2021 – Kelly Weisberg
Professor D. Kelly Weisberg is a nationally recognized expert in family law and domestic violence law. She has been a Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, for almost 40 years where she has taught courses on Family Law, Domestic Violence, Stalking, Juvenile Justice, Children and the Law, and Wills & Trusts.
Kelly has played a transformative role in her work with the Domestic Violence Report and has worked closely with the Alliance on many articles and multiple special issues to focus on the importance of collaborative responses in addressing domestic and sexual violence. In 2020, criminal justice reform advocates have raised many issues that Kelly and her editorial board have thoughtfully and conscientiously addressed in an effort to address systemic and structural racism while also acknowledging the deep complexity and intersectionality of issues of reform and victims’ rights and protection. Kelly’s commitment to journalistic excellence has played a transformative role in advancing criminal justice reform, bail reform, and the work of hundreds of violence prevention and intervention organizations across the country and around the world.
2021 – Mark Peel
Mark E. Peel is President, Publisher and a co-founder of Civic Research Institute, Inc., an independent publisher of books and periodicals in the social sciences and law. The company was founded in 1993 and published the first issue of Domestic Violence Report in 1995 with its founding editor Joan Zorza. Civic Research Institute has published Sexual Assault Report since 1998 and publishes the journal, Family & Intimate Partner Violence Quarterly. Its current active catalog includes more than 60 titles in the fields of social services and advocacy. Mark has work closely with the Alliance on a special issue of the Family & Intimate Partner Violence Quarterly in the past year and has collaborated on two special issues of the prestigious Domestic Violence Report.
The Hope Rising Award recognizes journalists of all backgrounds who have helped advance awareness, training, and policy change around domestic and sexual violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and human trafficking. Mark’s decades of commitment to publishing highly regarded articles has played a powerful role in advancing the violence prevention and intervention movements in this country.
2019 – Rachel Louise Snyder
Before a sold out crowd of professionals attending the 19th Annual International Family Justice Center Conference, Rachel Louise Snyder accepted an original piece of art titled: “The Lost Planet” by Inocente; a depiction of where the dreams of children go while they wait to come true. Alliance President Casey Gwinn praised Rachel’s work as transformative and thanked her for her focus on the relationship between childhood trauma and domestic violence perpetrators. Alliance CEO Gael Strack thanked Rachel for her groundbreaking reporting on traumatic brain injury in domestic violence survivors of strangulation, suffocation, and other assaults. Rachel is a writer, professor, and public radio commentator.
Follow Rachel Louise Snyder online at www.globalgrit.com, Twitter, and Facebook.
2018 – Lara Logan
Lara Logan, a 60 Minutes International Correspondent, received the Hope Rising Award and shared her compelling story with a packed ballroom at the 18th Annual International Family Justice Center Conference in Fort Worth, describing her career and her own harrowing experience with sexual assault while on assignment in Cairo to cover the Arab Spring. Though enduring a difficult road to recovery, Lara found hope and became determined to inspire it in other survivors. In her words, “Love many, trust a few, and always paddle your own boat”
Follow Lara Logan at CBS News on Twitter and Facebook.
2017 – Melissa Jeltsen
Alliance for HOPE International presented our first ever HOPE Rising Award this past week to HuffPost Senior Writer Melissa Jeltsen for her powerful writing on domestic violence in nearly two stories per week.
Alliance CEO Gael Strack and Alliance President Casey Gwinn presented Melissa with a piece of art from renown artist Inocente, a child survivor of violence and abuse, that works with our camping and mentoring program.
Melissa Jeltsen is a gifted, articulate, and insightful writer that is helping raise awareness across the United States and around the world. No reporter has ever served in this role full-time. Melissa’s articles are rallying the domestic violence and sexual assault movements across the country. Melissa also wrote an excellent feature story this past year on our nationally recognized Camp HOPE America program for children exposed to domestic violence.
You can follow Melissa on the HuffPost, Facebook and Twitter as well as on melissajeltsen.com.
