PRESENTED BY: Dr Frank Ascione, Scholar-in-Residence, University of Denver, Graduate School of Social Work

Dr Ascione is widely published and an expert in the relationship between maltreatment of animals and interpersonal violence.His seminar Animal abuse and intimate partner violence: Associations between the welfare of pets and the welfare of women and children in violent environments will be of great interest to those working in the fields of domestic and family violence and animal welfare.

Dr. Ascione was the inaugural American Humane Endowed Chair, University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) and is currently a Scholar-in-Residence at the GSSW. He has published articles on the development of antisocial and prosocial behaviour in children, co-edited two books and authored two books. The international handbook of animal abuse and cruelty: Theory, research, and application (2008) was edited by Dr. Ascione. In 2010, he was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Waltham Foundation to study children exposed to intimate partner violence and to animal abuse.