Phone: (612) 599-0280

Phone: (612) 599-0280

  • Home
  • Action Group
  • Contact/Donate
  • More
    • Home
    • Action Group
    • Contact/Donate
  • Home
  • Action Group
  • Contact/Donate

National Association
for
Child Window Safety

National Association for Child Window SafetyNational Association for Child Window SafetyNational Association for Child Window Safety

Action Group

Actively Involved in Promoting Child Window Safety

 

Jim Graham – Executive Director**
A former  University of Minnesota teacher in social psychology and urban studies,  who also taught in the University of Wisconsin system, Jim Graham is  also a former research director and publications director for  Metropolitan Sociometrics Research Institute. He directed  community-based research projects, including studies of alcoholism and  transiency among Native Americans in Minnesota (as well as  community-based urban planning and revitalization projects). Co-founder  of the Herbert Blumer Tropical Reserve in Costa Rica, Jim also worked  doing environmental research and water resource planning for the United  States Army Corps of Engineers.


Jim is a Licensed General  Contractor and a Licensed Real Property Appraiser. Mr. Graham, an Urban  Planning and Development Director has taught and consulted in this field  for many years. His work includes the “Self Sufficiency for Urban  Indians in Housing” and acting as Project Manager and Principal Planner  for the “Ventura Village Comprehensive Land Use Master Plan.” The  Ventura Village master plan has been called “the best New Urbanist  Planning to be found in the United States” by planning officials from at  least two other U.S. cities. This planning includes the revitalization  of a troubled inner-city neighborhood with the construction of several  hundred new affordable housing units without the displacement of  original population.


Jim Graham started the National Association  for Child Window Safety in 2011 and is the charter Executive Director of  this non-profit organization. Jim is strongly committed to expanding  efforts to prevent the needless 5,000 child falls that annually occur  from unsafe windows.


He became involved with this in 2006 when  two children fell from buildings he had worked on developing. One child  died and the other, Laela, became the namesake of the Minnesota State  Law known as “Laela's Law”. Jim wrote the legislation and worked  diligently to get the law passed to provide safety screens on  multi-family housing units to protect children from falling out of  windows. This land mark legislation not only protects children, but has  proven to be a sustainable method of reducing maintenance costs on  apartment rental units.
 

Jim Tidwell, Code Consultant**
Jim  is a Fire Protection Consultant with 40 years in fire service, retired  from Fort Worth Fire Department and ICC. He is a recognized leader in  the fire service as well as an outspoken supporter of the International  Code Council. 


Jim served in the Fort Worth, Texas Fire  Department for 30 years, serving in every rank. He then led the Fire  Service Activities Team at the ICC where he spearheaded efforts to  provide opportunities for fire service input and influence in the ICC  Code Development Process. Jim has actively promoted fire service issues  on a local, state, and national level for many years and has testified  before the U.S. Congress and state and local legislatures throughout the  United States. Some of his activities include service on ICC and NFPA  code development committees, working with legislative and executive  branches of government to ensure fire service issues are recognized.


Jim  was presented the Olin Greene Outstanding Fire Prevention  Service Award. This is a lifetime achievement award that was established  to recognize those who have dedicated their career to fire prevention  and public safety and have achieved substantial accomplishments.  Mr.  Tidwell has been a tireless advocate for fire prevention and life  safety, working closely with NASFM and several other national fire  service organizations to help facilitate a cohesive and effective  national approach.

 

Tom Houlihan, AIA **
Tom  received a bachelor's degree in architecture from Iowa State University  in 1977. For the next five years, he was co-owner of a Seattle  architectural firm that planned and designed buildings for health-care  organizations throughout the US. He relocated to La Crosse in 1982 and  founded Houlihan & Associates, an architectural firm that planned  and designed health-care and educational facilities. He later was the  president and chief executive officer of CAData Corp., which started in  1992 in La Crosse and developed CAD based resource management systems  that clients could operate. Houlihan joined Gensler, an international  design firm, in 1994 and opened the Gensler office in La Crosse. Tom led  the Information Solutions Practice of Gensler and was named a partner  and vice president in December 1999. Retiring in 2014, Tom now supports  decision making in the industries he has served and continues to develop  a variety of enterprises.
 

Wayne Parsons, Attorney at Law**
Safety  and preventing injuries is the mission of Hawai‘i trial lawyer Wayne  Parsons. His clients through their cases, change harmful behavior and  practices by holding the person, corporation or government accountable  for the avoidable, wrongful injury or death. Wayne has made it his  mission to help educate people so they avoid injury and hopefully will  never need his services.
 

Lisa Dau, RN, BSN

Lisa  is the Injury Prevention Coordinator for Kapi‘olani Medical Center for  Women and Children, Honolulu, Hawai‘i.  Lisa received her undergraduate  degree from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, School of Nursing.  Lisa  is a professional nurse with more than 28 years practical experience in  hospital and community environments primarily in the Maternal/Child and  Pediatric setting. She is established in injury prevention education  with particular emphasis for childhood safety, including safe sleep  education, child passenger safety, drowning prevention, shaken baby  syndrome/abusive head trauma prevention, poison prevention, burn/scald  prevention and window fall prevention.  She is board certified in  lactation consultation (IBCLC) for mother-baby couplets in the hospital  and outpatient settings. She is experienced in developing, implementing  and evaluating programs (i.e. Period of PURPLE Crying, Child Passenger  Safety, Safe Sleep Hospital employee training and policies, Hawai‘i Home  Visiting Network Injury Prevention Curriculum).  She facilitates and  coordinates Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition and Safe Sleep Hawai‘i  programs by building coalition membership, networking between membership  and community, grant writing and leading quarterly membership  meetings.  


Lisa provides advocacy for childhood  injury prevention in public media, meetings with key people and  legislative testimony.  She is a member of the Keiki Caucus, a  bipartisan group advocating improvements for the well-being of Hawai‘i  youths. Lisa is a board member representing the private sector business  for the Department of Health (DOH) State Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory  Board (STBIAB) since 2017.  Lisa lives on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i where she was  born and raised. She is married and has two grown children. 



Jan Berichon, OT
Jan  was the child injury prevention health educator for Randall Children’s  Hospital Safety Center in Portland, OR, for more than ten years. 


Her  30 plus years of experience in the field of Occupational Therapy, gave  her the opportunity to work in both hospital and school-based  environments.  While in that capacity, she provided direct and  consultative services to children and adults in mental health, traumatic  brain injury and educational settings. She served as the Columbia  region liaison for the Oregon Statewide Traumatic Brain Injury Team,  assisting students who transition from the hospital back to school. 


Jan  has a knowledge base of pediatric injury prevention. She works with  families whose children have been hospitalized due to injury. She  provides one to one education, safety classes for caregivers and “train  the trainer” sessions.  She has developed many injury prevention  educational handouts that both educate and support families and  professionals.  Several of these handouts promote awareness of child  window falls and prevention.


She is a member of “Stop at 4”, a  child window-fall prevention program co-founded by Randall Children’s  Hospital in 2010.  The program is comprised of several community injury  prevention partners and includes families whose children have  experienced injuries or death following a window fall.

 

Brian Houlihan, BS
Brian  graduated from Iowa State University and spent time farming and serving  as a vice president in his local bank prior to purchasing, as senior  partner, Lansing Housing Products in 2003.  As a manufacturer of  high-end security screens and security storm doors, he was approached by  child advocates in 2006 regarding providing a child window safety  screen.  Developing a passive solution for preventing child window falls  became a passion from that time forward.  In 2017, he was awarded a  patent for invention of the Tough Tek Metals® safety screen designed to  prevent child window falls.


Brian has spent many years on local  and state boards promoting economic development, assistance for disabled  citizens, and community foundation service.
 

Dr.  Stacey Quintero-Wolfe, MD, FAANS, Associate Professor, Residency Program  Director, and Director of Neurointerventional Surgery at Wake Forest  School of Medicine
Dr. Wolfe graduated from a six-year  combined BA/MD program at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and  completed neurosurgical residency at the University of Miami, followed  by a Cerebrovascular/Skull Base and an Endovascular fellowship. She  served as a Commander in the United States Navy as Chief of Neurosurgery  at Tripler Army Medical Center before joining Wake Forest in 2013.


She  serves as an editorial reviewer for the Journal of Neurosurgery,  Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery and the Journal of Neurointerventional  Surgery.


Dr. Wolfe has served as the Chair of the AANS/CNS  Section on Women in Neurosurgery, Chair of the AANS Young Neurosurgeons  Committee, Chair of the CSNS AANS Caucus, and on the Executive Committee  of the Congress of Neurological Surgery and the AANS/CNS  Cerebrovascular Section. She has served on the AANS Board of Directors,  the Washington Committee, and has most recently been chosen as an ABNS  Scholar. Additionally, she has been recognized for her humanitarian work  in Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua with the Young Neurosurgeons Public  Service Citation.


Meri-K Appy, BS

Ms.  Appy is widely regarded as the fire and emergency services' leading  advocate for public safety education. She specializes in simplifying  injury prevention and
disaster preparedness messages, concepts, and  strategies for greatest impact, especially for audiences at highest  risk. She has appeared on many national television networks and  programs, including The TODAY Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show,  CNN, Dateline NBC, CBS’ The Early Show, Good Morning America, and HGTV. 


Ms.  Appy spearheaded the development and national delivery of three  award‐winning injury prevention programs including Risk Watch (NFPA),  The Home Safety Literacy Project (Home Safety Council) and Start Safe: A  Fire and Burn Safety Program for Preschoolers and Their Families (Home  Safety Council). Now head of her own consulting company, Meri‐K is  working on a number of national fire safety initiatives, including  Vision 20/20 and an exciting school-based program from the National  Center for Prevention Initiatives called Sound Off with the Home Fire  Safety Patrol. Ms. Appy was the recipient of the 2012 Anne W. Phillips  Award for Leadership in Fire Safety Education and the Mason Lankford  Award for Fire Service Leadership from the Congressional Fire Services  Institute. She graduated with honors from Smith College with a  Bachelor's degree in French. 


Brian Johnston, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr.  Johnston is chief of Pediatrics at Harborview Medical Center, with an  interest in clinic and community partnerships to help all children to  stay healthy. He is particularly interested in injury prevention,  integrating mental health with primary care and the care of children  with mild traumatic brain injury.


Dr. Johnston earned his M.D. at  the University of California and his M.P.H. from the UW. He is an  expert in public health and injury prevention, and directs a partnership  that brings legal aid attorneys into the clinic to help patients solve  legal problems that affect their health.


Ray Reynolds, Certified Public Manager, Joint Terrorism Task Force

Ray  Reynolds currently serves as the Director of Fire and EMS for the City  of Nevada.  He oversees fire department operations and serves as a sworn  peace officer within the Nevada Public Safety Department.


Ray  raised awareness of a state wide fire prevention message while serving  as the State Fire Marshal for Iowa between the years 2010 and 2013.  Ray  developed a state-wide smoke alarm installation program within Iowa  that was responsible for over 50,000 smoke alarms being installed in  homes throughout Iowa.   He will continue to implement community risk  reduction programs within the City of Nevada.


Ray began his law  enforcement service as a reserve deputy sheriff in 1987, and became a  full-time municipal police officer in Mount Vernon, Iowa in 1988.  Ray  served as a police officer and Crime Scene Technician for the City of  Iowa City from 1991-1996.  He has been a member of the fire service  since 1986, and held certifications as a fire inspector I, firefighter  II, firefighter I, paramedic, bomb technician, hazardous materials  technician, fire investigator I, and is a certified public manager  (CPM).  Ray works part time as a paramedic/firefighter for the Indianola  Fire Department and has served on six different volunteer/combination  fire departments in the last 25 years. 


Ray joined the State Fire  Marshal's Office in 1996, and was detailed to the State of Iowa  Intelligence Fusion Center in 2006, where he has been assigned to the  FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).  Ray has received extensive  specialized training in terrorism, intelligence, informants, explosives  and other topics, and he has headed up two major cases within the JTTF  during his tenure at the Des Moines FBI Office. 


Ray served on  the Board of Directors for the National Association of State Fire  Marshals (NASFM) and on the Board of Directors for the American Red  Cross Central Iowa Chapter.  In July of 2015 he was elected to the  prestigious Fire and Life Safety Section board of the International  Association of Fire Chiefs.    


Ray is a 22 year veteran with  the Iowa Army National Guard serving in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and  retired a Sergeant First Class E7 with an Honorable Discharge.


**Board Members


  

The National Association for Child Window Safety would like to acknowledge the effort of the late Jim W. Sealy who was instrumental in establishing the initial version of the ICC code section dealing with children falling from windows. He continued to fight for better standards over the years. His participation and support of our efforts was greatly appreciated.


Copyright © 2023 National Association for Child Window Safety - All Rights Reserved.


Powered by GoDaddy Website Builder

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

Accept