The Washington Post
By Washington Post Live
October 14, 2021
Register for the program here.
More than 12 million American men and women a year are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner. As the coronavirus pandemic has forced many families to shelter in place over the last 18 months, the numbers of domestic violence and child abuse cases have skyrocketed at an outsized pace.
Presenting Sponsor: Purina
Join Washington Post Live on Thursday, Oct. 21 for a series of conversations with experts that go in-depth about how the mental health impact of domestic violence influences other facets of survivor’s lives and how the pandemic has renewed efforts to pass legislation to combat abuse.
Margarita Guzmán
Provided by the Violence Intervention Program.
Born in El Paso, Texas, Margarita Guzmán is a queer Chicana and survivor of intimate partner violence. She received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her law degree from George Washington University School of Law. Upon graduating from law school, Margarita established a legal clinic for indigent Spanish-speaking mental health consumers in New York City. Her legal practice later focused on representing primarily Latinx immigrant survivors of domestic violence in housing, family and immigration legal matters, as well as teen and young adult survivors. In 2013, she entered civil service at the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, where she ran the Bronx Family Justice Center until joining the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) in 2017. She currently serves as Executive Director at VIP, working with largely immigrant and low-income Latinx survivors of domestic and sexual violence. As a survivor and a lawyer, Margarita has lived the limits of criminal and civil legal responses to violence and seeks to increase restorative and transformative justice practices to support survivors and change abusive behaviors.
Rachel Louise Snyder
Rachel Louise Snyder is the author of Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade, the novel What We’ve Lost is Nothing, and No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times magazine, the Washington Post and on NPR, and she has been a Guggenheim recipient. No Visible Bruises was awarded the 2018 Lukas Work-in-Progress Award and was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Amazon, Kirkus, the Library Journal, the Economist, BookPage, and others. The New York Times included it in their “Top Ten” books of 2019. No Visible Bruises was also a finalist for the Kirkus Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the LA Times Book Award, and the Silver Gavel Award. It won the 2020 New York Public Library’s Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Sidney Hillman Book Award for social justice. Snyder holds a joint appointment as a professor in journalism and literature at American University, and is at work on her next book, a memoir titled Women We Buried, Women We Burned.
Nina Leigh Krueger, CEO and President, Purina
Nina Leigh Krueger is CEO and President for Nestlé Purina PetCare Company in the U.S. Nina Leigh began her career at Purina in 1993 as a brand management intern before moving to the cat food marketing team the following year. She went on to hold various positions of increasing responsibility within the company, working on key global brands and initiatives and has been instrumental in bringing innovation to market.
In 2010, Nina Leigh was named Vice President of Purina’s litter ision, and in 2015, Nina Leigh was named Chief Marketing Officer. She earned the role of President in 2016 and transitioned into the role of CEO and President of the pet care leader in January 2021.
A graduate of Miami University with a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing, Nina Leigh earned her MBA from Washington University’s Olin School of Business in 1994. Nina Leigh lives in St. Louis with her husband, and their two dogs. She has three sons.
Nina Leigh is active in her community, serving on multiple boards and executive committees of various non-profit organizations including St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the St. Louis Community Foundation. She also is an outspoken champion and supporter of the Purple Leash Project, an effort of Purina and the nonprofit, RedRover, that is helping more domestic violence shelters across the U.S. become pet-friendly.
Elise Johansen, Executive Director, Safe Voices
Elise Johansen is the executive director of Safe Voices, the domestic violence and sex trafficking resource center serving portions of central and western Maine. Johansen has more than 20 years of experience working on behalf of social justice issues. Since joining Safe Voices in 2015, she has overseen the development and expansion of trauma-responsive services, including the opening of Maine’s first and only emergency safe house program for survivors of sex trafficking, and the creation of Maine’s first pet-friendly shelter. Previously she served as the executive director for Equality Maine, and has held positions with Planned Parenthood and Goodwill’s traumatic brain injury program. She received a master’s of fine arts in creative writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University and lives in Harpswell, Maine, with her wife Shaun and their three dogs, Lizard, Sigi, and Ginsburg.
Moderated by Tamron Hall
Tamron Hall is an award-winning TV host, journalist and philanthropist. She is the host and executive producer of the daytime television show “Tamron Hall,” which is produced and distributed in national syndication by Walt Disney Television. For her work on the show’s first season, Tamron won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host. “Tamron Hall” was also awarded the prestigious Gracie Award in its first season, which recognizes exemplary programming created by women.
Previously, Tamron was the first African American female co-host of “TODAY” and served as the anchor for “MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall.” She received the 2015 Edward R. Murrow Award for her “TODAY” segment on domestic violence. Her special NBC News report “Education Nation: Teacher Town Hall” was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2011, and she served as a correspondent for the NBC News special “The Inauguration of Barack Obama,” which won an Emmy for Outstanding Live Coverage in October 2010.
Tamron is passionate about many causes, including domestic violence, homelessness and literacy – dedicating her time to many deserving organizations over the years. She is an ambassador for Safe Horizon, a domestic abuse organization which also honored her with their Voice of Empowerment Award in 2014. She’s partnered with Safe Horizon previously to launch The Tamron ❤ Renate Fund in honor of her sister to help victims and families affected by domestic violence. Day One, a New York-based advocacy group for victims of domestic violence, honored her work, and she received the Ackerman Family Advocate Award for her efforts to raise awareness for families who have a loved one experiencing abuse.
Tamron is a native of Luling, Texas, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from Temple University.