What We’re All

About

Our mission is to educate, lead, and partner with individuals and agencies to end domestic violence and sexual abuse. We are dedicated to bringing professionals together to target issues affecting our communities and to learn new skills to better assist victims/survivors.

The NESD Family Violence Prevention Conference began Aberdeen, South Dakota, in 2013, with a group of community agencies with the initiative to address family violence. Living in a Rural South Dakota community education can be limited. The leaders wanted to provide evidence-based trauma-informed education that was affordable to professionals across the State. Throughout the years we have brought Nationally recognized speakers, such as Casey Gwinn, Kristen Gibbons-Feden, Jonathan Hatami, and the detectives that worked the Christopher Watts case.

Throughout the years our conference continues to reach a diverse group of professionals including:

victim advocates,
law enforcement,
court services,
social workers,
judges,
medical professionals,
prosecutors,
mental health professionals,
Child Protection Services,
and community members.

Our goal is to address issues related to our population by providing skill-based training to professionals that work in the field of family violence.

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Thank you to our Sponsors for making this event possible!

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South Dakota Network Against Family Violence

Conference Board Committee

Gina Karst

Gina has been the Executive Director of Safe Harbor, a women’s shelter in Aberdeen, South Dakota, since December 2009. Gina is passionate about advocacy, education, and providing awareness and prevention for victim/survivors of violence. As the Executive Director of Safe Harbor, in addition to overseeing the day-to-day operations to ensure victim/survivor needs are being met. Gina also handles the more technical aspects of a non-profit through grant writing, evaluations, budgets, and public speaking. Gina served on the South Dakota Network Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault (The Network) Executive Committee for 7 years, two years as President. In her time at Safe Harbor she has worked with many victims/survivors of violence within the organization’s service area, as well as advocated for them in Pierre during the legislative session. Gina is proud to be working with the NESD Family Violence Prevention Conference to bring educational speakers, networking, and more to the region.

Becky Kuch

Becky works primarily with ages 18 and older. She has over 20 years of experience working with individuals and couples. She assists people with a wide range of issues, including, but not limited to depression, anxiety, relationships, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), grief, personality disorders, and stress management. While she has a varied range of experience, she primarily practices Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Becky is a certified facilitator for Prepare Enrich (www.prepare-enrich.com). She is also certified in Critical Incident Stress Management and Debriefing (www.icisf.org) as well as being a Certified First Responder Counselor (www.firstrespondercounselor.com).

Amy Rehder

Amy Rehder has been the Social Worker and Patient Relations specialist at Sanford Aberdeen Medical Center since January, 2012. Prior to her employment at Sanford Health, she was the Therapeutic Foster Care Director at Northeastern Mental Health Center in Aberdeen, SD for 12 years working with and advocating for multiple victims of abuse. Amy has a passion working with victims of abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault. She is an advocate for victims, as health care providers have a unique opportunity to support survivors and prevent domestic and sexual violence. She plays an important role in the health and well-being of our patients. Amy was voted Social Worker of the year in 2015 by the South Dakota Social Work Association of Health Care. She is proud to have community partners that work together to bring awareness, education and prevention to our community and to the state of South Dakota.

Brittany O’Day

Brittany O’Day is the Victim Specialist for the FBI, serving through the Minneapolis Division. Prior to that Brittany was employed as the Victim Specialist at the Brown County State’s Attorney’s Office. She has also worked as a Program Manager at NSU, Family Service Specialist with CPS and the Rural Advocate with Safe Harbor. Brittany has extensive experience working with victims of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault and child abuse. In 2020, Brittany graduated from USD with her Masters of Social Work and is a licensed Social Worker in South Dakota. Brittany is passionate about collaborating with agencies to improve victim services. She wants to increase education amongst professionals and community members to best serve victims of abuse.

Kelsi Vinger

Kelsi Vinger has been employed as the Diversion Specialist in the Brown County States Attorney's Office since 2019. Prior to that, Kelsi worked for Department of Corrections supervising juveniles and adults in the community. While working in the "deep end" of the system, Kelsi identified the need for more services to be provided at the "front end" of the system to help keep our offenders from re-offending in efforts to keep community safe. Kelsi works individually with defendants to develop a plan to divert them from the criminal justice system by connecting them to resources within the community. She also works to create trauma-informed detention alternatives within Brown County. Additionally, Kelsi serves as the President of Aberdeen Area Child Protection Team, a team made up of different entities in the area to provide education, awareness, and funding to families.

Jodi Brown

Jodi Brown was a Special Prosecutor for the Brown County State’s Attorney’s Office for twelve years. During that time she specialized in the prosecution of crimes of family violence. Jodi handled roughly 4,000 cases involving family violence during her time as a Special Prosecutor. Jodi continues to assist victims of family violence and continues to advocate for strict prosecution of family violence. Jodi is very passionate about the prosecution of domestic violence and the protection and involvement of victims/survivors of domestic violence. Jodi was awarded the “You Make a difference” award from Safe Harbor in 2007 and the Volunteer of the Year award from Safe Harbor in 2010. Jodi graduated from Northern State University in 1998 with honors and with a degree in criminology and sociology. Jodi then went on to get her Juris Doctorate from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 2002. Jodi continues to be in private practice wherein she specializes in family law cases. Jodi has also been awarded the divorce attorney of the year in 2020 and 2021 from the Aberdeen American News.