April 10, 2012
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has announced the appointment of three new members to serve on the Archdiocesan Review Board, the consultative panel that advises the Archbishop of Philadelphia throughout the process of addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors, evaluating clerics' suitability for ministry, and the continual review of Archdiocesan policies and procedures related to these matters.
"With their strong leadership skills and unique professional backgrounds, these newly appointed individuals will greatly assist and further guide the Archdiocesan Review Board through these critical review processes," said Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. "I am thankful to all those serving on the Archdiocesan Review Board and am pleased to have such a dedicated and talented group of people, each of whom brings the highest level of expertise, long-standing dedication and passion, working with us through this process."
The Archdiocesan Review Board was established in accord with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and the Essential Norms, and is comprised of psychologists, social workers, educators, retired law enforcement agents, health care professionals, parents and pastors. This group functions as a confidential, advisory committee to the Archbishop, providing recommendations in the assessment of allegations of abuse and suitability for ministry. Through careful analysis of reports, the Board works to ensure that individuals who may have been harmed are given necessary care and that no one with a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse will serve as a member of active ministry. All allegations of abuse heard by the Review Board, whether historical or current, are reported to law enforcement by the Delegate for Investigations.
The new appointees, for whom additional biographical information is available in the attached document, include:
-Robert L. Sadoff, Clinical Professor of Forensic Psychiatry and Director of the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
-Bebe Kivitz, former prosecutor and former Chief of the Child Abuse Unit in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and currently an attorney in private practice. Member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Children's Alliance.
-Stacey Ginesin, current member, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Sexual Offender Assessment Board. Formerly the Program Director of TAP program, an outpatient sex offender treatment program in Philadelphia.
The Archdiocesan Review Board now consists of twelve total members, each of whom is appointed to serve a four-year or five-year term, which is renewable. The remaining members include Ana Maria Catanzaro (Associate Professor and Chair of Graduate Nursing Programs, Holy Family University), Reverend Monsignor Thomas Owens (Pastor, Saint Alphonsus Parish), Anne Shenberger (Executive Director of Court Appointed Special Advocates/Youth Advocates, Inc.), Michael Boyle (Program Director at Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center), Arnold Gordon (retired prosecutor who served as First Assistant District Attorney), Janet Shaw Lemoine (former victim advocate who most recently served as Director of the Victim/Witness Training and Networking Project), Richmond Parsons (Deputy Chief of Offender Services in the Montgomery County Adult Probation and Parole Department), Laura Rogers (former prosecutor), and Robert Spinelli (former prosecutor and now Partner at the law firm Kelley, Jasons, McGowan, Spinelli, Hanna, & Reber, LLP).
as of April 2012
Michael Boyle
Michael Boyle currently serves as the first Program Director at the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center, which was established to provide assistance to sexual assault victims in need of independent, victim-centered evidence recovery efforts. A 30-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, Boyle attained the rank of Lieutenant and served for fourteen years as the Commanding Officer in the Child Abuse Unit, where he was responsible for administrative oversight of a collaborative investigative process that included child welfare authorities, medical professionals and forensic interviewers working on approximately 1,700 reported cases of child abuse or neglect each year.
Ana Maria Catanzaro
Ana Maria Catanzaro teaches and is Chair of the graduate nursing programs in the School of Nursing and Allied Health Professions at Holy Family University. Dr. Catanzaro has been a registered nurse for thirty-three years and formerly served children in the School District of Philadelphia as a school nurse and compliance officer designee for protected handicapped students. Dr. Catanzaro's educational background is in public health nursing, clinical research, and moral theology. In addition to serving on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's Review Board, she also serves on the National Review Board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Arnold Gordon
A prosecutor with 40 years of experience in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and the U.S. Department of Justice, Arnold Gordon most recently served as First Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia. He previously served as Chief of the D.A.'s Homicide, Felony Waiver, and Municipal Court Units. As a Special Attorney in the Justice Department's Organized Crime section, Gordon played a major role in the investigation and subsequent conviction in one of the most significant racketeering cases in U.S. history.
Janet Shaw Lemoine
A member of the Pennsylvania Bar, Janet Shaw Lemoine is a former victim advocate and trainer with 16 years of experience in Philadelphia and across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Most recently, she served as the Director of the Victim/Witness Training and Networking Project funded through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and administered by the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association. Her responsibilities included training, trouble-shooting and networking statewide with both system-based victim/witness coordinators as well as community based agencies. She previously served as Director of Northwest Victim Services, the first community based comprehensive victim service agency in Philadelphia. Prior to her work with victims, Ms. Lemoine served as a Secondary School teacher with the Philadelphia School District. She has a Master's Degree from Villanova University and a law degree from the Delaware Law School of Widener University.
Reverend Monsignor Thomas Owens
A native Philadelphian who grew up in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Monsignor Thomas Owens serves as Pastor of Saint Alphonsus Parish in Maple Glen, Montgomery County. Before arriving at Saint Alphonsus, Monsignor Owens served as the Dean of Formation at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary.
Richmond Parsons
A nationally recognized trainer with more than twenty years of experience in law enforcement, probation and parole, Richmond Parsons currently serves as Deputy Chief of Offender Services in the Montgomery County Adult Probation and Parole Department. He has conducted trainings for local, state and national probation and parole agencies on topics such as computer search and seizure, sex offender management and leadership. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Montgomery County Sex Offender Task Force and works with the Montgomery County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He is also a member of the Governor's Advisory Committee on Probation and Secretary of the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.
Laura Rogers
Laura Rogers served as the Director of the Center for Litigation Training and Community Practice Management and the Deputy Director of the Criminal Law Division of the Navy's Office of the Judge Advocate General, where she served as the Navy's expert on military justice issues. She also acted as legal advisor on the operations of the Sexual Assault Prevention Training Program. In 2006, she was appointed by President George W. Bush as the Founding Director of the Department of Justice's Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART) office, where she was responsible for the implementation of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Prior to her work with the federal government, Rogers founded and served as Director of the National Institute for Training Child Abuse Professionals, where she trained prosecutors, medical and law enforcement professionals, forensic interviewers, therapists and protective service workers on a range of topics related to child sexual and physical abuse. She is a former prosecutor from San Diego County where she specialized in child homicide and child sexual molestation prosecutions.
Anne Shenberger
Anne Shenberger is Executive Director of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)/Youth Advocates Inc. She served for over twenty years as the Southeast Regional Director of Pennsylvania's Office of Children, Youth and Families. In that role, she was responsible for the investigation of allegations of child abuse in foster and adoptive homes, group homes, residential facilities and day care centers. She has a Master's Degree in social work from Bryn Mawr College and is a licensed social worker in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In addition to the Archdiocese Review Board, she serves on the Board of Directors of several other nonprofit agencies in the Philadelphia area.
Robert Spinelli
A former prosecutor with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, Mr. Spinelli is now a partner at the law firm Kelley Jasons McGowan Spinelli Hanna & Reber. Mr. Spinelli specializes in representing companies involved in mass tort litigation. He has extensive experience in overall claims management for companies involved in hundreds of thousands of claims nationwide. In addition to organizing and participating in numerous legal seminars on mass tort litigation all across the country, Mr. Spinelli has lectured on medico-legal issues at the Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine and Temple University.
Robert L. Sadoff
Dr. Robert Sadoff is currently Clinical Professor of Forensic Psychiatry and Director of the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught since 1972. He is the author of over 100 articles and 10 books on issues in forensic psychiatry. He has examined over 10,000 individuals charged with crimes during the past 50 years and has testified for both prosecution and defense in over 20 states and several federal jurisdictions. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and has lectured in almost every state and in 12 countries of the world.
Bebe Kivitz
Bebe Kivitz is a former prosecutor and former Chief of the Child Abuse Unit in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Ms. Kivitz also has extensive experience in private practice where she has handled a broad range of litigation matters including civil rights, medical malpractice, toxic tort, corporate investigations, internal disciplinary proceedings, personal injury, employment, and commercial disputes. She specializes in abuse litigation and continues to represent assault victims. Ms. Kivitz has served on the Board of Directors of Philadelphia Children's Alliance since 2000, a non-profit organization which collaborates with law enforcement, child welfare, and medical professionals, and conducts state of the art forensic interviews of child abuse victims. She is also a member of Brandeis Law Society, and has served on its Executive Committee since 2010.
Stacey Ginesin
Stacey Ginesin is a clinical psychologist with nearly 15 years of experience working with sexual offenders in Atlanta, San Francisco and Philadelphia in research, outpatient, and prison settings. She was instrumental in the development of the TAP program, an outpatient sex offender treatment program in Philadelphia and served as the program director until 2010. In that capacity Dr. Ginesin provided treatment, conducted evaluations and risk assessments, and supervised other clinicians. She has worked closely with the court systems in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. In addition to her work with offenders, Dr. Ginesin has worked with sexual abuse victims and their families. She has been a member of the Pennsylvania Sexual Offender Assessment Board since 2008 and is the Eastern Pennsylvania area representative for the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.
Editor's Note: For continuing updates and additional background information on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's commitment to child protection, victim assistance and priestly integrity, please visit www.archphila.org.
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