co-authored 12 books, 40 chapters and more than 90 articles. His publications are related to children, families and the justice system including Preventing Domestic Homicides: Lessons Learned from Tragedies and Understanding Family Violence in Family Court Proceedings: Providing Effective Responses for Victims, Children, and Perpetrators. He has presented workshops across the United States and Canada, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Europe to various groups including judges, lawyers, mental health professionals and educators. Since 1997, he has been a faculty member for the US National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges' program on Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases. He has been an expert witness in family and criminal law proceedings in five provinces and seven US states. He is a founding member of Canada's first Domestic Violence Death Review Committee through the Office of Ontario's Chief Coroner.

Archana Medhekar, LLB, LLM, a certified family law specialist and accredited family mediator-arbitrator, has practiced law in Ontario for over 20 years. She is a panel lawyer for the Office of the Children’s Lawyer and a member of the Family Rules Committee of Ontario. Her litigation and research focus on the impact of family violence and barriers in accessing justice for individuals with intersectional vulnerabilities. She has co-authored books Domestic Violence in Immigrant Communities: Case Studies, Breaking the Silence: The Untold Journeys of Racialized Immigrant Youth Through Family Violence, and Childhood Experiences of Family Violence Among Racialized Immigrant Youth: Case Studies. A public speaker, educator, and trainer for professionals, mediators, and judges, Archana also works on the United Nations platform for SDG 16+ agenda for peace and justice. She was honored with the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award.

Glenda Lux, MA, RPsych, has been in clinical practice since 2001 working with parents, children, and families. She is a registered psychologist with an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Calgary, and a graduate degree in counselling psychology from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. She has specialized training and experience in working with couples and their families as they go through divorce and post-divorce. Ms. Lux provides divorce-related forensic services such as parent mediation, parent coordination, co-parenting counselling, reunification therapy, psychological testing, parenting-time/parenting responsibility assessments (PN8), parental fitness evaluations and litigation support. She has published in the area of coercive control and its relevance to best interest determinations in Canadian family law.

Beth Archer-Kuhn, PhD, is a faculty member in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary, with research experience and interests that include the overlap of child custody decision-making and domestic violence. The implications of this work invite partnerships in the fields of social work, child welfare, children’s mental health, domestic violence shelters and law. She teaches across programs: clinical, ICD, leadership, and across levels of programs: BSW, MSW, and PhD. She spent 23 years as a clinical social worker focused on children’s mental health, including roles as clinical director of services and executive director. She has completed child custody and access evaluations for the family court in Ontario. In November 2022, she co-authored, Reigniting Curiosity and Inquiry in Higher Education: A Realist's Guide to Getting Started with Inquiry-Based Learning.

Natalie Beltrano, PhD(c), is at the School of Social Work at the University of Windsor. From 2004 to 2017, she worked directly with families and children in various child welfare worker positions before she returned to higher education. She left child welfare in 2019 and entered academia; it was at this time she recognized her perpetuation of systemic violence as a child welfare worker. Her research is focused on the impact of systemic violence and oppression in colonial institutions, guided by critical race theory and an intersectionality lens. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the impact of anti-Black racism and classism in child welfare worker clinical decision-making. Her program of research includes the impact of post-separation coercive control in shared parenting.