TABLE OF CONTENTS

Children's Advocacy Centers of Arkansas

Markett Humphries, Statewide MDT Project Director 

Email: mhumphries@cacarkansas.org


Markett Humphries is the statewide Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) Project Director with the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas. Markett has dedicated her career to improving access and outcomes for the children of Arkansas.


Markett graduated with honors with a Juris Doctorate from William H. Bowen School of Law and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She also earned her associates in Law Enforcement Administration and bachelors in Criminal Justice and Psychology from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.


Markett has served on several multidisciplinary teams, urban and rural, around the state for nearly twenty years. She most recently served as a senior investigator in the Crimes Against Children Division of the Arkansas State Police after medically retiring from law enforcement. She spent over a decade with the Jacksonville Police Department serving as patrol officer, major crimes detective, Advanced Crime Scene Technician, Sergeant and law enforcement instructor. Her career has provided her with vast investigations, forensic technique and evidence collection/preservation, forensic interviewing and interrogation, supervisory and leadership, instruction and curriculum development, and program development, management and evaluation experience that she brings to the MDT Project, the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas.  


Dawn Meyer, Statewide Database & Technology Specialist 

Email: dmeyer@cacarkansas.org


Dawn Meyer is the Database and Technology Specialist at Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas. Dawn uses her varied experience in marketing and technology to create innovative solutions and streamlined processes. 


Dawn began her career as a Creative Director in the fashion industry, continuing to work in product development and owned her own photography and graphic design business. She has helped many businesses and organizations with marketing and technology solutions and brings a lifetime of real-world experience to her “out of the box” approach to workflow processes and obstacles.

Rebecca Estep, Statewide Grants & Policy Manager

Email: restep@cacarkansas.org


Rebecca Estep transitioned to CACar as Grants and Policy Director from an independent consultant for nonprofits across the country. She has spent her entire career advocating for human rights. She began her career in Early Childhood Education as a Head Start teacher with NADC before moving on to accept the position of Executive Director for Family Violence Prevention in Batesville for over three years. As Development Coordinator at the Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Rebecca drafted, advocated and successfully passed stalking legislation in the 89th Arkansas General Assembly.


Rebecca served as Executive Director to Arkansas Community Action Agencies Association from her role as Cabot Program Administrator and Director of Waiver for Lonoke Exceptional Development Center serving individuals with disabilities. She holds an Associate of Science in Early Childhood Education from UACCB and a Bachelor of Science in Human Services Management from the University of Phoenix. She is involved

 in a number of volunteer efforts including Arkansas Black Hall of Fame Hospitality Committee, Little Rock Zoo Wild Wines of the World Steering Committee, Special Olympics, Arkansas Housing Trust Fund and Arkansas Advocates For Children and Families Kids CountCoalition; she also serves as a board member for Womens Own Worth She previously served on the Real Images Board of Directors, Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence Board of Directors, Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault Advisory Council and Batesville Rotary Club Board of Directors.


She is the mother of four children. Koby (14), Allie (12), Turner (11) and Benjamin (5).


Children’s Advocacy Centers of Kentucky

Caroline Ruschell, Chief Executive Officer

Email: cruschell@cackentucky.org


Before joining CAC Kentucky, in 2013, Caroline was the Director of Administration for the Central Park Conservancy in New York City, where she worked with the Board of Directors and management team to provide oversight and strategic direction for the organization.  Prior to this role, Caroline worked for a consulting firm where she offered fundraising and strategic planning services to non-profit organizations.  Caroline received her undergraduate degree in Strategic Communications and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Kentucky.  


Caroline has been involved with social justice issues for over 30 years.  She grew up participating in service projects of all kind, including serving meals to the homeless, building homes in low-income communities, service trips to third world countries and putting together care packages for needy children.  After college graduation, Caroline took a trip to Ghana with Habitat for Humanity.  During Law School, Caroline worked at the Georgia Justice Project in Atlanta Georgia, where she advocated on behalf of criminal defendants who were accepted in to the GJP program.  


 Caroline served as a crisis intervention volunteer with SAVI in New York City where she advocated for rape victims presenting at Mt. Sinai hospital.  She has also served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer in Lexington representing child victims of abuse.  In 2013, Caroline was selected to participate in the Leadership Kentucky program.  Caroline enjoys running, biking, and painting.  She lives with her husband and 2 girls in Louisville, Kentucky.



South Carolina Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers

Tom Knapp, Executive Director

Email: tknapp@cac-sc.org


Tom Knapp is the executive director for the South Carolina Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers (SCNCAC) and has been in that position since August of 2017. Prior to that he was the Executive Director for the Michigan Chapter of the National Children's alliance. In addition to his duties with SCNCAC, he works with the National Children's Alliance (NCA) as a Children’s Advocacy Center accreditation site reviewer.


His work with Children's Advocacy Centers started during his career in law enforcement where he was a detective with the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department in Michigan. As a Detective, he was assigned to major cases and to the local Children's Advocacy Center investigating crimes against children. During his years serving on the CAC multidisciplinary team, he was trained as a forensic interviewer and received specialized training related to investigating crimes against children. He became the executive director for the Michigan Chapter after retiring from the sheriff's department.


In addition to his experience in the CAC movement, he has experience with non-profit management serving as the executive director for the Society of Michigan EMS Instructor Coordinators and serving on many non-profit boards during his career. He has served as adjunct faculty at Grand Valley State University criminal justice program and has been an educator both at police academies and in the emergency medical services field.

He and his wife Laura lived in Michigan for most of their lives but are enjoying living in the Columbia area and the work at SCNCAC. Tom is also a FAA certified private pilot and along with Laura, enjoys traveling in their small plane during vacation outings across the country.


West Virginia Children’s Advocacy Network

Kate Flack, Chief Executive Officer

Email: kate@wvcan.org


Kate Flack has spent the last decade in organizational leadership, program design and implementation, research, nonprofit advocacy, and fund development. After completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, she worked with an international health and development organization to increase access to dental care for rural communities in Honduras. She came to West Virginia to pursue her master’s degree in public health at WVU and discovered a love for the state (and for a certain Mountaineer who is now her husband, Adam). Kate and Adam have three young children, Atlas, Arden and Anna Laura, and two WV brown dogs, who keep them active and constantly vacuuming.


Children’s Advocacy Center of Santa Clara County

Jennifer Puthoff, Program Manager

Email: jputhoff@dao.sccgov.org


Jennifer Puthoff joined the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Victim Services Unit in January 2021. She has extensive background in education, health, and human services. Jennifer is a solutions focused leader, passionate about delivering quality services, managing by metrics, and spearheading change. Jennifer received her B.S. from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CA and a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Concordia, Portland, OR.  Prior to working at the CAC, Jennifer was the CA Well-Being Project Manager for the Santa Clara County Department of Family & Children’s Services (DFCS). During her tenure, she was responsible for the implementation, design, and strategic direction for the agency’s Prevention Bureau. Essential to this work was her ability to develop meaningful relationships across sectors with non-traditional stakeholders to prevent child abuse while enhancing the county’s family strengthening services. Jennifer is committed to providing a supportive team approach at the CAC when responding to child abuse through advocacy, treatment, education, and prevention.


Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs

Stephanie Humes, Federal Grants Specialist

This job is where my skills meet my passion, and realizing that is my greatest success!  


Stephanie Humes (she/her), MSSW, CSW, joined the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs (KASAP) in 2017 after working over a decade at the regional rape crisis center program in Lexington, KY. She brings expert knowledge in the areas of direct client service provision, grant writing, grant management, agency and program budgeting,  planning, compliance, program development and agency operations. As the KASAP Federal Grants Specialist, Stephanie works directly with Kentucky’s 13 regional rape crisis centers to best utilize their funding opportunities to serve survivors of sexual violence and harm, as well as be active in the movement’s prevention efforts. She assists programs in providing coordinated and consistent service delivery throughout Kentucky, while providing consultation regarding compliance with federal, state and local funding guidelines in order to further develop and enhance sustainable services. Stephanie received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Minors in Sociology and Biology at Transylvania University in 1998 and was a member of Alpha Omicron Pi Fraternity.  She received her Masters of Science in Social Work at the Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville in 2000. Prior to joining the movement to end sexual violence, Stephanie worked in the fields of residential childcare, foster care and hospice.