NCVLI Presents Anne Seymour with the 2011 Victim Advocacy Award

NCVLI’s Outstanding Achievement Awards recognize attorneys, advocates, and organizations that have made significant and notable contributions to the enhancement of crime victims’ status and standing within the criminal justice system.  The Victim Advocacy Award recognizes advocates who have dedicated their time working towards policy and/or systemic change in the criminal justice system.  The awards are presented each year at NCVLI’s Crime Victim Law Conference.

About Anne Seymour

Anne Seymour has 26 years of experience as a national victim advocate. She is a Co-founder of and Senior Advisor to the Washington, D.C.-based national nonprofit Justice Solutions; Editor of The Crime Victims’ Report; and Consultant to the Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project. She began her career as the Director of Public Affairs for the National Office of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and, from 1985 to 1993, as co-founder and Director of Communications of the National Victim Center (now National Center for Victims of Crime).

Ms. Seymour has developed and implemented training and technical assistance programs to strengthen victims’ rights and services in law enforcement, prosecution, the judiciary, juvenile justice, restorative justice and community and institutional corrections. Her extensive research includes co-authoring the landmark study Rape in America: A Report to the Nation in 1992; she is the principal author of the American Correctional Association’s Report and Recommendations on Victims of Juvenile Offenders published in 1994, as well as of the Office for Victims of Crime Special Report on Victims of Gang Violence. Ms. Seymour is a principal author of the National Victim Assistance Academy texts sponsored by the Office for Victims of Crime, as well co-author of the NVAA’s advanced offerings, including the “Ultimate Educator” Training-for-Trainers” text and the “Leadership in Victim Services” text. She has served as a Consultant to over ten State Victim Assistance Academies.

She has authored or contributed to over 30 curricula and texts published by the Office for Victims of Crime since 1989, including “The Victim Role in Offender Reentry” and “Creating a Victim Focus: A Guide to Working with Victims During Offender Reentry” books. Ms. Seymour was also the Director of the OVC Strategic Planning Toolkit Project, and served as its principal author and editor, and coordinator of a national “training for planners” and Statewide Strategic Planning Conference for six states, both held in 2003. She was the Project Director for OVC’s Oral History Project, and its National Public Awareness and Education Campaign. Ms. Seymour is also a consultant and trainer for the U.S. Department of State to help improve services to American citizens who are victimized abroad, and is Co-investigator on the first project to determine mental health problems in Vietnam. She has appeared in virtually every news medium – including all network morning shows and evening newscasts, Nightline, Larry King Live, Crossfire, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Frontline – as an expert on crime victims’ rights.

Ms. Seymour is a member of the U.S. Department of Justice Victims’ Rights Roundtable and the U.S. Congressional Victims’ Rights Caucus Advisory Group; the victim advocate representative on the National Institute of Corrections Advisory Board; a member of the Board of Directors of the National Victims’ Constitutional Amendment Network; member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the International Association of Reentry; Vice-chair of the American Correctional Association Restorative Justice Committee; Board Member of the American Probation and Parole Association and past Chair and founding member of its Victim Issues Committee; Founding and Core Faculty Member of the National Victim Assistance Academy; Advisory Committee member for the Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification (SAVIN) project; a senior consultant to the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center; principal consultant to the Center for Sex Offender Management and a member of its National Working Group; a Senior Consultant to the national Balanced and Restorative Justice Project; training consultant to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; member of the faculty of The National Judicial College and the National College of District Attorneys; consultant to the National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators; and a member of the District of Columbia Advisory Commission on Sentencing.

Ms. Seymour has received numerous honors for her efforts, including the 1992 “Outstanding Service to Crime Victims” award from President Bush and the U.S. Congress Victim’s Rights Caucus Ed Stout Memorial Award for Outstanding Victim Advocacy (2007). She graduated from California State University, Chico in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work/Corrections, and was valedictorian of her graduating class. Ms. Seymour completed her coursework in the CSU, Chico Masters of Public Administration program.

Past Recipients of the Victim Advocacy Award Include:
o Gail Burns-Smith (2004)
o Kathy Skaggs (2005)
o Diane Moyer (2006)
o John Stein (2007)
o Roberta Roper (2008)
o Steve Derene (2009)
o Steve Doell (2010)