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A National Conversation on the Harmful Effects of Pornography

Speakers’ Bios

Our conference speakers follow. Please click on each name to jump directly to the biography.

AUXILIARY BISHOP ROBERT LLANOS

 

Auxilliary Bishop – Archdiocese of Port of Spain
Chair – Archdiocesan Family Life Commission

Auxiliary Bishop Robert Llanos sees his ministry as service to family life, Church and the nation of Trinidad and Tobago and it is this vision which has led to the development of the Consider This awareness series on pornography.
Bishop Llanos holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theology from the University of the West Indies and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland.  He is currently Auxillary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain in charge of sacramental and administrative matters and has also retained his position as Chair of the Family Life Commission.  Bishop Llanos is the former Vice-Rector and a Formator at the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs as well as a lecturer in Psychology for the Bachelor of Arts in Theology at the University of the West Indies

Bishop Llanos is the author of two booklets: Advent Prayer and Reflection [2009] and Catholic Family Become What You Are [2010]

DR. ANNA KASAFI PERKINS

 

Presentation: 21st Century Technology and Pop Culture – Ethical & Sexual Challenges for Youth and Young Adults.

Dr. Anna Kasafi Perkins is the Senior Program Officer in the Quality Assurance Unit, Office of the Board of Undergraduate Studies, University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica and Fellow, UWI Ethics Center Initiative.   She is the former Dean of St. Michael’s Theological College, an affiliated institution of UWI and a member of adjunct faculty for the Institute of Black Catholic Studies, Xavier University, Louisiana.

She holds degrees from UWI, Mona, Cambridge University and Boston College.  She has an eclectic interest in body theology; faith and political life; sex, gender and theology, popular culture and Christianity; quality in higher education and ethics.

Her publications include Justice as Equality: Michael Manley’s Caribbean Vision of Justice (2010 published by Peter Lang), Blak Up! Blak Up: The Liturgical Compositions of Barry Chevannes (2009), God (Not) Gwine Sin Yuh: The Female Face of HIV/Aids in the Caribbean and a Theology of Suffering (2009).

CLAY OLSEN

 

Co-Founder & CEO
Fight The New Drug

Presentation: Communicating the Message: A Youthful Perspective

Clay Olsen is a creative and passionate filmmaker, marketer, public speaker, author, and social entrepreneur. In 2008 he co-founded Fight the New Drug (fightthenewdrug.org), a youth activist movement dedicated to raising awareness on the harmful effects of pornography through science, facts, and personal accounts. Since then they’ve been featured on ABC Nightline, ABC News, CNN, Al Jazeera, USA Today, NPR, the Blaze, the Dr. Drew Show, and more.
Clay has personally presented to hundreds of schools and tens of thousands of teens all over the country as well as tens of thousands of parents and adults on this subject.

In February of 2013, he founded and lead the development of an online recovery program called Fortify (fortifyprogram.org), to help individuals, particularly youth, overcome their struggle with pornography that has already impacted over 25,000 users in over 100 countries.

DAWN HAWKINS

 

Vice President & Executive Director
National Center on Sexual Exploitation

Presentation: Coming Soon

Dawn Hawkins is a passionate defender of human rights who has dedicated her life to fighting against societal harms that threaten the dignity of others. Her energy, creativity and mobilization skills have revived the anti-pornography movement.
As Executive Director of National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCSE), Mrs. Hawkins has developed a national strategy uniting conservative women’s rights, child advocacy and religious groups, including a bipartisan political leadership, to work together raising awareness of the pandemic of harm from pornography. Her initiatives have led to sweeping policy changes of policies that foster exploitation for targets such as Google, Verizon and the Department of Defense.

Through her leadership, NCSE has grown a network reaching hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. Mrs. Hawkins has appeared on many local and national television programs, including CNN, Good Morning America and Fox & Friends. She regularly authors articles and speaks around the country addressing the harms of pornography and all forms of sexual exploitation and what can be done to curb the growing public health crisis resulting from pornography.

DR. DIANE DOUGLAS

 

Director of Douglas & Associates Limited
Assistant Clinical Professor
Yale University School of Medicine , Department of Psychiatry

Presentation: Coming Soon

Dr. Douglas is a Doctor of Clinical Psychology and a Community Psychologist. She completed her training in the U.S.A. at Wheaton College and Yale University.  She is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry, Part-time lecturer in the Masters in Clinical Psychology programme of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at UWI, a regional consultant on the Expert Team of UN Women’s Partnership for Peace, Domestic Violence Intervention Programme, UNDP and UNAIDS and a Past President of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Psychologists (TTAP).

Dr. Douglas is committed to the psychological development of persons in Caribbean and enjoys using radio and television as a means of promoting the message of psychological health and wellbeing.

Dr. Dianne Douglas is a member of TTAP, The American Association of Psychologists, (APA), Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA), The American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), and the founder and chair of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Christian Counselors (TTACC).

DONALD HILTON M.D.

 

Neurosurgeon
University of Texas

Presentation: Neurological Considerations of Pornography Addiction

Dr. Hilton is a neurosurgeon in San Antonio, Texas. He is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center and serves as director of the spine fellowship at the medical school program, and is also director of neurosurgical training for the residency program at the Methodist Hospital rotation. He travels and speaks nationally and internationally, and has published book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles, with special interest in minimally invasive spinal surgery and in neural mechanisms involving addiction.
He is currently listed in Best Doctors in America, is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

He has recently authored and co-authored several papers on addiction in peer-reviewed journals. One published in 2011 in the Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) which investigated the role of natural instinctive craving in addiction. In additional, other papers publishing in 2013 and 2014 in the journal Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology have explored the pornography addiction from the perspective of neural learning models. One is titled “Pornography Addiction: A Supranormal Stimulus Considered in the Context of Neuroplasticity,” and the other is a peer-reviewed rebuttal to the Steele et al. paper purportedly refuting the addiction mode; it is titled “High Desire, or ‘Merely’ an Addiction?”

DR. SARAN LOOBY

Clinical Psychologist 

 

Dr. Saran Looby is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who is dedicated to guiding children and adults to recovery and helping them lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.

She received her doctoral training in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina, in the USA.  Thereafter, she obtained a license to practise Psychology from the state of South Carolina. Dr. Looby has extensive experience in assessment and therapy. She has worked for several years treating children, adolescents and adults in outpatient, inpatient and forensic settings and has conducted psychoeducational, psychological, diagnostic, disability, occupational and forensic evaluations. Dr Looby specializes in child protection and worked for several years at a child advocacy centre (assessment centre) where she conducted forensic interviews of children and led therapy with survivors of abuse. Dr. Looby also has extensive experience assessing and treating children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural problems.

 Since recently returning to Trinidad, Dr. Looby runs her private practice, Looby Wellness, where she conducts therapy, assessments, training, consultations and advocates for public mental health services. She is also a part-time lecturer at the UWI MSc programme in Clinical Psychology. Dr Looby is proud to serve as a consultant with the Children’s Authority where she advises staff on their clinical practice at the assessment centres, she supervises psychologists, and trains staff on child abuse, psychological assessments, secondary trauma, among other topics.

Dr. Looby is a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Psychologists (TTAP) and The American Association of Psychologists (APA).

SUNNY SLAUGHTER

 

Sunny Slaughter is a federally certified instructor and consultant for the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.  She has also successfully completed the DHS Drug Task Force Supervisor Training Program and is a recognized member of ILEETA (International Law Enforcement and Educators Association).  Ms. Slaughter holds multiple certifications from FEMA, including Incident Management, Operational Planning and Integrated Preparedness and is an alumna of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of San Bernardino.

In 2016, Slaughter was the recipient of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Global Impact Award for her work in human trafficking.  She was a 2015 Contender for the Small Business of the Year Award from the Birmingham Business Alliance and won the Alabama Black Achievers Entrepreneur of Year Award from Regions Financial Corporation and

The Oliver Robinson Foundation.  Also in 2015, Slaughter won the 2nd Annual UAB Community Health Engagement Institute in the category of Professional Development/Evidence Based Services Award for her poster presentation “Defining the Role of Minority Health: Response to Human Trafficking Victimization, and she was a selected for Poster Presentation for the Charles Barkley Health Disparities Investigator Award at the University of Alabama at Birmingham 10th Annual Minority Health Disparities Research Symposium: “How Social Determinants of Health Contribute to Human Trafficking in African American Communities and how R.E.E.P (Recognize, Engage, Educate, Promote) changes the landscape”.

In 2014 she received a national appointment to the United Human Rights Network’s ICERD (International Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination) task-force and was invited to visit the White House.  In 2013 Slaughter received the Belle Hat Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Foundation from co-founder, actor and activist Harry Belafonte for her national efforts and work in human trafficking. She also was selected to serve as an Alabama Commissioner for the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference which held hearings on Mass Incarceration and social justice and human rights violations in nine states and produced the report “Bearing Witness: A Nation in Chains”.

Slaughter has served as a Crime Analyst for local, statewide and national radio and media outlets; ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN/HLN AfterDark and Trinity Broadcast Network, as well as, an established writer for local and national newspapers, magazines, international publications and she is a blogger.

NAZEERA ALI

 

Legal Practitioner
Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago

Presentation: Coming Soon

Nazeera Ali is a Senior Legal Associate at the Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.

She graduated, with Honours, from the University of the West Indies, Faculty of Law and has a Master’s of Law from the Queen Mary University of London.

Nazeera canvassed a wide public law experience in civil practice and procedure while she worked at the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Office and the Service Commissions Department, as well as at a private law firm.

She has also worked in the Judiciary as an Assistant Registrar and Deputy Marshal where she assisted with the monitoring and enforcement of procedures and undertook judicial duties under the Family Proceedings Rules, as well as the Civil Proceedings Rules 1998 of Trinidad and Tobago.

Nazeera has been with the Authority since June 2015 and has since had intensive experience in applying for Wardship and interim care applications at the Family Court on behalf of children in need of care and protection, as well as advocating for the proper treatment of young offenders in accordance with the package of children’s legislation, which was proclaimed in May 2015.

VANDANA SIEW SANKAR-ALI

 

Clinical Psychologist
Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago

Presentation: Coming Soon

Vandana Siew Sankar-Ali is a Clinical Psychologist with a Masters of Sciences (Hons) degree from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.
She has been with the Authority since its foundational stages, has led the establishment of the country’s Assessment Centres, and has played an instrumental role in re-engineering the current child protection system into a new and progressive one.

Vandana currently holds the position of Acting Assessment Manager at the Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, with responsibility for the operations of the Authority’s Assessment and Child Support Centres. She manages teams of Social Workers, Psychologists, Medical and Child Care Professionals that conduct clinical assessments of children in need of care and protection; as well as attend to the physical and psychosocial needs of children requiring immediate accommodation after being rescued from imminent danger.
Having worked in her career with very young children with basic adjustment issues all the way to late adolescent juvenile offenders with severe clinical problems, Vandana is well-acquainted with the plethora of issues facing children and adolescents in a contemporary society.
She is also an avid community worker who coordinates several social and cultural empowerment projects in the community where she resides.