Speaker’s Profile

Dr. Alexander Butchart is the Prevention of Violence Coordinator in the Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibilities include coordinating the Global Campaign for Violence Prevention, the development of policy for the prevention of interpersonal violence, preparation of guidelines for the prevention of specific types of interpersonal violence, and the coordination of research into various aspects of interpersonal violence and its prevention. A major focus is on preventing and responding to violence against children through development and implementation of the INSPIRE: Seven strategies for ending violence against children technical package.

His postgraduate training includes a master’s degree in clinical psychology and neuropsychology, and a doctoral degree for work examining the history and sociology of western medicine and public health in southern Africa. Prior to joining WHO he worked mainly in Southern and East Africa, where he was lead scientist in the South African Violence and Injury Surveillance Consortium, and in collaboration with the Uganda-based Injury Prevention Initiative for Africa participated in training violence and injury prevention workers from a number of African countries. He has been a visiting scientist at the Swedish Karolinska Institutet’s Division of Social Medicine, and is a widely published social scientist.

Manuel Eisner is Wolfson Professor of Criminology and Director of the Violence Research Centre at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge. His academic work revolves mainly around three areas, namely research on macro-level historical and cross-national patterns of violence, and research on individual development and the causes of aggressive behaviour, and violence prevention. He is principal investigator, together with Dr. Denis Ribeaud, of the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood, an ongoing cohort study of 1400 young people from age 7 to age 20. He is also principal investigator of Evidence for Better Lives, a research initiative to address violence against children in collaboration with eight study partners across the globe.

He has published 15 authored or edited books and over 150 journal articles, book chapters and reports in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. He was awarded the Fellowship of the Society of Experimental Criminology in 2006. In 2011 he was recipient of the Sellin-Glueck Award by the American Society of Criminology. In 2017 he was recipient of the European Criminology Award for a lifetime contribution to European criminology.

Rexlon Ting Gatchalian is the 26th and current Mayor of the Valenzuela and the former Representative of the First District of Valenzuela to the House of Representatives of the Philippines. He graduated Cum Laude in 2001 from George Washington University, Washington D.C. United States of America, with a degree in Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Political Science, with secondary fields of study in Marketing and Psychology.
In the 2007 elections, the people of the 1st District of Valenzuela City elected Gatchalian as the Representative for the 14th Congress of the Republic of the Philippines, making him one of the youngest members. It was also during his first term as Representative that he was elected as the National Spokesperson for the political party Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC). At the age of 31, he became the youngest member of the Commission on Appointments in history, and the only Congressional Representation from the City of Valenzuela to be part of the said powerful institution.

In 14th Congress, as Vice-Chairperson of Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs in the House of Representatives, Gatchalian authored Republic Act 10022, also known as “An Act Amending RA 8042, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995”. The law mandates new policies for the further protection and genuine representation of our migrant workers

Dr. Fareda Fatima A. Flores graduated Doctor of Medicine at the University of Santo Tomas in 1993 and passed the Medical Licensure Examination given by the Professional Regulations Commission in 1994. She took her Residency Training in Psychiatry at the National Center for Mental Health, Mandaluyong City, Philippines from 1995 to 1999. She then passed the Diplomate Examination in 2001 and was conferred a Fellow Status by the Philippine Psychiatric Association in 2004.

In 2008, she was awarded Most Outstanding Psychiatrist in Community Service by the Philippine Psychiatric Association. She has undergone various trainings on Mindfulness conducted by the University of California San Diego and the University of Massachusetts, among others.

Dr. Flores is currently the Managing Director of the Metro Psych Facility Roads and Bridges to Recovery Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Manila and Cebu; and the President of the Group for Addiction Psychiatry in the Philippines. She is also the Immediate Past President of the Philippine Psychiatric Association.

Dr. Bernadette J. Madrid is the Director of the Child Protection Unit (CPU) of the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila – Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and concurrently Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics. She is the Executive Director of the Child Protection Network
Foundation, Inc. and the Convener of the Child Abuse, Neglect, and Sexual Exploitation Study Group at the National Institutes of Health, UP Manila.

She is a member of several government task force and advisory committees on health, social welfare, law enforcement and the judiciary. She has published several articles in local and international peer-reviewed journals, chapters in books and manuals, as well as researches
on child protection which have led to changes in policy and practice in the Philippines. She is a reviewer for the Child Abuse & Neglect International Journal and the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Dr. Madrid is a sought-after resource speaker, trainer, and expert panelist in national and international conferences, trainings, and meetings such as the 5th Annual Social Service Workforce Strengthening Symposium in May 2018 at Washington DC, USA; Society of Adolescent Medicine of the Philippines, Inc.’s 10th Biennial Convention in September 2018 in Pasig City; and End Violence Solutions Summit hosted by the Government of Sweden, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, and the WePROTECT Alliance in collaboration with the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children & other relevant UN agencies and NGOs in February 2018 at Stockholm, Sweden, to name a few. She has also been invited as expert resource speaker in several congressional and senate hearings.

In 2001, Dr. Madrid received The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s (TOWN’s) Service Award for Medicine: Child Protection. She was also awarded, among others, the Most Outstanding Alumni for Child Advocacy by the Department of Pediatrics, UP Manila PGH in celebration of its centennial year in 2015; Most Distinguished Alumni for Service by the UP Alumni Association in 2013; Outstanding Service on Child Protective Services by the National Children’s Advocacy Center, Alabama, USA in 2012. Dr. Madrid is presently a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance; Global Associate of the Know Violence in Childhood; and member of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.

Susan Walker is Professor of Nutrition and Director of the Caribbean Institute for Health Research at The University of the West Indies, Jamaica. She heads the Child Development Research Group whose work on low cost approaches to promote children’s cognitive and social-emotional development has been critical in driving global attention to the importance of responsive interactions and early learning opportunities for children under 3 years.

Recent work includes evaluation of parenting programs feasible at scale in three Caribbean countries; development and evaluation of a training package ‘Reach Up: An early childhood parenting programme’ based on the Jamaica home visit programme; and the 30 year follow-up of the Jamaica supplementation and stimulation trial. She was lead author in papers in the highly influential Lancet series on child development (2007, 2011), author in the 2016 series and a coordinator of the 2013 series on Maternal and Child Nutrition.

She a founding member of the Global Child Development Group (GCDG) which promotes research on child development and translation of research to policy. She is also co-investigator on the Evidence for Better Lives Study.

Antonette F. Acupinpin advocates Children’s Rights and supports the movement against child sexual abuse.

As a child, she found herself trapped in her so called home. Day and night, she experienced abuses emotionally, physically, and sexually. She was silenced and threatened. After she was rescued, she embarked into a journey of healing to being an advocate. She was given security, education and family by the Cameleon Association. She then found her strength and voice, leaving behind the tragic past she had.

In 2016, she represented the Voice of Cameleon’s Children (VCC) during the finals of the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations of the Philippines or TAYO Awards. They won the first among the 445 participating youth organizations. Determined to make her advocacy louder in behalf of the children who are suffering in silence because of abuses, she represented Cameleon and VCC during the United Nations Winter Youth Assembly in the UN Headquarters –New York, United States of America last February 2018.

At present, she continues her advocacy and her studies. She will soon graduate her Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education at West Visayas State University and is currently the External Vice President of Teatro Dagami, their university’s little theater.