Casey Gwinn of San Diego, Calif., will be the keynote speark at the 11th annual fall conference of The Coalition Against Domestic and Community Violence.
The theme is "Confronting Domestic & Community Violence."
It will be Thursday, Oct. 27, from 8 a.m.-4:15 p.m. at the Where: UTC Student Center Auditorium.
Cost is $75, which includes lunch and parking.
There will also be a host of other experts on violence in the home, school, workplace and community.
The Chattanooga Family Justice Alliance is a local collaborative group working to improve the response of our community to family and community violence. The local justice center is modeled after that of San Diego, which Casey Gwinn helped to develop, officials said.
Officials said Mr. Gwinn "will bring knowledge of best practices from across the country to us to aid in reducing violence and crime in this area."
The Chattanooga Family Justice Alliance was begun in August, 2004 and now has about 70 partners working together to reduce violence and crime in Chattanooga and surrounding area.
Casey Gwinn serves as the Director of Victim Services for the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and as the National Technical Assistance Director for the President’s Family Justice Center Initiative. He has been recognized by The American Lawyer magazine as one of the top 45 public lawyers in America. He served for eight years as the elected City Attorney of San Diego from 1996 to 2004. Prior to entering elected office, he founded the City Attorney’s Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Unit, leading the Unit from 1986 to 1996. During his tenure, the unit's work was honored for playing a major role in the 90 percent drop in domestic violence homicides in the City of San Diego over the last 20 years. San Diego now has the lowest domestic violence homicide rate of any major city in the nation, it was stated.
In 1986, Mr. Gwinn co-founded the San Diego Task Force on Domestic Violence. In 1991, he founded the San Diego Domestic Violence Council. In 1993, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges recognized the City’s Child Abuse/Domestic Violence Unit as the model domestic violence prosecution unit in the nation.
Recently, he has seen his vision of a comprehensive, “one stop shop” for services to victims of family violence become a reality. In partnership with former San Diego Police Chief David Bejarano and current Chief Bill Lansdowne, he led the effort to open the nationally acclaimed San Diego Family Justice Center. The Family Justice Center opened its doors in downtown San Diego on Oct. 10, 2002. The San Diego Family Justice Center leads the way in its coordinated approach to co-locating services for victims of domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and sexual assault. Soon after opening, the U.S. Department of Justice chose the San Diego Family Justice Center as a demonstration project for the nation. In October, 2003, President George W. Bush announced a national initiative to begin creating Centers modeled after San Diego’s Center.
Mr. Gwinn is currently serving as the National Director for the President’s Family Justice Center Initiative, in overseeing the development of fifteen federally funded Centers across the country.
As the City Attorney, Mr. Gwinn focused on intervening at the earliest possible stage to combat crime and community problems. He founded an innovative Neighborhood Prosecution Unit, which focuses on quality-of-life crimes, working in partnership with community groups. Casey created the San Diego Parenting Project and, in a partnership with Council member Brian Maienschein, San Diego's highly respected Teen Court. Both are early-intervention programs designed to help first-time juvenile offenders and their parents. He wrote and successfully defended the City's juvenile curfew law, a powerful tool for protecting youth in San Diego, it was stated. In partnership with then-Police Chief Jerry Sanders, he founded the City’s STOP Program. The STOP program targets people who drive unlicensed or on suspended licenses. Repeat offenders risk forfeiting their cars. Working closely with the San Diego Superior Court, Mr. Gwinn played critical roles in the opening of San Diego’s many specialized courts, including Drug Court, Homeless Court, Community Court, and Domestic Violence Court. Casey and his staff handle large caseloads daily in state and federal court, officials said.
Throughout his career, Mr. Gwinn has kept active as a trial attorney. While serving as the City Attorney, he tried three major civil cases since taking office in 1996. In the summer of 2000, he stepped out of his day-to-day role as the City Attorney to spend three months back in his Domestic Violence Unit handling a line prosecutor’s caseload. He tried criminal cases, including a three-week stalking trial. The stalker was convicted and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for his violence and abuse. More recently, Mr. Gwinn prosecuted a case involving felony sexual assault and a terrorist threat where the defendant sexually assaulted his ex-wife then attempted to hang himself in front of his two young children.
Mr. Gwinn currently serves on the Department of Justice’s National Advisory Council on Domestic Violence and chairs the California Attorney General’s Task Force on Domestic Violence. He also recently served on a congressionally created Department of Defense task force, studying the handling of family violence throughout the Department of Defense. In his role as the National Director of the President’s Family Justice Center Initiative, he is overseeing the creation of 15 federally funded Family Justice Centers across the United States. He is also assisting in providing consulting and support services to other communities seeking to open Family Justice Centers in the United States, Canada, England, Mexico, and Australia. He has authored a host of articles on domestic violence and is currently writing a book calling for the creation of Family Justice Centers across America to help hurting and violent families.
Mr. Gwinn has received many local and national awards, including the Stephen L. Lewis Lecturer of Merit Award from the National College of District Attorneys, the Women’s International Living Legacy Award, the Men’s Leadership Forum Hometown Hero Award, Sharp Healthcare’s Excellence in Education Award, the San Diego Press Club’s Diogenes Award, the San Diego Mediation Center’s Peacemaker Award, the San Diego Ecumenical Council’s Christian Unity Award, and, most recently, the Advocate of the Year Award presented on Disability Independence Day from the disabled community in San Diego. He speaks frequently both locally and nationally as an expert on domestic violence intervention and prevention. Over the last sixteen years, he has conducted training in forty-nine states, speaking for local, state, and national law enforcement organizations. He coached seven years of girls fast pitch softball, three years of youth basketball, and two years of Little League.
Mr. Gwinn and his wife, Beth, a teacher, have three children, Kelly, 18, Karianne, 17, and Chris, 15.
Mr. Gwinn is an honors graduate of Stanford University and UCLA School of Law.
For information about The President's Initiative and San Diego's Family Justice Center, go to http://www.familyjusticecenter.org