Sponsorship Application

This conference is made possible by generous sponsors who support this work!

Keynote Speakers

Stay tuned for more key note speaker announcments soon!

Shannon Collins (she/hers) is an autistic advocate living in Denver, CO who strives to cultivate collective leadership, survivor empowerment, and peer support in her work. Shannon currently serves as the Director of the Campus Training & Technical Assistance Program at the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA). Shannon is a licensed clinical social worker who has spent over 20 years working to end domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (DVSAS) through advocacy, response, prevention, and education primarily in college and university settings. Shannon specializes in the formation of trauma-informed victim advocacy programs within institutions of higher education and the development and maintenance of campus-based Coordinated Community Response Teams (CCRTs) to foster collective leadership for institutional change. At NOVA, she provides leadership for the National Campus Advocacy Training (NCAT) and the NOVA campus training & technical assistance program funded through the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women Campus Program. Shannon serves as adjunct faculty for several Colorado universities and teaches workshops and academic courses on the ethics of campus advocacy, evidence-based practice, trauma-informed leadership, and gender-based violence over the lifespan. Shannon is grateful to serve her community as a member of the Board of Directors for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA). Shannon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology, a Master of Social Work degree, and a Women’s Studies Certificate of Graduate Study from the University of South Carolina, as well as an Executive Certificate of Nonprofit Management from the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. When Shannon is not working to promote justice and healing for survivors and communities, she can be found immersed in a crochet project or exploring the natural Colorado landscape with her family.

Zoe Collins (she/hers) is the director of Spiramind, a neurodivergent consulting firm which empowers people to provide accessible services to the neurodivergent community. She is autistic, queer, disabled, and from Denver, Colorado. As a student activist she successfully fought to include coercion in the sexual misconduct policy at her college, sparking her passion for advocacy. Zoe provided complex advocacy for disabled survivors as the Outreach Director for a Colorado nonprofit, before launching Spiramind. She was honored to receive the “Excellence in Advocacy Award” from the Rocky Mountain Victim Law Center in 2021 for her work on cases involving ableism.

PRESENTATION: Community Building with Autistic Advocates

This session will feature a conversation between two autistic advocates on building autistic community within the field of campus advocacy and prevention. Topics will include autistic representation, autistic strengths, neurodiverse communication styles, and building community.

Lydia X. Z. Brown is an advocate, organizer, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work focuses on interpersonal and state violence against disabled people at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, faith, language, and nation. They are Policy Counsel for Privacy & Data at the Center for Democracy & Technology, focused on algorithmic discrimination and disability, as well as Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs at the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network. Lydia is also adjunct lecturer and core faculty in Georgetown’s Disability Studies Program, and adjunct professorial lecturer in American University’s Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies. They serve as a commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, chairperson of the ABA Civil Rights & Social Justice Section’s Disability Rights Committee, co-president of the Disability Rights Bar Association, and representative for the Disability Justice Committee to the National Lawyers Guild’s National Executive Committee. Lydia founded the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment, and they are creating Disability Justice Wisdom Tarot. Lydia is past chairperson of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council, and former Justice Catalyst Legal Fellow at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. Often, their most important work has no title, job description, or funding, and probably never will.

PRESENTATION: Disability Justice Is Our Freedom: An Intersectional Vision for Ending Sexual Violence

Sick, mad, disabled, and neurodivergent people are everywhere, our bodyminds disruptive against expectations and assumptions of health, wellness, and personhood. Disability Justice principles and practices offer radical and revolutionary ways of reimagining and re-ordering our relationships with ourselves, our colleagues, our communities, and the places and spaces we inhabit. Disability Justice offers urgent and vital interventions for addressing and ending the myriad harms of sexual violence, eugenics, the medical/carceral industrial complex, and capitalist oppression, all of which disproportionately harm disabled people and rely on ableism. Disability Justice enables us to understand and examine interpersonal, systemic, structural, and institutional ableism and its impact on disabled people of color, queer and trans disabled people, and other disabled people at the margins of the margins. Disabled people have always been at the forefront of movements for justice and freedom, building networks of care and solidarity, and creating social and cultural transformations that enable us to experience rest and practice active love as core components of transformative justice and healing justice. 

Sarah Ford Neorr of the law firm Jackson Lewis provides innovative Title IX training and other legal services to colleges and universities. As an employment lawyer, Sarah has extensive experience handling sensitive issues such as claims of sexual harassment, racial bias, and disability discrimination. She brings this background to her work as a Title IX attorney, helping clients navigate the legal, practical, and ethical complexities of addressing sexual misconduct on campus.

Sarah is in high demand as a Title IX trainer, having provided hundreds of engaging programs at campuses large and small for administrators, faculty, staff, students, and boards of trustees.  She also is the star of a groundbreaking Title IX video training series currently available from Jackson Lewis. More information regarding the series is available at the following link: https://jacksonlewis.com/tix-flyer-previews

PRESENTATION: Title IX in Transition (Again): Shifting Cross Examination Requirements and What Comes Next

This practical presentation will take a close look at Title IX hearing procedures and recent changes to the cross-examination requirement.  Then we’ll discuss additional changes likely to occur under the Biden Administration and how training can be improved to help schools more effectively investigate, adjudicate, and prevent sexual misconduct.

Shannon K. Nix is the Associate Director of Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention & Prevention (SAVIP), the University of South Carolina’s confidential interpersonal violence advocacy and prevention program. She specializes in training on the neurobiology of trauma and intimate partner violence and has a background in utilizing evidence-based therapies to treat sexual abuse and assault survivors on a college campus. Having been involved in interpersonal violence advocacy, prevention, and awareness work for over 20 years, Shannon leads her team from a trauma-informed, evidence-based, and survivor-centered approach for both advocacy and prevention work. Shannon holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of South Carolina-Aiken and an M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Augusta State University; she is also a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Victim Service Provider, both in SC.

Kristin Couch (she/her/hers) is the Assistant Director of Prevention and Response in the Title IX & Compliance Office at Spelman College. Her primary duties include supporting students by initiating and directing advocacy and case management services following a report or incident of sexual and/or gender-based discrimination. Additionally, she is responsible for developing, implementing, and overseeing educational outreach on topics for students, staff, faculty, and other groups.

Kristin also serves as Co-Chair for the Fatality Review Subcommittee for the Fulton County Family Violence Task Force in Atlanta, Georgia. Kristin graduated from Agnes Scott College with Bachelor’s in Psychology and would later obtain her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Georgia.

Candice Epps Jackson is the Director of Behavioral and Counseling Services & Title IX Coordinator at Davidson County Community College. She is a wife, mother, and woman who adores her family and friends. She is also a professional counselor, consultant, speaker, and higher education administrator. Currently, she oversees a collegiate counseling, health, and behavioral services unit, spearheading initiatives to foster wellness, increase sexual assault awareness and prevention, and create equitable cultures of compassion and care. Outside of her office, she serves on several boards and advisory committees in the local community and across the state to promote wellness, civility, the healthy and holistic development of children, multicultural sensitivities, anti-racism behaviors and mindsets, and race and gender equity.

Self Care Sessions

Previous Puzzles attendees will never forget the amazing Spoken Word Artist, Ebony Stewart. We love her so much that she is now a permanent part of our conference. Consider pre-ordering her books HOME.GIRL.HOOD. & BLOODFRESH NOW! Coming February 2022.

OVW Grantees and Continuing Education Credits

Grantees from Campus, LAV, State Coalitions, and STOP programs have conditionally approved their grantees to attend this conference.  Grantees are required to contact their OVW program specialist to get approval specific to their awards. Grantees must receive approval from their program specialists before they commit or expend any funds related to attending this conference.

The reference number for this conference is OVW-2022-MU-001.  This number must be used by grantees when requesting approval to attend the conference.

***This conference has been approved for 12.75 Continuing Education credits, by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC)***

The NC State University Counselor Education Program and Chrysalis Network are cosponsors of this program. This cosponsorship has been approved by NBCC. The NC State University Counselor Education Program is an NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP 4096. The ACEP solely is responsible for this program, including the awarding of NBCC credit.

Social Workers should be able to get CE approval from their state board. All those needing CEs/CEUs will need to attend the entire conference and complete a conference evaluation on-site.

Scholarship Opportunities

Jackson Lewis Scholarship

Thank you to Jackson Lewis for funding 6 conference registrations!

Applications are due November 19th, with notifications made by November 26th. Please note, if you apply and do not receive the scholarship, we will offer you the early registration rate.

The Chrysalis Network Whole Circle Scholarship

A registration scholarship designed to support students, advocates, and prevention professionals who self-identify as belonging to neurodiverse or disability communities. In the spirit of “Nothing about us without us,” this scholarship was initiated by an Autistic advocate and survivor, and seeks to increase visibility and support for individuals from these marginalized communities who work to end violence in all of its forms. Applications are due by November 19th and notifications will be made by November 26th. Current funding provides for 2 scholarships. If you would like to donate to provide additional registration opportunities for this scholarship, please do so via Eventbrite.

All applications will be kept confidential among the small group of reviewers from the Puzzles Advisory Committee.