Our Team

Email is not a safe way to talk to someone about danger or abuse in your life. To discuss a confidential issue please call our office at
515-244-7424 or the statewide Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at
1-800-284-7821 to be connected to a sexual assault counselor in your area.

Elizabeth Barnhill, Executive Director, has been the Executive Director of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a statewide organization of 28 sexual assault crisis centers, since 1990. She previously worked in a residential treatment facility for abused children, as a director of a domestic violence shelter, and at a rape crisis center. She serves on numerous state boards and committees related to violence against women, was a founding member and is past chair of the Iowa Board for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, is co-chair of the Lt. Governor’s Council on Violence Against Women, serves on the accreditation committee for Iowa sex offender treatment programs, serves on the multi-disciplinary committee that makes recommendations about sexually violent predators, and is a founding board member of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence.

Her areas of interest and expertise include: collaborative relationships between sexual assault victim advocates and sex offender treatment providers, attachment disorders and the effect of early experiences of abuse; the overlap of domestic violence and child sexual abuse; the development of standards and protocols for service providers; medical issues, particularly HIV/AIDS and sexual assault; and sexual assault issues and services in rural communities. Her early training was in journalism; she did graduate work in media studies and mass communication. She has been a foster parent, is a parent via adoption, and is interested in issues affecting foster children and older children placed for adoption. Email Elizabeth Barnhill

Julie Wooden, Associate Director/Fiscal Manager, is responsible for the fiscal management of all coalition operations including daily accounting records and agency budgeting requirements. She is also responsible for managing and monitoring the agency’s sub-grant program to sexual assault centers and providing technical assistance regarding administrative issues. As the Assistant Director, she also assists with daily operations and management of the agency and provides supervision to several staff members.

Julie graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. She earned her Master’s Degree from ISU in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies with areas of specialization in Women’s Studies, Sociology, and English. Prior to joining IowaCASA, Julie was the Assistant Director at ACCESS, one of IowaCASA’s member programs in Ames. She has experience as a Sexual Assault Services Coordinator, an Sexual Assault Awareness Educator at the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center at ISU, and as the Office Manager for the YWCA of Ames. Julie is also a Certified Sexual Assault Victim Counselor. Email Julie Wooden

Sheri L. Floyd, Community Operations Coordinator, has been coordinating sexual assault outreach efforts statewide in communities of color for IowaCASA since 2004. Sheri organizes training, technical assistance and resource information. She is a member of the Iowa Victim Assistance Academy Steering Committee, also serving as an Academy mentor and co-facilitates several sexual assault trauma and abuse workshops for inmates at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville. Sheri also provides staff support to the Women of Color Advisory Network and its initiatives, is a member of the management team and provides supervision to several staff members.

Sheri received her M.S.W. with an emphasis in Social Work Administration from the University of Iowa’s School of Social Work in 2000 and her B.A. in Speech Communications (with a minor in English) from Iowa State University. She continues to serve on a variety of community boards to increase knowledge and provide support to produce strong, healthy, and educated children and families - supporting her love of community and children. Before joining the IowaCASA team, Sheri worked with a local policy agency heading a 16-state initiative looking to better school readiness for children in the U.S. She was also employed with the State of Iowa for over 13 years. Email Sheri Floyd

Elizabeth Balcarcel, Legal Assistance to Victims Program Legal Assistant joined IowaCASA in April 2008. She is Spanish/English bilingual and will be assisting clients in need of civil legal assistance, and with community organizing efforts. Elizabeth most recently worked at member program, LUNA (Latinas Unidas por un Nuevo Amanecer: Latinas United For a New Dawn), where she was a Sexual Assault Coordinator/Domestic Violence Advocate. There she conducted prevention programming for Latina/o communities. She has provided one-on-one counseling, presentations, facilitated groups, and assisted with VAWA self-petitions, U Visas, and protective orders. She is a Certified Sexual Assault Victim Counselor and has a nursing assistant certification. Prior to working for LUNA, she worked in several Des Moines area senior centers.  Elizabeth completed high school in Zacatecas, Mexico. Email Elizabeth Balcarcel

Kris Bein, Rural Technical Assistance Specialist, is a member of the Resource Sharing Project, where she provides training and technical assistance to state coalitions and rural rape crisis centers on victim service, agency structure, and capacity building. She holds a master’s degree in Human Services, specializing in Social Services Administration, from the University of Illinois. For the RSP at IowaCASA, Kris works on several projects aimed at enhancing sexual assault services in dual/multi-service agencies in rural communities in Iowa and across the country.

Kris has been a part of the anti-violence movement since 1995 as a volunteer, staff advocate, researcher, and activist. She provided medical and legal advocacy to sexual assault survivors in a dual domestic violence/sexual assault agency in seven rural counties in southern Illinois. She has expertise in professional training and systems advocacy with law enforcement, medical personnel and campus personnel; medical and legal advocacy with clients; organizational response to sexual assault; and volunteer management. Kris has been active in several social change movements, and also conducted research on anti-rape work and created a feminist management model for anti-violence and other social change agencies. Email Kris Bein

Nicole Merrill, Esq, Staff Attorney, works with the Legal Services Coordinator in providing technical assistance, developing policy, and legal protocol, and conducting trainings for advocates, law enforcement, medical personnel, and other agencies. She also advises individual clients, assisting with a variety of legal Sexual Assault issues. Nicole graduated from Drake University with a double-major BA in Political Science and Law, Politics, and Society. Nicole received her JD from Drake University Law School in 2008 (admitted to the Iowa Bar in September). During law school she worked as an Intern for the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women. She had previously worked as a law clerk for IowaCASA beginning in September of 2007. Prior to returning to IowaCASA she worked as an attorney for a small law firm in Southern Iowa practicing Criminal, Family, and Juvenile Law. Email Nicole Merrill

Cat Fribley, Resource Sharing Project Coordinator, supervises the National Sexual Assault Coalition Resource Sharing Project (RSP) for the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Cat has been with IowaCASA since 2001, serving as the Coordinator for the RSP. Through this project she provides capacity building training and technical assistance to state and territorial sexual assault coalitions and coordinates the national activities of the project. She has worked to end violence against women for more than a decade at national, state, and local advocacy organizations and has held such varied positions as SART Coordinator at a University based Rape Crisis Center, Director of Training and Volunteers at a dual program and Rural Outreach Director for a county of 7000 in Iowa before moving to the Iowa Coalition to work with the RSP.

Cat trains on a broad range of sexual assault issues with special interest areas including: survivors giving birth, healing sexuality, online counseling, organizational development and GLBT issues. She also trains sexual assault coalitions and centers on organizational issues such as board development, strategic planning, anti-racist organization building and effective statewide collaborations. Cat volunteers in her community and serves on numerous local, state, and national advisory boards and working groups in an effort to end sexual violence in her own and every community. Email Cat Fribley

Valerie Davis, Demonstration Initiative Technical Assistance Coordinator, is a member of the Resource Sharing Project, where she provides training and technical assistance to state coalitions and rural dual domestic violence/sexual assault centers on enhancing and building comprehensive sexual assault services.  She holds a master’s degree in Public Administration, with a concentration in domestic violence, from the University of Colorado Denver.  Valerie has been a part of the anti-violence movement since 1995.  She worked for a dual domestic violence/sexual assault program within a larger multi-service agency in eastern Iowa for 15 years with 6 of those years as the Program Director.  Over the course of her career in the anti-violence movement, Valerie has been responsible for program development, supervision and mentoring of staff and volunteers, ensuring quality services, grant management, sustainability, community partnerships, training, and direct service.  Email Valerie Davis

Evelyn Larsen, Resource Sharing Project Assistant Coordinator
joined IowaCASA in 2009 as the Assistant Project Coordinator for the RSP, and has been coordinating work on the Rural grant and the Demonstration Initiative, as well as providing technical assistance to coalitions and acting as a liaison for several other National Initiatives. Email Evelyn Larsen

Kendra Malone, Information Specialist, joined IowaCASA in January of 2010. She recently finished her Master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology and Women’s Studies at Iowa State University. Kendra’s academic pursuits lead her to conduct ethnographic fieldwork on the island of Trinidad in the summer of 2008, her research focuses on the disproportionate ways heterosexual Trinidadian women are contracting HIV/AIDS as opposed to their male counterparts. Before joining IowaCASA, Kendra taught Women’s Studies and coordinated the student organization Feminist Activists at ISU/Ames community. Kendra has also worked in women’s health care clinics in Ames and Iowa City providing direct reproductive and sexual health services to men and women.

As the Information Specialist, Kendra compiles and disseminates our bi-weekly e-newsletter, maintains organizational listservs, updates and creates agency print materials and acts as our webmaster. Email Kendra Malone

Rebecca Stout, Esq, Legal Services Coordinator, provides technical assistance, develops policy, and legal protocol, and conducts trainings for advocates, law enforcement, medical personnel, and other agencies. She also advises individual clients, assisting with a variety of legal Sexual Assault issues.

Rebecca received her JD from Drake University Law School in 2007 (admitted to the Iowa Bar in September). She had been a law clerk for IowaCASA beginning in June of 2006 and has many years of experience working in the non-profit field. She worked for Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa for seven years prior to law school. Rebecca graduated from Upper Iowa University with a double-major BS in Psychology and Human Services. Email Rebecca Stout

KellyMarie Ziemann, Prevention/Education Coordinator, has been working in the violence against women movement since 1996. She began as a volunteer, responding to domestic violence and sexual assault survivors at hospitals and police stations and assisting with answering the crisis line. Since then, KellyMarie has served as a legal advocate for domestic violence survivors, the assistant supervisor of a domestic violence shelter, and as the Housing and Economic Justice Coordinator for the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She has also worked with the Integrative Services Project, a program which seeks to integrate domestic violence and substance abuse services, and the Iowa Victim Assistance Academy. She provides training to advocates, judges, police officers, faith communities, neighborhood watch programs, medical providers, and various other community and professional organizations.

Her areas of interest and experience include: survivors and substance use/abuse, intimate partner sexual abuse, text analysis to improve service provision, coalition-building, and GLBT issues. KellyMarie is an active volunteer in her community and is committed to helping Iowa become a safer and more welcoming community for everyone. Email KellyMarie Ziemann

Delaine Statham, Administrative Assistant, joined IowaCASA as temporary employee in February 2010 and became a permanent employee in May. Delaine is responsible for providing administrative support to IowaCASA Executive Director and Associate Director/Fiscal Manager and assists with accounting, finance, administrative, and grant-management duties. Email Delaine Statham

Tami Williams RN, Rural Medical Advocacy Coordinator, joined IowaCASA in December 2010. She received her Associates Degree in Nursing at Mercy College of Health Sciences and completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Grandview College. She is currently studying to achieve a certification in Forensic Nursing. Tami will complete the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program in March 2011. Tami's current role will allow her to coordinate, support and enhance existing and developing Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) programs in rural Iowa as well as addressing the impact of sexual assault on victims in later life.

Prior to coming to IowaCASA, Tami worked for Primary Health Care as a HIV Nurse Care Manager dealing with all aspects of HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention and education as well as worked as a Complex Case Manager with the Medicare population. Her interests and expertise include: HIV/AIDS in sexual assault, campus sexual assault issues, and elder mistreatment (EM). Tami actively volunteers in her community and is committed to join with others to evoke a safer and violence free community. Email Tami Williams