ABOUT CALSAFE

Malinda Wheeler

Treasurer

Malinda has been a Registered Nurse for 37 years holding a variety of positions. She received her bachelor’s degree of Nursing from Niagara University, NY, her master’s degree from UCLA as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Critical Care and her Family Nurse Practitioner certificate from California State University, Long Beach. Malinda was a Professor of Nursing for Long Beach City College 10 years and has worked as a Family Nurse Practitioner in various settings.

​She is nationally certified as a sexual assault nurse examiner in the areas of pediatrics, adolescents and adults. For the past 25 years, Malinda has been the owner and director of Forensic Nurse Specialists, Inc. Forensic Nurse Specialists is a private practice/business which provides forensic evidentiary examinations 24 hours per day to law enforcement for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. She holds several contracts with cities, universities, counties and hospital systems. Forensic Nurse Specialists currently provides services to over 55 law enforcement agencies in the Los Angeles and Orange county area.
Malinda is past member on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Forensic Nurses, Forensic Nurse Certification Board and is Founding President of the So. California Chapter of IAFN. She was co-chair of the Los Angeles Sexual Assault Coordinating Council for 4 years and helped established certification requirements for all SART Centers in Los Angeles County. Currently Malinda is a board member with the Children’s Advocacy Center in Covina, as well as a child forensic interviewer with the CAC. Malinda is currently a trainer and consultant for the California Clinical Forensic Medical Training Center. She has helped develop curriculum for the state law enforcement educational requirements on sexual assault and domestic violence. Malinda has consulted and lectured extensively on Sexual Assault, Child Sexual Abuse, Domestic Violence, Strangulation and Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault. Strangulation Expertise- National Strangulation Expert Training Institute, San Diego Family Justice Center; advisor and consultant since 2012. Malinda has consulted or testified on over 30 strangulation cases in court and trains extensively with attorneys, law enforcement and medical professionals.

Yvonne Bennett

Secretary

Yvonne Bennett is the Program Manager of the Sexual Assault and Forensic Evaluation (SAFE) Clinic at Riverside University Health System Medical Center. Yvonne attained her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Hawaii Pacific University in 1997. She worked as an ICU nurse for 12 years before becoming a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. In 2005, Yvonne attained her Juris Doctorate from Whittier Law School while working as a nurse. She has authored a case study in the Journal of Forensic Nursing, co-authored an evidence-based practice change article in the American Journal of Critical Care Nursing and contributed to a workbook on strangulation published in 2017. Yvonne is SANE-A certified. She is married to her high school sweetheart and they currently have one dog named Cleopatra (but Yvonne is hoping for more).

Sarah Cooper

Board Member

Sarah graduated from California State University Bakersfield with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2003. She began working in the CCU (cardiac critical care unit) and ICU. She soon transferred to the ED and was exposed to forensic patients. In 2003, Sarah attended her first CCFMTC adolescent/adult training to begin examining sexual assault victims for her hospital. The hospital-based program launched her forensic nursing career. Then, in 2009, Sarah returned to school and obtained her Clear School Nursing Credential from California State University Fresno. She transitioned from working in the ED full-time to being a full-time school nurse. At the same time, she remained the team leader of their hospital-based SART program and focused on improving their forensic nursing program in Kern County. She was able to start a collaborative team, Kern SART, and they began monthly meetings with county law enforcement and advocacy collaborators to improve their team approach and response to victims. In 2012, Sarah also was one of the founding members of the Kern Coalition Against Human Trafficking. Through this coalition, they were able to improve their response to sexually trafficked victims.

While still heading up SART at the hospital program, Sarah obtained certification as a SANE-A in 2012. She continued networking with other forensic medical examiners across the state and met many privately-run SART program owners and directors. She invited a private company to her county to take victims out of the hospital environment for examination and formed an improved response to victims. In 2014, when the private company officially launched, she expanded her skills beyond adolescent/adult to include pediatric examination, domestic violence and child physical abuse examination, and postmortem/autopsy forensic examinations. This new company exceeded the expectations of law enforcement and the district attorney’s office.

In 2019, the private company switched hands and Sarah began her own company. Her current forensic company, Kern County Forensic Services, LLC, is made up of five found members/partners. They offer many types of forensic examinations to law enforcement, including sexual assault exams (all ages), physical assault/abuse exams, postmortem exams, and domestic violence exams.

Sarah Cooper, RN, PHN, CSN, SANE-A, SANE-P

Angela Vickers

Board Member

Sally Wilson

Board Member

Hillary Larkin

Vice-​President

Hillary Larkin, PA-C is the Lead Physician Assistant and the Clinical Director of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Services at Alameda Health System- Highland Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine and the Co-Chair of the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team. She trained at the University of Wisconsin- Madison and completed a postgraduate fellowship in Emergency Medicine at Los Angeles County, University of Southern California. Hillary developed the SART team at Highland Hospital in1996, and currently has a Team of 18 Advance Practice Practitioners. Hillary has published original research and received the Journal of Forensic Nursing Research Article of the Year Award 2012. She is a founding member of the California Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner Association and of Med Report Guard Technology.

Michelle Shores

​President

Michelle Shores, RN, MSN, MBA-HC, CEN, SANE-A, SANE-P is a forensic nurse examiner in Riverside County and the Program Director for Forensic Health Services in San Diego County. The Forensic Health Services program provides services to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence and is a nationally accredited child advocacy center.

Michelle graduated with her bachelor's degree in nursing in 2005 and began working as an emergency department trauma nurse in 2006. In 2012 Michelle earned her master's degree in nursing and master's degree in business. Michelle was a clinical nursing instructor, is a certified emergency nurse, International Association of Forensic Nurse certified SANE-A (adolescent/adult) and SANE-P (pediatrics) and a certified trauma nurse instructor (TNCC). She has been a ling standing member of the International Association for Forensic Nursing, and has worked as a forensic nurse for over seven years.

Michelle cares for pediatric, adolescent, and adult victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. She was co-chair for the San Diego County Sexual Assault Response Team Steering Committee from 2015-2019, an executive member for the San Diego Domestic Violence Council (SDDVC), is the current chair for the San Diego Domestic Violence Council Medical Committee, an member of the San Diego County High Risk Domestic Violence Team, a board member of the Child Advocacy Centers of California (CACC) state advisory committee, serves as a member on both the medical advisory and traumatic brain injury committees and is a training faculty for the Strangulation Institute for prevention with the Alliance for Hope International, and the president of the Association of California Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners (CALSAFE). In 2018, she introduced the idea for AB 3189 (Family Code 6930) along with the CALSAFE team. AB 3189 was a bill that provides minor victims of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) the right to consent to medical care and forensic exams in the state of California. AB 3189 was signed into law September 2018 and became family code 6930. Michelle implemented the program, at Forensic Health Services, to perform Forensic medical evidentiary exams for victims of domestic violence, strangulation, general assault, gang violence, human trafficking, and elder abuse. This is also known as the Domestic Assault Forensic Exam or DAFE.

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Michelle has worked with the California Clinical Forensic Medical Training Center (CCFMTC) team to provide training to examiners. Michelle is a contributor for the workbook Manual Non-Fatal Strangulation Assessment: For Healthcare and First Responders and Adolescent and Adult Sexual Assault Assessment, Second Addition. She is the 2017 winner on the San Diego County SART with a HEART Award, the 2018 Riverside County SART Nurse of the Year award, the 2018 San Diego Domestic Violence Council Lifetime Achievement award, November 2018 CARE award that recognized her as a leader in the community and excellence as a forensic nurse examiner. Also, the 2014 nationally recognized DAISY Award, by the family of J. Patrick Barnes foundation which recognized Michelle’s extraordinary nursing care as” intuitive in assessing what type of needs a patient has beyond their physical presentation … strong advocate for women, children and victims of assault … patients, family, and staff trust Michelle because of her commitment to providing outstanding patient care.” Michelle is married and is the mother of two boys. She enjoys collaborating with the multidisciplinary team and the exam can be the victim’s voluntary first step toward healing and justice.

Gina D'Aquilla

Board Member

Gina has worked as a Registered Nurse for over 14 years. Her experience began in the acute care settings of the hospital. In 2011, Gina was asked to join Ventura County’s forensic program as a sexual assault nurse examiner, where she quickly discovered her passion for forensics. The program led her to a full-time forensic career working in Ventura and at a busy Family Justice Center in Los Angeles. Gina has testified in court as an expert in sexual assault as well as strangulation. She has completed over 2500 forensic examinations on abuse victims of all ages and suspects of sexual assault. In 2014, Gina took on the role of Forensic Examiner Program Coordinator, where she oversees the medical coordination of Ventura County’s two nationally accredited Child Advocacy Centers. Being a recognized expert in the field of forensics, Gina understands how evidence obtained in forensic medical examinations can be challenged, and she is committed to helping others understand the importance of research-based practice through training and sharing best forensic practices by providing forensic education to a variety of different disciplines.

Kim Walker

Board Member

Kim Walker graduated from San Jose State with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and specialized in high-risk obstetrics. She worked 10 years in the Labor and Delivery and Neonatal ICU departments at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Jacquelin Winters-Hall

Board Member

​Jacqueline is the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Team Coordinator and a Forensic Nurse Examiner at Enloe Medical Center, a level II trauma center in Butte County, California. She leads a team of eight forensic nurse examiners providing care and forensic medical exams to patients of all ages, from infancy through geriatrics who have experienced sexual violence. Jacqueline is a clinical instructor and consultant for the California Clinical Forensic Medical Training Center, the medical training branch of the California District Attorneys Association. She teaches physicians, mid-level practitioners and registered nurses on the California Protocol for Examination of Sexual Assault and Child Sexual Abuse Victims and the Forensic Medical Examination Protocol in the documentation of injuries and the collection of forensic evidence.

Jacqueline is beta tester for the committee developing an electronic version of the mandated State of California forensic medical exam form.
Jacqueline is a current member and past chair of the multidisciplinary Butte County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) and the Butte County SART education and outreach committee. She is on the steering committee for the Butte County Taskforce addressing the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) and the forensic medical representative of the Butte County CSEC multidisciplinary team. She is also an active ​member of the Butte County Child Abuse Response Team.

In 2013, Jacqueline lead Butte County in implementing one of the first pilot projects in the nation to provide Rapid DNA Service to all victims of sexual assault receiving a forensic medical exam. Due to this program, Butte County does not have a rape kit backlog, every sexual assault kit has DNA evidence analyzed and resulted within 20 days. If there is enough DNA to create a suspect profile, it is uploaded into CODIS and compared to known offenders and unsolved crimes. Jacqueline has partnered with the Department of Justice, Jan Bashinski DNA Crime Lab to present RADS at National conferences across the US including at the 2015 International Conference on Forensic Nursing Science and Practice and at the 2017 California SART Summit. She is a guest lecturer at California State University Chico and Butte Glenn Community College on the subjects of Forensic Nursing, Sexual Assault, and
Human Trafficking.

​Jacqueline is a founding board member of Cal SAFE, the Association of California Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners and a longstanding member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses. Jacqueline has 10 years’ experience in critical care nursing and she is a proud California State University, Chico graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Nursing and certificate in Public Health.

Kari Cordero

Board Member

Kari Cordero is the Executive Director of Napa/Solano/Marin SANE-SART, a nonprofit agency that provides sexual assault examinations to all ages, including post mortem, for victims of violence in Napa, Solano and Marin Counties. SANE-SART also directs the Solano County Child Advocacy Center (Courage Center 2) as well as the Solano Trauma Recovery Center. Kari has been a sexual assault nurse examiner for 17 years. She manages a team of 4 nurses for the Napa/Solano team and 4 nurses for the Marin County team. As a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, Kari is passionate about meeting the acute physical and emotional needs of victims to minimize longstanding psychological trauma.

Jessica Marques

Associate Board Member

Jessica Dodge

Board Member

Elizabeth Tighe

Associate Board Member

Joy Hardt

Communications Director

Destine Teves Borrego

​​Legislative Committee Navigator

William M. Green

Technical Advisor

William M. Green, MD, has been on the faculty of the University of California, Davis Medical School since 1976; he retired as Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine in July 2011. He has been board certified in both Family Practice and Emergency Medicine. Dr. Green’s work in the field of sexual assault has included participation in the creation of sexual assault forensic examination protocols for both California and the United States. In 1989, Dr. Green was one of the founders of the Sexual Assault Forensic Evaluation (SAFE) Team at the University of California, Davis Medical Center and served as the team’s Medical Director from 1989 until 2010. His publications include, Rape: The Evidential Examination and Management of the Adult Female Victim, published by Lexington Books(1988). In the mid 1990’s, Dr. Green worked with the core advisory group that helped draft the legislation that ultimately created the California Clinical Forensic Medical Training Center (CCFMTC) where he served as Medical Director until 2021. Dr. Green was one of the founding faculty members of the Graduate Group in Forensic Sciences that created the Forensic Science Master’s Program at UC Davis. In 2007, Dr. Green founded and co-chaired the Forensic Medicine Section in the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). His research interests include the epidemiology and forensics of sexual assault and the evaluation and management of strangulation. Most recently, Dr. Green was asked to serve as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House on sexual assault matters.

Dr. Green’s experience with strangulation victims includes over 35 years of work in emergency departments evaluating and managing all types of compressive neck injuries as well as caring for sexual assault victims who were strangled as part of the crime. In 2010 Dr. Green became one of the founding members of the National Medical Advisory Committee for the Training Institute for Strangulation Prevention and is currently co-chair. This national organization addresses policy issues, a develops and delivers training regarding strangulation for both medical and criminal justice professionals throughout the country.

Marilyn Peterson

Technical Advisor

Marilyn Strachan Peterson, MSW, MPA

Marilyn Strachan Peterson has a 40-year history improving services, initiating lasting strategies, and building infrastructure in California for survivors of interpersonal violence. She conceptualized the need for the California Clinical Forensic Medical Training Center (CCFMTC) and worked with colleagues to establish it in state law with continuous funding since 1996. Together with colleagues, the CCFMTC has grown to have a statewide, national and international reputation. She served as CCFMTC director from 1986 to 2019. Marilyn promoted the need for Cal SAFE to ensure that examiners were included at the state level policy-making table, to develop state-of-the-art educational materials meeting the needs of examiners, and to have a forum for professional networking and support.

Marilyn has had the practical experience of establishing and developing a rape crisis center from 1976 to 1980 when no operational manuals existed and added a battered women’s counseling and shelter program; forming the California Coalition of Rape Crisis Centers now named CALCASA, a formidable advocacy organization; working as the first Sexual Assault Victim Services Branch Chief at the Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning funding rape crisis centers and child sexual abuse programs from 1980-1987; hired as the first Director of the UCDMC CAARE Center from 1988 to 2010 which provided medical/evidentiary exams, foster care health services, mental health treatment for abused and neglected children, and statewide training. She has a dedicated history of facilitating professional working groups to establish and gain consensus to establish the standardized rape kit in California and all of the California forensic medical examination forms. Last, she has suggested legislation to improve response and treatment of survivors such as the sexual battery law, defining consent in the penal code regarding sexual assault, expanding from 3 to 10 years the statute of limitations for sexual assault survivors filing civil suits, and establishing a standardized rape kit for California crime laboratories and examiners. Sometimes, she got into a lot of “good trouble” along the way. Marilyn earned her two master's degrees from California State University, Sacramento.