Dr. Cynthia Crosson-Tower is a Professor Emerita, at Fitchburg State University, where she taught for 24 years also founding and serving as the Director of the Child Protection Institute there. She has consulted to schools, churches and social agencies and maintains a private practice, Harvest Counseling and Consultation, specializing in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, especially in survivors of abuse and perpetrators of sexual abuse. She provides supervision to other professionals, and offers workshops and training both nationally and internationally for educators and other human service professionals.
Dr. Crosson-Tower is a national expert on child abuse and neglect and the author of numerous books and publications including Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect, Exploring Child Welfare: A Practice Perspective, When Children Are Abused: An Educator’s Guide to Intervention, Secret Scars: A Guide for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, Homeless Students, A Clergy Guide to Child Abuse and Neglectand How Schools Can Combat Child Abuse and Neglect. In addition, she has authored several monographs including Designing and Implementing a School Reporting Protocol: A How-to-Manual for Massachusetts Teachers for the Children's Trust Fund in Boston and An Educator’s Guide to School Reporting Protocol for Catholic Schools.
Dr. Crosson-Tower served on the subcommittee to develop protocol for the Cardinal’s Commission of the Archdiocese of Boston and consulted to the Archdiocese as part of the Implementation and Oversight Committee of the Archdiocese’s Office of Child Advocacy.
Contributors:
Lynne Kellner, PhD, is professor of behavioral sciences at Fitchburg State University. She supervises graduate and undergraduate students in the field. She has more than twenty-five years of experience in community mental health, specializing in children and family services. Other research interests include resiliency in children, creating a model of treatment for male sexual abuse victims, and evaluating a Massachusetts-based welfare-to-work program. She has authored a number of Continuing Education courses for those in the mental health fields, including ones Adoptive Families, Childhood Trauma, and Ethics of Children’s Health Care. Dr. Kellner is the New England Director for the Council on Standards in Human Services Education.
Laura M. Garofoli, PhD, is associate professor of psychological science at Fitchburg State University. She is a licensed special educator and a former member of the board of trustees for the largest childcare agency in central Massachusetts. Prior to her position at Fitchburg State, Dr. Garofoli was the educational assessment specialist and reading disabilities specialist at a premier residential school in Massachusetts for children with significant mental health disorders and trauma histories. She has extensive experience with disability testing and IEP development, and she continues to provide consultation services to families with learning disabled children. As the parent of a child with a rare autoimmune disorder and life threatening food allergies, she is an active advocate and consultant for children with food allergies and health needs within her community and beyond. Her research interests include early childhood behavior and the effects of early trauma on cognition and brain development.
Catherine C. Sinnott, Esq. is the Attorney-in-Charge of the Lowell, MA office of the Children and Family Law Division (CAFL) of the Committee of Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the public defender office of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has represented children and parents in child-welfare related cases throughout the Commonwealth both in the trial and appeals courts for over twenty years. She has also represented clients in New Hampshire and in civil, probate and criminal matters. She has great hope in the future and believes that strong families-- of all kinds-- ensure strong futures, and that restorative justice is an essential element of law. Attorney Sinnott has been a high school teacher, a CSO, a counselor in a teen shelter, and a journalist. She is a graduate of New York University, the University of Arizona and Boston College Law School.
Kathleen Craigen, BS, is an Assistant Clinician for Community Resources for Justice (CRJ). Before joining CRJ, Ms. Craigen dedicated two years to AmeriCorps while simultaneously pursuing her education in Human Services at Mount Wachusett Community College and Fitchburg State University. She has worked with a variety of populations including at-risk youth, first-generation and non-traditional college students, and adults with developmental disabilities. Other research interests include the impact of civic learning and community engagement on students and the greater community and how public policies affect the well-being of vulnerable populations such as people with disabilities and low-income households.
