The Mary Byron Project
Fostering Innovations and Strategies to End Domestic Violence
The Mary Byron Project was established in 2000 in memory of the young woman whose tragic murder led to the creation of automated crime victim notification technologies. As a nationally recognized thought leader on domestic violence, the Mary Byron Project cultivates and supports efforts that extend beyond crisis management to attack the root causes of this epidemic and help build safer, healthier communities.
National Advisory board
Jerry J. Bowles presides as Circuit Court Judge in Jefferson Family Court in Louisville, Kentucky. From 1991-1996, Judge Bowles initiated and served as Director/Chief Prosecutor of the Jefferson County Attorney's Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit. A nationally known expert in domestic violence, Bowles has served as vice-chair of the Kentucky Governor's Council on Domestic Violence and serves as a technical advisor to the U.S. Attorney General's Office on Violence against Women. He also lectures, writes and consults throughout the United States on issues relating to domestic violence.
Dr. Jacquelyn C. Campbell, Ph.D., RN, FAAN is a Professor of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University and a nationally recognized expert on family violence and violence against women. Her research studies have been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Justice, the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Defense. Campbell's research results have been used as the basis of health policy recommendations to state, national and international organizations. She has authored numerous articles and books and has spent more than 25 years working with domestic violence shelters and advocacy organizations.
Sharon Denaro, esq., is Director of the Advocate Center for Training and Treatment (ACTT) in Miami, Florida, which provides professionals with domestic violence and sexual assault training. She has spent most of her professional career working to improve systems to better respond to domestic violence and sexual assault. She wrote the Miami Dade County Domestic Violence Plan, Policies and Procedures (1991) and the District of Columbia Domestic Violence Plan (1995), which formed the blueprint for implementation of the domestic violence courts in both communities. Denaro has worked as a consultant in the area of domestic violence for the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Virginia, and for other federally funded grant programs.
Barbara Hart, esq., is Legal Director of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She guides several national technical assistance initiatives, the Battered Women's Justice Project/Civil, LAPTOP, the National Center on Full Faith and Credit, and the STOP Technical Assistance Project. For over twenty years, Hart has led the fight to provide greater protection to battered women and their children. She has helped to create numerous organizations across the nation that advocate for increased safety for victims of domestic violence, including the Women's Legal Clinic at George Washington Law School, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Leadership Institute for Women, the Batterer Intervention Services Network of Pennsylvania, and the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women.
Astrid H. Heger, M.D. is Executive Director and founder of the Violence Intervention Program (VIP), located at the Los Angeles County (LAC) + University of Southern California (USC) Medical Center. The first of its kind, “one-stop shop” program offers medical, mental health, protective, legal, and social services to victims of family violence and sexual assault. Heger is an internationally recognized expert on the medical diagnosis of child abuse and neglect and sexual assault in all ages. Her ground-breaking work in child abuse has become the international standard of care and is the basis of her textbook, Evaluation of the Sexually Abused Child (Oxford University Press).
Anne Seymour has been a national victim advocate for nearly 30 years, and specializes in victims' rights policy, corrections-based victim services, research, and training and technical assistance. She currently serves on the Board of the National Institute of Corrections, on the PREA Review Committee, and as a Consultant to the Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project. She has served as director of public affairs for the National Office of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and as co-founder and director of communications of the National Center for Victims of Crime. She has received numerous honors for her work.
