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Curtis Sliwa is Keynote Speaker at City Tech Conference on Violence
Curtis Sliwa
"Controlling the Storm: Violence, Rage & Anger - Causes and Treatment," a day-long conference co-sponsored by City Tech's Department of Human Services and Freedom From Fear, a Staten Island-based national not-for-profit mental health advocacy association, featured keynote speaker Curtis Sliwa, WABC talk show host and founder/president of the Guardian Angels, on October 7. Sliwa spoke passionately about his own childhood experiences in Brooklyn and Bronx neighborhoods beset by discord and his long-term efforts to combat community violence in the U.S. and abroad. His remarks emphasized the importance of a strong family foundation in the fight against such behaviors.
The conference, which was coordinated by Freedom From Fear founder and Executive Director Mary Guardino and City Tech Human Services Professor Justine Pawlukewicz, was attended by some 100 mental health professionals, health care providers, community leaders, representatives of advocacy organizations, school administrators, human services students and faculty, and community residents with an interest in the impact of anger, rage and violence on society. Professor Julian Jordan, executive assistant to the dean of the College's School of Professional Studies, provided welcoming remarks.
Other speakers included Guardino, who presented an overview on the program. Her remarks were followed by presentations on the psychopathology of violence by Mark Sisti, PhD, director of the Long Island Center of Cognitive Therapy, and on a current study of aggressive disorders stemming from marijuana use by Dr. Stephen Donovan, assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Other presenters included Michele Galietta, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Melissa B. Caldwell, PhD and Esther J. Calzada, PhD, assistant professors of psychiatry at New York University's Child Study Center, who spoke about problematic anger in early childhood and the impact that such behavior can have on future behavior, emotional development and learning.
Photo by Michele Forsten
