Biographies Gender-Based Violence Working Group

Braina Barocas is a Research Professor and Co-Executive Director & Chief Research Officer at New York University, based in the USA. She has 20 years of experience in restorative justice and gender-based violence, focusing on criminal justice, community initiatives, policy, and research, with expertise in evaluating restorative justice programs for gender based violence.
Braina leads an $8 million, 5-year study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), assessing restorative practices for domestic and sexual violence. She has worked with communities across the U.S., conducted restorative justice trainings in Taiwan, and collaborates with international scholars.
Passionate about restorative justice for domestic violence, she is co-authoring the upcoming Little Book on Restorative Justice and Domestic Violence.

Catharina Borchgrevink is a senior advisor on gender-based violence/interpersonal violence for the Norwegian mediation service. She has been working within the field of child abuse and domestic violence since 2010 in different roles in NGOs, for the Norwegian government and within research. 
At the Norwegian mediation service, a governmental body reporting to the Ministry for Justice, she works both with gender-based violence in general, as well as related to restorative justice. She coordinates a multi-agency group on gender-based violence and child abuse and is involved with the training of staff and mediators across the country. 
As a member of the last working group on gender-based violence and restorative justice, Catharina became the chair midway through the last term. She is currently chairing the group together with Annegrete Johnson, and is keen to ensure that the work of the group becomes more structured and visible in this term. Catharina is particularly interested in young people who have harmed others, and the use and potential of restorative justice for both the young person, the person harmed and those around them. 

Tim Chapman had a lengthy career in the Probation Service in Northern Ireland rising to a senior management position. He spent 10 years as a lecturer and course director of the Masters programme in Restorative Practices at the University of Ulster. He now teaches at the University of Sassari, Italy, as a Visiting Professor and at The University of Strathclyde as a Visiting Professor. He also offers training, research and consultancy in restorative justice. 
He has conducted training in restorative justice theory and practices from foundation level to specialist training throughout the world. He has published widely in effective probation practice, youth justice and restorative justice. He is currently writing a book based upon his research into victims’ experience of restorative justice and doing research into the oral histories of victims of clerical child sexual abuse. He has been a board member and chair of the European Forum for Restorative Justice. 
Tim has developed, designed and facilitated training courses with women who have lived experience of restorative justice and sexual violence and domestic abuse. He continues to practice and is leading two major restorative justice programmes addressing institutional sexual abuse. This has involved engaging with over 50 survivors of clerical child sexual abuse.

Virginia Domingo de la Fuente is a facilitator at the Scientific Society of Restorative Justice and an expert in Justice Rapid Response, based in Burgos, Spain. With over 20 years of experience, she began as a researcher in restorative justice and gender-based violence and later became a facilitator.
She currently works with victims of sexual and gender violence in a restorative justice program outside the courts, supporting those who have gone through trial or whose cases could not proceed. Her approach is victim-centered, using healing circles, with no joint meetings unless requested by the victim.
Virginia leads the Bird Fénix restorative justice program for victims of sexual and gender violence. She is passionate about offender responsibility in restorative justice and has recently published The Transformative Function of Restorative Justice, featuring two chapters on restorative justice in sexual and gender violence.

Dr. Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt is an Associate Professor at the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP, USA) and a Professor of Law at the Catholic University of Pernambuco (UNICAP, Brazil). She is the Book Review Editor for The International Journal of Restorative Justice and serves on the European Forum for Restorative Justice’s Working Group on Gender-Based Violence (2025–2027). She is co-editing major publications, including the forthcoming Handbook on Methods in Restorative Justice Research (Brill, 2025) and the Latin America and Caribbean volume of the International Encyclopaedia of Restorative Justice (Brill, 2026). 
She is also co-authoring Gendered Violence and Restorative Justice (under contract with Routledge). Dr. Rosenblatt has published widely on justice reform, gendered violence, and intersectionality in international journals and books. She has testified in legislative hearings, contributed to international policy discussions, and delivered keynote addresses on restorative and gender justice in Brazil and beyond. Her research shapes global restorative justice debates, advocating for transformative approaches to violence and inequality.

Gabor Hera is a researcher at Foresee Research Group / research fellow at HUN-REN KRTK researcher at the Fobased in Budapest, Hungary. He has been working with restorative justice for over 13 years, and gender based violence for five years. He is particularly interested in research, multi-agency cooperation and community responses to gender-based violence.
Gabor is currently involved in a project called IMPROVE (H2020 RIA program), with six EU countries focusing on how frontline responders can prevent and react to gender-based violence. The project has developed an AI chatbot and training material for professionals. Within the framework of this program, Gabor will give (sensitisation) training to police officers.
Furthermore, he is currently conducting interviews and developing an online survey for HIA to reveal the a) nature of various types of gender-based violence, b) those factors (e.g. patriarchal values, substance abuse, mental health issues etc.) that can fuel violent behavior. 

Iro Michael is the Head of the Help Centre at the Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family in the Republic of Cyprus. With over 10 years in restorative justice and 8 years in gender-based violence, she specialises in research, mediation, and victim support.
Her restorative justice expertise includes criminal justice, prisons, schools, and communities, with publications in these areas. In gender-based violence, she primarily works with domestic violence victims. Though restorative justice is not formally implemented in Cyprus’ criminal justice system, she integrates restorative justice principles in awareness-raising initiatives.
Iro has contributed to numerous EU-funded projects on restorative justice and gender-based violence. She is currently exploring restorative justice in intercommunal conflicts and its impact on gender-based violence. As a consultant for RJ4All Europe, she will present at the 4th International Symposium on restorative justice, alongside organising workshops and seminars.

Annegrete Johanson is a restorative justice expert and EFRJ board member, working in Estonia. She developed restorative justice services within the Victim Support Department, gaining extensive experience in mediation and intimate partner violence cases as both a practitioner and trainer. 
Specialising in sexual violence cases, she is one of the two professionals facilitating restorative meetings in this field (in Estonia). She currently provides services through RuaCrew NGO and actively trains others in restorative practices.
As Vice-Chair of the Gender-Based Violence Working Group, Annegrete advocates for accessible restorative approaches, ensuring individuals have autonomy in engaging with the process. Committed to high standards and core principles, she works to expand and uphold restorative justice values. 

Emeline Le Prince is originally from Normandy in France, but moved to Dublin in 2001 for her studies in Trinity College, Dublin. She is the current Chief Executive Officer of Restorative Justice Services in Dublin (Republic of Ireland). Restorative Justice Services is currently the largest nonprofit organisation delivering restorative justice interventions in the Republic of Ireland.
Emeline has over 15 years of senior managerial experience in nonprofit organisations. She has worked and managed in a wide range of services, supporting individual experiencing  and/or engaged in gender-based and sexual violence, homelessness, addiction and offending behaviour.
Emeline holds several qualifications including an M.A in English Studies, an M.Phil. in Gender Studies, and a Hip. Dip in Psychology. When she is not working or studying, Emeline is an avid long-distance runner and is volunteering with other NGOs.

Arti Mohan is the Lead Technical Specialist on Practice Based Knowledge at the Safe Futures Hub, co-led by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, Together for Girls and WeProtect Global Alliance. She is a lawyer having represented child survivors in court in New Delhi, India. She has designed and facilitated one of the first pilot restorative healing spaces for children since 2016. She has trained governmental and non-governmental stakeholders and is a trainer on trauma-informed practice.
Arti has also been involved in restorative justice research, including being the Lead Editor of a project on Restorative Justice Around the Globe, published in Restoring Justice (2022). She has recently worked on a forthcoming chapter mapping restorative justice in India for the International Encyclopaedia of Restorative Justice.
Arti is also a member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice's Values and Standards Committee since 2019 and has contributed to their work of designing values and standards for restorative justice. Arti has also been teaching restorative justice in law schools in India and the US and is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Vermont Law School, USA.

Roberta Schaller is a lawyer, criminologist, and practitioner in Restorative Justice, specializing in Trauma-Informed Practice. She works on a gender-based violence rehabilitation project with the Swiss Government, focusing on domestic violence, survivors and their children. Roberta also contributes to legislative efforts, drafting new domestic violence-related articles for the Swiss Penal Code in November 2024.
With expertise in criminal justice, education, and policy development, Roberta has worked in gender-based violence since 2017 and restorative justice/gender-based violence since 2023. She integrates neuroscience-based rehabilitation to empower survivors, using Trauma-Informed Practice and Benevolent Childhood Events (BCEs) to mitigate trauma effects.
She leads Project Atena with the Swiss Government and rJustice Group, advocating for victim rehabilitation through restorative justice (heilen Justiz). Operating in Zurich and Ticino, Roberta is dedicated to reshaping justice through trauma-informed, victim-centered approaches.

Karin Sten Madsen has a background in socialwork and psycho-therapy before becoming a victim-offender facilitator in 2000. She holds an MA in restorative justice from the University of Hull. She introduced restorative justice at the Centre for Victims of Sexual Assault in Copenhagen in 2002 and has since been engaged in various projects on developing and appropriating restorative practice for victims of sexual violence and historic sexual abuse.
Karin has presented her work at various international conferences and been part of the EU Commission Daphne project on restorative justice and sexual violence and the EU Commission project on restorative justice in cases of domestic violence. In connection with the Daphne project she co-authored: Doing restorative justice in cases of sexual violence. A Practical Guide. She has been the co-editor of a Danish anthology on sexual violence and restorative approaches in a therapeutic setting and published: tidenefter.nu – a website with narratives about the aftermath of crime (in Danish).
Karin is currently involved in a Danish research project trying out restorative dialogues (with unrelated participants) in Denmark. 

Gael Susanne Cochrane has been developing educational programmes and delivering training to a wide variety of participants for the past 24 years. Gael has been involved in the evaluation of trauma informed practice training for Justice Social Workers as well as being part of a team that evaluated a Trauma Informed Justice service. Gael’s interest in restorative work began when she was offered Non-Violent Communication training when her daughter was in nursery. She also mediated in her youth worker role (many years ago). This interest grew until she had the opportunity to develop this interest 7 years ago in her role at Community Justice Scotland. Currently, she works at Community Justice Scotland as a Learning, development and innovation Lead where she provides core training to Justice Social Workers and the wider Justice workforce. Her work involves training Social Workers in the use of Sexual Harm Risk Assessments. 
Gael Chairs the National Trainer’s Group for the Stable and Acute Risk Assessment Tools. Gael has been involved in the development and delivery of restorative justice training for the past 5 years to Justice Social Workers, Police Officers, Prison Officers and youth workers. Gael delivers restorative justice training on rerious harm, restorative justice and Hate Crime as well as Trauma Informed restorative justice.
Gael is the chair of the Scottish Restorative Justice Practitioners Network and is a member of the Scottish Restorative Justice Forum, the Scottish Restorative Justice Research Network and the European Forum of Restorative Justice’s Trainers group and Working Group on Gender Based Violence. As part of the work with the European Forum gender-based violence working group, Gael has interviewed survivors of sexual violence who have taken part in restorative justice interventions, in order to create a Guide for Survivors who may be interested in hearing more about or participating in restorative justice. Gael has also engaged in research “ Restorative Justice & Sexual harm- the voices of those who have harmed” (Russell and Cochrane) with men who have committed sexual offences, to find out their views on restorative justice.

Dr Estelle Zinsstag is currently the recipient of a Royal Society of Edinburgh Personal Research Fellowship until August 2025, but is in general a Lecturer in Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University and Researcher at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. She has been working for over 20 years in restorative justice and gender-based violence. Estelle is mainly interested in sexual and more generally gendered violence, but also on specific programmes like conferencing or GLM. By editing the international journal on restorative justice she is quite au fait and support the recent and varied research on the topic. She is mostly a qualitative, mixed method researcher which she believes that for this area of practice is needed when evaluating and researching. 
Estelle is currently involved with several research projects, in addition to the current RSE Fellowship which is on the development of restorative justice services catering for sexual violence and domestic violence. She is also working on publications, one based on a training for facilitators undertaking work with such harms etc, and has events and publications planned around service delivery, policy decisions and implementations as part of the fellowship. 
As a past member of this working group she has been involved with developing a training for EFRJ for practitioners and the collection of testimonies of persons who have caused harm in preparation. Estelle is interested in generally the development/improvement of the practice, and what it can do in particular for the survivors but also more generally for all involved.