Julia Scheeres was born in Lafayette, Indiana, and raised in a conservative Christian home. At 17, she was sent to Escuela Caribe, a christian reform school in the Dominican Republic run by Americans. Her adopted brother David was already there. She wrote about her experiences in the memoir "Jesus Land." She now lives in Berkeley, California with her husband and two daughters. Her new book, A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown on the Jonestown mass-murder suicides, is now available for purchase.

Janice Cooper directs the National Center for Children in Poverty, a leading research and policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health and well-being of the nation’s low-income families and children.  She also teaches at Columbia University.  Janice is a health services researcher, who specializes in the social-emotional well-being of children and youth.   Among her research interests are quality of care for children and youth, social-emotional wellbeing for young children, cultural and linguistic competence and mental health financing. In 2008 she was the lead author on Unclaimed Children Revisited, a series of policy and impact analyses of mental health policies for children, youth and their families.

Jon is a survivor of The Family Foundation School, in Hancock, NY.  He attended the facility from June of 1995 to August of 1997.  He went on to Vassar College, served in the US Army as a parachute rigger and is currently working on a double master’s degree in English and Secondary Education.  Jon came on board with CAFETY at the group’s beginning stages and testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor regarding his stay at FFS. 

As a new attorney, Michelle Callner, Esq. is in the unique position of offering CAFETY both legal expertise as well as a compassionate hand in the fight for youth rights. Her own experience in the ‘troubled youth’ industry as a child without an outlet to express her concerns about the injustices she witnessed has influenced her choice to use her position as an attorney to advocate for young people. She strives to assist CAFETY and similar organizations in initiating a metamorphosis of the current regulatory system overseeing the ‘troubled youth’ industry into one that respects the importance of human rights for all.

Phil Elberg, Esq. is a graduate of Rutgers Law School where he was an editor of the Law Review. For more then twenty five years he has been a partner at the Newark, New Jersey law firm, Medvin and Elberg where he has specialized in litigation in the State and Federal courts. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of WBGO (Newark Public Radio, Inc.), New Jersey’s Public Radio Station and has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Essex-Newark Legal Services. (Watch online interview with Phil here.)

In recent years he has represented the victims of “Tough Love” residential treatment programs in their pursuit of claims that they have been treated abusively. His work has led to his being awarded the American Family Foundation award for his contribution to the understanding of coercive persuasion and to his collection of more then $15,000,000 on behalf of the victims of treatment abuse.

Phil has served on CAFETY's advisory board since 2009.