For help with how to answer
questions on the reporting forms, call 1-800-922-VAWA or email at vawamei@usm.maine.edu
For help with downloading and submitting
reporting forms online on the GMS system, call the GMS Hotline at 1-888-549-9901.
Click
here to go to the GMS System
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VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative Staff Description
Anita
St. Onge
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Project Director
Anita St. Onge is currently the Director of Domestic Violence Initiatives
at the Catherine E. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy at the
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine.
Her work in the Muskie School focuses on child welfare and domestic violence.
Current projects include the provision of technical assistance on child
welfare matters to child welfare agencies for the National Child Welfare
Resource Center for Organizational Improvement and a national project
to measure the effectiveness of programs funded by the Violence Against
Women Office of the Department of Justice. Before joining the Muskie School
she was employed as an Assistant Attorney General representing the Department
of Human Services in child protective matters. She supervised Maine’s
child protective attorneys and served as legal counsel to the State of
Maine Bureau of Child and Family Services. She is also currently the Chair
of the Maine Commission on Domestic Abuse.
Maureen Baker
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of
Southern Maine
Policy Associate
Maureen Baker is a Policy Associate with the Catherine E. Cutler Institute
for Child and Family Policy at the Muskie School of Public Service at
the University of Southern Maine. In her role with Cutler she works with
the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative and the National Child Welfare
Resource Center for Organizational Improvement where she provides consultation
and technical assistance on issues of training and workforce development.
Throughout her career, Maureen has collaborated with professionals in
the fields of domestic violence, child abuse, and substance abuse, to
identify and minimize barriers to integrated service delivery especially
through the development, implementation, and assessment of meaningful
learning environments. In addition to her work with Muskie, Maureen has
over fifteen years experience in the field of domestic violence, both
as an advocate for battered women and children and as a community educator.
Jean Bessette
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Research Analyst
Jean Bessette is a Research Analyst at the Catherine
E. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy at the Edmund S.
Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine. She is
currently working on the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative, funded
by the Office on Violence Against Women. She is enrolled in a graduate
program in Sociology with concentrations in Family and Applied Sociology
and Social Policy.
Oksana Fearon
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Research Analyst
Oksana Fearon is a Research Analyst at the Catherine
E. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy at the Edmund S.
Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine. She is
currently working on the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative project,
funded by the Office on Violence Against Women. She is originally from
Russia where she received her Masters in Linguistics and Intercultural
Communications, and BA in Economics. She is currently enrolled in a graduate
program in Public Policy and Management with concentrations in Organizational
Management.
Nicole Fortier
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of
Southern Maine
Administrative Assistant II
Nicole Fortier is an Administrative Assistant at the Catherine E.
Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy at the Edmund S. Muskie School
of Public Service, University of Southern Maine. She is currently working
on the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative project, funded by the
Office on Violence Against Women. She is currently attending Andover College
for a degree in Criminal Justice.
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Diane
Gout
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of
Southern Maine
Research Associate
Diane Gout, M.S.W., is employed as a Research Associate with the
Catherine E. Cutler Institute for Child
and Family Policy at the Muskie School of Public Service, University of
Southern Maine. Ms. Gout conferred her degree from the University of New
England with a concentration in policy, research and community organizing.
Ms. Gout has over eight years working within trauma-based practice, including
working with survivors of rape, incest and domestic violence. In addition
to direct practice intervention, Ms. Gout has worked collaboratively with
multi-disciplinary teams to develop policy, protocols and in conducting
research surrounding issues of trauma and abuse. Ms. Gout has experience
in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including survey
and instrument development, key informant interviewing, data review, analysis
and report writing. Currently Ms. Gout works within the field of domestic
violence by participating in the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative;
a national project to develop instruments for those funded by the Violence
Against Women Office in an effort to report on the effectiveness of their
programs. Ms. Gout is also involved with the Maine Domestic Violence Court
Project.
Sameer
Mahimkar
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Data Manager and Research Analyst
Sameer Mahimkar is a Data Manager and Research Analyst with the Catherine
E. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy at the Muskie School
of Public Service, University of Southern Maine. He has been working at
Muskie since February 2002. He has developed menu-driven user-friendly
database management systems. These databases are used nationally by various
grantees of the OVW to collect the data required to report their program
effectiveness. He has also planned, designed, and maintained a website
for this project. This website is extensively used as a Communication
and Technical Assistance Tool. He has also been working with, and providing
technical assistance to the OVW’s State and Territory STOP Grant
Administrators to collect the data on sub-grants. He has been responsible
to clean and analyze this data and assist in writing reports. He also
assists in upgrading the web-based application and website for National
Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement. Mr. Mahimkar’s
technical, quantitative data collection and analysis skills have been
utilized in a variety of state and national projects. For the Evaluation
of Maine STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grant Program, he assisted
to design telephone survey instrument and designed a user-friendly database
to assist in data collection during survey. He also played an important
role in data analysis for this project. Additionally, he designed and
developed a database for the Maine Domestic Violence Court Co-ordination
Project, to aid the court in implementing and revising court-based interventions
designed to increase offender accountability. Before coming to the United
States of America, he worked in India as a programmer in a Software company
and has also worked in a Multinational Company for planning and coordinating
international projects. He possesses a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical
Engineering from the University of Pune, India and has over 10 years of
functional experience as Software Programmer, Project Engineer and Product
Development Engineer.
Lori
Michaud
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Research Assistant
Lori Michaud is a Research Assistant II at the Catherine E. Cutler Institute
for Child and Family Policy at the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service,
University of Southern Maine. She is currently working on the Muskie School's
VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative project, funded by the Office
on Violence Against Women. She is originally from northern Maine and attended
the University of Maine, Orono where she received her Master of Science
in Human Development, and BA in Psychology with an additional major in
Child Development and Family Relations. At the University of Southern
Maine, she is currently working on a certificate of Applied Research &
Evaluation Methods.
She aspires to earn a doctorate in Human Development and continue working
in the research field.
Karen
Monahan
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Research Associate
Karen Monahan is a Research Associate at the Catherine
E. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy at the Muskie School
of Public Service, and is currently working on two projects: The VAWA
Measuring Effectiveness Initiative and the Maine Domestic Violence Court
Project. The first project is assisting the Violence Against Women Office
in developing a reporting tool to capture data that will reflect the effectiveness
of projects funded under the Violence Against Women Act. The other project
has as its goal to develop protocols for the Maine Courts that would provide
for coordination and communication between civil and criminal courts regarding
cases that involve domestic violence. Ms. Monahan also has a private consulting
practice, in which she advises non-profits on logic modeling and performance
measurement, and evaluates programs and initiatives, particularly in the
legal services area. She is the co-evaluator for a pilot project using
videoconferencing technology to reduce barriers for women seeking emergency
protection from abuse orders in three Maine courts. She is also evaluating
the effectiveness of public access terminals located in Maine’s
district courts and selected domestic violence shelters that provide access
to information and court forms for people proceeding pro se, particularly
in cases of domestic violence and family matters.
Hillary O’Donnell
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of
Southern Maine
Research Assistant
Hillary O’Donnell is a Research Assistant at the Catherine E. Cutler
Institute for Child and Family Policy at the Edmund S. Muskie School of
Public Service, University of Southern Maine. She is currently working
on the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative project, funded by the
Office on Violence Against Women. She received her Bachelors of Science
in Biology from the University of Connecticut in 2006.
Tammy Richards
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of
Southern Maine
Research Analyst
Tammy Richards, M.Ed., Research Analyst at the Muskie School of Public
Service, has worked as an evaluator on many programs whose goal is to
support families in crisis. Ms. Richards is especially interested in working
on programs that address the intersection of domestic violence, and child
welfare. Prior to her work on VAWAMEI, Ms. Richards worked on the "Snapshot"
project, conducting site visits in several states to review programs funded
through the Violence Against Women's Grant Office. She has worked on a
variety of other domestic violence, child welfare, mental health/substance
abuse treatment and court program evaluations. Her work encompasses database
design, development of surveys and construction of observation and interview
instruments as well as collection and analysis of both quantitative and
qualitative data.
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V.
Gail Sweat
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Policy Associate
V. Gail Sweat, M.S.ed, is a Policy Associate and Site Visit Program
Manager for the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative project (previously
known as the Snapshot Project) with the Catherine
E. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy at the Muskie School
of Public Service. She acts as a consultant and trainer for the Kids First
Center in Portland, Maine, facilitating women’s groups for victims
of domestic violence who are parents, and developing curricula for use
in those groups and with community stakeholders. Ms. Sweat is a member
of the VAWA Technical Assistance Collaborative Addressing Domestic Violence
and Child Custody working with OVW, the American Bar Association, the
National Center for State Courts, and the National Network to End Domestic
Violence to develop two institutes; one in San Francisco, and one in Baltimore,
Maryland for Legal Assistance to Victims (LAV), Safe Havens, and Rural
grantees. The goal of these institutes is to provide grantees expert information
including promising and innovative practices and the latest research regarding
divorce, custody, and visitation when domestic violence, sexual assault,
and stalking is present. She has worked as an advocate for abused women
and their children since 1978. She was Shelter Program Coordinator for
domestic violence shelters in Colorado and Maine.
Jolene Twombley-Wiser
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Policy Analyst, Project Coordinator
Ms. Twombly-Wiser contributes to several projects at the Muskie School
for Public Service related to victim services and the criminal justice
system. At the Cutler Institute, Jolene contributes to the work of the
VAWAMEI team. Jolene has leadership experience in multi-agency collaboration,
group facilitation, and strategic planning, particularly with programs
serving individuals impacted by trauma. Jolene enjoys program evaluation,
and in her work at the Muskie School Institute for Public Sector Innovation’s
Maine Justice Policy Center, regularly evaluates programs in corrections.
As Project Director for the Maine/New Hampshire Victim Assistance Academy,
Jolene develops and implements trauma-informed curricula with practitioners
from the fields of domestic violence, sexual assault, corrections, victim
compensation, elder abuse, child abuse, and mental health. Despite her
varied roles, Jolene’s central focus is training, programming, evaluation,
and research related to trauma informed practices.
Susan Walker
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of
Southern Maine
Research Analyst/Project Coordinator
Susan Walker is a Research Analyst and Project coordinator at the
Catherine E. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy at the Edmund
S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine. She
is currently working on the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative project,
funded by the Office on Violence Against Women. She has been working at
Muskie since July 2002. While working on the VAWA project she developed
a system using Access databases to automate the cleaning of the data.
She received her masters in Public Policy and Management in May of 2004.
Certificate in Research and Evaluation Methods in January of 2004, and
BS in Leadership and Organizational Studies in May 2002. Before that she
managed an organic vegetable farm CSA in Standish while she helped raise
six children. She enjoys being outdoors and taking photos of nature and
unusual things.
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Laura Woods
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of
Southern Maine
Research Assistant
Laura Woods is a Research Assistant at the Catherine E. Cutler Institute
for Child and Family Policy at the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service,
University of Southern Maine. She is a recent graduate of the University
of Southern Maine with a degree in Communication. She is currently working
in two areas within the Institute: the National Child Welfare Resource
Center for Organizational Improvement, and the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness
Initiative, a project funded by the Office on Violence against women.
Sun Young Yoon
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Research Associate
Sun Young Yoon, Research Associate, joined the Muskie School after
leaving a lecturer position at Ewha Womens University in Seoul, South
Korea where she taught graduate level courses including research methods
in child and family studies and social statistics. At the Muskie School,
she is currently working on the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative
analyzing data collected from grantees funded by the Office on Violence
Against Women. She is also the Co-Principal Investigator of Children At
Risk in the Child Welfare System: Collaborations to Promote School Readiness,
a research project funded by the Child Care Bureau. Dr. Yoon holds a Ph.D.
in Child and Family Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
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