HUNTSVILLE - The U.S. Attorney’s Office, University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, University of Alabama School of Social Work, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will present a conference Feb. 9 to discuss Veterans Treatment Courts and their positive impact on making communities safer and helping veterans reintegrate into society.
“Veterans Treatment Courts: No Veteran Left Behind" will be a daylong conference in the Charger Union Theater on the UAH campus. The conference will explore the structure and work that Veterans Treatment Courts provide to participating veterans, and the tools needed to ensure success for those veterans. The conference also will examine the behavioral health of veterans, who after long deployments or recovery from serious injuries have problems readjusting to civilian life.
“The VTC is something every judicial circuit should have," Town said. “It gives our veterans not just a holistic system to get their honor back, but vests them with the truth that they never lost it in the first place."
The conference will include morning and afternoon keynote addresses, followed by panel discussions. Buffalo, N.Y., Judge Robert Russell, who is credited with starting the first Veterans Treatment Court in the nation, will provide the morning keynote address.
Judge Russell began presiding over the Veterans Treatment Court in Buffalo in January 2008. Before that, he created Buffalo’s Drug Treatment Court in December 1995, and continues to serve as its presiding judge. In December 2002, Judge Russell established and began presiding over Buffalo’s Mental Health Treatment Court. Judge Russell is the past chairman of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals Board of Directors and the past president of the New York State Association of Drug Treatment Court Professionals. He also serves on the National Advisory Board of the Judges’ Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative.
Dr. Eric Seemann, a counseling psychologist, U.S. Navy veteran and a member of the Alabama Army National Guard, will present the afternoon keynote address. Seemann is the Veterans’ Services Coordinator for UAH. His research and teaching interests include post-traumatic stress and recovery, chronic pain and resilience, psychometrics, personality, social support and coping. Seemann’s areas of specialization as a licensed psychologist include forensic psychology, assessment, military psychology, crisis intervention, risk assessment, pain psychology, and dangerous populations.
Lt. Gen. Jim Pillsbury will also be a guest speaker during the afternoon. Pillsbury has 38 years of military experience and retired as commander of Redstone Arsenal and the Aviation and Missile Command. Pillsbury was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1973, after graduating college, and became an infantry officer. He would go on to become a pilot, holding several positions in the Army. He retired in 2011.
Panels during the conference will address topics including the role of judges in Veterans Treatment Courts and the role mentors play in ensuring the success of court participants. Panelists will include Madison County Circuit Court Judge Ruth Ann Hall, Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Bill Bostick, Cumberland School of Law Professor and former U.S. Magistrate Judge John Carroll, Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs General Counsel Beverly Gebhardt, Madison County Assistant District Attorney Emily Carroll, VA’s Veterans Justice Outreach Coordinator Ahmad Brewer, and Madison County Veterans Treatment Court mentor Ray Zimmerman.
The conference is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Please click on the following link to register: https://usaoalntraining.org/VeteransTreatmentCourtsConference, or contact Phillip.howard@usdoj.gov. Six APOST hours have been approved for law enforcement officers. Continuing Education Units of 5.8 hours of have been approved for attorneys. CEUs for social workers are pending.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
