Expert Speakers & Workshops

Kevin McNeil is an energetic, motivated, highly dynamic retired Law Enforcement Officer and Detective, he is armed with a broad-based background and skills in the areas of conflict resolution, problem-solving, analytic thinking, gathering evidence, investigating, public and motivational speaking, strategic planning, project execution and much more. Kevin is qualified as a court expert witness, having been responsible for gathering evidence and investigating numerous cases for prosecution involving sexual perpetrators, domestic abuse allegations and crimes against children. As a Detective, Kevin successfully investigated and closed several high-profile media cases, including six serial rape cases and five child murder cases. Some of his attributes include a passion for abuse education, professionalism, and excellent communication skills to facilitate constructive engagement with individuals.

Tanisha L. Knighton, holds a B.A., M.C.J. and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Knighton is an independent consultant and national trainer with over 15 years of experience as a Social Worker with Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services and over 4 years in the Missing Persons Unit for the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department. Dr. Knighton is an active member of the Human Trafficking Task in her area and a number of other agencies that address issues that affect missing persons. Dr. Knighton designs curricula and provides training on different topics for a variety of agencies and national conferences.

Rachel D Fischer BSN, RN, SANE-A, SANE-P as a trafficking survivor, Rachel consults with governmental and non-governmental agencies formulating action plans to fight sex trafficking on both the demand and supply side. She trains law enforcement on insider investigation tips. Rachel uses her nursing background to speak to multiple healthcare disciplines on identification of trafficking victims using verbal and non-verbal cues. She gives tips on rapport building and post discharge recommendations with a medical mindset to address the “what’s next” question after identification. She helped build forensic nursing programs to aid in proper medical care and better outcomes of survivors of violence. She testifies as an expert witness doing legal nurse consulting for both the prosecution and the defense. She gives lectures on forensics and strangulation prevention and has helped create a strangulation task force. Rachel travels locally and internationally doing public speaking, trainings and interventions for human trafficking and victims of violence.

Peter Qualliotine has been working to promote men’s accountability and end commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of gender-based violence for over thirty years. In the early 1990s, he co-founded the Sexual Exploitation Education Project in Portland, Oregon, where he created one of the first sex buyer’s intervention programs in the country. During that time, he also worked with the Portland Women’s Crisis Line to integrate the issue of commercial sexual exploitation into a comprehensive middle and high school program to prevent gender-based violence. In 2012, he co-founded Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS) with Noel Gomez in Seattle. As OPS’ Director of Men’s Accountability, he launched the 10-week sex buyers intervention program Stopping Sexual Exploitation and co-coordinated the King County Ending Exploitation Collaborative. Presently, Peter lives in Western Massachusetts and coordinates Modeling Equality, a project funded by the NoVo Foundation to catalyze the creation and implementation of policies and practices across multiple sectors that address commercial sexual exploitation through an Equality Model framework.

Kevin Creeden, M.A., LMHC is the Director of Assessment and Research at the Whitney Academy in East Freetown, MA. He has over 35 years of clinical experience treating children, adolescents, adults, and families working extensively with sexually and physically aggressive youth. Over the past 25 years, his primary focus has been on issues of trauma and attachment difficulties, especially with regard to the neurological impact of trauma on behavior. He has authored several articles and book chapters on the neurodevelopmental impact of trauma on learning and behavior and he was one of six clinicians and researchers tasked with developing the ATSA Adolescent Treatment Guidelines. Mr. Creeden has served as the president of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC), a Teaching Fellow at Boston College, an Instructor in Psychology at the Harvard Medical School, and a guest faculty at the Boston University School of Social Work and the Simmons School of Social Work. Mr. Creeden has served on the MASOC Board of Directors since 2006 and has been the Board Chair since 2017. Mr. Creeden trains and consults both nationally and internationally to schools, youth service, community, forensic services, and mental health service agencies.

Darrel B. Turner, PhD works throughout the nation as an expert witness for attorneys in various State and Federal Courts and as a consultant with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies regarding risk assessment of sex offenders, risk assessment tools, child sex offender and victim behaviors, risk assessment of child pornography offenders, and juror perceptions and decision making in sex offense cases. Agencies with which he has consulted include the FBI, NCIS, United States Marine Corps, and Department of Homeland Security. He also works in conjunction with Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) to assess investigators and attorneys, who work daily in the field of child pornography and child molestation offenses, for burnout and secondary trauma.

Tanisha Knighton bio to come.