Board of Directors
Listed in alphabetical order by last name. Please feel free to contact members of our board with questions about MaleSurvivor.
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Ken Followell Officers President: Murray Schane |
Past Presidents By-Laws Advisory Board of Directors |
Murray Schane, MD , President
Murray grew up in and around Detroit, Michigan. He was sexually "molested" by a 14 or 15 year old boy when he was seven, the memory of which he sometimes forgot and usually doubted until he returned to therapy for a second time in 1998. Murray then joined MaleSurvivor and became active on the Steering Committee for the 2001 Conference where he also presented two workshops.
After graduating college he left from the University of Chicago to attend medical school at Stanford, then went on to a residency in psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. By this time Murray was married and had two young sons, now grown. Murray also did a fellowship in Social and Community Psychiatry at Einstein and dedicated his career to working in public psychiatry for the next twenty-five years. He also began practicing psychiatry privately often with patients and families with severe and chronic major psychiatric illness or with personality disorders. Murray completed training in the psychoanalytic treatment of personality disorders at the Masterson Institute in New York and is a faculty member of that Institute.
Murray is currently the editor of Men Speak Out, the quarterly newsletter of MaleSurvivor. He submitted a workshop proposal for the annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, introducing the topic of male sexual abuse and its treatment to this major organization with the participation of four MaleSurvivor members, including three Board members. Murray is also planning to co-chair with another MaleSurvivor member, a workshop introducing survivors to treatment, the choices, the range of services, the process of selecting a therapist, etc.
"My interest in joining the Board stems from all
these activities and would extend my involvement further, and, I hope,
add to the breadth of interests and activities of the Board."
Kenneth Followell (Florida):
A graduate of Milligan college with a BA in Psychology and Bible,
Mr.
Fred Tolson is a survivor and in 1990
founded Men Assisting,
Leading & Educating (MALE), a nonprofit organization dedicated to
healing male survivors of sexual abuse. MALE published the newsletter,
Men's Issues Forum and provided the first national 800 support number
for male survivors. MALE was the first survivor organization to include
victims and offenders in its mission. MALE held it's first survivor
conference in Denver, CO in 1995 and merged with NOMSV (now
MaleSurvivor) at the Sixth World Interdisciplinary Conference in
Columbus, OH. He is the Webmaster for MaleSurvivor and served on the
NOMSV Board of Directors from 1998-2001. Fred was the recipient of the
2001 Fay Honey Knopp Memorial Award.
Fred has presented at numerous national conferences and workshops about
the sexual abuse of males and the treatment of sexual offenders. Fred
was the editor of Sexual Crimes and Research and Victim Resources and
Support for the Netscape/Mozilla Open Directory Project and is the
author of "Be Silent No Longer", a booklet for adolescent male
survivors. He served on the advisory board of Stop Prison Rape, a
national organization dealing with rape in confinement and the board of
directors of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
"I believe one of our most important missions in preventing the sexual abuse of males is by working to prevent all forms of sexual victimization. We do this through public education, advocating treatment for victims and perpetrators, and offering our voices and experience to those developing prevention programs."
He is the Managing Partner of Offender Technologies and Economic Offense Treatment Services and a partner in Sexual Offense Resource Services in Denver, CO.
Howard Milton was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA graduated
from Widener University Chester, PA and Wesley Theol Seminary,
Washington DC with post-graduate work in clinical psychology from
Millersville University, Millersville, PA . Howard is a male survivor
of sexual abuse from 8-13 years of age. Currently he is the President
and Therapist for Milton Mental Health Services which provides mental
health programs and services for children and adolescents.
Milton specializes in providing therapy for male sexual abuse
survivors, comprising 90% of his cases. Milton has provided seminars
and training through North America on the treatment and recovery of
childhood sexual abuse. His concerns include being able to provide
quality effective caring counseling and therapy for all childhood
sexual abuse survivors, provide support and hope that survivors are not
alone, and that education and support is received by parents, families,
educators, social service workers, youth workers and others helping
childhood sexual abuse survivors towards recovery.
Tony Rodriguez received his MSW in clinical social work from
Loyola
University of Chicago. He has a psycho-dynamic theoretical
orientation because of his clinical training. Tony received his
Bachelor's degree in Education, with the focus on counseling, from the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is Board Certified in
Sexual Abuse by the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress,
and is also a trained family and divorce mediator through the Center
for Dispute Resolution. Tony has interned at the Sexual
Dysfunction Clinic (Loyola University Medical Center / Stritch School
of Medicine); the Child Abuse unit for Studies, Education, and Services
(Illinois Masonic Medical Center); and the Addiction Community Centres
for Education, Prevention, Treatment and Research (London, UK).
He completed a post-graduate Fellow training program with the Wisconsin
Sex Offender Treatment Network. Tony is also clinically
credentialed in Iowa (LISW), Illinois (LCSW), and Wisconsin (CICSW).
Tony's clinical experience is in the area of sexual violence, substance
abuse, and mental health. He has worked in both agency and
hospital settings in London, UK; Chicago, IL; Madison and Milwaukee,
WI; and the Iowa and Illinois Quad Cities. As an Employee
Assistance Professional (EAP), he provided critical incidents stress
debriefing to companies who experienced trauma and violence at their
facilities. Tony has also worked in collaboration with community
and government organizations by presenting training workshops and
forums on the issues of diversity, grief, sexual/domestic violence, and
parenting skills. Currently, Tony is the Clinical Director of The
Men's Center – a private practice specializing in working with
adult male survivors of sexual violence. Lastly, he is a
contributing editor for QC Family Focus Magazine and an Infrastructure
Analyst for a global Fortune 200 manufacturing company.
Curtis St. John, grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and played a key role in the recent retention hearings for a former Poughkeepsie schoolteacher Albert Fentress, who killed and cannibalized a town of Poughkeepsie teenager, Paul Masters in 1979. In 2002, St. John's critical testimony revealed that Fentress was a pedophile as well as a murder. Rather then gaining freedom, Fentress was moved to a maximum-security psychiatric institution.
Curtis now works to promote the healing of adult male victims of
childhood sexual abuse by helping men and their families make the
connections between the abuse and life long difficulties survivors
suffer as adults such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and relationship
issues. He is a member of the Dutchess County Sex Offender Management
Project, one of eleven counties in the nation awarded a grant from the
US Office of Justice Programs to study sex offender management systems.
Curtis also serves on the Victim Advocate Consultant Committee and the
Victim Outreach Committee.The project brings together representatives
from law enforcement agencies and victim advocacy groups to enhance the
management of juvenile and adult sex offenders using a victim-centered
approach.
Curtis has been a speaker at the NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill), Ulster County affiliate conference, and serves on the Task Force Committee for the Violence against Women Grant award to Purchase College, where he is employed as Director of Operations for the Conservatory of Music.
"Many men suffer from post traumatic stress issues and isolate themselves from the rest of the world." St. John says. "These men do not connect their abuse with their adult challenges of depression and alcohol issues. We need to show those who suffer in silence that they are not alone, that there are so many others like them out there. MaleSurvivor gives these men a chance to connect safely and anonymously with other survivors, educates them about abuse and its effects, and gives them hope and a chance to finally begin true healing. I hope, through my work with the Board of Directors, to help bring the healing of these men out of the shadows where they have been stigmatized into silence."
Stephen Vincent, a California native, had lived all over the United States while he was growing up and currently lives in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. Steve went to four high schools in four different states, graduated with honors, and then went on to study geophysics at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Steve has been in the laser and laser optics related fields since the early seventies and still enjoys it very much. Steve is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. He kept it a secret for over 38 years until about his fiftieth birthday. He was in crisis and sought out counseling and went through the emotional rollercoaster of recovery. He no longer feels alone in the world, ashamed of what happened to him when he was unable to do anything substantive to stop it. Steve joined MaleSurvivor early on in his recovery and came to the realization that forgiveness has nothing to do with forgiving the perpetrator but everything to do with forgiving himself. MaleSurvivor is a wonderful organization whose purpose is to help men who have been abused recover their lives. Steve enjoys time with his two adult daughters, his sons-in-laws and his two grandchildren as well as activities like motorcycling, reading, landscaping, travel, and showing and breeding his champion dogs.
Don Wright is the founder and Executive Director of the British Columbia Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, which is a non-profit society offering a range of services to male survivors of sexual abuse, their partners and families. In November of 2001 the British Columbia Human Rights Coalition awarded Don a Human Rights Medal of Honor for his "pioneering work with male survivors of sexual abuse".
In addition to his administrative duties, Don maintains a limited case load of male survivors in individual therapy; he also delivers training seminars throughout Canada, and has spoken at conferences in the U.S. and Canada. Don was the coordinator of the Eighth NOMSV Conference in Vancouver in October 1999.
Don has been called upon by the Provincial Ministry of Attorney General, to participate in the development of Provincial Practice Standards, an Evaluation Framework, and a Code of Ethics for Specialized Victim Services and Sexual Assault Centers in B. C. Don served as the first Chair of the Vancouver Victim Services Coordinating Committee, and of the Greater Victoria Victim Services Coordinating Committees while those two groups developed referral protocols for Victim Services Programs in the their respective cities.
Finally, Don has been a vocal advocate for male survivors, by way of public awareness raising through the media, lobbying the government for gender inclusive policies, and awareness raising within the professional community.
