Melissa Scaia M.P.A.
Director of International Training for Global Rights for Women (GRW)
In her position at GRW, Melissa brings a wealth of experience as the former executive director of Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs (DAIP), also known as “the Duluth Model.” Prior to working in Duluth she was the executive director of Advocates for Family Peace (AFFP) for 17 years, a local domestic violence advocacy program. She has also led and organized two Coordinated Community Responses (CCR) to address domestic violence in Minnesota, as well as co-facilitating groups for men who batter and women who use violence.
Melissa is also a consulting trainer for a number of national training organizations on domestic violence and child abuse, including Battered Women’s Justice Project and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. As a qualified expert in the state of Minnesota she testifies as an expert witness on domestic violence in criminal court cases.
She wrote her master’s thesis on the effects of domestic violence on children and wrote her doctoral dissertation proposal to address supervised visitation, children and domestic violence. She has contributed to numerous publications related to supervised visitation, children, and domestic violence. Recently she co-wrote a curriculum and DVD for working with men who batter as fathers entitled, Addressing Fatherhood with Men Who Batter. She also co-authored a curriculum and DVD with Ellen Pence, PhD and Laura Connelly for working with women who have used violence in intimate relationships entitled, Turning Points: A Nonviolence Curriculum for Women.
Melissa has been selected for numerous roundtable advisory discussion groups for the Office on Violence Against Women through the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence related to: differentiating types of domestic violence, custody, working with domestic violence offenders, and batterers intervention programs.
Most recently she was named to a National Consulting Group on Batterers Intervention Programs and as a National Advisory Committee Member for Law & Order: SVU actress Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation for survivor based healing. In addition, she participated at two United Nations Expert Meetings related to domestic violence in Kazakhstan and Spain.
She is also currently co-writing a book to help battered women understand the change process of men who batter (set to be released in early 2018). She has also developed a blog entitled “Minnesota Iron Woman” to highlight and write about life on Minnesota’s Iron Range.
Outside of her work she is a wife, mother of two young children, a former United States Figure Skating Association instructor, and has a passion for photography and interior decorating/HGTV.
Scott Miller
DAIP and Co-ordinator of Co-ordinated Community Response Programs for the Office of Violence Against Women, Duluth, Minnesota
Scott Miller has worked for the Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs since the year 2000 in Duluth, Minnesota. Scott coordinates Duluth’s coordinated community response to domestic violence by managing the system change efforts and men’s nonviolence program. Scott trains nationally and internationally on the Duluth Model method of organizing. He also develops specific community interventions using the Duluth Model and creates new resource materials and curricula for use in communities working to end violence against women. Scott has also co-authored the new DAIP men’s nonviolence curriculum Creating a Process of Change for Men Who Batter.
Scott works independently as an expert witness in criminal and civil trials to explain how the tactics of abusers and the associated risks generated by battering are linked to the counterintuitive behaviours of victims. Scott has testified more than 30 times in family courts, state district courts and federal/military court.
From 2001 to 2015, Scott was a contract trainer and forensic interviewer for First Witness Child Abuse Resource Center in Duluth. Scott was responsible for conducting forensically sound interviews of children suspected of being physically or sexually abused as part of a criminal investigation. Scott also trained nationally on how to conduct interviews with children and work from a multidisciplinary team approach in the investigation of child abuse.
Scott Miller has been working in the women’s movement since 1985.
Graham Barnes
Former Duluth Men’s Program Facilitator and Trainer, New Zealand
Graham Barnes has been a resource specialist with the Battered Women’s Justice Project in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 2005. He consults with federal grantees nationally on developing their coordinated community response to domestic violence, trains for professional institutes such as the Office on Violence Against Women, presents internationally through The Advocates for Human Rights and other agencies, and teaches Duluth’s Creating a Process of Change For Men Who Batter Curriculum. Graham has co-authored a number of written resources for practitioners, including the 2011 version of the men’s curriculum.
Previously, Graham was Team Leader of the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project’s National Training Project in Duluth, Minnesota where he developed local Duluth practice on domestic violence into training packages and resources for other communities nationally and internationally. He facilitated batterer intervention program classes in Duluth, and a class for men coming out of prison in Minneapolis.
Initially trained as a teacher, Graham has a Diploma in Teaching, a Bachelor Degree in Social Work, and 20 years experience in community organizing and domestic violence prevention. In 1990, Graham was the founding men’s program coordinator at New Zealand’s Hamilton Abuse Intervention Project, a national pilot that adapted the Duluth Model to a New Zealand cultural setting. He then trained practitioners in this model throughout New Zealand and in Australia. In 1996, Graham worked with Ellen Pence on the development of the ‘Domestic Violence Safety and Accountability Audit’ in Duluth.
Between 1998 and 2002, Graham worked for SHINE, developing health sector responses to domestic violence in Auckland, and piloting DVFREE, an employer response to domestic violence.
Lori Flohaug
Former Prosecutor, Public Defender, Civil & Family Law Lawyer and Judge for the Leech Band of Ojibwe, Minnesota
Ms. Flohaug was born and raised in rural Northern Minnesota and resides with her husband and two children age 23 and 16 in a small town known for outdoor recreation, mining and timber logging.
Growing up in a family of eight children in a home ridden with extreme domestic violence, sexual violence, addiction, poverty, and mental illness, Ms. Flohaug focused on her own set of coping skills with an eye on creating a better life for herself and helping others. Ms. Flohaug is the first in her family to graduate from college (when she was 27!) and is the only family member to attend Law School (after she was married and had a small child).
Ms. Flohaug has dedicated her twenty-year legal career to helping others in crisis, focusing on women and children.
Ms. Flohaug has worked as a domestic violence advocate, a Guardian Ad Litem, Legal Aid attorney, state prosecutor, tribal defense attorney, state public defender and has recently been appointed to the Leech Lake Tribal Court bench to preside over child protection cases for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwa Indian Reservation.
Ms. Flohaug is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She has served on numerous boards and committees including Advocates for Family Peace, Legal Aid Services of Northeastern Minnesota, First Call for Help and Children’s Mental Health Services.
In her free time, Ms. Flohaug enjoys photography, painting, sewing and watching her children participate in numerous sports and activities. You can find Ms. Flohaug in a hockey arena about nine months each year and she is the current president of the local youth hockey association!
Gabrielle Davis
Legal & Policy Advisor with the Battered Women’s Justice Project
Before joining BWJP, Gabrielle was a Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Toledo College of Law where she founded and directed a domestic violence clinic, developed curricula, and taught courses in gender violence and feminist legal theory.
She chaired the local DV coordinated community response and fatality review teams, conducted community-based research, and helped shape local domestic violence policy and practice in the civil and criminal justice systems.
She has published extensively in the field and currently serves on the editorial review board of the Family Court Review. She co-developed the SAFeR model for DV-informed decision making, as well as training curricula to support its broad implementation, and regularly presents to local, state, national, and international audiences. Her community work has been recognized by numerous awards and commendations including a 2009 Jefferson Award for Public Service.
Hon. Shaun R Floerke
District Court Judge, Duluth, Minnesota
Judge Floerke is a district court judge of the 6th Judicial District of Minnesota, chambered in Duluth. He was appointed to the bench July 2004. Before taking the bench he served as a lead prosecutor, litigation attorney in a private law firm, and as a senior attorney in government civil litigation.
Judge Floerke founded and presides over the South St. Louis County DWI Court, one of four National Center for DWI Courts Academy Courts in the nation. He is the founding and presiding judge of the Duluth Domestic Violence Restorative Circles Intervention. He serves as Co-Chair of the Minnesota Treatment Court Initiative and is a past member of the Minnesota Judicial Council, the governing body for the judiciary in Minnesota. He trains judges and other professionals on domestic violence issues nationally with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) and also with the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP). He is a faculty member and trainer for the National Center for DWI Courts. He was awarded a judicial leadership award by Minnesota Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in 2011 and again in 2017 for his work to effectively address impaired driving.
Judge Floerke is husband to Sara and father to five children who are not impressed by what he does for a living, but are much more interested in who he is and whether he is present.
Kay Arola
Executive Director of Arrowhead Regional Corrections, Minnesota
Kay Kavlie Arola is the Executive Director of Arrowhead Regional Corrections (ARC) which provides corrections services within the five county Arrowhead region of Minnesota, as well as managing an adult and juvenile corrections facility.
Kay is a native of Chisholm, Minnesota and a graduate of the College of St Scholastica. She began her career at the Arrowhead Juvenile Center as a corrections counselor, became a probation officer, was promoted to a supervisory position and served as the Chief Probation Officer prior to being appointed to the Executive Director position.
Kay has extensive experience in all aspects of corrections. She has provided trainings on many topics including correctional evidence based practices and domestic violence interventions.
Laura Goodman MA
Deputy Chief (RET), International Police Advisor Education for Critical Thinking
Laura’s experience is unique in the field of law enforcement where she has “boots on the ground” experience as a police officer and deputy chief of police in major metropolitan police departments and as the Director of Public Safety and Risk Management for an urban university. She has led three agencies (city, state and nonprofit) and she was a powerful advocate for the fair and proper treatment of crime victims as Minnesota’s State Crime Victim Ombudsman.
As a police leader, consultant, and national/international trainer, Laura has devoted her law enforcement career to protecting public safety by building bridges between the police and the communities served. Her work has focused on reducing violence against women and children, increasing the representation of women in police leadership roles and teaching officers how to effectively engage victims and hold offenders accountable for their behaviour.
Laura has provided training and written articles on the critical role police officers have in ending gender-based violence. She’s currently an International Police Advisor for Education for Critical Thinking and works with the National Center for Women in Policing extolling the importance of women police and increasing their numbers. She is a past commissioner for the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators Accreditation Commission, and a past president of the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) where she continues to serve as a director on its Board of Trustees.