Annual Culture Conference
Cultural and Family Legacies
Empowering Clients through Context and Connection
- Cost:
- $225.00 (Register Early — Space Strictly Limited)
- Location:
- Sayreville, New Jersey
- Dates:
- March 31-April 1, 2006
Event Registration
Please note that students may use the discounted registration form.
More about our 2006 Culture Conference
We at the Multicultural Family Institute, in continuing co-sponsorship with the Behavioral Research and Training Institute of UBHC-UMDNJ, are happy to announce the 15th Annual Culture Conference, dedicated to expanding understanding of cultural diversity in clinical and educational settings. Over the past three decades we have evolved together an extraordinary network of therapists and trainers who have helped us develop our thinking about cultural diversity. We believe that building cultural bridges is one of our greatest challenges as a nation. At this conference we try to learn how to stay engaged with each other across the boundaries of race, culture, gender, class, sexual orientation and social distances that tend to divide us from each other.
Begun in 1992, our annual Culture Conference aims to be a crucial holding environment for difficult
conversations and building bridges across the major social divides in our
society, bringing together each year creative and dedicated scholars from
all over the country to exchange ideas and further evolve our thinking.
This conference provides a forum where we can try to transform the
dilemmas we all face, by shifting the lens and collaborating with each
other to de-mystify the social structures in which we are all embedded.
The most dangerous problems in our world come when people cease to
realize that we are all in it together.
We believe that to succeed in moving forward conversations about race and other oppression, we must all stay at the table. Conversations may get sticky, uncomfortable, or intense, and we will make mistakes as we go along. But, hanging with the conversation is everything - not letting the issues get resubmerged, which as Ken Hardy puts it, always leads to cutoff, war, destruction, and ultimately death. Over the years we have covered subjects including Violence, Spirituality, Children, Resilience, Couples, Truth and Reconciliation, and Healing from Loss and Trauma.
This year's conference will focus on Cultural and Family Legacies. We are very excited to welcome a special guest, Glen Wolf, a Lenape storyteller, who will discuss Legacies of the Lenape Nation, on whose land we are living and working. Our panels and roundtables will explore the impact of cultural and family legacies on our work. How do they strengthen us, how may they jeopardize us or make the future difficult to envision? How can we transform them and free ourselves to embrace the future? Our new lunch-brainstorming roundtable discussions will have an array of exciting topics, which bring faculty and participants together informally to share mutual interests.
Our conference this year will be held at a wonderful, new location; a teaching facility with great acoustics, plenty of free parking, and state of the art AV equipment. We are having a gourmet caterer who will provide healthy, delectable lunches! However, space is limited in our new auditorium. Our goal is to fill the site with an enthusiastic group of participants, who will work with us to think through these issues for two days. Please join us and bring a friend to this very special conference.
Event Registration
Please note that students may use the discounted registration form.
Featured Guest: Glen Wolf
Glenn Wolf is a member of the Lenape Nation in Pennsylvania and has been teaching for more than 20 years on the topics of Native perceptions and values and respecting ethnic and cultural heritage. He is remarkably attuned to the spiritual legacy of place and land. Sharing his culture is a gift Mr. Wolf was given to share. He says of his Lenape people in Pennsylvania, “We haven’t been able to speak on our own behalf for hundreds of years.” His speaking out began when his daughter came home from school and said, “They got it all wrong, Dad.” Subsequently her teacher kept having him back to speak to her classes and this grew into presentations for many groups including colleges, universities, churches, the FBI, and the REACH program (Respecting Ethnic And Cultural Heritage) for public school teachers. Mr. Wolf has served on the Tribal Council for the Lenape Nation of PA, and on the Board of Directors of The Lenape Historical Society. He is a member of The Turtle Island Singers who performed for The Council of the Arts at Carnegie Hall. He is currently Spiritual Advisor to the Native population of The State of Pennsylvania Correctional Institute at Graterford, PA.
Event Registration
Please note that students may use the discounted registration form.
Participating Faculty
Nancy Boyd Franklin, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology, at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. She has dedicated her career to building bridges between people, overcoming racism, and helping those in need. Her landmark books, Black Families in Therapy: Understanding the African American Experience, 2nd Ed. (2003); Boys Into Men: Raising Our African American Teenage Sons (2000); and Reaching Out in Family Therapy: Home Based School and Community Intervention (2000).
Fernando Colon, Ph.D., Faculty, Ann Arbor Center for the Family, Consultant, Author, Family Therapist, Ann Arbor, MI. Puerto Rican by background, raised in foster care, Dr. Colon has a strong commitment to diversity, to family reconciliation and connection and to spirituality in his practice and in his teaching. Author of Finding My Face: The Memoir of a Puerto Rican American (Trafforo 2005).
Ken Dolan-Del Vecchio, LCSW, SPHR, is a family therapist and organizational consultant. Currently at work on two books, one for the mass market and another for family therapists, his writing promotes social justice as the foundation for relational healing. On the faculty at The Institute for Family Services in Somerset, NJ, and a graduate of the Multicultural Family Institute.
Sharon Eaton, MSN, RN, BC, is program coordinator for Training and Consultation Resources of University Behavioral HealthCare at UMDNJ. Sharon serves as Chairperson of the Anti-Racism Team of the N. J. Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She is Nationally Certified in Medical/Surgical Nursing.
Peter Fraenkel, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology, CUNY and Director of the Ackerman Institute’s Center for Time, Work and the Family, which includes community-based programs for families that are homeless. He is co-author of The Relational Trauma of Incest: a Family-based Approach to Treatment, and numerous publications on time, work and family.
A.J. Franklin, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, City University of New York, Author of: From Brotherhood to Manhood: How Black Men Rescue Their Relationships and Dreams from the Invisibility Syndrome (Wiley, 2004) and co-author of Boys Into Men: Raising Our African American Teenage Sons. An internationally renowned trainer, Dr. Franklin has been involved in recent years in international consultation on global issues of ethnic diversity, racism, and crossing cultural borders. Private practice in Brooklyn, NY.
Nydia Garcia Preto, LCSW, is the Associate Director of the Multicultural Family Institute where she also has a private practice. She is a widely known author and trainer on issues of diversity, adolescents and the life cycle, and Latino Families and co-editor of Ethnicity and Family Therapy, 3rd Ed. (Guilford, 2005).
Kenneth Hardy, Ph.D., is the Director of the Eikenberg Institute for Relationships in New York City where he maintains a private practice, specializing in working with traumatized and oppressed populations. Professor of Family Therapy, Syracuse Univ. and former Director of the Center for Children, Families, and Trauma at the Ackerman Institute in NYC. Dr. Hardy has won considerable acclaim for the contributions that his publications and videotapes have made toward challenging the therapy field to think critically about the hidden but significant connections that often exist between trauma and issues of oppression. In addition to his own writing, he is a frequent presenter on the topics of diversity and oppression and has published a variety of articles within the field.
Paulette Moore Hines, Ph.D., is Director of the Office of Prevention Services & Research, a division of UBHC, UMDNJ. Involved in prevention-oriented research and service in partnership with community-based organizations, schools, faithbased institutions and government agencies. Her work is concerned with issues including violence against youth, AIDS, unwanted/unplanned pregnancies, school drop-out, and culturally-based intervention.
Vanessa Jackson, MSW is a licensed clinical social worker and owner of Healing Circles, Inc. She earned a Master Degree from Washington University-George Warren Brown School of Social Work. She is the author of two monographs on African American psychiatric history and “Surviving My Sister’s Suicide: A Journey Through Grief” in Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family and co-author of the overview on families of African origin for Ethnicity and Family Therapy, 3rd Ed.
Hugo Kamya, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Boston College Graduates School of Social Work and a faculty member at the Family Institute of Cambridge. He has an independent practice in Arlington, MA.
Kyle Killian, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Family Therapy at University of Houston- Clear Lake and a licensed family therapist. Author of papers on multiracial couples, crosscultural supervision, refugee families, trauma, and family violence. He has presented at national and international conferences. His current projects include a study of factors predicting racist and xenophobic attitudes, a co-edited volume on cross-cultural couples, and a book about multiracial couples and families from Columbia University Press.
Jay T. King, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and former Director of Clinical Services at Danielsen Institute, where clinicians from a variety of professional disciplines are trained in the integration of religion and psychotherapy. He has also been supervising and teaching courses in family systems and the psychodynamics of marriage and family at Boston College and at Boston Univ. in the school of Theology and the School of Education. Currently he is the Director of Program Evaluation and Family Support and supervising clinician at The Family Center, Somerville, MA.
Joanne Guarino Klages, LCSW Core Faculty, MFI A social worker and graduate of the Institute, she has worked in a variety of settings, including the NYC school system for over 25 years. She is a speaker and trainer on topics such as bridging cultural differences, bullying in the context of bias, discrimination and power, developing an anti- bias peer education program for adolescents, and systemic assessment for school guidance personnel. In private practice in Highland Park, NJ and Staten Island NY, she has a special interest in working with families dealing with the challenges of heterosexism and traditional gender scripts.
Jodie Kliman, Ph.D.,teaches family therapy and narrative therapy at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, is a fellow of the Network for Multicultural Training in Psychology, and has a practice in Brookline, MA. Her interests and publications are on socially just ways to address multiple intersecting differences in privilege in families and family therapy, systemic approaches to individual, family, and collective trauma.
Eliana C. Korin, Dipl.Psic., is a Senior Associate and Director of the Behavioral Science Program, Dept. of Family and Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY. Her focus has been on translating family systems ideas into medical practice, social inequalities, culture and illness, immigrant and underserved families, Latino health, social empowerment and narratives approaches to trauma. She is involved in two studies: the expression of empathy in cross-cultural communication and familial and socio-cultural barriers in the self-management of diabetes among Latina patients.
JoAnn Krestan, MA, LMFT, LADC, is in private practice in Surry, Maine. Interest in gender issues, using creativity as a clinical narrative, and working with families with addictions in multicultural context. Recently she has taught via distance education for the University of Maine, Graduate School of Social Work. Currently she is developing a new intensive model of couples therapy.
Robin LaDue, Ph.D., clinical psychologist in private practice in Renton, Washington, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Native American Center for Excellence at the Univ. of Washington. Clinical, community work and research including longitudinal studies of adolescents and adults with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. International lecturer on Native American mental health issues including visiting lecturer at Waikato Univ. in New Zealand. Specializations in treating emotional trauma and recovery from addictions and dealing with Community Protection. Author of the award winning video/book series “Journey Through the Healing Circle.” Enrolled with the Cowlitz Indian tribe of Washington.
Roxana Llerena-Quinn, Ph.D., Psychologist in the Latino Program at Children’s Hospital in Boston. She is eternally indebted to the many Latino families from whom she has learned the wisdom that comes from living in the shadows. She teaches a cultural awareness course at Harvard Medical School.
Jayne Mahboubi, MSW, works in Adult Addictions Medicine with the Impaired Professionals Program of Ridgeview Institute and in Private Practice in Atlanta, Georgia. Her interests include anti-racist practice and group psychotherapy.
Vanessa McAdams-Mahmoud, LCSW, Private practice and consultation for various community mental health agencies, specializing in cultural issues in psychotherapy. She has published a number of papers and been instrumental in the development of African American psychotherapists in the Atlanta area. She co-facilitated the International Conference on Narrative Therapy and Community Work held at Spelman College.
David W. McGill, PsyD., In 2004 Supervisior at the Couples and Family Center, Cambridge Hospital and lecturer in Psychology Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. A contributor to Ethnicity and Family Therapy since 1st 1980 edition, and core part of the Culture Conference network since its inception. His career has focused on developing international collaborations in family therapy, especially in Japan, with annual visits since 1984. He has also lived or visited, and developed family therapy collaborations in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Europe since 1972.
Monica McGoldrick, MSW, Ph.D. (h.c.), Director MFI, Adjunct Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the RWJ Medical School, UMDNJ. Her books include Ethnicity and Family Therapy, The Expanded Family Life Cycle, Genograms, Living Beyond Loss, Re-Visioning Family Therapy: Race, Culture and Gender in Clinical Practice, Women in Families, and You Can Go Home Again.
Josiane Menos, Psy.D., Therapist, Staten Island Office of Children and Family Services, Staten Island, New York; School Psychologist, New York City Department of Education, Brooklyn, New York; Fellow, Multicultural Family Institute, Highland Park, New Jersey.
Barbara E. Milton, II., ABD, LCSW., Clinical Social Worker, UMDNJ- University Behavioral Health Care-Child and Adolescent Outpatient Department-Newark participating Faculty Campus. Part-time Lecturer for Rutgers University, Graduate School of Social Work. Doctoral student at CUNY, developing her dissertation proposal to research “African-American Ancestral Wisdom” in coping with the trauma of racism.
Marsha Mirkin, Ph.D., Resident Scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center, where she is exploring the relationship between Biblical textual interpretation and psychotherapy as well as the intersections between race, class, ethnicity, gender and religion in psychotherapy. Her newest books include The Women Who Danced By The Sea: Drawing Psychological Insights from Our Biblical Foremothers (Fall, 2004), and Women in Context, A Revision, with Barbara Okun and Karen Suyemoto (2005).
Matthew Mock, Ph.D., Director, Family Youth Children’s and Multicultural Services, Berkeley, CA. As a psychotherapist and professor, he has written, lectured and practiced with an appreciation of cultural knowledge and social justice for almost 20 years. He is a third generation Chinese American.
Eleanor C. Nealy, M. Div., MSSW, is the Director of mental health and social services at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in NYC. Also in private practice, she has worked for the past twenty years with couples and individuals around substance abuse, HIV, spirituality, and mental health concerns.
Barbara Petkov, Ed.S., Private practice, Highland Park; Alumni, MFI. Experience with children, adolescents, couples and families. Trainer in Systemic Assessment for School Guidance Personnel.
Elaine Pinderhughes, MSW, Ph.D., Professor of Social Work, Boston College. Winner of the American Family Therapy Academy Award for Distinguished Contribution to Family Therapy Theory and Practice. She is the author of several books including Race, Ethnicity and Power.
Maria Primitiva Paz Root, Ph.D., a pioneering thinker and innovative researcher and teacher, Dr. Root has been challenging the meaning of race in the U.S. for the past two decades. Award winning and greatly admired author for her books, Racially Mixed People in America, The Multiracial Experience: Racial Borders as the New Frontiers, and Love’s Revolution: Interracial Marriage. She is a clinical psychologist in Seattle Washington who has researched extensively the co-construction of gender, race, and class in identity development.
Joan Marsh Schlesinger, LCSW, Adjunct Faculty, Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work; family therapy educator, JFK Family Practice Residents. Private practice, Highland Park. Alumni MFI. Trainer in cultural diversity and white privilege. Special interest in divorced and remarried families and midlife issues. Douglas Schoeninger, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and President of the Institute for Christian Counseling and Therapy in West Chester, PA. His private psychotherapy practice integrates spirituality and prayer as healing resources and is focused on the healing of persons and relationships within an intergenerational perspective. He studied with Carl Rogers, has extensive training in Contextual Family Therapy with Ivan Nagy and Barbara Krasner, and worked for years with Kenneth McAll in the field of family tree healing.
Tazuko Shibusawa, MSW, Ph.D., is on the faculty at the Columbia University of Social Work. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Tazuko worked as a clinical social worker in geriatric, mental health and school settings in Los Angeles and Tokyo, and as a mental health consultant for the World Health Organization.
Iris Smith is a psychology honors student at The City College of New York. She is a research assistant in the Ackerman Institute’s Center for Time, Work, and the Family, and a mentor and administrative associate for City Mentors, a project which pairs high school and college students in internships.
CharlesEtta Sutton, LCSW, lecturer, consultant, presenter, author and family therapist. She is co-author of Bridges: Building Skills To Reach Suicidal Adolescents, Sankofa: A Life Skills Curriculum, Take Hart (Healing and Recovery After Trauma): An Emergency Response to Terrorist in the United States, and numerous articles and book chapters. Charlee is a founding faculty of MFI, former training director for OPSR@UMDNJ- board & faculty of the Turtle Island Project, Phoenix, Arizona, she heads the Sutton & Associates: CTS Group and maintains a private practice in Plainfield, NJ.
David Trimble, Ph.D., is Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Boston University School of Medicine, where he teaches family therapy at the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology, Boston Medical Center. He has an independent practice in Brookline, MA.
Marlene Watson, Ph.D. is an RWJ Health Policy Fellow and Director of the Programs in Couple and Family Therapy at Drexel University. Dr. Watson is a national leader in the field of family therapy and an important voice in redirecting the focus of education and practice to socio-cultural forces that affect families’ lives, lecturing on race, ethnicity, gender, and class with a particular focus on African American families. Currently, Dr. Watson is interested in bridging the gap between mental and physical health and in working toward the elimination of health disparities.
Darielle Watts-Jones, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist on the staff of a New York Presbyterian Hospital school-based clinic in Harlem, New York. She is also a family therapist and faculty member at Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City. She has published several articles on clinical issues in working with families and women of African descent.
Glen Wolf, a member of the Lenape Nation in Pennsylvania and has been teaching for more than 20 years on the topics of Native perceptions and values. He has presented at colleges, universities and for many other organizations. Mr. Wolf has served on the Tribal Council for the Lenape Nation of PA and the Board of Directors of The Lenape Historical Society and currently serves as Spiritual Advisor to the Native population of a State of PA Correctional Institute. He is a member of The Turtle Island Singers who have performed for The Council of the Arts at Carnegie Hall.
