2021 Domestic Violence Training

Dr. Evan Stark, Ph.D, MSW, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University, Woodbridge, CT
Evan Stark is a sociologist, forensic social worker, a widely published author and an award-winning researcher with an international reputation for his innovative work on the legal, policy and health dimensions of interpersonal violence, including its effects on children.

His book, Coercive Control: The Entrapment of Women in Personal Life (Oxford, 2007) was named the outstanding book in the social sciences for 2007 by the American Publishers’ Association and recipient of the American Library Association’s “Choice” Award for “outstanding academic book reviewed in 2008.”  

Dr. Stark’s work on coercive control has helped shape policies on gender violence in several U.S. States, in Taiwan, Turkey and other countries where he has worked, and laid the conceptual groundwork for new offenses involving “coercive and controlling behavior” in England/Wales (2016) as well as in Scotland (2017). 

Dr. Stark holds a BS from Brandeis University, an MA in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, a Ph.D  in sociology from SUNY-Binghamton, and an M.S.W. from Fordham University. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University,  School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA), in Newark, New Jersey. 

Dr. Kelly Weisberg, J.D, Professor of Law, Hastings College of Law, University of California
Professor D. Kelly Weisberg has been a faculty member at University of California Hastings College of Law for more than 35 years.  She teaches courses on family law, domestic violence, stalking, juvenile justice, children and the law, and wills and trusts. Since 2013, she has served as editor of Domestic Violence Report, a national newsletter on domestic violence law and policy. In that role, she was awarded the 2021 Hope Rising Journalism Award at the 21st Annual International Family Justice Center Conference. The award recognizes those who have helped advance awareness, training and policy change around domestic and sexual violence, child abuse, elder abuse and human trafficking.

Professor Weisberg is the author of several law review articles and books on family law and domestic violence, including MODERN FAMILY LAW; CASES AND MATERIALS (Wolters Kluwer, 7th ed., 2020), DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAW (West Academic Pub. Co. 2019) and DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: LEGAL AND SOCIAL REALITY (Wolters Kluwer, 2nd ed., 2019). She is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and a liaison to the ABA Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. 

Professor Weisberg received her undergraduate degree, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a double major in Sociology and French Literature, and her PhD in Sociology from Brandeis University. She received her JD from the University of California Berkeley School of Law.

Darren Mitchell, JD, Attorney and Consultant on Domestic Violence, Takoma, MD
Darren Mitchell is an attorney and consultant on domestic violence and other violence against women issues, with a focus on child custody and domestic violence, firearms and domestic violence, interstate child custody, protection order issuance and enforcement, and full faith and credit. Since 2000, he has trained judges, attorneys, advocates, and other professionals across the country and has published several articles on these topics.  His consulting clients include the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence (for which he served as Interim Executive Director), the Center for Court Innovation, the Legal Resource Center on Violence Against Women, the Battered Women’s Justice Project, and other national and state organizations.