A National Conversation on the Harmful Effects of Pornography on Children
Speakers' Bios
Our conference speakers follow. Please click on each name to jump directly to the biography.
SHARON W. COOPER, MD FAAP
SHARON W. COOPER, MD FAAP
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Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics - University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine
Staff Forensic and Developmental Pediatrician - Womack Army Medical Center Fort Bragg, North Carolina Presentation: PORNOGRAPHY AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE DEVELOPING BRAIN Sharon Cooper is a developmental and forensic pediatrician who evaluates and treats children who have been victims of all forms of abuse, though her primary area of expertise is sexual exploitation. Dr. Cooper holds faculty positions at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Department of Pediatrics and the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. |
She is a consultant and Board member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She is also a member of the Expert Working Group on Children who Experience Violence in Cyberspace. She has lectured nationally and internationally, and has provided Congressional testimony in the United States, Russia, Manitoba Canada, and Italy on child sexual exploitation. She has spoken at the European Commission on a safer Internet and is the lead author of one of the most comprehensive text on child sexual exploitation. Dr. Cooper provides training to numerous national and international investigative agencies in the area of Internet and Communication Technology crimes against children.
Dr. Cooper recently served as a Task Force member on the Defending Childhood-Children Exposed to Violence report, having been appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder. She actively evaluates victims of child abuse images and the commercial sexual exploitation and has been qualified as in expert witness in more than 300 court proceedings. She regularly provides training for multidisciplinary teams who work on child maltreatment cases and provides particular attention to all forms of sexual exploitation. She continues to provide medical care for children with disabilities and serves in several organizations which work towards the prevention of child maltreatment.
Dr. Cooper recently served as a Task Force member on the Defending Childhood-Children Exposed to Violence report, having been appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder. She actively evaluates victims of child abuse images and the commercial sexual exploitation and has been qualified as in expert witness in more than 300 court proceedings. She regularly provides training for multidisciplinary teams who work on child maltreatment cases and provides particular attention to all forms of sexual exploitation. She continues to provide medical care for children with disabilities and serves in several organizations which work towards the prevention of child maltreatment.
DR. DIANNE DOUGLAS
DR. DIANNE DOUGLAS
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Director of Douglas & Associates Limited
Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale University School of Medicine , Department of Psychiatry Presentation: PORNOGRAPHY: ITS PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS ON CHILDREN AND THE FAMILY Dr. Douglas is a Doctor of Clinical Psychology and a Community Psychologist. She completed her training in the U.S.A. at Wheaton College and Yale University. She is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry, Part-time lecturer in the Masters in Clinical Psychology programme of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at UWI, a regional consultant on the Expert Team of UN Women’s Partnership for Peace, Domestic Violence Intervention Programme, UNDP and UNAIDS and a Past President of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Psychologists (TTAP). |
Dr. Douglas is committed to the psychological development of persons in Caribbean and enjoys using radio and television as a means of promoting the message of psychological health and wellbeing. She is a member of TTAP, The American Association of Psychologists, (APA), Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA), The American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), and the founder and chair of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Christian Counselors (TTACC).
DAWN HAWKINS
DAWN HAWKINS
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Vice President & Executive Director
National Center on Sexual Exploitation Presentation: WINNING THE FIGHT AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY IN THE US Dawn Hawkins is a passionate defender of human rights who has dedicated her life to fighting against societal harms that threaten the dignity of others. Her energy, creativity and mobilization skills have revived the anti-pornography movement. As Executive Director of National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCSE), Mrs. Hawkins has developed a national strategy uniting conservative women’s rights, child advocacy and religious groups, including a bipartisan political leadership, to work together raising awareness of the pandemic of harm from pornography. Her initiatives have led to sweeping changes on international policies that foster exploitation for targets such as Google, Verizon and the Department of Defense. |
Through her leadership, NCSE has grown a network reaching hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. Mrs. Hawkins has appeared on many local and national television programs, including CNN, Good Morning America and Fox & Friends. She regularly authors articles and speaks around the country addressing the harms of pornography and all forms of sexual exploitation and what can be done to curb the growing public health crisis resulting from pornography.
DONALD HILTON, MD
DONALD HILTON, MD
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Neurosurgeon
University of Texas Presentation: BRAIN DRAIN: NEUROLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION Dr. Hilton is a neurosurgeon in San Antonio, Texas. He is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center and serves as director of the spine fellowship at the medical school program, and is also director of neurosurgical training for the residency program at the Methodist Hospital rotation. He travels and speaks nationally and internationally, and has published book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles, with special interest in minimally invasive spinal surgery and in neural mechanisms involving addiction. He is currently listed in Best Doctors in America, is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. |
He has recently authored and co-authored several papers on addiction in peer-reviewed journals. One published in 2011 in the Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) which investigated the role of natural instinctive craving in addiction. In additional, other papers publishing in 2013 and 2014 in the journal Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology have explored the pornography addiction from the perspective of neural learning models. One is titled “Pornography Addiction: A Supranormal Stimulus Considered in the Context of Neuroplasticity,” and the other is a peer-reviewed rebuttal to the Steele et al. paper purportedly refuting the addiction mode; it is titled “High Desire, or ‘Merely’ an Addiction?”
MARY ANNE LAYDEN, PHD
Mary Anne Layden, PhD
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Psychotherapist
Director of Education, Center for Cognitive Therapy Presentation: PORNOGRAPHY: THE PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS OF THE DIGITAL AGE Mary Anne Layden, PhD, is a psychotherapist and Director of Education at the Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the Director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program and the Director of the Social Action Committee for Women's Psychological Health. She co-authored the book Cognitive Therapy of Borderline Personality Disorder with C. Newman, A. Freeman and S. Morse. She has written numerous chapters on Cognitive Therapy especially on treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. She has co-authored a chapter with Linnea Smith called "Adult Survivors of the Child Sexual Exploitation Industry" in Cooper, S. et al (Eds) Medical, Legal, & Social Science Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation: A Comprehensive Review of Pornography, Prostitution, and Internet Crimes. |
DR. SARAN LOOBY
DR. SARAN LOOBY
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Clinical Psychologist
Consultant with The Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago Presentation: PORNOGRAPHY: PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN Dr. Saran Looby is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who is dedicated to guiding children and adults to recovery and helping them lead healthier, more fulfilling lives. She received her doctoral training in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina, in the USA. Thereafter, she obtained a license to practise Psychology from the state of South Carolina. Dr. Looby has extensive experience in assessment and therapy. She has worked for several years treating children, adolescents and adults in outpatient, inpatient and forensic settings and has conducted psychoeducational, psychological, diagnostic, disability, occupational and forensic evaluations. Dr Looby specializes in child protection and worked for several years at a child advocacy centre (assessment centre) where she conducted forensic interviews of children and led therapy with survivors of abuse. Dr. Looby also has extensive experience assessing and treating children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems. Since recently returning to Trinidad, Dr. Looby runs her private practice, Looby Wellness, where she conducts therapy, assessments, training, consultations and advocates for public mental health services. She is also a part-time lecturer at the UWI MSc programme in Clinical Psychology. |
She is proud to serve as a consultant with the Children’s Authority where she advises staff on their clinical practice at the assessment centres, she supervises psychologists, and trains staff on child abuse, psychological assessments, secondary trauma, among other topics. Dr. Looby is a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Psychologists (TTAP) and The American Association of Psychologists (APA).
CLAY OLSEN
CLAY OLSEN
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Co-Founder & CEO
Fight The New Drug & Impact Collective Presentation: A YOUTHFUL PERSPECTIVE ON CHANGE Clay Olsen is a creative and passionate filmmaker, marketer, public speaker, author, and social entrepreneur. In 2008 he co-founded Fight the New Drug (fightthenewdrug.org), a youth activist movement dedicated to raising awareness on the harmful effects of pornography through science, facts, and personal accounts. Since then they’ve been featured on ABC Nightline, ABC News, CNN, Al Jazeera, USA Today, NPR, the Blaze, the Dr. Drew Show, and more. Clay has personally presented to hundreds of schools and tens of thousands of teens all over the country as well as tens of thousands of parents and adults on this subject. |
In February of 2013, he founded and lead the development of an online recovery program called Fortify (fortifyprogram.org), to help individuals, particularly youth, overcome their struggle with pornography that has already impacted over 25,000 users in over 100 countries.
DR. ANNA KASAFI PERKINS
DR. ANNA KASAFI PERKINS
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Senior Programme Officer,
Quality Assurance Unit, The University of the West Indies. Presentation: 21st CENTURY POP CULTURE & SOCIAL MEDIA – CHALLENGES TO CARIBBEAN SEXUAL ETHICS Anna Kasafi Perkins, PhD is a quality assurance and organizational ethics professional. She is currently the Senior Programme Officer, Quality Assurance Unit, The University of the West Indies. A Roman Catholic theologian/ethicist by training, she is a former Dean of Studies of St Michael’s Theological College, an affiliated institution of The University of the West Indies, Mona. Dr. Perkins holds degrees from The University of the West Indies, Mona/St Michael’s Seminary, Jamaica;. Cambridge University, UK; and Boston College, USA. (In 2010, she completed the Certificate in University Teaching at UWI, Mona). |
She has wide ranging and eclectic research interests, including faith and political life, sex and sexuality, religion and popular culture (especially Dancehall), gender and the scriptures, quality assurance and enhancement, business and professional ethics. She is the author of Justice as Equality: Michael Manley's Caribbean Vision of Justice (Peter Lang 2010), and contributor/co-editor for Justice and Peace in a Renewed Caribbean: Contemporary Catholic Reflections (Palgrave Macmillan 2012) and Quality in Higher Education in the Caribbean with UWI Press (2015).
She has also written numerous articles and book chapters. Among the prestigious public lectures that Dr Perkins has delivered are: the Grace Kennedy Foundation Lecture, “Is Moral Disease Making Jamaica Ill? Re-engaging the Conversation” (March 2013); the Tolton Lecture at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, “Carib-being and Theology these days: The Unwitting Theological Enterprise of the Music of Tanya Stephens” (March 2010); and the Lewin Williams Lecture at the United Theological College of the West Indies, “Just Desert or Just Desserts? God and Suffering in these perilous times”(November 2011). In May 2014 she delivered the Graduate Studies & Research Public Lecture at UWI entitled, “Disease(d) About Morality? Thinking about Ethics in Jamaica Today”. She also delivered the Bethel Baptist Church’s 60th Anniversary Lecture in July 2015, entitled, “The Ethics of Ignorance”.
An important dimension of her service is the work she does as a mentor for Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, and the,Southern Regional Health Authority. She serves as a member of The Board for the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA); the Caribbean Conference of Churches and the Archbishop Carter Foundation. Her forays into media have included host for the Breakfast Club and Under the Microscope (BESS 100FM) and the Catholic Voice (LOVE 101). She is often called upon as a radio and television commentator on matters concerning faith and morals.
An avid and eclectic reader, she is devouring several books at a time. She likes collecting turtle ornaments, singing tunelessly and hanging out from time to time with a cat named Negro. She can be found from time to time playing auntie with her three nieces and a nephew and engaging with the other young people in her life.
She has also written numerous articles and book chapters. Among the prestigious public lectures that Dr Perkins has delivered are: the Grace Kennedy Foundation Lecture, “Is Moral Disease Making Jamaica Ill? Re-engaging the Conversation” (March 2013); the Tolton Lecture at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, “Carib-being and Theology these days: The Unwitting Theological Enterprise of the Music of Tanya Stephens” (March 2010); and the Lewin Williams Lecture at the United Theological College of the West Indies, “Just Desert or Just Desserts? God and Suffering in these perilous times”(November 2011). In May 2014 she delivered the Graduate Studies & Research Public Lecture at UWI entitled, “Disease(d) About Morality? Thinking about Ethics in Jamaica Today”. She also delivered the Bethel Baptist Church’s 60th Anniversary Lecture in July 2015, entitled, “The Ethics of Ignorance”.
An important dimension of her service is the work she does as a mentor for Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, and the,Southern Regional Health Authority. She serves as a member of The Board for the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA); the Caribbean Conference of Churches and the Archbishop Carter Foundation. Her forays into media have included host for the Breakfast Club and Under the Microscope (BESS 100FM) and the Catholic Voice (LOVE 101). She is often called upon as a radio and television commentator on matters concerning faith and morals.
An avid and eclectic reader, she is devouring several books at a time. She likes collecting turtle ornaments, singing tunelessly and hanging out from time to time with a cat named Negro. She can be found from time to time playing auntie with her three nieces and a nephew and engaging with the other young people in her life.
SUNNY SLAUGHTER
SUNNY SLAUGHTER
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CEO & Executive Consultant - Sunny Slaughter Consulting, LLC
Consultant and Instructor, US Department of Homeland Security Specialist: Sexual Exploitation (Human Trafficking) Presentation: SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: CONNECTING THE DOTS IN REAL LIFE Sunny Slaughter is a federally certified instructor and consultant for the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. She has also successfully completed the DHS Drug Task Force Supervisor Training Program and is a recognized member of ILEETA (International Law Enforcement and Educators Association). Ms. Slaughter holds multiple certifications from FEMA, including Incident Management, Operational Planning and Integrated Preparedness and is an alumna of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of San Bernardino. |
In 2016, Slaughter was the recipient of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Global Impact Award for her work in human trafficking. She was a 2015 Contender for the Small Business of the Year Award from the Birmingham Business Alliance and won the Alabama Black Achievers Entrepreneur of Year Award from Regions Financial Corporation and The Oliver Robinson Foundation. Also in 2015, Ms. Slaughter won the 2nd Annual UAB Community Health Engagement Institute in the category of Professional Development/Evidence Based Services Award for her poster presentation “Defining the Role of Minority Health: Response to Human Trafficking Victimization, and she was a selected for Poster Presentation for the Charles Barkley Health Disparities Investigator Award at the University of Alabama at Birmingham 10th Annual Minority Health Disparities Research Symposium: “How Social Determinants of Health Contribute to Human Trafficking in African American Communities and how R.E.E.P (Recognize, Engage, Educate, Promote) changes the landscape”.
In 2014 she received a national appointment to the United Human Rights Network’s ICERD (International Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination) task-force and was invited to visit the White House. In 2013 Slaughter received the Belle Hat Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Foundation from co-founder, actor and activist Harry Belafonte for her national efforts and work in human trafficking. She also was selected to serve as an Alabama Commissioner for the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference which held hearings on Mass Incarceration and social justice and human rights violations in nine states and produced the report "Bearing Witness: A Nation in Chains".
Slaughter has served as a Crime Analyst for local, statewide and national radio and media outlets; ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN/HLN AfterDark and Trinity Broadcast Network, as well as, an established writer for local and national newspapers, magazines, international publications and she is a blogger.
In 2014 she received a national appointment to the United Human Rights Network’s ICERD (International Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination) task-force and was invited to visit the White House. In 2013 Slaughter received the Belle Hat Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Foundation from co-founder, actor and activist Harry Belafonte for her national efforts and work in human trafficking. She also was selected to serve as an Alabama Commissioner for the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference which held hearings on Mass Incarceration and social justice and human rights violations in nine states and produced the report "Bearing Witness: A Nation in Chains".
Slaughter has served as a Crime Analyst for local, statewide and national radio and media outlets; ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN/HLN AfterDark and Trinity Broadcast Network, as well as, an established writer for local and national newspapers, magazines, international publications and she is a blogger.