Speakers

Laura Alexander currently works as the college liaison at Safe Harbors of the Finger Lakes. In this role, Laura assists six colleges and universities in delivering sexual assault prevention curriculums such as Bringing in the Bystander, One Love, and Green Dot. Additionally, Laura also creates unique, campus-specific curriculum for student athletes, resident assistants, and on-campus student groups. In addition to prevention education, Laura functions as an advocate for students seeking crisis services following incidents of sexual assault, interpersonal violence, or stalking. Prior to her work at Safe Harbors, Laura worked as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Malaysia where she developed a leadership and empowerment curriculum for high school girls focused on boundary setting, healthy relationships, and direct communication. Laura graduated from William Smith College with a degree in Writing and Rhetoric and Education. 

Lynn Baniak is the director of campus sexual assault prevention at the New York State Department of Health. In this position she oversees the Enough is Enough Program, which provides the rape crisis program services to assist colleges and universities in their implementation of the Enough is Enough (Education Law 129-B) requirements. Lynn is currently a member of the Enough is Enough State Interagency Work Group and the NYS Domestic Violence Advisory Council. Prior to this position, Lynn had 24 years of experience in the social services field, including child welfare, mental health services, and domestic violence. During her previous position at the Office of Children and Family Services she had 8 years of experience working on anti-human trafficking efforts, leading the agency in developing the policies to implement the sex trafficking provisions of the federal Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (Public Law No: 113-183), and served as a member of the New York State Interagency Anti-Trafficking Task Force. From 2012-2016, she was a board member of the National Association of Foster Care Managers where she provided guidance to other state foster care managers on New York’s child welfare system and anti-trafficking work.

Chantelle Cleary is the assistant vice president for equity and compliance and the Title IX coordinator at the University at Albany. In this role, Chantelle is responsible for overseeing the university’s responses to unlawful discrimination and sexual violence. This includes coordinating sexual violence prevention and education programs as well as conducting prompt, equitable, and thorough investigations into allegations of unlawful discrimination and sexual assault occurring within the campus community. Prior to joining the University at Albany in January of 2015, Chantelle spent a decade as an Assistant District Attorney assigned exclusively to the prosecution of sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking, and crimes against children. In that role, Chantelle was able to develop expertise in conducting thorough and trauma informed sexual violence investigations. Chantelle received her B.A. from Binghamton University and her J.D. from Albany Law School.

Saben Durio is a University at Albany graduate student pursuing his Masters in Education Policy and Leadership. He was born and raised on Long Island, NY where he participated in G.E.M. (Gods Ebony Males) where he mentored young black men on how to properly navigate the world with their identities. Since his time at UAlbany he has been involved in student affairs with the goal of making the student experience on a college campus a safe and fulfilling one. To accomplish that goal he has taken part in many initiatives most notably taking part with the President's mission to train 25% of the student population in sexual violence prevention. Acting as a facilitator, Saben has worked hard to help his fellow classmates understand that stopping sexual assault on our college campuses falls on every one of us.

Dolores Krebs currently works as a Family Nurse Practitioner and the Director of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program in the Emergency Department at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Dolores has dedicated the past seventeen years of her nursing career to serving as a leader and champion to improving the care and treatment for sexual assault victims through awareness, advocacy, presentations, publications, and policy development. In addition, she has been instrumental in redesigning and improving practice environments through collaborative efforts with healthcare providers, nursing organizations, law enforcement, and politicians; on a local, state, national and international level. She is  the past-president of the International Association of Forensic Nurses. She has been recognized for her work as the Nurse Practitioner of the Year in New York State and for her community involvement in the NYS Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She is a fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Joseph Storch is an associate counsel in the SUNY Office of General Counsel and chair of the Student Affairs Practice Group. He provides primary representation for the Cortland, Morrisville, and Oswego campuses and concentrates his practice on student affairs, intellectual property, and campus safety. He has trained thousands of higher education professionals, furnished technical guidance to numerous higher education institutions, organizations, and associations on the Clery Act and Title IX, and provided expert testimony to the United States Senate regarding campus safety. He regularly advises legislators and staff at the federal and state level on best practices in drafting and analyzing pending domestic and international campus violence prevention legislation and served as an expert adviser to the VAWA Negotiated Rulemaking Committee on Counting Clery Crimes. In 2014, Joe received the Commissioner’s Award from the State University Police for contributions to safety on campus. In 2015, he served as a technical adviser to the Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, developing comprehensive legislation that was enacted in July 2015 as 129-B of the Education Law (also called “Enough is Enough”). That same year, the National Association of College & University Attorneys awarded him its First Decade Award. In 2016, he coordinated the SUNY’s Got Your Back program which has donated over 10,000 comfort bags to victims and survivors of violence. Joe graduated Summa Cum Laude from SUNY Oswego where he served as vice president of the Student Association, from the University at Albany with a Masters of Public Policy, and from Cornell Law School where he served as moot court board chancellor. After graduating, he clerked for the New York State Appellate Division, 3rd Department. He is the author of more than 45 articles and book chapters in law reviews, practitioner journals, and popular media, most centering around campus safety or copyright law and serves as executive editor of the Student Affairs Compliance Report and Analysis.

Christi Waldon, college advocate coordinator, has been with RESTORE for the past 5 years, first working as a counselor in Orleans County and Brockport where she won the Milfred L Phinney Victim Advocate of the Year Award. After helping to strengthen a long standing partnership with SUNY Brockport, Christi was promoted to College Advocate Coordinator where she now oversees collaboration with 10 college campuses in RESTORE’s 5 county region. She has served on SUNY Brockport’s Women’s Center Board and has received recognition for advocating for students through the student conduct process on campus. Christi has developed the College Prevention and Response Coalition, where prevention and response professionals from all 9 campuses meet every other month. Most recently Christi has been asked to be a part of SUNY Brockport’s Long Term Title IX Vision Planning Group. Christi graduated with honors from SUNY Brockport with a degree in Health Science.