Plenary Speakers
Lynn Johnson ** is the Assistant Secretary at HHS's Administration for Children and Families. Before joining the Trump administration, Mrs. Johnson served as the executive director of Jefferson County Human Services in Colorado, overseeing the county's Head Start program, as well as programs on the workforce, career, and family services, child welfare, justice services and community assistance.
Prior to this position, Mrs. Johnson ran her own consulting firm, which dealt with mental health, high risk youth, developmental disabilities, child welfare and early childhood education. She was the chief of staff to Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane E. Norton in 2003, and from 1999 to 2002 was a policy advisor to Colorado Governor Bill Owens. Before joining the Owens administration, Mrs. Johnson served as a senior specialist with the U.S. Courts as a probation and parole officer. She was responsible for direct supervision of offenders convicted of sex offenses.
Mrs. Johnson has a bachelor's degree in rehabilitation from the University of Northern Colorado and a masters degree in social work from Arizona State University. She is a graduate of the Federal Judicial Center National Leadership Development Program and Harvard Executive Education for State and Local Governments. Mrs. Johnson has been happily married for 32 years and is the mother of the three adult children.
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Dr. Judy Cameron** is a Professor of Psychiatry and the Clinical Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. For 10 years she was a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Early Experience and Brain Development and she is currently a member of the National Scientific Council of the Child Mind Institute.
Research areas in Dr. Cameron's lab include the interaction between genetic factors and early life experiences on shaping behavioral development, identification of factors that lead to stress sensitivity versus stress resilience, and the interactions between physical health and mental health. Her newest research initiative is Working for Kids: Building SkillsTM, which is a novel community-based program that teaches the fundamentals of brain development to those who work with children at a community level. This initiative provides a community training program and is evaluating the effect of this intervention on child development as well as health.
Working for TeensTM is a branch of Working for Kids: Building SkillsTM that teaches about the brain pathways that are developing in the teenage years through the mid-twenties, and has developed educational strategies that help teens strengthen brain pathways for problem solving, complex reasoning, planning, decision-making and inhibitory control. These programs have won several innovation awards in Pittsburgh, as well as from the National Science Foundation.
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Scott Stanley, Ph.D. ** is a research professor and co-director of the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver. He has published extensively, with core research interests including commitment, couple development, cohabitation, and the prevention of marital distress. His research with colleagues such as Galena Rhoades focuses on how premarital experiences relate to the quality and stability of marriages and family relationships. He is particularly interested in how common pathways of relationship development impact the formation of commitment in today's relationships. Stanley and colleague Howard Markman head up the team at PREP, Inc., which builds and disseminates evidence-based relationship education curricula such as the extensively evaluated Prevention and Relationship Education Program (PREP) and Within My Reach. Stanley has authored or co-authored numerous books including Fighting for Your Marriage, A Lasting Promise, and The Power of Commitment. He writes a popular blog on relationship success and decision making at slidingvsdeciding.com.
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Alan J. Hawkins, Ph.D ** is the Camilla E. Kimball Professor of Family Life and Director of the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He earned his PhD in Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University in 1990. Professor Hawkins scholarship and outreach efforts focus on educational and policy interventions to help couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships and to help fathers be involved in the lives of their children.
He is widely cited for his work that examines the overall effectivenes of marriage and relationship education, as well as fatherhood education, including nearly 10 peer-reviewed meta-analytic studies of the overall effectiveness of these educational programs. He has been intricately involved in the state and federal policy efforts to strengthen families. In 2002-2003, he was a visiting scholar with the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), working on the Federal Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Initiative. He was the Research Director for the original National Healthy Marriage Resource Center from 2004-2006. He served as Co-chair of the Co-parenting Working Group of the OPRE-funded Fatherhood Research and Practice Network. He is the past-Chair of the Utah Marriage Commission.
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Daryl Fletcher is a well sought after speaker and workshop facilitator. In addition to speaking at NARME, he has spoken to audiences all over North America and the Caribbean.
Daryl serves as a mentor and coach to entrepreneurs and leaders giving insight on best business practices. Since 2006 Daryl has encouraged thousands to ignite their passion and point them in the direction of purpose. Daryl is the author to several ebooks and the author of the Best Selling Book Disgustingly Beautiful – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of Couples. Daryl has interviewed and coached over 1000 couples as a Relationship Strategist helping them have healthy and thriving relationships. He and his wife Sharon host Couple’s Vision Board parties allowing couples to create a clear vision and mission for the relationships.
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Tammy Daughtry, MMFT**, is a national advocate for kids in complex families. As the author of Co-parenting Works, Helping Your Children Thrive after Divorce, Tammy speaks up on what kids need when parents are raising them between two homes after a divorce, a remarriage or even for never-married co-parents. Her passion is to see healthier co-parent communication and more positive outcomes for children as well as to help inform leaders across the country about the unique dynamics that are at play for parents and kids. Tammy is a sought after speaker for conferences and trainings for therapists, educators, addiction professionals, pastors, pregnancy directors and is currently also training military personnel across the country on how to help divorced and remarried parents through training and intentional resources. Together with her husband, Jay, they produced the digital resource, "One Heart, Two Homes" that includes 31 guests and is being used across the country to help professionals meet the needs of their step family and single parent communities. Tammy's greatest joy is spending time with Jay, "Mr. Wonderful," their ever-growing blended family, and especially the three amazing grandkids they now get to spoil rotten! Watch for new and upcoming resources from the Daughtry's as they continue to address the dynamics of complex family. www.CoParentingInternational.com
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Kristina Coop Gordon, Ph.D.** Dr. Gordon received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed her clinical psychology internship at the Brown University Consortium. She is currently a College of Arts and Sciences Excellence Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at the University of Tennessee. She recently completed two large federal grants, one of which implemented a brief relationship intervention with a primarily low-income population and the other of which investigated a couples-based smoking cessation intervention with Latino males. She is currently working on a project funded by the Templeton Foundation that will connect churches, community agencies, and the University of Tennessee to deliver empirically supported relationship education to Knoxville couples.
She is the co-author of two books on how to help couples recover following infidelity published by Guilford Press (one for the lay public and a companion book for therapists), and of numerous articles on forgiveness, infidelity, and treating couple distress. She was elected a Fellow in APA’s Society for Couple and Family Psychology and was recently President of that Division. She also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Family Psychology, Family Process, and Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice. Her work regarding infidelity has been cited in national media outlets such as the New York Times, USA Today, Psychology Today, Men’s Health, Fatherly.com, OZY.com, and in regional and local TV and news media. In addition to her research, teaching, and service activities, she also maintains a private practice in Knoxville, TN. Finally, her most important role is wife to a very patient husband and mom to two wonderful daughters.
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Jayson Gaddis, author, podcaster, speaker, and entrepreneur, is the Founder of The Relationship School, an impact-based company dedicated to helping people work out their differences and have fulfilling long-term partnerships. Jayson is considered a world leader in relationships. He is on a mission to reach 1,000,000 teens and young adults with formal relationship education. Jayson is the creator of Interpersonal Intelligence and trains people from around the world how to be effective relational leaders and coaches. He has been married to his amazing wife since 2007 and has two beautiful children. They live in Boulder, Colorado.
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Erika R. Slaton serves as program deputy and branch chief for Military Community Support Programs within the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy. She leads the Administration and Communications team for three centrally funded Department of Defense multimillion dollar programs – Military OneSource, Military and Family Life Counseling, and the Spouse Education and Career Opportunities Program. Erika has worked with the military community for more than 10 years. Prior to her appointment, she served as family program communication specialist at the National Guard Bureau.
In each capacity, Erika developed and implemented plans to equip service members and their families with timely information and resources to enhance their readiness and resilience. Erika earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Spanish with a minor in chemistry from Millsaps College, in Jackson, Mississippi, and her Master of Information Systems Management degree from Keller Graduate School of Management. She has received a letter of recognition from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the Department of the Army Achievement Medal for Civilian Service and the Department of Defense Reserve Family Readiness Award. She also brings a wealth of knowledge on the challenges of military life as the spouse of a retired Marine for over 20 years.