Book Editors
ELLEN S. ZINNER, Psy.D., is a certified grief therapist and death educator and a licensed psychologist who has taught, counseled, and published in the area of grief and loss for over 25 years. She is past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and cochaired the International Conference on Grief and Bereavement held in Washington, DC, in 1997. Her numerous publications have spanned the topics of death education, adolescent suicide, death and loss on college campuses, and loss support groups within assisted living centers. In 1996, she established and coordinated the Bereavement and Hospice Support Netline (www.ubalt.edu/www/bereavement), a national web resource of support groups across the United States. Dr. Zinner is Assistant Provost at the University of Baltimore and currently serves as president of the Maryland Psychological Association.
MARY BETH WILLIAMS, Ph.D., LCSW, CTS, is the author, coauthor, and editor of numerous publications about trauma. Dr. Williams is a board member of the International Society for Trauma and Stress Studies and the President of the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists. She is a consultant to the Police College of Finland in Espoo, Finland, and is a Diplomate member of the American Academy of Police Psychologists. Dr. Williams has also been a school social worker for the Falls Church City School System for over two decades. She is director of the Trauma Recovery Education and Counseling Center, a private practice in Warrenton, Virginia. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the College of Wooster (Ohio), she received her M.S.W. degree from Syracuse and later earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Organizational Systems Development from the Fielding Institute.
G. ROBERT “BOB” BAKER, M.S.W., Ph.D., psychologist, social worker, certified alcohol counselor, and certified trauma specialist, is a founding board member of the International Association of Trauma Counseling. Known to kids as “Dr. Bear,” he led development of “Bearaby,” a technique using Teddy Bears to help traumatized children through role playing, coping skills development, and storytelling. A disabled combat Marine who served in Vietnam, Dr. Baker spent nearly 20 years working with other veterans through the U.S. Veterans Administration, primarily at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and as a Vet Center Director. A former patrolman and police chief, he has also counseled, debriefed, and crisis-trained members of law enforcement and various emergency services in the United States and overseas. He has worked worldwide with survivors of natural and manmade disasters and violent crime by providing trauma counseling and training.
DAVID BOLTON, CQSW, CCETSW, is the Community Health and Social Services Manager and Executive Director of Social Work with the Sperrin Lakeland HPSS Trust in the Fermanagh District of Northern Ireland. His work in trauma support arose from the Remembrance Day Bombing in Enniskillen in November, 1987. A year later, he was asked to assist with the repatriation of passengers and their families following the Kegworth aircrash. In 1991, Mr. Bolton began providing a training series to support civil services managers dealing with Northern Ireland bombings. He continues to provide counseling for people who have experienced trauma. Through conference presentations and publications, he has contributed to the development of a relatively new area of social work response to individual and community adjustment to violence.
RICHARD R. ELLIS, Ed.D., is an Associate Professor of Applied Psychology, Department of Applied Psychology, in the School of Education at New York University. For 31 years, he has taught in the Programs of Counseling (M.A. degree) and Counseling Psychology (Ph.D. degree) and, in 1985, founded the first M.A. degree program specializing in grief and loss counseling. Prior to his NYU post, Dr. Ellis was the supervisory coordinator of the Institute for Developmental Studies, designers of the blueprint for the National Head Start Program. He is a long-standing member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and is ADEC-certified as a Professional Death Educator and Grief Counselor. He frequently works with Ph.D. students researching death-related topics.
ROBIN H. GURWITCH, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Dr. Gurwitch is involved in service, training, and research focusing on child and family issues. Since the bombing in Oklahoma City, she has been an active participant in the assessment and treatment of families affected by this disaster. In conjunction with colleagues both from the Health Sciences Center and around the country, Dr. Gurwitch is conducting several projects to aid in our understanding of how manmade disasters may impact young children. She shares her experiences and finding with professionals at state and national meetings.
LYNDA HARRELL became a freelance writer after a 15-year career in human resource management in Dallas, Texas. She writes for a variety of business and general audience journals and works on commercial projects. Mrs. Harrell and her husband, Jackson, lost their only child in 1994. Leslie Michelle Harrell was murdered at the age of 21. The crime remains unsolved. At the time of Leslie’s death, the Harrells challenged Dallas’ standard ruling against organ donation in homicide cases. Their effort saved lives and helped them accept their loss. Mrs. Harrell has remained active with her local donor family community since her daughter’s death and organ donation.
ANIE SANENTZ KALAYJIAN, R.N.C., Ph.D., D.D.L., is an educator, international trauma expert, logotherapeutic psychotherapist, registered professional nurse, researcher, and consultant. She has over 10 years of experience in disaster management and mass-trauma intervention and over 15 years of clinical and teaching experience. She is the author of Disaster & Mass Trauma: Global Perspectives on Post Disasters Mental Health Management. For the past three years, Dr. Sanentz Kalayjian has been actively involved at the United Nations, pursuing the human rights of children, survivors, women, and refugees. She is the World Federation for Mental Health representative for the United Nations and currently serves as cochair of its Human Rights Committee. Dr. Sanentz Kalayjian is founder and President of the Armenian American Society for Studies on Stress and Genocide and cofounder of the Mental Health Outreach Program to the Republic of Armenia.
AMIA LIEBLICH, Ph.D., is a full professor of psychology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, specializing in psychological issues of the Israeli society: the effects of military service, gender differences in Israel, and the Kibbutz. She has been a visiting professor in several American universities, including University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and the University of California (Berkeley). Dr. Lieblich has published numerous articles in professional journals as well as several books in Hebrew and English. Dr. Lieblich’s books include Transition to Adulthood During Military Service (1989) and Seasons of Captivity (1994).
RUTH MALKINSON, Ph.D., teaches at the Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University. She is the immediate past president of the Israeli Association for Family and Marital Therapy and coordinator of the Bereavement Fund based at the School of Social Work. Dr. Malkinson specializes in Cognitive Therapy, especially Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and its application to grief, and combines it in her research, therapy, and teaching. She has lectured and published in Israel and abroad in the area of loss, trauma, and bereavement. She is coeditor, along with Eliezer Witztum and Simon S. Rubin, of the forthcoming text, Traumatic and Non-Traumatic Loss and Bereavement: Clinical Theory and Research (International Universities Press).
LASSE NURMI, M.A., Doctoral Candidate, is senior lecturer at the Police College of Finland and is a member of the Finnish Disaster Victims Identification Team. He is a consultant in Critical Incident Stress Management and debriefing and hostage negotiation assistance, working with various organizations including FinnAir, hospitals, and governmental departments. From 1979–1986, he served as a military psychologist. Mr. Nurmi has written extensively in the field of traumatic stress and is coauthor of Death of a Co-Worker and the forthcoming Creating a Comprehensive Trauma Center: Choices and Challenges (Plenum). Mr. Nurmi is a founding member of the Finnish Folk Band Kylä-pelimannit.
KAREN A. SITTERLE, Ph.D., is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, and is in private practice. She specializes in the treatment of trauma-related disorders and bereavement in children and adults and provides debriefing, training, and consultation to individuals, organizations, and communities experiencing traumatic and violent events. She has responded to numerous disasters including several plane crashes, hurricanes, shootings, and the Oklahoma City bombing. She has authored many publications, consulted on three ABC specials entitled I Survived a Disaster, and codirected the video, Hope and Recovery: Ritual and Remembrance. Dr. Sitterle is also on the APA Disaster Response Network National Task Force and is a coauthor of the American Psychological Association’s Report on The Mental Health Response to the Oklahoma City Bombing.
ROD WATTS, Ph.D., M.S.W., is the manager of Rehab Plus, a rehabilitation facility in Auckland, New Zealand, with inpatient, outpatient, and community-based programs. Preceding this position, he worked in rehabilitation in Australia, as a consultant in trauma management, and as a trainer in debriefing for the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry. Dr. Watts completed a Ph.D. in the field of psychiatry, examining the impact of large-scale bus accidents and associated benefits of psychological follow-up. His Masters of Social Work thesis was based on a longitudinal study of the levels of distress of people with cancer. Dr. Watts has had several publications in the area of trauma. He is particularly interested in how to ease the imprint and consequences of trauma on the psyche.
TOM WILLIAMS, Psy.D., attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the Marine Corps, including two years in Vietnam. He received his Doctor of Psychology degree from the University of Denver. As a clinical psychologist, he has specialized in emotional recovery from traumatic events. He is a founding board member of the Journal of Traumatic Stress and has edited two textbooks on posttraumatic stress disorder. He lives in Bellingham, Washington, and is a consultant to Crisis Management International in Atlanta, Georgia.
MARISE WILSON, B.Soc.Studs., completed her social work education at Sydney University in 1973. Her early career was spent in Sydney, Australia, with the state child welfare department before moving to the town of Kempsey in northern New South Wales. She identifies her appointment to the then embryonic mental health team as the beginning of a period of great personal and professional growth. As Acting Coordinator (Community Health) in December 1979, she managed the team response to Australia’s worst road accident, the Kempsey Bus Disaster. Out of this event, she has developed a deep empathy for victims of trauma and their helpers and honed skills in group debriefings and individual counseling. Mrs. Wilson now lives in the city of Newcastle, where she teaches community welfare and maintains a private practice.
ELIEZER WITZTUM, M.D., is Professor in the Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of the Health Sciences, at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and Director of Psychotherapy Supervision, Mental Health Center, Beer Sheva, Israel. He also serves as Senior Psychiatrist at the Jerusalem Mental Health Center where he established a Cultural and Religion Consultation Unit providing culturally sensitive psychiatry services to religious patients. Dr. Witztum is well known for his work in the fields of medical psychology, forensic and cultural psychiatry, and dissociation and posttraumatic stress disorder in relation to the Arab-Israeli wars. His book, Traumatic and Non-Traumatic Loss and Bereavement: Clinical Theory and Practice, edited with Ruth Malkinson and Simon S. Rubin, will be published next year by International Universities Press.