Ending sexual violence and militarism: Feminist peace activists’ efforts in Okinawa

Kozue is a feminist peace activist/researcher. She is Professor at Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, where she teaches feminist peace research/education. Her activism and academic interests have been around feminist analysis of military and militarism, demilitarization and decolonization of security. She has conducted action research on Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, a feminist peace movement in Okinawa, Japan. She has been active in global civil society activities including Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (International President between 2015 and 2018), International Women’s Network Against Militarism, and Korea Peace Now! She has written and presented in English and Japanese on the above subjects. Her recent publications include: “Cold War Shadows of Japan’s Imperial Legacies for Women in East Asia” (Positions(2020) 28 (3): 659–675.); “Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence: An Island Feminism Reclaiming Dignity”(Okinawan Journal of Island Studies(2020)  1: 37-54.)

Dr. Yoshimi Anzai is a Professor of Radiology at the University of Utah and an Adjunct Professor of Population Health Sciences and Neurosurgery. Dr. Anzai serves as co-director of Women in Health, Medicine, and Sciences (WiHMS) and Radiology Liaison for the Trauma Council. Dr. Anzai graduated from Chiba University in Japan and has completed a research fellowship at UCLA, followed by a radiology residency and neuroradiology fellowship at the University of Michigan. Subsequently, she obtained an Master of Public Health at the University of Washington. She served as chief of the neuroradiology section and the Medical Quality Improvement Committee at the University of Washington. Dr. Anzai has received grant funding from AHRQ, CTSA, and industry partners and has over 130 peer-reviewed publications and 33 review articles.

Dr. Anzai spearheaded the effort to have University of Utah Health recognized as a Provider-Led Entity by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, one of only 22 organizations nationwide. She received the AAMC value innovation awards to implement Value Driven Outcomes (VDO) tools and our Price Transparency tool.  Dr. Anzai has created and led the VDO research review committee that approved over 80 research projects utilizing the internal costs of care, resulting in 39 peer-reviewed publications.

In 2019, she received the highest honor of Radiology, the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award from the American Association for Women Radiologists (AAWR).  As co-Director of WiHMS, she has run a monthly webinar focusing on the topics relevant to all faculty in the health sciences campus.  Under her leadership, the WiHMS collaborated broadly with talented researchers on the main campus to create the Gender-based Violence Consortium that received a 1U4U grant.  Dr. Anzai also served as a member of the COVID-19 Childcare Task Force to consolidate the childcare information, distribute the childcare survey, and help allocate resources for faculty and staff who struggled to find childcare support during the pandemics.

Dr. Anzai is passionate about helping those who lack resources and opportunities.  She currently serves as the chair of the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Radiological Society of North America and co-chair of the diversity committee in the radiology department.  Locally, she has been a supporter of the Horizonte public high school to empower those youth with extremely challenging social and economic backgrounds.

Dr. Anzai has over 20 years of experience in neuroradiology and served as the president of the ASHNR, AUR, and AAWR.  She has served as co-director of the Comparative Effectiveness Research Training (CERT) program to foster health services research within radiology disciplines.  She is an elected member of the AAMC Diagnostic Safety Committee, creating the national standard for diagnostic information and communication.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoshimi-anzai-58873213/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/yoshimi.anzai.1/bibliography/public/

Ananya Dance Theatre

Ananya Chatterjea অনন্যা চট্টোপাধ্যায়, is a 2011 Guggenheim Choreography Fellow, a 2012 McKnight Choreography Fellow, a 2016 Joyce Award recipient, a 2018 UBW Choreographic Center Fellow, and a 2019 Dance/USA Artist Fellow. Her last work, Shātrangā: Women Weaving Worlds, has toured to the Bethlehem International Performing Arts Festival (Palestine), Aavejak Avaaz Festival (Delhi), Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond), Dance Place (Washington DC), Rutgers University (New Brunswick), Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan), Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh). Ananya is Professor of Dance at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches courses in Dance Studies and technique. She just published her second book, Heat and Alterity in Contemporary Dance: South-South Choreographies, re-framing understandings of Contemporary Dance from the perspective of dance-makers from global south locations.

Dr. Annie Isabel Fukushima is an Assistant Professor in the Ethnic Studies Division with the School for Cultural & Social Transformation and a Presidential Fellow at the University of Utah. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Utah, Dr. Fukushima earned her doctoral degree in Ethnic Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies from University of California and was an Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow with the Institute for Research on Women and the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. She is the author of the award-winning book Migrant Crossings: Witnessing Human Trafficking in the US (Stanford University Press, 2019). Dr. Fukushima was awarded the American Sociological Association book award on Asia America. Migrant Crossings examines the experiences and representations of Asian and Latina/o migrants trafficked in the United States into informal economies and service industries. Through sociolegal and media analysis of court records, press releases, law enforcement campaigns, film representations, theatre performances, and the law, Dr. Fukushima questions how we understand victimhood, criminality, citizenship, and legality. Her research focuses on issues of immigration, gender-based violence, race, and decolonial feminisms appearing in multiple journals and edited anthologies. She is currently editing a special issue on Anti-Trafficking Education: Pedagogy, Policy, and Activism, the co-editor and founder of Migratorytimes.net, and the project lead for the Gender-Based Violence Consortium and the co-principal investigator working on a visualizing gender-based violence platform. To learn more about Dr. Fukushima visit anniefukushima.com or follow @anniefukushima

Restoring Ancestral Winds

Yolanda Francisco-Nez is from the Navajo/Dine’ tribe. Her clan is Edgewater (Tabaaha) born for the Basque People. She was born and raised in Tsehootsoi (Fort Defiance), Arizona. Yolanda is the granddaughter of a Navajo Code Talker Vincent Yazza. Ms. Francisco-Nez is the Executive Director of Restoring Ancestral Winds, Inc. Yolanda is a strong advocate of the Native people especially women and children. She uses her expertise to help inform policy. She served four years as board chair of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault (UCASA). In 2017, under the leadership of Navajo Nation Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty, she helped establish a Navajo Nation Council Sexual Assault Prevention Work Group to address child abduction, sexual violence and human trafficking. In this role she facilitated a policy brief on child abduction and sexual assault, a chapter resolution to install the Amber Alert on the Navajo Nation, and hosts community dialogues on sexual assault throughout the Navajo Nation. In 2018, she received special recognition for her achievements from the Navajo Nation Council.

​She has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix. She is trained in Anti-discrimination Response Training from the University of British Columbia and received advocacy training from UCASA and Utah Domestic Violence Coalition (UDVC).

For 17 years, Francisco-Nez served three mayors at the executive level of Salt Lake City government. Among the highlights of her career is the opportunity to address the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland about her award-winning program the Human Rights Education Project. She has co-authored reports on discrimination, women’s rights and excessive use of force. Among other achievements, “The Status of Women in Salt Lake City” was published and used to help guide a resolution to establish a Commission to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and Law Enforcement Excessive Use of Force.

Ms. Francisco-Nez played a significant role in being the first city in Utah to pass legislation to protect the LGBTQI2S from employment discrimination which led to a statewide law. Prior to working city government, she was the president of the Native American Celebration in the Park and vice president and founding partner at Cal Nez Design advertising agency. In 2017, Francisco-Nez was named top 30 Women to Watch in Utah by the Utah Business Magazine.

Yifat Gohar Levenstein, a Ph.D. student in the Counseling Psychology Program, is a Graduate Assistant for the Gender Based Violence Consortium. In her role, Yifat has been collecting and curating data on gender based violence across disciplines. Her research interests includes multicultural counseling, access to mental health, experiences of individuals who hold historically marginalized identities within different systems, and research that promotes social justice within the mental health system. Currently, Yifat is working on research that examines the experiences of therapists who hold historically marginalized identities within the therapeutic relationship and in clinical supervision.

Caroline Lovell is a healing artist and in 2013 launched the Women’s Wisdom Initiative (WWI), a nonprofit built on the premise that by channeling one’s traumatic experience into creativity, survivors of trauma can begin to heal, share their resiliency with others and become leaders in ending gender- based oppression.  WWI’s signature workshop is called Traveling Postcards™ where survivors and their allies connect their voices of solidarity to a global conversation of empowerment and gender equality. Helping survivors to reconnect to their hearts and to find the strength to speak their truth is where healing and transformation can occur and is the central focus of Caroline’s work.  As an artist and survivor, Caroline saw the need to highlight resilience and strength forged from her own experience and cemented by the countless stories told to her by individuals facing abuse. In addition to Traveling Postcards, Caroline created and directs two other signature programs that incorporate the healing arts into support programs at domestic violence shelters and on college campuses: The Traveling Heart Initiative provides unique hospital bags to agencies and hospitals supporting survivors and her Speak Your Truth Initiative promotes a virtual opportunity from anywhere in the world to share resiliency and demand justice. Her programs are created to serve survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, sex trafficking, and political sexual violence as communications of solidarity and compassion. As a trained facilitator and compassionate counselor, Caroline uses her expertise as a certified domestic violence advocate to provide a safe space for all participants. Caroline has a BA in Psychology and Fine Art from the University of Richmond, an MA in Transformative Art and a Masters’ Certificate in Leadership for Sustainable Change. She has worked with more than 60 organizations, traveled over 8000 miles in 15 states, generated workshops in 10 countries, and helped create over 5,000 handmade Traveling Postcards, connecting women from around the world in solidarity and survivorship.

“Unsubmitted Sexual Assault Kits in Salt Lake County: Lessons Learned”

Dr. Heather C. Melton is an Associate Professor in Sociology and Director of Criminology at the University of Utah. Her teaching and research interests include criminology and gender-based violence. In particular, she is interested in how victims/survivors of gender-based violence interact with and experience the criminal justice system. She has published numerous articles on intimate partner violence, stalking and sexual assault. She served as the researcher for the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) for the state of Utah and is currently a co-PI on a project exploring language used around interpersonal violence on the University of Utah campus. Additionally, she is an Advisory Board Member for the McCluskey Center for Violence Prevention and a member of the Board of Directors for the Gender-Based Violence Consortium at the University of Utah.

ALIGHT

Rachel Niemiec is a Pediatric & Adult/Adolescent Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She has a master’s degree in nursing, a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, and is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner. In addition to being part of the Massachusetts SANE program for the past 6 years, she has over 15 years of experience working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence. As a survivor of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC), she is committed to helping service providers respond compassionately to this issue. In her free time, she is a survivor leader with the New England Coalition Against Trafficking (NECAT) and serves on the Survivor Advisory Council for ALIGHT, an organization that utilizes technology to meet the legal needs of survivors of human trafficking.

“Tongan Feminism, Rematriation and Protecting the Sacred as Decolonial Methodologies”

Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu is a Tongan scholar, storyteller and community organizer. She received her doctorate from the Comparative Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley in 2019 and is a 2021 UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Native American Studies at University of California, Davis. She is working on two book manuscripts; The Mana of the Tongan Everyday: Tongan Grief and Mourning, Patriarchal Violence, and Remembering Va and a collection of creative non-fiction narratives titled, Looking For Hine Nui Te Po: Searching for Our Mother. These book projects examine the colonial legacies of normalizing heteropatriarchy and violence against women in the productions of Tongan culture, families and in the formation of Tongan intimate relationalities. The book projects examine Tonganness in its various iterations that take place in Moana Nui/the Pacific, extending to sites of Tongan futurities located on the occupied and unceded Indigenous land that are now known as Utah and California. Fui is a historian for the Sogorea Te Land Trust, an urban Indigenous women-led organization that works to rematriate Indigenous lands back to Indigenous hands. She hosts the popular “Sogorea Te Land Trust Seeding Hope Speaker Series” and the radio segment “From Moana Nui to California; Indigenous Women’s Stories of Land” on KPFA 94.1 FM. Fui is on the Committee to Save the West Berkeley Shellmound, one of the oldest Ohlone Sacred Sites in the Bay Area, California, that is currently under threat by developers.

UCASA

Liliana Olvera-Arbon joined UCASA over a year ago, with over 10 years of experience working in social services. She demonstrated profound leadership while working at a Los Angeles based rape crisis center and later as a Program Coordinator at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Her vision is to center and uplift the voices of communities marginalized by society and bring a deep commitment toward social equity and collective liberation. She is dedicated to educating people of their rights and opportunities and envisions a world free of gender-based violence.

Diana Powell is a Master of Social Work student at the University of Utah in her final semester. Following graduation, Diana will continue working as an individual, couples, and group therapist at Life Stone Counseling Center, where she is currently finishing a clinical internship. She completed her first-year practicum with the Utah Pride Center. Diana has experience working with numerous aspects of community mental health, juvenile corrections, substance abuse, and suicide prevention at various levels of practice. Her research and practice interests include religious trauma, faith crises and transitions, and issues of gender and sexuality. Diana has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and is originally from Dallas, Texas.

Sonia Salari, PhD Professor, Family and Consumer Studies University of Utah; OVW Campus Prevention Grant, Project Director. Her focus is on family and interpersonal violence, aging, diversity and public policy. Known as an advocate for victims, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition and is Co-Founder of the U’s Gender Based Violence Consortium. Dr. Salari’s research focuses on physical and psychological elder abuse, as well as family violence fatalities. She is published in multiple journals, a book Family Violence Across the Life Course: Research, policy and prevention (Kendall Hunt) and serves as editor of Family Violence and Abuse: An encyclopedia of trends, issues, and solutions (2022). Over two decades, she has taught Family Violence at the University of Utah and she has won awards, including the University Distinguished Teaching Award.

As a board certified multi-faith chaplain, Shanti merges art and spirituality in an imaginative process that transforms art supplies and life experience into something therapeutic and meaningful. She has engaged hospital staff, patients, and survivors of domestic violence in art-making to express themselves, explore their success or suffering, and move toward holistic well-being. Her playful and probing approach reflects her understanding of spirituality which cultivates connection with the essential self, other people, and the sacred. Shanti has presented on the integration of art and spirituality at state and national conferences. Her academic credentials include a B.A. in Art and Education, an M.A. in Theology, an M.A. in Arts in Medicine, and certification as a Spiritual Director. She is currently a chaplain at the University of Utah Hospital.

“Proactively creating a safer environment for all”

As interim Chief Safety Officer of the University of Utah, Keith Squires is responsible for the oversight and coordination of all campus safety initiatives, as well as supervising the university’s public safety divisions. He served in Governor Gary Herbert’s cabinet as the Utah Commissioner of Public Safety, retiring in September 2018 after 31 years of service as a law enforcement officer. He served as the homeland security advisor for Governors Huntsman and Herbert. Keith has served the state in many other capacities, including as director of the State Bureau of Investigation, assistant superintendent of the Utah Highway Patrol, and director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Keith served as a state and local law enforcement advisor to U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. He holds a master’s degree in homeland defense and security from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and a bachelor’s degree in administration of criminal justice. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and FBI National Executive Institute.

Amita Swadhin has been an educator, storyteller, and strategist working with grassroots, nonprofit, educational and government organizations for over twenty years. Their work to end interpersonal and institutional violence stems from their experiences as a queer, non-binary femme, daughter of Indian immigrants, and survivor of incestuous childhood rape and domestic violence.

In 2016, Amita founded Mirror Memoirs, a national storytelling and organizing project intervening in rape culture by uplifting the narratives, healing and leadership of Two Spirit, transgender, intersex, non-binary and/or queer Black, Indigenous and of color survivors of child sexual abuse. In 2009, Amita co-created Secret Survivors, a theater project featuring child sexual abuse survivors, with Ping Chong + Company.

Amita is also a published writer in several anthologies, including Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Violence, Queering Sexual Violence, Pleasure Activism, and Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement. They hold an MPA from NYU, where they were a Reynolds Social Entrepreneurship Fellow.

Dr. Tasha C. Toy is the Assistant Vice President for Campus Diversity and Chief Diversity Officer at Dixie State University. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Higher Education Research and Policy from Seton Hall University (NJ), Master of Arts in Education in Instructional Technology and Bachelor of Arts in History, both from North Carolina Central University. She has worked in higher education for over 20 years in various areas with more than 10 years primarily in diversity, inclusion, and equity.

At DSU, Dr. Toy oversees the Veterans Success Center, Women’s Resource Center, LBGTQ+ Resource Center, and Multicultural and Inclusion Center with focused outreach through African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx and Asian/Native American/Pacific Island Student Programs. Tasha is a member of, served on boards of, and has presented at the NASPA, Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society Education, and ASHE. She currently serves on the DSU UWHEN Chapter Board as President-Elect and recently joined the Saint George Area Chamber of Commerce as a Board Member, as the first African American female to do so.

Dr. Toy is the wife of Dr. Joel Berrien, Jr. and stepmother to two sons. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, napping, and reading.

ALIGHT

Julie L. Valentine, Ph.D., RN, CNE,SANE-A, FAAN, is the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Research and an Associate Professor in the College of Nursing at Brigham Young University. Dr. Valentine research expertise includes quantitative, mixed-methods, and Participatory Action Research (PAR). She brings a wealth of expertise on research regarding sexual violence, trauma informed response, and forensics analysis.

Elizabeth Kronk Warner is Dean and Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. Dean Kronk Warner was formerly Associate Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Kansas School of Law, where she was also the Director of the Tribal Law and Government Center. Kronk Warner previously was an active member of the Federal Bar Association, serving on its national board of directors. She is also active in the American Bar Association, where she is co-chaired of the Native American Resources Committee.

Kronk Warner is a nationally recognized expert in the intersection of environmental and Indian law. She has taught courses in property, Indian, environmental and natural resources law and supervised the school’s Tribal Judicial Support Clinic. Kronk Warner has received several teaching excellence awards, co-authored several books on environmental issues and Native Americans, and has 40 articles and book chapters to her credit. Kronk Warner, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, served as an appellate judge for the Tribe and as a district judge for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe.

Kronk Warner received her juris doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School; she received her undergraduate degree in communication from Cornell University and also studied at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She worked in private practice for several years before entering academia. Prior to joining the University of Kansas, Kronk Warner was a law professor at the University of Montana and Texas Tech.

Bobby Younce is a second-year doctoral student in the College of Social Work at the University of Utah. He is originally from North Carolina where he worked as a clinical social worker before pursuing his PhD. His research focus is on intimate partner violence (IPV) and health disparities among the LGBTQIA+ community.

Sojourner Group