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Thank you to First Business Bank for sponsoring ATSA's conversations with Visionary Voices in our field. These discussions feature the influential figures shaping our field today—exploring how we arrived here and their hopes for the future!  On December 3, Dr. Jill Levenson joins us as our guest. 

Dr. Jill Levenson, PhD, LCSW, Professor of Social Work at Barry University in Miami, is an internationally recognized expert in policies and clinical interventions designed to prevent and treat sexual victimization and perpetration. Her groundbreaking research on the link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and sexually abusive behavior has paved the way for innovations in treatment programs that now utilize a trauma-informed approach. She is a SAMHSA-certified TIC instructor, and specializes in applying TIC in forensic, clinical, and correctional settings.

Dr. Levenson has published over 120 articles and 6 books, and her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Justice (NIJ), the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). In 2019 she was named by the Journal of Social Service Research as being among the top 100 social work scholars in North America. She has been an ATSA member since 1993 and in 2019 was honored with ATSA's Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2020 Dr. Levenson was honored to receive the Social Worker of the Year Award from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW-FL) Miami-Dade Chapter. In 2020 she was also inducted to the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, an honor society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in the field through high-impact work that advances social justice and the public good. In 2017 she was named Barry University’s Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year! https://aaswsw.org/member/jill-levenson-phd/.

Dr. Levenson has conducted trainings about clinical, correctional, policy, and forensic issues all over the world. She has been invited to present in over 25 states, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, Scotland, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, and Australia. She has been a licensed clinical social worker in South Florida for over 30 years, using a scientist-practitioner model to inform her research, advocacy, and clinical practice with people who have sexually offended, people who have experienced victimization and trauma, and families impacted by sexual offenses. She is an advocate for social justice, evidence-based practices and policies, and trauma-informed care for every human.

“If we believe in social justice, we can’t pick and choose who it applies to.” – Dr. Jill Levenson