About Us
Mission | History
| Project Information | Staff
| Contact Information
The mission of the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (MINCAVA) is
to support research, education, and access to violence related
resources.
For more information about the mission and focus of MINCAVA, consider
reviewing some of these materials:
Under the direction of Jeffrey
L. Edleson, Ph.D., the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse was
established in 1994 by the Minnesota State Legislature with a charge "to
improve the quality of higher education related to violence." During its first
years, the Center's initial and only project was the Violence Education
Project. The project included a discipline-specific needs assessment about
higher education, a web- based library of educational resources, a grant
program to fund the development of new violence-related higher education
curricula, higher education conferences, and worked to change continuing
education and licensing requirements.
MINCAVA is considered a leader in innovative violence-related education,
research and Internet publishing and now coordinates four nationally and
internationally renowned projects.
The MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse provides an
extensive pool of up-to-date educational resources about all types of
violence, including higher education syllabi, published research, funding
sources, upcoming training events, individuals or organizations which serve
as resources, and searchable databases with over 1000 training manuals,
videos and other education resources
Violence Against Women Online
Resources is a cooperative project between the Center and the United
States Department of Justice, Office of Justice
Programs, Office on Violence
Against Women . This site provides state-of-the art resource materials
about effective interventions, services, and coordinated community responses
to violence against women for criminal justice professionals, state
coalitions, tribal coalitions and victim advocacy groups .
The Link Project is an internationally
recognized research, demonstration and information dissemination project .
This project examines the experiences of families in which both children and
their mothers have been maltreated. The project reports systematically
collected information on children and domestic violence and builds
collaborative relationships between child protection, domestic violence and
court services.
As an extension of this research, MINCAVA also coordinates the
technical assistance and information dissemination for
the Minnesota Rural Project for Women and Child
Safety.
VAWnet (Applied Research Forum)
publishes online research summaries, discussions, and other resources for
domestic violence and sexual assault coalition staff members, as well as
members of other allied national organizations throughout the United
States
Abby Johnson, Research Assistant
Abby moved to Minnesota from the mountains of Montana to pursue a dual masters degree in Social Work and Public Health. She is focusing on community practice for her MSW and maternal and child health for her MPH. Before moving to Minneapolis, Abby earned her B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Women’s Studies from Montana State University. During her time there, Abby was an advocate with her campus crisis center, as well as being actively involved with Students Against Sexual Assault. As part of MINCAVA, Abby will be providing support and maintenance to the MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse project.
Abigail Henderson, Research Assistant
Abigail Henderson is a first-year student in the Master of Social Work program. She has a B.A. from Wellesley College and Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School. She has previously worked as an ordained minister and hospital chaplain. She also has background in sexual violence education, counseling, and prevention. Abby provides research and editorial support for the VAWOR project.
Elise Niedermeier, Graduate Social Work Intern
Elise Niedermeier is a third year student in the dual social work and public health masters program at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Elise graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a B.A. in Women’s Studies, Social Welfare and LGBT studies and worked as an HIV educator and activist in Chicago before relocating to the Twin Cities. She will be working with MINCAVA to conduct a needs assessment around how the advocacy community gains knowledge, skills and abilities related to violence against women.
Elizabeth Cutter-Wilson, Document Development Coordinator
Elizabeth Cutter-Wilson is a first year doctoral student at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Elizabeth has her B.A. from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and her MSW from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She recently completed a social work fellowship with Harvard Medical School and the Children’s Hospital of Boston were she focused on adolescent mental health issues and screening for teen dating violence in clinical settings. Her research area of interest is teen dating violence.
Ericka Kimball, Research Assistant
Ericka Kimball is a third year social work doctoral student working on the MMVP and Avon projects. She has a BSW from the College of St. Catherine and a MSW from Augsburg College. In addition to working at MINCAVA, Ericka teaches MSW field at Augsburg College and works at a local hospital. Her main research area is the prevention of violence against women and children. Specifically, researching the use of social learning theory, social capital, and technology as prevention tools.
Hoa Nguyen, Interdisciplinary Dissertation Fellow
Hoa Nguyen completed her B.A. in English at Hanoi University, Vietnam and earned her MSW at the University of Minnesota, USA. Her research interests include violence against women, poverty and economic empowerment, immigration related issues and program evaluation. Prior to coming to the United States, she worked at the Institute of Policy and Strategies for Agriculture and Rural Development on various foreign aid projects. She also
worked as an Interpreter for an HIV/AIDS project associated with the United Nations Development Program. Hoa is doing her Interdisciplinary Dissertation Fellowship at MINCAVA and plans to complete her dissertation about online financial literacy for battered women.
Jeffrey Edleson, PhD - Director
Jeffrey L. Edleson is a Professor in the University of Minnesota School of Social Work and Director of the
Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse . He is one of the world’s leading authorities on children exposed to domestic violence and has published over 100 articles and 10 books on domestic violence, groupwork, and program evaluation. He was a member of the National Research Council's Panel on Research on Violence Against Women. He has served as a consultant to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Edleson is an Associate Editor of the journal Violence Against Women and has served on the editorial boards of several other journals. His most recent books are entitled Domestic Violence in the Lives of Children: The Future of Research, Intervention, and Social Policy (2001, co-edited with Sandra Graham-Bermann, American Psychological Association Books), Sourcebook on Violence Against Women (2001, co-edited with Claire Renzetti and Raquel Kennedy Bergen, Sage Publications), and Domestic Violence: Classic Papers (2005, co-edited with Claire Renzetti and Raquel Kennedy Bergen, Allyn-Bacon). He has just published a new book entitled Parenting by Men Who Batterer Women: New Directions in Assessment and Intervention (2007, co-edited with Oliver J. Williams, Oxford University Press) and has just completed the multi-volume Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Violence (2008, co-edited with Claire Renzetti, Sage Reference).
Jennifer Witt, MSW - Associate Director
Jennifer Witt currently directs a U.S. Department of Justice-Office on Violence Against Women Technical Assistance project which works to produce Internet based content on violence against women. She also oversees development of applied research documents for the National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women (VAWnet). This is a series of highly used, research oriented documents directed towards advocates and service providers regarding the most current research on domestic violence. Lastly, Jennifer teaches in the University of Minnesota’s Family Violence Prevention program.
Jennifer is a graduate of the University of WI at La Crosse and received her Masters of Social Work from the University of Minnesota. She has worked in both domestic violence and sexual assault prevention. These positions have ranged from direct service provision, coordinating a Coordinated Community Response (CCR) to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, and state-wide systems advocacy. Jennifer has also worked on various community organizing and public education projects within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
Juliana Carlson, Research Assistant
Juliana Carlson is a third year doctoral student. After graduating with her B.A. in psychology and women's studies from Hope College, Juliana worked as a women's advocate for five years in Chicago and Kansas City domestic violence shelters. Juliana earned her master's degree in 1999 from the University of Chicago in Social Service Administration. Following her interest in community practice, Juliana worked with several community based initiatives as a project manager of a neighborhood development project and a facilitator and trainer of parent leaders in a family centered community organizing project. At MINCAVA, Juliana works on research projects that focus on engaging boys and men in violence prevention.
Kevin Bullock, Internet Systems Designer and Administrator
Kevin Bullock develops and maintains MINCAVA's Web resources (
Violence Against Women Online Resources and the
MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse). He joined
MINCAVA after completing his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science at
Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2004. Before graduating, Kevin worked for the
MSU Women's Center as a Web developer, making their Web site easier to use and more accessible for people with disabilities. He enjoys using his technical skills to aid in the struggle against violence. Kevin uses his free time to play guitar, read, and engage in action for social justice.
Megan Pardy, Research Assistant
Megan Pardy is a dual-degree student pursuing a Masters of Social Work and a Masters of Public Policy through the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. She earned her B.S. from the University of MN in Family Social Science with a minor in Family Violence Prevention and Psychology. After graduation, she worked for two years at Sojourner, a domestic violence shelter, as the Family Services Coordinator. Last year, Megan interned as a School Social Worker at W.I.S.E. Charter School in North Minneapolis and is currently interning at Battered Women’s Justice Project. Her research interests include human trafficking, violence against women and children, and domestic violence. At MINCAVA, Megan works on the Violence Against Women Online Resources project.
Rob Wilson, Research Assistant
Rob Wilson is a second year doctoral student in University of Minnesota's School of Social Work. He is originally from Gary, Indiana and has a BA in English Literature and a MSW from the University of Pittsburgh. His primary interests are youth violence exposure and prevention; social constructions of masculinity; and the intersection of violence and technology in the lives of urban youth. He is working on the MMVP and First Time Fathers project.
Sheetal Rana, Research Assistant
Sheetal Rana is a doctoral student at the School of Social Work. Sheetal is from Nepal and has a Master’s degree in Sociology from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Sheetal’s work experiences include fieldwork and research on community based development in Nepal and research on international social development issues for the World Bank, Washington D.C. Sheetal works 10 hours a week on the VAWnet Applied Research project.
Our center is located in the School of
Social Work at the University of
Minnesota and we can be contacted at:
MINCAVA - Minnesota Center Against Violence & Abuse
School of Social Work, University of Minnesota
105 Peters Hall, 1404 Gortner Avenue
St. Paul, Minnesota 55108-6142 USA
tel: 612-624-0721 fax: 612-625-4288
Email Us
Map of Peters Hall and surrounding
area
