Marion Doctor, LCSW
Marion Doctor is a Program Manager for The Children's Hospital Burn Center and Assistant Clinical Professor, University of Colorado School of Medicine. Marion joined the Burn Team staff in 1978. In that capacity she developed the Children's Hospital Burn Camp in 1983, a program that has since been expanded to include a winter ski camp for adolescents, a young adult retreat, and a college scholarship program. In 1997, she joined a collaborative effort with The Children's Burn Center at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, MN and the Shriners Burns Hospital in Galveston, TX to establish The Mahtomedi Family Burn Camp in Minnesota as well as The Children's Hospital Family Burn Camp in Colorado. Marion has served as the At-Large Member of the Board of Trustees, the American Burn Association and received the Curtis P. Artz Distinguished Service Award. She currently serves on the Professional Advisory Board for the Zach Burn Foundation and the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board and Psychosocial Forum Editor for the Journal of Burn Care.
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Paul Schwartzman, MS, LMHC, DAPA
Paul Schwartzman is a licensed mental health counselor with over twenty five years of experience working with children, adolescents, and families in the Rochester, NY area. Mr. Schwartzman was a member of the team that created the Fire Related Youth Unit for the Rochester Fire Department and the BIC preschool fire safety education curriculum-which are both award winning programs. He has co-authored numerous research articles and books and also authored the NFPA’s revised handbooks chapter on juvenile firesetting. He is currently working on a book on the treatment of juvenile and adult arson. Mr. Schwartzman provides trainings and consulting throughout North America and currently serves as the president of the Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association.
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Rob Stadolnik, Ed.D.
Dr. Robert Stadolnik is a licensed psychologist, President of FirePsych, Inc., and the author of the book Drawn to the Flame: Assessment and Treatment of Juvenile Firesetting. Dr. Stadolnik partnered with Brandon Residential Treatment Center in 2005 to pilot a comprehensive, evidence-based firesetting assessment protocol for short-term residential placements. He has recently completed research studies on specialized firesetting populations including adolescents in residential care and adolescent females. Dr. Stadolnik consults to fire safety programs, residential treatment centers, public school systems, and state child welfare agencies. Over the past fifteen years he has completed or supervised over 1000 firesetting behavior assessments and has provided trainings and workshops on a national level.
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Theresa Manela, LICSW
Theresa is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, who joined FirePsych, Inc. as a firesetting behavior diagnostician in 2002. Her background includes extensive experience working with children and adolescents in residential treatment and foster care settings, having served for several years as a Senior Clinical Associate at the Walker Home and School (Needham, MA). Additionally, Ms. Manela has led psychotherapy groups for younger children involved in firesetting behavior, as well as parenting groups and social skills groups. Currently she also provides clinical supervision to the treatment staff at Brandon Residential Treatment Center in Natick, MA.
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David Wilcox, Ed.D
Dr. Wilcox is a licensed psychologist, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Medical School, and an adjunct faculty in the Forensic Psychology Specialization Program at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. He currently serves as the Clinical Director of the Juvenile Court Clinics in Middlesex County. During the past fifteen years Dr. Wilcox has conducted research in juvenile firesetting and provided numerous trainings and consultations throughout the United States on this topic. His writing has been featured in numerous professional publications including the Handbook on Firesetting and Youth and the recently released book Forensic Assessment of Children and Adolescents edited by Gerry Koocher and Steven Sparta.
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Paul Zipper, Ph.D.
Sergeant Zipper has been with the Massachusetts State Police for 20 years, most of which has been spent with the Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit operating out of the State Fire Marshal’s Office. He has conducted hundreds of fire investigations over the years, in the process gaining expertise in witness and suspect interviewing as well as interrogation techniques. His work with the Lawrence Arson Task Force, which began in 1992 brought him national and international attention. He has lectured in Australia and the United Kingdom as well as teaching the arson investigation class at the FBI National Academy. As the liason for the Fire Investigation Unit with the Mass State Coalition for Juvenile Firesetter Programs, Trooper Zipper has helped draft program standards and guidelines for screening interviews and referral procedures, and has worked to formalize the interface between law enforcement and the multi-disciplinary intervention programs. He is a contributing author in Firesetting in Children and Youth: A Multi-Disciplinary Practical Handbook and co-authored "Children and Arson: The Importance of Early Intervention in Juvenile Firesetting."
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Don Porth
Don Porth is a member of Portland Oregon Fire & Rescue. He Joined the fire service in 1980 as a volunteer and was then hired by Salem OR Fire Department before transferring to Portland. He is currently a youth firesetting interventions specialist and has worked directly with child firesetting behaviors since 1988. His implementation of the youth firesetting information database has made Portland's program one of the most noted in the nation. Don is a member of the National Fire Protection Association as a steering committee member for addressing the national youth firesetting problem, and past Chair of Oregon Council Againt Arson. Don holds a BS in Fire Command Administration from City University. Don represents "SOS FIRES: Youth Intervention Programs." SOS FIRES is a non-profit advocacy organization for the issue of youth firesetting intervention. SOS FIRES provides training, conducts research and facilitates communication on the issue of youth firesetting behaviors. Founded in 1996, SOS FIRES strives to serve the national needs surrounding youth firesetting behaviors and intervention programs.
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Victor Zamaloff, CFI, JFSIS
Victor has been a Career Firefighter/EMT with the Arlington Fire District in Poughkeepsie, NY for the past 18 years. During his time there and prior, as a volunteer, Victor was involved in the identification, assessment and education of children 3-17 years old that inappropriately use fire. Victor has attained the title of Juvenile FIresetter Intervention Specialist and has spent the last three years researching and acquiring specialized training to address the growing problem of children involved with fire. Through his relationship with Paul Schwartzman and other leading people in theis field, he has brought to Dutchess County an increased awareness of juvenile firesetting, aslong with the tools needed to train interventionists and Fire/Life Safety Educators.
Victor has presented at juvenile firesetting conferences in CO, MA, NY, NJ and NH on the cognitive development of children and what tools to use to build a positive rapport.
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Jessica F. Gotthold
Senior Special Agent, CFI, CES
Since becoming a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 1987, Special Agent Gotthold’s responsibilities have included the enforcement of the Federal firearms, explosives and arson laws. Since 1990, her specific area of concentration has been in the field of fire and explosives investigations. Between 1990 and January 2000, she was appointed and served as a member of the ATF National Response Team (Northeast Team). As a member of the team, Agent Gotthold responded to large-scale bombings and fire scenes throughout the northeast and once to Texas. In February of 1998, as a member of the team, she was involved with the investigation of the abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, in which an off-duty police officer was killed and a nurse severely injured.
In April of 1991 Special Agent Gotthold became certified as an ATF Explosives Specialist, allowing her to teach and demonstrate how explosives work, how to investigate a bombing, and to destroy explosives evidence when case are adjudicated.
In February and March of 1993 Special Agent Gotthold was assigned as the ATF NRT evidence technician for the World Trade Center bombing investigation. In December of 1994, she assisted in the Unabomber crime scene investigation of a fatal bombing in North Caldwell, New Jersey, which claimed the life of prominent advertising executive Thomas Moser.
In April of 1994 she was accepted into the ATF Certified Fire Investigator program. Her class was only the fourth class of its kind to be put through a rigorous and academically demanding two-year program. Prior to finishing the ATF CFI certification in April of 1996, Agent Gotthold received certification as a Fire Investigator in the State of New York, levels I and II.
Since 1996 Special Agent Gotthold has testified as an expert witness in the area of fire origin and cause, in both criminal and civil judicial proceedings, on the state and federal levels. Additionally, she has testified as an expert witness in the area of explosives and post blast investigations, in criminal court proceedings in New York State.
In of August of 2002, Agent Gotthold was invited to be a member of the Juvenile Firesetter Intervention Specialist Task Group, a subcommittee of the National Fire Protection Association’s 1035 Committee, the Standard for Professional Qualifications for Public Fire and Life Safety Educator. Subsequently, Special Agent Gotthold became a full voting member of the NFPA 1035 Committee.
In January of 2004, Agent Gotthold was recommended to become a member of the International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI) Juvenile Firesetter Committee’s Task Group, which was formed to create a train-the-trainer program for fire and police investigators who come into contact with juvenile firesetters.
In February of 2004, Special Agent Gotthold was published in the Winter 2004 edition of Hot Issues. This publication is produced by the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office, and distributed throughout the U.S., Canada and England. The title of the article was "The Danger in Overlooking Juvenile Firesetting."
In May of 2004, Special Agent Gotthold was assigned the task of coordinating all of ATF’s explosives personnel for the Republican National Convention in New York, which took place between August 30 and September 2, 2004. It was the largest contingent of ATF support to date for a major special event.
In October of 2004, Agent Gotthold was invited to become a member of the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety’s Juvenile Firesetter Intervention Committee.
In May of 2004, Special Agent Gotthold founded the National Foundation for Animal Rescue, a non-profit organization dedicated to controlling the homeless animal population by ethical and humane means.
She is married to an incredible man, Jeff Rudden, a Battalion Chief in the Newark (NJ) Fire Department. They share their home with numerous cats and one dog.
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