SCHOLARS AND LEADERS

MARCI A. HAMILTON
Founder and CEO

MARCI A. HAMILTON is the Founder and CEO of CHILD USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank whose mission is to employ in-depth legal analysis and cutting-edge social science research to protect children, prevent future abuse and neglect, and bring justice to survivors.

She is also a Professor of Practice in Political Science and a Fox Family Pavilion Non-Resident Senior Fellow in the Program for Research on Religion at the University of Pennsylvania. Before moving to Penn, Professor Hamilton held the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.

Prof. Hamilton is the leading expert on clergy sex abuse and child sex abuse statutes of limitation (“SOL”). She has been invited to testify and advise legislators in every state where significant SOL reform has occurred. She is the author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge University Press), which advocates for the elimination of child sex abuse statutes of limitations. She has filed countless pro bono amicus briefs for the protection of children at the United States Supreme Court and the state supreme courts. She is the co-author of Children and the Law (Carolina Academic Press 2017).

Hamilton is a leading and influential critic of extreme religious liberty and the author of God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty (Cambridge University Press), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Hamilton successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) at the Supreme Court in Boerne v. Flores (1997), and defeated the RFRA claim brought by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee against hundreds of child sex abuse survivors in Committee of Unsecured Creditors v. Listecki (7th Cir. 2015). She has represented numerous cities, neighborhoods, and individuals dealing with church-state issues as well as claims under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”).

Hamilton has been honored with the 2019 Distinguished Daughters Award by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf; the 2018 Louis H. Pollak Award for Public Service by the University of Pennsylvania Law School; the 2015 Annual Religious Liberty Award, American Humanist Association; the 2014 Freethought Heroine Award; the 2016 Voice Today, Voice of Gratitude Award; the National Crime Victim Bar Association’s Frank Carrington Champion of Civil Justice Award, 2012; the E. Nathaniel Gates Award for outstanding public advocacy and scholarship, 2008; and selected as a Pennsylvania Woman of the Year Award, 2012, among other awards and honors. She is also frequently quoted in the national media on child sex abuse, statute of limitations issues and constitutional, RFRA, RLUIPA, and First Amendment issues.

Hamilton clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Judge Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Professor Hamilton is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, B.A., summa cum laude; Pennsylvania State University, M.A. (English, fiction writing, High Honors); M.A. (Philosophy); and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Order of the Coif.

 

DR. STEVEN BERKOWITZ
Advisor

Dr. Berkowitz is a leading national expert on child trauma. He is the Director of the Center for Youth and Family Traumatic Stress Recovery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and an Associate Professor at the Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine. He is co-author of “The Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention: Secondary Prevention for Youth At Risk of Developing PTSD,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, June 2011; 52 (6): 676-85, along with many other publications and has received numerous high-level grants for the study of trauma and its effects on children and families.

DR. PAUL OFFIT
Advisor

Dr. Paul Offit is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center, attending physician, professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and an internationally recognized expert in immunology and virology. In 2020, CHILD USA presented Dr. Offit with the Public Educator Award for his work shining the light of truth and science on children’s vaccinations. 

A prolific writer on vaccines, his book Bad Faith: When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine, examines how faith-based rejection of medical interventions endangers public health, especially for children. This book looks into the life and legacy of the late Rita Swan, founder of the nonprofit Children’s Healthcare is a Legal Duty (CHILD Inc.) and dear friend of CHILD USA Founder and CEO Marci Hamilton. Dr. Offit has also authored such titles as The Cutter Incident, Autism’s False Prophets, and the most recently published Tell Me When It’s Over: An Insider’s Guide to Deciphering Covid Myths and Navigating Our Post-Pandemic World.

STEPHANIE DALLAM, RN, MSN, PHD
Visiting Scholar

Dr. Dallam is a former researcher for the Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence, a nonprofit organization that seeks to disseminate high quality scientific research concerning the prevalence and consequences of child abuse and other forms of interpersonal violence in the general population. She is a former clinical instructor for the Family Nurse Practitioner Program, School of Nursing, University of Missouri. She also worked as a Nurse Practitioner in the Department of Pediatric Surgery and Trauma at the University of Missouri Hospitals and Clinics. She has authored numerous articles, reports, and book chapters and conducted presentations at a number of professional meetings on childhood maltreatment and its aftermath.