Meet our new staff members
By: Sophia Morrissette
September 21, 2021
Jon Heath
Pathways to Family Peace Facilitator
Jon Heath has worked full time with men in a Batterers Intervention Program (BIP) since 2006. He is currently the Violence Intervention Director at Family Violence Project, the Domestic Violence Resource Center serving Kennebec and Somerset Counties in Maine. Prior to working in the domestic violence field, Jon spent 14 years in the community mental health field and supervising a Forensic Mental Health Group Home for clients who had committed capital crimes. Jon believes in a coordinated community response to domestic violence, serving as a Governor appointed member of the Maine Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Commission. Jon also serves on three Domestic Violence Judicial Monitoring teams, on two domestic violence task force teams and co facilitates two weekly men’s group classes for Pathways to Family Peace, a program of Global Rights for Women (GRW). Jon is recognized internationally for groundbreaking work conducting men’s non-violence batterer intervention programming with Melissa Scaia using videoconference technology. In January 2019, Scaia and Heath pioneered a pilot project with Professor Nicole Westmarland and PhD candidate Rosanna Bellini (United Kingdom) to research whether men’s domestic violence offenders should be able to use video conference technology for court-ordered education groups. When COVID-19 hit the US in 2020, Jon is a member of Class H of the Praxis/Manavi 18-month Advocacy Learning Center (ALC) and earned his BS in Mental Health and Human Services from University of Maine.
Lori Flohaug
Director of Law & Policy
Ms. Flohaug was born and raised in rural Northern Minnesota in a small town known for outdoor recreation, mining and timber logging. Growing up in a family of eight children in a home ridden with extreme domestic violence, sexual violence, addiction, poverty, and mental illness, Ms. Flohaug focused on her own set of coping skills with an eye on creating a better life for herself and helping others. Ms. Flohaug is an enrolled tribal member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa Indians. Ms. Flohaug has dedicated her twenty-five year legal career to helping others in crisis; focusing on women and children. Ms. Flohaug has worked as a domestic violence advocate, a Guardian Ad Litem, Legal Aid attorney, state prosecutor, state public defender and as a tribal judge presiding over Child Protection cases for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwa Indian Reservation. Ms. Flohaug has served on numerous boards and committees including Advocates for Family Peace, Legal Aid Services of Northeastern Minnesota, First Call for Help and Children’s Mental Health Services. In her free time, Ms. Flohaug enjoys photography, painting, sewing, gardening, watching her children participate in numerous sports and activities and playing with her very first dog.
Laura Williams
Director of Systems Advocacy
Laura Williams started the first Sexual Violence Justice Institute (SVJI). The SVJI model is now a widely used model to address the justice sector response to violence against women and girls. As a founder and former program manager of the Sexual Violence Justice Institute, she has written, consulted, and trained extensively on the multi-agency, multi-disciplinary response to sexual assault. She draws upon her direct experience with survivors, individual responders and sexual assault response teams to inform her work. She has over 25 years of experience working within and across organizations to improve community response to individuals who have experienced trauma.
Sophia Morrissette
Administrative Associate
Sophia is a recent graduate of Chapman University in Southern California. She received her B.A. in Peace Studies and Psychology. Sophia is passionate about creating sustainable solutions to end global gender-based conflict and tackle international policy reform. Sophia has interned for the Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C. in an administrative and programming capacity. She spent her senior year of college as a teaching assistant for three racial justice and African Liberation movements courses. Sophia co-founded the Global Conflict Awareness Conference at Chapman University – a day-long, student-led conference that showcases international crises that are not discussed in our news cycles. In her spare time, Sophia enjoys exploring new places, cooking for friends, playing ultimate frisbee, and petting her dog, Emory.
Our Vision
Global Rights for Women is a leading voice in the global movement to end violence against women and girls. GRW builds international partnerships that advance laws, values, and practices to create communities where all women and girls live free from violence and threats of violence. In times of greater resistance to human rights from regressive forces, GRW makes an uncompromising commitment to the universal acceptance of women and girls’ human right to be free from violence.