Scott Miller has worked for the Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs since 2000. Scott coordinates Duluth’s Coordinated Community Response to domestic violence which is currently under a demonstration project funded by OVW called the Blueprint for Safety. Serving as both system advocate and coordinator of the men’s nonviolence program, he is instrumental in the evolving work being done in Duluth. Scott trains nationally and internationally on the components of the Duluth Model of intervention and helps develop 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 counter intuitive behaviors of victims. Scott has testified in family court, state district court 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.
Carol Thompson has an M.S. in nursing from the University of California San Francisco and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of St. Thomas,St. Paul,MN. She has co-facilitated men’s education classes since 1984 for Duluth’s Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs. Since 1991 she has facilitated training on Creating A Process of Change For Men Who Batter (The Duluth curriculum), throughout the United States and internationally. She was a board member, as well as co-chair of the board, for the Women’s Coalition, a local organization that provides safe housing and advocacy for women who are battered. She is currently a member of the board for Praxis International, an international organization that provides technical assistance and consultation related to violence against women.
Carol taught at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth in the areas of nursing, health, perspectives of life and death, health care ethics and gender issues for 33 years. She is retired and enjoys having time and energy to be with her grandsons and pursue her special interests of healing and spirituality.
Laura Gapske. In her 15 + years of experience, Laura has dedicated her life professionally and personally to ending the violence against women and children. She currently serves as the co-chair of the St. Louis County Mortality Review Committee for child protection services. Through her role as the Community Response Coordinator, she maximizes the safety of victims who experience domestic violence by working to enhance and maintain an effective coordinate community response to domestic violence that includes the ability to effectively work with all women who experience domestic violence, the men who batter them, and their families. She participates in the development, expansion and execution of trainings for DAIP National Training Project (NTP) by working with the Executive Director and the DAIP Program Coordinator and NTP Coordinator to develop training ideas and modules that derive from the work being doing in the women’s nonviolence program and in the local CCR.
Laura is an experienced co-facilitator for the Creating a Process of Change for Men Who Batter at Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs. The curriculum and training are grounded in the Duluth Model, a constantly evolving philosophy and practice based in the Domestic Abuse Intervention Program’s work to end men’s violence against women through a coordinated community response.
In her previous work, she conducted forensically-sound interviews when allegations of maltreatment or abuse arise to support investigations by social services and/or law enforcement, while working with a multi-disciplinary team of professionals. She provided training on forensic interviewing, policies and procedures, narrative practice, team development, and the dynamics of abuse to social workers, law enforcement, and county attorneys. She has trained professionals in First Witness ChildFirst® forensic interview protocol in her partnership with Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center (GNCPTC). Laura has received multiple forensic interview protocol training and provided court testimony, technical assistance, and forensic interview peer review to professionals in the field.
Ty Schroyer’s background includes twenty-five years experience working in the field of domestic violence. As Men’s Program Coordinator for the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs (DAIP) for sixteen years, he facilitated men’s nonviolence classes, trained and supervised facilitators, provided system advocacy and leadership for Duluth’s Coordinated Community Response. He has worked as a consultant and trainer for the DAIP’s National Training Project, teaching the Duluth Model for responding to violence against women, training law enforcement, social service workers, women’s advocates, counselors, educators, military personnel and faith communities. Ty was also involved in the creation and implementation of DV/SA curriculum for Duluth’s 7th & 10th grade classrooms. He and Barbara Jones-Schroyer, in collaboration with the DAIP and supported by Mending the Sacred Hoop, created a culturally specific class for Christian men who use violence – Changing Men, Changing Lives (CMCL). A faith based supplemental curriculum, video documentary and excerpts of a live class are available to organizations wanting to provide culturally specific programming. Ty left DAIP to work as the Director of Victim Witness Services for the St Louis County Attorney’s Office in Duluth, MN where he helped influence the development of the “Family Violence Unit”. Ty since has moved to the state of Washington where he became a certified counselor and developed & implemented DV programming for Sea Mar Community Health Centers. Ty has also worked as a Federal grant reviewer since 1999 for the Office on Violence Against Women. Ty is an activist, passionate about men’s work, is a husband, a father of three grown children, two grand children and a newly adopted three-year old Airedale Terrier named Archie – a gentle soul. With his wife Barb, he enjoys hiking, kayaking and biking in the great northwest and providing domestic violence trainings together as a team. Ty’s most impactful and greatest teacher/mentor/friend is the late Ellen Pence.
Marcus Bruning, M.Ed is a retired 28 year law enforcement officer who served as member of the St. Louis County, Minnesota Sheriff’s Office for twenty years. Marcus retired as Supervising Deputy Sheriff for St. Louis County. Marcus was involved in developing a model policy for the country in rural agency response to domestic violence through a Department of Justice Grant. Marcus has presented at several conferences across the country as a Contract Instructor for Praxis International, Minnesota Program Development Incorporated, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the National Sheriff’s Association and the Gender Violence Institute on domestic violence, sexual assault and interviewing and interrogation and has been utilized as a subject expert nationally. Marcus was contracted as a subject matter expert by the Homeland Security Department to write a national curriculum on Intelligence-Led Policing and has conducted law enforcement and prosecutor training courses in all fifty states. Marcus has a Masters of Education degree from The University of Minnesota, Duluth and is a member of American Mensa.
Beth Beams holds a B.A. in Anthropology, Indiana University, highest distinction, and is a licensed social worker, having received awards as Outstanding Domestic Violence Professional (ICADV), “Citizen of the Year” (Indiana Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers), “Great Men and Women” (Multicultural Services, IPFW) and “Hidden Heroines” (FW Women’s Bureau). Annually, since 1996, she has conducted the national trainings “In Our Best Interest” and “Creating a Process of Change for Men Who Batter” on behalf of the National Training Project of the Domestic Abuse Intervention Program of Duluth, MN. She has been employed at the Center for Nonviolence in Ft.Wayne as Coordinator of Women’s Programs since 1984. She has served in the past as Associate Faculty, IPFW, Women’s Studies Program, as Director of Education for Planned Parenthood of NE Indiana, as Women’s Advocate for the YWCA Women’s Shelter, and as Crisis Counselor for the Rape Crisis Center in Ft.Wayne. She has served on the Mayor’s Commission on Domestic Violence, and has offered keynote speeches and trainings to the Indiana Coalition against Domestic Violence, the Pennsylvania Coalition against Domestic Violence, the Texas Council on Family Violence and the National District Attorneys Association Annual Conference on Domestic Violence. She serves on the D.V. Advisory Committee of the Indiana Supreme Court.
John Beams holds a law degree from Indiana University, Bloomington. He is a licensed social worker and a divorce mediator. He has conducted the Duluth trainings nationally since 1996. He has served as ICADV Batterer Intervention Program Standards Committee Representative, past chair of the Domestic Violence Task Force in Ft. Wayne, and consultant to the Violence against Women Grant Office, Washington, D.C. He provided policy, curriculum and facilitation for batterer intervention (B.I.P.) groups continuously from 1981 through 2015. Earlier in his career he practiced law, first as Allen County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, later as civil rights attorney and executive director of the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission, and finally in private solo practice.
He is certified by Indiana Coalition against Domestic Violence (ICADV) as a batterer intervention Supervisor/Trainer. He serves on the Domestic Violence Advisory Committee of the Indiana Supreme Court.
Publications and Awards received: “Co-citizen of the Year” (Indiana Chapter, NASW), “Exemplary Service to the Community” (NAACP), “Great Men and Women” (Multicultural Services, IPFW) and “BIP Provider of the Year” (ICADV). He co-authored Indiana Standards for Batterer Intervention Programs, and has authored articles for Bulletin of the Peace Studies Institute, Manchester College, and Changing Men Magazine. He was featured in Gender-Based Perspectives on Batterer Programs: Program Leaders on History, Approach, Research, and Development (Edward W. Gondolf, 2015, Lexington Press).