Gay Rosenblum-Kumar, M.A. is a conflict transformation and peacebuilding practitioner with thirty years’ experience designing and managing conflict prevention and peacebuilding projects with the UN and international NGOs. Gay co-founded the UN’s first cadre of peace and development advisors and then managed and expanded the program for a decade. Prior to that, she administered anti-apartheid capacity-building projects for refugees and exiles in southern Africa. As an independent consultant, Gay has worked as a UN Peace and Development Advisor and undertaken evaluations and re-designs of peacebuilding projects. Currently, she is the UN Representative for two NGOs, Nonviolent Peaceforce which deploys unarmed civilian protection teams in conflict-affected countries, and for Peace Direct which strengthens and advocates for local peacebuilding partners working to mitigate violence and conflict in ten countries. She is on the board of the New York Peace Institute and the Free Yezidi Foundation.
Janie Bergeron, M.A. is the Program Director of the Regroupement des Organismes ESPACE du Québec, ICAP’s Quebec Regional Training Centre. Janie worked for 17 years, in ESPACE Mauricie as coordinator and facilitator. Since receiving a social work degree from Trois-Rivières Collège, Ms. Bergeron has been an avid defender and advocate for women and children’s rights in her community. In her current position she has oversight of all of the ESPACE violence prevention across the province of Quebec.
Millie Castillo represents the NJCAP Coordinators on the ICAP Advisory Board. As a compassionate frontline administrator of a dynamic task force of CAP facilitators for over 15 years, Millie has connected CAP to the communities of Hudson and Passaic Counties and is currently working through CAP Affiliate the Jubilee Center in Hoboken, NJ. Millie is a strong advocate for diversity in CAP and acts as consultant to the NJCAP/ICAP projects for translation of project materials in Spanish and has been featured in the Spanish Elementary Workshop Training video and most recently for the narration of the CAP Online Parent/Guardian workshop video.
Jonathan Cohen, PhD is a mental health clinician and researcher. He is the co-president of the International Observatory for School Climate and Violence Prevention (University of Seville, Spain); Adjunct Professor in Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University;; Co-founder and President-Emeritus and National School Climate Center. He is a member of the Educational Advisory Council for Character.org as well as the Council of Distinguished Scientists, National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development, Aspen Institute. Dr. Cohen has worked for over thirty-five years as a teacher, program developer, school psychologist, consultant, psycho-educational diagnostician and mental health provider. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles, chapters and six books. His most recent book is Feeling Safe in School: Bullying and Violence Prevention Around the World was co-authored and co-edited with Dorothy Espelage (Harvard Education Press, 2020). Dr. Cohen consults to schools, districts, State Departments of Education, foreign educational ministries, World Bank and UNICEF’s Child Friendly Schools program about a range of social, emotional and character development informed learning, risk prevention/health promotion and school climate reform efforts.
Rebecca Davis, PhD. is Associate Professor for Professional Practice and Director of the Office of Global Programs, Rutgers University School of Social Work. She serves as Chair of the Steering Committee of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance and represents the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) to the United Nations. Dr. Davis teaches social work foundation, clinical, and global courses, including study abroad to Romania and Mexico. Her global work focuses on social work education and child protection system strengthening in Eastern Europe and Sub Saharan Africa. Recent projects include workforce assessments in Eastern Europe and Nigeria, and child protection capacity building in Malawi, Swaziland, and Ghana. She co-authored a working paper on Child Protection System Strengthening in Sub Saharan Africa for UNICEF (2012) and authored a working paper on Human Capacity Within Child Welfare Systems in Africa (2009). She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bucharest in Romania 1992-1994. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in New Jersey and North Carolina.
Yumiko Hase, serves as the general secretariat of CAP Center Japan (CCJ) which is CAP’s southern Japan training center. Ms. Hase is a tireless child advocate and pioneer of the CAP program working with CAP since 1995. Yumiko has provided training and support for over 70 CAP projects throughout southern parts of Japan since 2014, in her administrative role at CCJ which is located in Osaka City. CCJ has a dedicated board of directors and a strong network of over 500 facilitators and is responsible for training about 100,000 children, parents and educators in empowerment and life-saving strategies every year.
Seetha Holmes, Esq. currently is the managing attorney for the Office of Law Guardian for the Office of Public Defender for the State of New Jersey. With 20 years of experience as a child welfare lawyer, she also has certification as a child welfare litigation specialist and served as the Deputy Attorney General of NJ’s Division of Law. Seetha for the last ten years has been a professor at Montclair State University and has taught their Child Advocacy Degree Program as well as classes in Immigration Law, Child Advocacy and Issues of Child Welfare and Justice. She has worked closely with the protective services system of New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families and the NJ Division of Child Protection and Permanency and has advocated for the most vulnerable of child victims while handling child abuse/neglect cases, terminations of parental rights and adoption cases. Seetha a member of the NJ Task Force on the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect – a governor appointed position.
Bart Jackson is renowned author and CEO of Prometheus Publishing and Bart’s Book Ultimate Business Guides. Bart founded and hosts the Art of the CEO radio show. He is the founder of Biz4NJ a very successful online business journal as well as the Accomplished Professionals Breakfast in Manhattan and the Prometheus Social Enterprise Awards, which seeks to recognize those unsung heroes of inventive enterprises that are transforming the world.
April Robinson, PhD. has a multi-faceted background in change management and has worked with a variety of businesses and child advocacy agencies. Dr. Robinson has been a performance management instructor for Union County College Human Resources Certificate Program and for the Barack Obama Green Charter School. She currently is working with the NJ Department of Children and Families Youth Advocate Programs as a Behavioral Support Specialist creating in-home coaching modules for Foster Parents. April is also a 17 year member of the NJCAP Network and has facilitated for their Somerset County CAP program. She is currently working with NJCAP RTC in the development of the virtual classroom workshops and has been contracted to provide training for the NJCAP 140+ Facilitators to transition into virtual instruction. Dr. Robinson has interests in advocacy for children and proving CAP globally.
Ariel Lublin is Founder and Director of the Center for Leadership and Dialogue. She serves as an international negotiation and communication skills trainer, facilitator, and consultant. Ariel is an Adjunct Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a NYC Family Court Mediator, and serves as the UN Representative for the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. Formerly she served as the Director of the Midtown Civic Partnership at the Center for Court Innovation in New York City.
Gail Sommer has been involved with CAP since 1992. She trained to become a CAP Prevention Specialist at the advice of a fellow pre-school mom who described both the training and the trainer as outstanding, and the program’s message as simple and impactful.
Gail retired 28 years later, after 26 years as the Program Director of Newton and Brookline CAP, bringing classroom workshops to more than 3,000 students each year. Over the course of her career, Gail trained hundreds of volunteer CAP facilitators, trained and mentored local school staff, directed programs in more than 25 schools, led countless parent and staff meetings, and most personally meaningful, participated in more than 1000 classroom workshops. Gail considers herself the unofficial “grandmother” of the CAP Program in China, which was brought to China by one of Newton and Brookline CAP’s volunteer facilitators.
Gail has a M.S. in Counseling Psychology and a B.A. in Psychology. Gail’s previous work was in elementary school Special Education and as a Team Leader on an Adolescent and Adult in-patient psychiatric unit.
Caren Nemtzow retired from her role as the Director of The Needham Community Council CAP Program in 2020 after 21 years with the program. The Needham CAP Program presents classroom workshops to approximately 1200 elementary school students per year in the Needham MA Public Schools.
Caren brings a unique perspective to ICAP having experienced the CAP Program through a variety of lenses. She was first introduced to and became passionate about CAP after attending a Parent Training as a parent of children who participated in CAP classroom workshops. She subsequently served Needham CAP as a Workshop Facilitator and Program Coordinator and Trainer of school staff, parents, and Facilitators , before ending her tenure as the Program Director.
Caren has worked in the field of education as an advocate for children throughout her career. She has been both a teacher and Director in nonprofit and university-based settings.
Caren has a B.S. in Psychology and Early Childhood Education and an M.Ed. in Humanistic Education and Human Services. In her retirement she continues to be involved in the Needham CAP program, returning to her roots as a volunteer Workshop Facilitator, in addition to mentoring and training CAP Workshop Facilitators.
