Bettye Mitchell is a nationally recognized for her expertise in aging, protective services, elder abuse, leadership, training, program development, and cultural diversity. She has proven leadership in designing and managing large complex programs and strategic planning. She is a dynamic, results-oriented executive who can coordinate efforts of consumers, advocacy groups, service providers, and state and federal agencies to improve the lives of persons growing older and with disabilities. Ms. Mitchell has extensive knowledge of state and federal regulations regarding the delivery and regulation of long term care and adult protective services.

     Ms. Mitchell currently serves as CEO of Life Span Care Consulting Group, a company which provides training in the field of leadership development, management, aging, disability, community and long term care, and cultural diversity. Ms. Mitchell is an experience trainer of more than twenty five years and has trained extensively throughout the United States of America, developing the Texas Adult Protective Services training program and later served as the Director of Training for the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. She is a trained mediator. Ms. Mitchell currently contracts with the Texas Protective Service Training Institute for the Department of Families and Protective Services providing training in the areas of Diversity and Leadership Development.

     Ms Mitchell served as the Director for the Adult Protective Services Program for the State of Texas from 1996-2002. Ms. Mitchell is the former Deputy Commissioner for Long Term Care with the Texas Department of Human Services from 2002 -2005. Ms. Mitchell successfully provided leadership for the over 60 long term care programs with budgets in excess of $3.8 billion dollars serving over 300,000 persons annually within the State of Texas.

     Ms. Mitchell is the proud recipient of the National Adult Protective Services (NAPSA) Joanne Otto award. She is a former President Elect of NAPSA and currently serves as President- Elect of the National Committee of Elder Abuse (NCPEA) after serving as the Educational Chair of NCPEA. She is retired from the State of Texas after 28 years of service.

     Georgia J. Anetzberger, PhD, ACSW, LISW, is Assistant Professor for Health Care Administration at Cleveland State University, a consultant in private practice, and a Fellow in the Gerontological Society of America.  She has spent over thirty years addressing the problem of elder abuse, initially as an adult protective services worker and most recently as a researcher, administrator, and educator concerned with the dynamics and consequences of elder abuse situations.  Her past employment includes: Vice President for Community Services with the Benjamin Rose Institute, Director of the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center, Executive Director of the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging, and Senior Planning Associate for the Federation for Community Planning, all located in Cleveland, Ohio.

     Dr. Anetzberger is the 2005 recipient of the Rosalie Wolf Memorial Elder Abuse Prevention Award—National Category.  This award is given annually to an individual or organization that has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to Dr. Wolf’s ideals by promoting awareness to elder abuse through research, education, policy, or practice. 

     Dr. Anetzberger has authored more than forty-five publications on elder abuse or related interventions.  They include The Etiology of Elder Abuse by Adult Offspring and The Clinical Management of Elder Abuse as well as articles appearing in such journals as The Gerontologist, Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, Violence Against Women, Generations, and Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology.  Since 2006 she has been the Editor for the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect. 

     Dr. Anetzberger was the architect of Ohio’s protective services law for adults and various subsequent amendments.  She established the Ohio Coalition for Adult Protective Services and Consortium Against Adult Abuse (both Affiliates of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, in which she serves as Vice President) as well as the Greater Cleveland Elder Abuse/Domestic Violence Roundtable.  Dr. Anetzberger has participated in various national and state forums concerned with elder abuse, including research panels for the National Institute of Justice, National Institute on Aging, and National Aging Resource Center on Elder Abuse along with policy panels of the National Policy Summit on Elder Abuse, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Abuse Tag Guidance Development, Ohio Governor’s Task Force on Family Violence, Ohio Elder Abuse Task Force, and Health Policy Institute of Ohio Elder Abuse Prevention Project.  She was appointed by Ohio Governor Robert Taft as a delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging.

     Dr. Anetzberger has developed training curricula on elder abuse for organizations like the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and Ohio Domestic Violence Network.  She served as principal investigator for the project “A Model Intervention for Elder Abuse and Dementia,” which won the American Society on Aging 2000 Best Practice in Human Resources and Aging Award.   Dr. Anetzberger has presented on the topic of elder abuse or adult protective services for various local or national groups, including the American Society on Aging, Gerontological Society of America, American Counseling Association, and National Asssociation of Area Agencies on Aging.

     James Vanden Bosch is the founder and Executive Director of Terra Nova Films, a not for profit company that produces and distributes videos on aging-related issues.  He has produced several videos on elder abuse (“Elder Abuse: Five Case Studies”; “I’d Rather be Home”; “In Their Own Words: Domestic Abuse in Later Life“) and on the dynamics of caregiving (“My Mother, My Father”; “A Thousand Tomorrows” and “He’s Doing this to Spite Me: Emotional Conflicts in Dementia Care”).  Vanden Bosch has also presented at multiple conferences, using a multimedia approach that incorporates relevant video stories into a thematic PowerPoint.

     Trudy Gregorie has 30 years experience in the crime victim services and criminal justice fields. In 1979, she established a prosecutor-based victim services program in Charleston, South Carolina—only the second such program in the state—and served as its director for 13 years. In 1992, she was appointed the first S.C. Governor’s Office Crime Victim Ombudsman. From 1994-2001, Gregorie served as senior staff at the National Center for Victims of Crime, first as Director of Victim Services and then Director of Training. Currently, she is a Senior Director with Justice Solutions in Washington D.C., and a national consultant on public safety and victim issues.

     While serving at the local and state level in South Carolina, Gregorie was very involved in the evolution of victim rights and services. She testified at numerous state legislative committee hearings and was appointed by the Attorney General to serve on the State Policy Committee that developed guidelines, protocols, and procedures for prosecutor-based victim specialists in South Carolina. She also served on the task force that established the first child advocacy center in the state. At the national level, she has been involved in the development of numerous training programs, curricula, and resources on emerging issues for the crime victim services field and allied professions; the development and supervision of technical assistance programs; management of numerous government (including the Office for Victims of Crime, Office on Violence Against Women, Community-Oriented Policing Services Office, and Bureau of Justice Assistance) and privately-funded grant projects; and provision of training and technical assistance on topics related to crime victim rights and services, criminal and juvenile justice, community and justice system collaborations, and program development. She has provided training in over 47 states, and also has provided over 425 media interviews in the local, state and national press and electronic media.

     Gregorie is a certified trainer for the National College of District Attorneys and National District Attorneys Association, the U.S. Federal Judicial Center, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the National Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards, the National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators, the National Crime Prevention Council, the National White Collar Crime Center, the Center for Sex Offender Management, and the U.S. Department of Justice: Office for Victims of Crime; Bureau of Justice Assistance; National Institute of Justice; National Institute of Corrections; and Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. She serves as a victim consultant for the Council of State Governments, the National Center for State Courts, the Police Executive Research Forum, the National Sheriff’s Association, and the Center for Effective Public Policy and its Center for Sex Offender Management. She also serves on the faculty of the National Victim Assistance Academy, the National Sheriff’s Association TRIAD Academy, as well as the Florida, Illinois, and Louisiana State Elderly Services Officer Police Academies. She is a founding member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Triads and is serving a third elected term on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, currently as Treasurer. She served as the first elected Crime Victim Representative on the Delegate Assembly of the American Correctional Association and serves as co-chair of the ACA Victims and Restorative Justice Committee. She serves on the Victims’ Issues Committee of the American Probation and Parole Association, and is a consultant on victim issues for APPA. She also serves on the Victims Committee of the International Association of Reentry. Since 1996, Gregorie has also served on the Editorial Board of the Sexual Assault Report. In 1999, Gregorie was chosen to receive the National Crime Victim Services Award. In 1992, the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network awarded her the Distinguished Humanitarian Award, a presentation given in recognition of pioneering efforts and work on behalf of crime victims.

     Paula McClain Mixson, LMSW-AP, CVW, NCG has almost 30 years experience in public and private programs serving the elderly and people with disabilities.  After retiring from the Texas Adult Protective Services (APS) program in 2003, she continued her involvement with adult/elder abuse programs through independent consulting and training, nationally and internationally. She is a Certified Validation® Worker and a National Certified Guardian and is associated with arrangeCARE PC, a private care management firm in Austin. She serves on the board of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and is a long-time volunteer with Gray Panthers of Austin, leading several of its community service projects.  Ms. Mixson’s articles have appeared in the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect and Victimization of the Elderly and Disabled, among other publications.

     Pamela B. Teaster is a Professor, the Director of the Graduate Center for Gerontology, and Chairperson of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Kentucky. She serves on the Editorial Board of The Gerontologist, the Journal of Applied Gerontology, and the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, of which she is a former editor.  She is the President of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and is the first president of the Kentucky (KY) Guardianship Association. She recently served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Social Security and Representative Payees, the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging, the Center for Guardianship Certification. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a recipient of the Rosalie Wolf Award for Research on Elder Abuse. Current research projects include: exploring linkages between poverty and elder abuse (KY Center for Poverty Research), a prevalence study of nursing home abuse (private donors), A Week in the Life of APS in Kentucky (University of KY and the KY Cabinet for Families and Children), court-focused elder abuse initiatives (The National Institute of Justice), and an evaluation of the public guardianship programs in Florida (FL Department of Elder Affairs).  She has recently conducted a national survey of elder and vulnerable adult abuse (National Center on Elder Abuse), public guardianship systems (The Retirement Research Foundation), and the sexual abuse of vulnerable adults in institutions (National Institute on Aging).  She is the author of over 70 peer-reviewed articles, reports, books, and book chapters.

Susan Aziz has worked in the field of aging for 20 years as an educator, advocate, senior manager, and consultant.  As a gerontologist, she advises senior service programs and currently works as a consultant.

     Formerly the Vice President, Advocacy & Education Programs at WISE Senior Services in California, Susan had oversight responsibility for the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program and Elder Abuse Prevention Program for Los Angeles County.  Recognized for her leadership in developing and initially coordinating the award-winning model Los Angeles County Financial Abuse Specialist Team (FAST), Susan produced numerous educational programs, conferences, and Senior Action Fairs: Protect Yourself against Fraud and Abuse.  She has published on financial abuse and on neglect and abuse associated with malnutrition in long-term care.

     Susan is the Assistant Editor of Global Ageing, the journal of the International Federation on Ageing.  She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect; on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and of the National Telemarketing Victim Call Center; and as Acting Chair, Advisory Council, Area Agency on Aging, Palm Beach & Treasure Coast (Florida).

     She was a delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging.  Susan speaks at conferences nationally and internationally.

     Robert Blancato is President of Matz, Blancato & Associates, Inc., a firm specializing in government affairs, association and coalition management, and advocacy services, since 1996.  During that time, his firm has provided Washington representational services for scores of clients.  The firm provides lobbying and advocacy services, strategic consulting, legislative development, and association management.  Clients include the Mature Market Institute of MetLife, National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs, Long Term Care Partners, the Elder Justice Coalition, the California Elderly Nutrition Partnership, and the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems.

     Blancato’s career also includes some 20 years of public service.  He served on the Policy Committee and Executive Committee of the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, appointed by Representative Nancy Pelosi. He served as the Executive Director of the 1995 White House Conference on Aging, appointed by President Clinton, and as a Senior Executive Service position from 1994 to 1996.  Bob also served as a delegate to the 1998 White House Conference on Social Security. In addition, Bob served in senior staff positions in the House of Representatives, including 10 years as a Chief of Staff to former Rep. Mario Biaggi of New York. He served as Staff Director of the House Select Committee on Aging’s Subcommittee on Human Services from 1977 through 1988 and remained as a Senior Advisor until 1993.          

     Bob currently serves as Chairman of the National Silver Haired Congress Advisory Council, Special Advisor to the Board of Generations United, the Leadership Advisory Council of the National Council on Aging and the Board of Senior Navigator. He is also a member of the Arlington County Commission on Aging and the Greater Washington D.C. Urban League. Most recently Bob was named by Governor Tim Kaine to be on the Commonwealth Council on Aging of Virginia for a 4 year term ending in 2012.

     Previously Bob served on the Board of Directors for the American Society on Aging (2000-2003 and 2005-2008), and as the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse President for 5 years. Bob was a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations World Assembly on Aging in 1982 in Vienna and a delegate to the 1998 White House Conference on Social Security. The American Society on Aging (ASA) awarded him the ASA Award in 1999 for outstanding contributions to the field of aging. In 2007, Bob received the Claude Pepper Award for excellence in Community Based Long Term Care from the National Institute of Community Based Long Term Care.

     He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University and a Master of Public Administration from American University. He has served as Associate Professorial Lecturer in the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University and as an adjunct professor in the University of Maryland Graduate School Of Social Work.

     Patricia Bomba, M.D., F.A.C.P. serves as the Vice President and Medical Director, Geriatrics for MedAmerica Insurance Company and Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. She is a nationally recognized palliative care, end-of-life and elder abuse expert who designs and oversees the implementation of community projects. Under her leadership of the Community-Wide End-of-Life/Palliative Care Initiative, several award-winning advance care planning programs were conceived and executed, including Community Conversations on Compassionate Care (CCCC), the Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) program and the community website, www.compassionandsupport.org. Dr. Bomba’s collaborative work with the New York State Department of Health on health policy and her legislative advocacy for the MOLST Program established MOLST in New York State. She serves as the state’s representative on the National POLST Paradigm Task Force.

     Dr. Bomba leads MedAmerica’s quality initiative framing elder abuse as a public health issue and a geriatric syndrome. She served on the Planning Group for the 2004 New York State Summit on Elder Abuse.  Currently, she is on the Executive Committee for the New York State Coalition on Elder Abuse and is a board member of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse.

     Dr. Bomba is passionately focused on educating the medical community, and the public at large with a goal of improving the quality of life for seniors and their families. She has spoken extensively regionally, statewide and nationally to professionals, community groups and professional organizations on issues related to Advance Care Planning, MOLST, Palliative Care, Pain Management, End-of-Life Care and Wellness. Dr. Bomba is author of several articles on issues related to palliative care and end-of-life concerns.

     Dr. Bomba is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine of the University of Rochester and Upstate Medical University. She graduated from Immaculata College, the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Rochester.

     Bryan A. Liang is Shapiro Distinguished Professor and Executive Director, Institute of Health Law Studies, California Western School of Law, and Co-Director, San Diego Center for Patient Safety, University of California San Diego School of Medicine. He received his B.S. from MIT; PhD in health policy from the University of Chicago; MD from the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons; and JD from Harvard Law School. His research and advocacy interests focus upon health policy, including safety of seniors and elder abuse policy. He serves on a wide array of professional panels in this area, including the Board of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse; the US Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Minority Health, the American Medical Association Patient Safety and Cultural Competency Task Force, the San Diego Elder Abuse Council, the Elder Justice Coalition, and the Research Program Committee of the National Patient Safety Foundation.

     Diana Meeks-Sjostrom, PhD, RN, MSN, CS, FNP-BC, ONC has extensive experience in the field of Management, Project Coordination, and Nursing Research, as a Nursing Professor, a Family Nurse Practitioner, a nurse manager, and as a bedside nurse.  An accomplished author, editor, and reviewer of professional articles and textbooks, and speaker, as well Dr. Meeks-Sjostrom, is a Board Member of the National Committee of Prevention of Elder Abuse (NCPEA), Georgia State Representative for the Southern Nurses’ Research Society (SNRS) and active with local chapters of Sigma Theta Tau, Georgia Nurses’ Association (GNA).

     Rebecca C. Morgan is the Boston Asset Management Faculty Chair in Elder Law, the Director of the Center for Excellence in Elder Law at Stetson University College of Law and the Director of Stetson’s on-line LL.M. in Elder Law. Professor Morgan teaches a variety of elder law courses in the J.D. and LL.M. and oversees the Elder Law concentration program for JD students.  She is a successor co-author of Matthew Bender’s Tax, Estate, and Financial Planning for the Elderly and its companion forms book, and a co-author of Representing the Elderly in Florida. She is a member of the elder law editorial board for Matthew Bender.

     Professor Morgan is a Past President of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Past President of the Board of Directors of the National Senior Citizens Law Center,  past chair of the American Association of Law Schools Section on Aging and the Law and of the Florida Bar Elder Law Section, and was on the Faculty of the National Judicial College. She served as the reporter for the Uniform Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Act.  She served on the Florida Attorney General’s Task Force on Elder Abuse and the Florida Legislative Guardianship Study Commission. She is a member of the academic advisory board for the Borchard Center for Law and Aging,  an academic fellow of the American College of Trusts & Estates Counsel, a NAELA fellow, and a member of NAELA’s Council of Advanced Practitioners. After a term on the Board of the ABA Commission on Law and Aging, she now serves as a special advisor to the ABA Commission on Law and Aging.  Professor Morgan has authored a number of articles on a variety of elder law issues and has spoken a number of times on subjects of elder law.

     Professor Morgan was the recipient of the 2003 Faculty Award on Professionalism from the Florida Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. She received the NAELA Unaward in November 2004 from President Stu Zimring for her accomplishments in the field of elder law. Professor Morgan, along with Professor Roberta Flowers, received the 2005 Project Award on Professionalism from the Florida Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism for their video series on ethics in an elder law practice. She received the 2006 Rosalie Wolf Memorial Elder Abuse Prevention Award from the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse.  She received the Homer & Dolly Hand Award for Faculty Scholarship in May of 2008, and the NAELA President’s Award from NAELA President Mark Shalloway in May of 2008.

     Denise Nelesen, a licensed clinical social worker since 1991, is an aging specialist for the County of San Diego’s Aging & Independence Services, the local Area Agency on Aging. She is on the department’s management team and assists with program development, as well as being responsible for publicizing the many services offered by AIS. One of her publications is Safe Seniors, a quarterly publication for the prevention of elder abuse in the county. This is the 11th year for that publication, which is distributed to 5,000 persons throughout the county.

     She works with the District Attorney’s office coordinating consumer protection events to alert older adults and others to scams, fraud and other abuse.

     Denise also has experience as a journalist, having graduated in 1975 from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. For more than 17 years, she wrote “Seniority,” a twice-monthly column for older adults and their families published in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

     Dr. Holly Ramsey‑Klawsnik, Klawsnik & Klawsnik Associates, Canton, MA, holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Certificate in the Study of Aging from Boston University.  She is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Licensed Certified Social Worker as well as social science researcher.  She has provided extensive clinical services to older adults and adults with disabilities and numerous forensic evaluations and consultations for agencies that investigate alleged abuse.  She has authored many training curricula and developed and presented continuing education programs for a multitude of state and federal programs, Adult Protective Services systems, regulatory and law enforcement agencies, and health care providers and organizations throughout the country.  Her research, practice, training, consultation, and publications have focused on investigation of alleged abuse, casework intervention and supervision, mental health problems, self-neglect, domestic violence and sexual assault in later life, quality of care and victimization in facilities, and professional self-care.

     Ramsey‑Klawsnik has taught at the Smith College School for Social Work and Boston University. She has authored over 60 journal articles, book chapters, and training manuals.  She is a trainer and consultant for the Massachusetts Elder Protective Services Program and directs the MA Elder Sexual Abuse Consultation Project. She is a frequent conference speaker and has served as a NCPEA board member since 1999.

     Winsor C. Schmidt, J.D., LL.M. is Endowed Chair/Distinguished Scholar in Urban Health Policy, Professor of Health Policy and Administration and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Administration at Washington State University (WSU). Professor Schmidt’s publications include the books, Public Guardianship and the Elderly (Ballinger Publishing Company) and Guardianship: Court of Last Resort for the Elderly and Disabled (Carolina Academic Press), as well as over 50 book chapters and articles on health and mental health law and policy issues. Recent contributions include “Law and Aging: A Mental Health Theory Approach,” in I. Doran (ed.), Theories on Law and Ageing: The Jurisprudence of Elder Law, New York: Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg (2009). Professor Schmidt is also co-authoring the book, Public Guardianship After 25 Years: In the Best Interest of Incapacitated People?, Westport, CT: Praeger (2009). Recent service experience includes the Board of Directors, National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, and the state of Washington’s Certified Professional Guardian Board. Professor Schmidt holds the A.B. in Government from Harvard University, the J.D. in Public Law from American University and the LL.M. in Mental Health Law from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.