2025 Tennessee FJC Conference Speakers
Joshue B. Dougan
Joshua B. Dougan serves as the domestic violence prosecutor for Tennessee’s 26th Judicial District. Under the leadership of General Jody S. Pickens, he prosecutes domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault offenses in Madison, Henderson, and Chester Counties. Josh vertically prosecutes cases from general sessions and municipal courts through circuit court resolution. He has tried numerous jury trials ranging from misdemeanors to first-degree murder. When he’s not on the job, Josh stays busy as an active musician in the West Tennessee.
Dr. Megan Haselschwerdt
Dr. Megan Haselschwerdt is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in the Department of Counseling, Human Development, and Family Science. She received her PhD in Human and Community Development from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2013. Dr. Haselschwerdt began her career researching domestic violence and the impact of domestic violence on children while volunteering as a crisis line worker and on-scene advocate at The Middle Way House in Bloomington, Indiana, while completing her bachelor’s degree. Her program of research centers on the impact of childhood exposure to domestic violence across the lifespan with a strong emphasis on young adulthood, an understudied developmental period ripe for intervention and prevention work. She also examines how adults victimized by domestic violence engage with formal and legal systems. Her research has been founded by the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, the University of Tennessee, and more recently, Health and Human Services Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services. This project is a demonstration grant led by the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence and in collaboration with The Mary Parish Center in Nashville and her collaborator, Dr. Kristen Ravi in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Haselschwerdt enjoys ongoing collaborations with the Knoxville Family Justice Center and organizations that are part of the Coordinated Community Response Team.
Dr. Amaia Iratzoqui
Dr. Amaia Iratzoqui is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Research Director of the Public Safety Institute at the University of Memphis. She specializes in research around the gendered causes and consequences of victimization, including domestic and intimate partner violence. Her recent work explores the implications of gender and victimization within Memphis and Shelby County, through partnerships with social service, law enforcement, and other domestic violence-serving organizations. As Research Director, Dr. Iratzoqui connect faculty and practitioners in the Memphis and Shelby County community on funding and research opportunities to drive academic-practitioner partnerships, centered around program development, evaluation, or best practices research on issues related to public safety. The Public Safety Institute is available to partner with criminal justice and social service entities on grant- and contract-funded work through serving as a 1) solicitation applicant, with one or more community partners serving as support; 2) research or academic partner on an application, with the community partner as the applicant and primarily benefitting from the grant funding; or 3) the grant writer for the project without official involvement.
Jonathan H. Kurland
Jonathan H. Kurland is an Attorney Advisor with AEquitas. Prior to joining AEquitas, Jonathan worked in the District Attorney’s Office of Berks County, Pennsylvania where he started as a line Assistant District Attorney and prosecuted the range of cases typical for a jurisdiction with a combination of urban, suburban, and rural communities. However, over time, Jonathan’s focus increasingly trended to violent crime and cases involving the most vulnerable and exploited of victims. When Jonathan left after sixteen years in the District Attorney’s Office to join AEquitas, he was the Chief Deputy District Attorney and supervised, advised, and still prosecuted matters involving intimate partner violence and homicides, sexual violence, child abuse, and grand jury investigations. During his time in the Berks County District Attorney’s Office, Jonathan helped to develop collaboration between prosecutors, law enforcement, victim advocacy, medical professional, and other community stakeholders particularly through serving as the office lead for a variety of victim-focused multidisciplinary investigative teams and other community-based collaborative efforts focusing on intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child abuse, and human trafficking.
In addition to his trial and supervisory experience, Jonathan served in the appellate unit, and he was assigned as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for Berks County, where he served as liaison to multiple agencies to facilitate federal adoption of prosecutions involving complex criminal enterprises and violent career criminals. He also served as adjunct faculty at Alvernia University, where he taught courses in the Criminal Justice Department.
Jonathan remains based in Berks County where he lives with his wife and son and spends his spare time running or feeling guilty for skipping running.
Phillis Lewis
Phillis Lewis, CEO of Love Doesn’t Hurt a non-profit which provides crisis intervention to victims of crime in the LGBTQ+ Community comes with over 15 years of experience not only working with the LGBTQ+ Community but has many years of experience in case management, grant monitoring, trauma-informed care, housing monitoring, program development, consultation, and facilitation work. She is a member of the Memphis Shelby Domestic & Sexual Violence Council, Vice-Chair for the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic & Sexual Violence Inclusivity Committee.
Dr. Otis McGresham
Otis holds a Doctor of Education in Learning Organizations and Strategic Change from Lipscomb university, a Master of Higher Education Administration degree from Texas A&M University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication from Western Michigan University. Advocacy and education have been a consistent part of Otis’ student affairs career that began in 2003. Along with his passion for serving students, he brings broad professional experience from multiple functional areas of student affairs. Previously, Otis has served as the Assistant Director for Interpersonal Violence Services and Advocacy and the Rape Prevention Education Coordinator in the North Carolina State University Women’s Center and Coordinator of Student Assistance Services and Hall Director at Texas A&M University. Otis’ focus is on creating and maintaining educationally purposeful environments where all students feel safe, empowered, and encouraged to participate fully and authentically in the university experience. Connecting prevention principles to everyday activities, Otis works to empower our entire community to make tangible steps toward violence reduction. Otis is the primary coordinator of Project Safe’s bystander intervention and healthy masculinity programming.
Gael Stack
Gael B. Strack is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Alliance for HOPE International. Programs of the Alliance include: National Family Justice Center Alliance, Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention, Camp HOPE America, Justice Legal Network and VOICES Survivor Network. Prior to launching Alliance for Hope International with Casey Gwinn, Gael served as the Founding Director of the San Diego Family Justice Center from October 2002 through May 2007. In that capacity, she worked closely with 25 on-site agencies (government and non-profit) who came together in 2002 to provide services to victims of domestic violence and their children in one location. Prior to her work at the Family Justice Center, Gael was a prosecutor at the San Diego City Attorney’s Office. She joined the office in 1987 and served in many capacities including Head Deputy City Attorney responsible for the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Unit. Gael has also worked as a Deputy Public Defender and a Deputy County Counsel for the San Diego County Counsel’s office handling juvenile dependency matters. She graduated from Western State College of Law in December 1985. Gael is a former board member of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, former President of the San Diego Domestic Violence Council and former commissioner of the ABA’s Commission on Domestic Violence. Gael is also a former adjunct law professor for California Western School of Law where she taught “Domestic Violence and the Law.” Gael has been honored with numerous awards, including San Diego Attorney of the Year for 2006, and was the 2010 Recipient of the National Crime Victim Service Award for Professional Innovation in Victim Services by United States Attorney General Eric Holder. Gael has also co-authored a series of strangulation articles and five books with Casey Gwinn, JD on the Family Justice Center movement.
Dr. Bill Smock
Dr. Bill Smock is the Police Surgeon and directs the Clinical Forensic Medicine Program for the Louisville Metro Police Department. He graduated from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky in 1981 and obtained a Master’s degree in Anatomy from the University of Louisville in 1987. Bill graduated from the University of Louisville, School of Medicine in 1990 and completed a residency in emergency medicine at the University of Louisville in 1993.
In 1994, he became the first physician in the United States to complete a post-graduate fellowship in Clinical Forensic Medicine. Dr. Smock was an Assistant Medical Examiner with the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office from 1991 to 1997. Dr. Smock joined the faculty at University of Louisville’s Department of Emergency Medicine in 1994 and was promoted to the rank of full professor in 2005. Dr. Smock is currently a Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Louisville, School of Medicine and regularly takes medical students on mission trips to Africa.
Dr. Smock has edited three textbooks on clinical forensic medicine and published more than 30 chapters and articles on forensic and emergency medicine. He is an internationally recognized forensic expert and trains nurses, physicians, law enforcement officers and attorneys in multiple fields including: officer-involved shootings, strangulation, gunshot wounds, injury mechanisms and motor vehicle trauma. Dr. Smock is also the Police Surgeon for the Jeffersontown, Kentucky and St. Matthews, Kentucky Police Departments. He also serves as a sworn tactical physician and detective for the Floyd County Indiana Sheriff’s Department.
Becky Stephens
Becky is a Child Welfare/ Domestic Violence Liaison working for the HOPE Center Inc. with over 9 years of experience in providing support and advocacy for individuals affected by domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse. Becky is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of survivors through crisis intervention, resource connection, and education. With extensive training in trauma-informed care and Domestic Violence, Becky works with law enforcement, healthcare providers, and social service agencies to create comprehensive safety plans and provide holistic support. Empowering survivors to rebuild their lives, find safety and stability for their families.
Taryne Tillinghast
Taryne Tillinghast graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Music Industry from the University of New Haven in New Haven, Connecticut. While there she was a brother of Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity where she served as Service Vice President and was responsible for the planning and execution of hundreds of hours of community service and an event that raised over $10,000 for childhood cancer research. This work created a passion for public interest and finding ways to incorporate service into her daily life.
Taryne moved to Nashville in 2019 and attended Belmont University College of Law. While there, she interned with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and developed an interest in family law. After being admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 2021, she became a Family Law Staff Attorney at Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee in Nashville. In her free time, you can find Taryne taking walks with her hound dog, Todd; traveling with her husband; or curling up with a good book.
Rebecca Toca
Rebecca Toca is the Lead Family Law attorney at the Nashville Office of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. Rebecca joined the Legal Aid Society in October of 2020, practicing family law in the Nashville Office. She represents victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in civil cases seeking safety and independence. Representation includes administrative advocacy, litigation in Davidson and Williamson County courts, and community education. She also manages the day-to-day operations of the Nashville Family Law team.
Prior to moving to Tennessee and joining Legal Aid, Rebecca served as an Assistant District Attorney at the Queens County District Attorney’s Office in Queens, New York for seven years. Rebecca served in the Domestic Violence Bureau, prosecuting violent crimes such as attempted murder, burglaries, felony assaults and felony criminal contempt cases.
Rebecca is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and of the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. While in law school, she served as a student attorney for the Columbus Community Legal Services Families and the Law Clinic, as well as the Montgomery County State Attorney’s Office. Prior to law school, Rebecca worked for the Federal Aviation Administration, in the Office of International Aviation and the Office of Aerospace Medicine. She enjoys exploring her new home in Middle Tennessee with her husband and two children.
Mark Wynn
Mark Wynn is a national trainer to police executives, patrol officers, training officers, prosecutors, judges, legislators, social service providers, healthcare professionals and victim advocates in all fifty states and internationally for over thirty years. He is a Fulbright Specialist for the Department of State and is a survivor, enabling him to teach both effectively and passionately. In short, he is devoted to ending domestic/sexual, elder and child abuse as a police officer, detective, educator, program supervisor and now consultant and advisor.
Mark is a 21-year member of the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department – Served as Lieutenant to the Domestic Violence Division – member of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team for fifteen years. He has received numerous awards for his work as a police officer and in domestic violence.