2011 Keynote Speaker
Jodee Blanco
Survivor, expert and activist Jodee Blanco is one of the country’s pre-eminent voices on the subject of school bullying. She is the author of The New York Times bestseller, Please Stop Laughing At Me . . . One Woman’s Inspirational Story. A chronicle of her years as the student outcast, the book inspired a movement inside the nation’s schools and is swiftly becoming an American classic. Referred to by many as “the anti-bullying bible,” it is required reading in hundreds of middle and high schools and numerous universities throughout the country. Please Stop Laughing at Me . . . has also been recognized as an essential resource by The National Crime Prevention Council, The Department of Health and Human Services, the National Association of Youth Courts, Special Olympics, The FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America), Teacher Magazine and hundreds of state and local organizations.
Blanco’s award winning sequel, Please Stop Laughing at Us . . . One Survivor’s Extraordinary Quest to Prevent School Bullying (BenBella Books), was written in response to the demand for more information from her core audience: teens, teachers, parents and other adult survivors of peer abuse who have come to know Blanco as the champion of their cause. It provides advice and solutions set against the backdrop of her ramatic personal and professional journey as the survivor who unexpectedly finds herself the country’s most sought-after anti-bullying activist.
In addition to her books, Blanco’s unprecedented approach to shifting the social dynamic of America’s schools is saving lives and making headlines throughout the United States. She’s presented It’s NOT Just Joking Around!™, her acclaimed anti-bullying program, to a combined audience of more than 500,000 students, teachers and parents nationwide at the behest of such entities as the U.S. Department of Interior, the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Catholic Educational Association, the Illinois Association of School Boards and scores of local school districts, many of whom are adopting her initiatives as part of their core bullying prevention curriculum. It’s NOT Just Joking Around! ™ has also generated tens of thousands of dollars in grant awards for schools and organizations coast to coast.
Blanco has successfully intervened in numerous bullying-related attempted suicides and acts of student retaliation. She is a respected crisis management consultant and expert witness in the areas of school violence and peer abuse, and is frequently called upon by the media as an expert interview: past media coverage includes Newsweek, USA Today, CNN, NBC, FOX, The Joy Behar Show, The John Walsh Show and NPR. She is the go-to expert on bullying related breaking stories for HLN’s Prime News with Mike Galanos, Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell, Nancy Grace and many other of the nation’s top news shows. Blanco has bylined articles for CNN.com, was the focus of an in-depth Q&A on Oprah.com, and her life story has been featured in Parade, Teen Newsweek, USA TODAY, Teen Guideposts, Hispanic, The Chicago Tribune, The St. Petersburg Times, hundreds of local daily newspapers across the U.S. and is part of a permanent exhibit at the Chicago National Historical Society.
A tireless advocate for the shunned and forgotten student, Blanco’s rare understanding of why kids abuse other kids comes from a deep personal place. From fifth grade through the end of high school, she was rejected and tormented by her peers simply for being different and knows first hand what it’s like to contemplate retaliation. As an adult, she decided to go public with her story because she was frustrated by society’s misconceptions about the true cause of the school tragedies such as the Columbine shooting, the Phoebe Prince suicide, and countless other examples that put into stark light the tragic consequences of school bullying.
Since the release of Please Stop Laughing At Me . . ., Blanco has committed her life to turning her pain into purpose. Inspired by the thousands of letters and requests she receives for help, she travels around the country sharing her story of forgiveness and triumph. One of the most sought after keynote speakers and seminar presenters, Blanco’s anti-bullying initiatives are redefining the scope of possibilities for curbing suffering in our schools worldwide.
Blanco’s work has been published in Japanese, Greek, Danish and Arabic. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and family. Both of her books are available on audio.
2011 Speaker Bios
Susan Alford is Director of The Girls Center at Clemson University. She has over 20 years of experience in development of youth programming, 18 of those in the juvenile justice field. She holds a M.Phil. degree in Criminology from the University of Cambridge, England, and a B.S. Degree in Sociology from the University of South Carolina. Prior to joining The Girls Center, she served as chair of the DJJ-Clemson Girls Task Force and championed DJJ’s efforts to address the needs of girls in confinement. She is a nationally certified trainer for the Girls Circle Association and holds numerous awards for her work with youth in South Carolina, including the SCCA Distinguished Service Award for lifetime achievement in the juvenile justice field. In 2010, Alford was honored at Clemson University by the President’s Commission on Women as a distinguished contributor to the advancement of the status of women and girls in South Carolina.
Laura Blake-Orr has worked for SCANA for over 27 years. She began her career at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in the environmental lab. In 1994, she joined SCANA’s Corporate Environmental Services Department where she and her team are charged with providing leadership, training, oversight, outreach, and compliance services to SCANA subsidiaries to ensure that SCANA is involved in emerging issues and complies with regulations.
Dr. Kristin Bohan is a psychologist in private practice and Founder of myTERMS, a non-profit organization dedicated to healthy identify development in adolescent girls. She received her undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Psychology at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, received her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Tennessee, completed an internship in Professional Psychology at Duke University, and finished her training with a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders. Bohan has been in private practice since 1998 with a special emphasis on girls and women with depression, anxiety and disordered eating. More recently, her professional energies have been focused on community outreach and prevention.
Chandra Cleveland-Jennings is a motivational speaker, teen counselor, educator and entrepreneur. She is CEO of Signal88 of Columbia (formerly Palmetto Protection Agency, Inc.), a provider of professional, highly trained security officers rendering safety and protection services to businesses, corporations and large events such as the Democratic Presidential Debate in Myrtle Beach and the World Trade Center Memorial in S.C. and N.C. Her background in law enforcement began in 1992 with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. In 2002 she became the first African American female Internal Affairs Inspector; and her expertise in handling juvenile crimes earned her the top honor of Deputy of the Year. In her position as a local School Resource Officer, Cleveland-Jennings was recruited to work as an investigator for the Gang Task Force, where she keyed in on the rising trend of female involvement in gang activity. She has presented throughout the state for organizations and media outlets including Richland School District One and Two, Lexington School District Five, Department of Mental Health, Department of Juvenile Justice, Bible Way Church, Second Nazareth Baptist Church, New Ebenezer Baptist Church, WIS-TV, WLTX and The State newspaper. She started the Palmetto Youth Connection in 2007, where her desire to uplift disenfranchised youth through her expertise in law enforcement continues to inspire different avenues that will encourage all adolescents to strive for the best. The L.A.W.K. program (Ladies Armed with Knowledge) has served as one of those avenues, geared towards the development of young women.
Christiana DeGregorie, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist with a specialty in Clinical Psychology. Currently practicing in Spartanburg, S.C. at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, she has seven years of experience working in university counseling centers and is past president of the South Carolina Psychological Association.
Dr. Trish Hutchison graduated cum laude from the College of Charleston and earned her M.D. at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). After completing her Pediatrics internship and residency at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, she returned to Charleston where she was in private practice for 10 years as a sought-after and trusted physician for adolescent girls and boys. She subsequently founded and directed a young women’s health center for the Department of Adolescent Medicine at MUSC. As an expert on adolescent development, teen sexuality and parenting, she has been listed among the Best Doctors in America. Currently, she works in student health at the College of Charleston where she helps college age females and males stay healthy and informed. She is the author of several books for teen girls, including Girlology: Hang Ups, Hook Ups & Holding Out, Girlology: A Girl’s Guide to Stuff that Matters, and her new release for younger girls, There's Something New About You: A Girl's Guide to Growing Up.
Karen R. Jenkins is a financial consultant who has shared her wealth of wisdom on WIS-TV’s Women, Wisdom & Wealth weekly segment. She has appeared as a guest on numerous local and national radio shows, and has presented on various motivational, leadership and financial empowerment topics to public and private groups. Jenkins is the author of Nobody Told Me! The Path to Financial Empowerment, and has been in the financial services industry for over 23 years. She is the Principal of KRJ Consulting, LLC in Columbia, a full service consulting firm focused on serving the comprehensive needs of clients which include for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in various capacities including training, project management, strategic planning and housing counseling. Her presentations are geared towards three specific groups: women, youth and families that are looking to better position themselves financially.
Dr. Susan Limber is the Dan Olweus Professor within the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life at Clemson University, where she is also Professor of Psychology. She is a developmental psychologist who also holds a Masters of Legal Studies. Her research and writing have focused on legal and psychological issues related to youth violence (particularly bullying among children), child protection and children’s rights. She directed the first wide-scale implementation and evaluation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in the U.S., coordinates training for the program in the North and South America, and co-authored the Teacher Guide and Schoolwide Guide for the Olweus program. Limber is the co-author of the book Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digitial Age, as well as many other articles on the topic of bullying. Since 2001 she has provided consultation to National Bullying Prevention Campaign, supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Dr. Joyce A. Ott (B.A., M.S., Ph.D.) is a research assistant professor within the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life at Clemson University (IFNL) and an expert in planning and evaluating projects and systems of support for families, children and communities. She has worked extensively in the design phase of the National Bullying Prevention campaign, and continues to consult on plans and products for the well-recognized Stop Bullying Now! campaign sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration. She has been invited to speak at national and state conferences on bullying prevention and is a certified Olweus Bullying Prevention trainer and Co-Leader for South Carolina. Formerly the assistant director of IFNL’s Center for Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership, her interests include policy research and analysis in education, program evaluation and qualitative methods in research, international/intercultural development education, and organizational development, management, and human resource development. She has taught courses in international educational foundations and cross-cultural human development, and periodically teaches classes in International Family and Community Studies. Ott graduated from the College of Charleston with a B.S. degree in Geology and later earned a M.S. in Earth Resources Management from the University of South Carolina.
April Rice is the licensing supervisor for new nuclear development at SCE&G. She has worked in the nuclear power industry for 30 years, primarily in engineering and licensing. She is currently involved in obtaining all the permits and licenses required to build and operate two new Westinghouse AP 1000 nuclear plants. Rice has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering from North Carolina State University.