The Board
Annette Burrhus-Clay, Vice President
Annette Burrhus-Clay started her journey working with crime victims as a college student in 1978. What began as a volunteer commitment developed into a 40 year passion and career. She spent her years working in the sexual assault and domestic violence fields as a service provider, trainer, and administrator in Texas and California, the last 20 years with TAASA, before retiring in 2017.
Annette served on numerous statewide advisory boards and task forces and was appointed for two terms to the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Child Abuse Prevention by former Governor Rick Perry. She also served on the advisory board for the Rape Abuse Incest National Network (RAINN) and worked with the Department of Defense and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention on sexual violence initiatives. She continues to serve as Vice-President of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV).
Today, Annette works as an independent consultant on sexual assault as well as non-profit management issues. In her spare time, she serves on her HOA board, is a PTA volunteer, and spends as much time as possible with her exceptional grandchildren.
Levette Johnson, Secretary
Levette is the Executive Director of the MS Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She has twenty-three (23) years of experience in non-profit program administration and grant management of state and federal grant programs; coordinates local, statewide, and national training and technical assistance; her greatest asset is collaboration with stakeholders in efforts to end sexual violence. Ms. Johnson has spent more than two decades to promote victim safety, enhance services and response to victims of sexual assault. She collaborates and partner on statewide projects to address underserved populations such as women of color, persons with disabilities, and college-aged women. She supports advocates to improve sexual assault services and response in rural communities. She works to expand response in the faith community with a M.A. and a D.M. in Faith-based Crisis and Family Counseling. Since 1998, she has volunteered as a crisis counselor with the local rape crisis center. Since 2010, she serves as a project director for the OVW Training and Technical Assistance Provider to the campus program.
Liliana Olvera-Arbon, Board Member
Liliana is the Executive Director at the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, with over 15 years of experience working in social services. She demonstrated profound leadership while working at a Los Angeles-based rape crisis center and later as a Program Coordinator at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Her vision is to center and uplift the voices of communities marginalized by society and bring a deep commitment toward social equity and collective liberation. She is dedicated to educating people of their rights and opportunities and envisions a world free of gender-based violence.
Rosa Beltré, Board Member
Rosa Beltré, Afro-Taina-Latinx, is the President & CEO of the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. Rosa Beltré first joined OAESV as the Advocacy and Training Director in July 2013, before serving as OAESV’s Interim Executive Director, and ultimately becoming OAESV’s first Latina Executive Director in June 2017.
Rosa is an ordained Minister of the Spanish Pentecostal Churches, Vice-President of International Women Ministry MDM, author, and the Mission’s Director of her Faith community.
Rosa is a Taino, Afro-Latinx, catalyst of change, who is action- driven womxn, passionate about power/gender-based violence, BIPOC empowerment, leadership, knowledge, enriching the lives of others, bridge building/ collaboration, accountability and provoking change.
Laura Cordes, Board Member
As an organizer and public policy advocate, Laura has spent her career forwarding legislative and administrative policies to uphold and secure rights and supports for vulnerable and marginalized populations throughout the health care, criminal justice, and higher education systems. She is the former executive director of the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, the statewide coalition of community-based sexual assault crisis services programs, and has served on numerous state boards and commissions to advance the needs of survivors. Since relocating to Maine in 2019 she has served as the executive director of the Maine Association for Community Service Providers.
Indira M. Henard, MSW, Board Member
Indira is the Executive Director of the DC Rape Crisis Center (DCRCC). She has been with the DC Rape Crisis Center for the last thirteen years serving in different capacities, lending invaluable experience including leadership roles in fundraising, operations, cultivating relationships and strategic partnerships, as well as coalition building. Under Ms. Henard’s Executive leadership she has not only repositioned the oldest and the first rape crisis center in the country, but she has laid a strong foundation as the agency prepares to celebrate 50 years of survivor centered, and community led services. Additionally, under Ms. Henard’s leadership the DC Rape Crisis Center received the 2019, and 2020 Best Places to Work by the Washington Business Journal, 2019 and 2020 Best of Washington Award to include the Business Hall of Fame, as well as the 2019 Agency of the Year Award by the National Association of Social Workers.
Ms. Henard has worked nationally and internationally in helping organizations build capacity to respond to the needs of sexual violence in their communities. Ms. Henard’s high-level training and technical assistance provided to local nonprofits, and international NGO’s has resulted in the repositioning of the sexual assault coalition in the District of Columbia, opening the first rape crisis center in Lagos, Nigeria, as well as working with a coalition of international NGOs in developing a mobile app to aid refugee workers who are working with sexual assault victims. Ms. Henard has been recognized locally and nationally with numerous awards, for her contributions to the violence against women movement to include receiving the 2020 Washingtonian of the Year award.
Debra Robbin, Board Member
Since joining Jane Doe Inc. in 2002, Debra has provided leadership for the Coalition’s advocacy, education and prevention efforts. She served as the Interim Executive Director since October 2013 before being appointed as Executive Director in early 2015. Working to support survivors and prevent sexual and domestic violence for more than 30 years, Debra is a respected leader across Massachusetts and the nation.
Debra has played a central role in the policy, prevention and services initiatives of the Coalition. Under her leadership, the Coalition has expanded its efforts to mobilize men and boys, to address the needs of underserved communities, and to strengthen both core services and prevention efforts. Through her involvement with the Governor’s Council to Address Sexual and Domestic Violence, her prior role as Co-Chair of the Massachusetts State Prevention Team and Teen Sexual and Dating Violence Prevention Task Force, she has helped shape the policies and priorities of the state’s systems and services in supporting survivors, holding offenders accountable, and preventing violence and abuse. She currently serves as an appointed member of the Governor’s Council to Address Sexual and Domestic Violence and as a board member of the National Alliance Against Sexual Violence.
Carrie Ward, M.A., Board Member
Carrie is the Chief Executive Officer of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (ICASA). Carrie joined ICASA as Program Developer in 1996 and was promoted to Grants Director in 2004 and Executive Director in 2019. For many years, Carrie conducted programmatic site visits at ICASA centers and provided technical assistance and training for centers on a wide range of program areas, assisted new and current centers to navigate ICASA’s funding and certification processes and oversaw the allocation of funds to ICASA centers. As CEO, Carrie works with ICASA to assist with strategic planning, governance, and oversight, serves as ICASA’s primary spokesperson and conducts policy work to further ICASA’s legislative agenda. Carrie represents ICASA on numerous task forces and statewide committees and represents ICASA when working with other rape crisis organizations, allies and partners across the nation.
The Team
Monika Johnson Hostler, President & Chief Executive Officer
Monika Johnson Hostler is the President and CEO of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence. She previously served as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCCASA) since 1999 and is a founding Managing Partner of RALIANCE. In addition to working on behalf of 90 rape crisis centers in North Carolina, Ms. Johnson Hostler is a pivotal asset to the national sexual assault movement. She has also served on the Wake County Board of Education since 2013 and was elected Board Chair in 2016. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Fayetteville State University and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from NC Central University. Her leadership in the anti-sexual violence movement and the public education field are examples of her commitment to social justice and equality.
Terri Poore, Policy Director of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
Advocating for social justice, especially for survivors and sexual violence prevention, is her passion. Terri worked at the National Sexual Assault Coalitions Resource Sharing Project providing technical assistance on the Sexual Assault Services Program before joining NAESV full time. She was with the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence for 13 years as the Director of Public Affairs and, before that, as the Director of Training and Technical Assistance. In the 90’s, Terri worked as a sexual violence counselor and program coordinator at a rape crisis center in North Florida and as a victim advocate in the Office of the State Attorney. Terri holds a master’s degree in social work from Florida State University and a BA in Sociology from Loyola University in New Orleans. When not in D.C., her home base is Tallahassee, Florida.
Laela Kashan, Housing Coordinator
Laela Kashan has dedicated her career to helping others because she knows a better world is possible. Experiencing multiple forms of trauma as a child and interacting with the court systems, she saw attorneys as helpers and the path to law school was set in stone. Laela was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 2008. Currently, she is the Housing Project Coordinator for the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence. Prior to working for the National Alliance, she was the Staff Attorney for Kentucky’s statewide coalition of rape crisis centers, where she led legislative advocacy efforts and provided assistance and training on sexual harm issues. She also spent several years as a Legal Advocate at a local dual rape crisis/domestic violence program in Kentucky where she focused on protection orders, family law, and campus sexual assault issues. One of her greatest life experiences was serving in the Peace Corps as a consultant for a domestic violence shelter in the Republic of Moldova. Laela is mission-driven and strives to lead with integrity and compassion. Outside of work she enjoys cuddles with her rescue dog, salsa dancing, exploring new places, and spending time with loved ones.
Maureen L. Gallagher, Advocacy Coordinator
Maureen has more than 25 years of experience in the field of sexual and domestic violence intervention and prevention, including children and family services. She joins NAESV full time,after having worked with the organization as a consultant. Prior to consulting, Maureen served as the Policy Director for Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence for nearly 10 years. Maureen also served as Sexual Assault Program Coordinator at the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence for several years before moving back to Boston. She received a BA in Sociology from the College of the Holy Cross and an MA in Sociology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 2022, Maureen received a Master of Legal Studies degree from Northeastern University. Her anti-violence work is informed by her early experience providing direct services to victims and survivors and their families and is grounded in a social justice and racial equity framework.
Megan Owens, MSW, Corporate Research Associate
Megan is a St. Louis native who has been working in the field of domestic and sexual violence for over five years, working both directly with survivors and in administrative capacities. She has worked at several local Missouri programs, and prior to joining NAESV, she worked at the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Megan’s background is both in advocacy and communications and in addition to her work with survivors, she worked on multiple grassroots advocacy campaigns at Missouri’s State Capitol, and on research projects related to human trafficking and juvenile justice. She earned her Master’s in Social Work at University of Missouri-Columbia, and prior to that she received her Bachelor’s in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Megan’s passion for systems change, social justice, and anti-oppression drives her continued work in the movement to end sexual violence.
Whitney Parker, Social Media & Web Content Consultant
Originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, Whitney has been able to draw inspiration from her community and the people who have mentored her along the way. In 2009, Whitney graduated from North Carolina A&T State University with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with a concentration in Media Management. After a short break, she returned to school and was awarded a master’s degree in Corporate and Organizational Communication with a concentration in Social Media and Online Communities from Northeastern University.
Since receiving her undergraduate degree, Whitney has had the opportunity to work for some of the best media companies in the country; Sinclair Broadcast Group, Black Entertainment Television/Viacom, Gannett Company, Inc. and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. She also volunteers with local organizations that highlight educating young people and preparing them for college and the “real” world.
Jennifer Han, Accountant for the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence from Han Group LLC.
She is the managing principal of Han Group with over 20 years of public accounting experience focused exclusively on nonprofit community.
Jennifer earned her B.S. in Accounting from Georgetown University and holds her certified public account licenses from the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and New York.
Ellen Fern, Policy Consultant
Ellen is President and Founding Principal of the Moonstone Group LLC which is a DC-based government relations, public policy and consulting firm. She has broad experience in federal legislative affairs, appropriations, coalition building, managing and developing public education campaigns, and grassroots advocacy. Ellen has worked for more than two decades on a variety of policy issues including gender-based violence, the social welfare of children, K-12 education, youth and families including juvenile justice, foster care, judicial training and teen pregnancy prevention. In her previous roles, Ellen was a principal and manager of federal relations at the Bose Public Affairs Group and served as the director of national and corporate partnerships at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. She also ran the Washington, D.C. office of a national consulting firm, which specialized in grassroots organizing and communications strategies to affect public policy. Ellen started her career on Capitol Hill working for the late Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island and then Representative Chuck Schumer of New York.
Camille Clay, Office Administrator
At the young age of 12, Camille began volunteering at Texas Association Against Sexual Assault and started a peer education group at her high school, teaching students about sexual assault and dating violence. After graduating from the University of Texas at Arlington with a Broadcast Journalism degree, she got certified as an elementary school teacher and taught for 5 years. She has since transitioned out of public education, and loves working with mission minded people and organizations as a communications and administrative consultant.