Kevin McNeil is a Transformational Speaker, Victim Advocate, author, and Founder/CEO of Kevin D. McNeil Consulting and the non-profit, The Twe12ve Project, Inc., These organizations serve as a bridge to educate the world on the effects of trauma and abuse upon individuals, families, and communities. Kevin is a renowned speaker who shares lessons from his own life experiences that transform, motivate, and inspire an individual’s mindset and potential.

After 20 years of service, Kevin retired from the DeKalb County Police Department of Georgia. He served eight years as a Police Officer, and twelve years as a Special Victims Unit Detective. His training and attention to detail helped him solve several high-profile serial rape cases in the Atlanta area. Kevin’s background coupled with his extensive research on trauma and the effects of abuse, defines and differentiates his message. He travels internationally speaking on topics relevant to Child Advocacy Centers, Police Departments, Department of Family and Children Services, District Attorney’s Offices, athletic organizations, schools and universities, parents, and foster parents, as well as community members. Kevin has appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including TV One’s crime investigative series ‘Celebrity Crime Files, Fatal Attraction and For My Man;’ and has been a guest on Jim Clemente’s podcast ‘Best Case, Worst Case,’ along with being featured in several magazine articles.

Kevin has spoken at numerous Child Advocacy Centers across the United States. He has spoken at events sponsored by Darkness to Light, as well as being featured in the 2023 Darkness to Light Stewards of Children training video. He has delivered a keynote presentation and workshop for the Beau Biden Foundation National Conference to Protect America’s Children, International Child Symposium on Child Abuse in Huntsville, Alabama; he’s delivered a plenary presentation and workshops at the San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment in San Diego, California; and in 2019, he traveled to Bermuda to help train law enforcement surrounding child abuse and child sexual assault.

Kevin’s mission is to “create communities where abuse and trauma survivors HEAL, THRIVE, and SUCCEED.”

Kelly Kinnish, PhD, is the Director of the National Center on Child Trafficking in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. She has over 30 years’ experience working with maltreated and at-risk children and families in clinical, research, and administrative capacities with specific interest and expertise in child trauma and trafficking. She was the Director of Clinical Services at the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy for 14 years and also Director of Project Intersect and the Envision Project, federally funded programs focused on improving the well-being of commercially sexually exploited and trafficked children. She is actively engaged in the development, adaptation, and dissemination of interventions with trafficked children and their families as well the training of mental health providers and professionals across child serving systems to better recognize and respond to their needs.

Vira Salzburn is a Ukrainian-American living in Savannah, Georgia and serving her beloved community as the Executive Director of Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council. She earned a Master of Science degree in Management, Organizational Behavior & Leadership from Troy University, and a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree in Humanities from Auburn University at Montgomery. Vira also holds a graduate certificate in Topics in Human Behavior from Harvard University.

Vira is a Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training Master Trainer, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness and Yoga Instructor, and Community Resiliency Model Teacher. She is also trained in the Search Inside Yourself program of Google Leadership Institute, Trauma Informed Coaching, and Compassionate Leadership, the program of the Task Force for Global Health. 

Vira spearheads innovative community-wide Safety and Resilience programming and serves on the leadership team of Resilient Coastal Georgia. She is the developer of a community-based upstream suicide prevention approach that utilizes evidence-based Mindful-Self Compassion programming. She is a community educator and public speaker on suicide prevention, trauma-informed practices, self-compassion, and resilience, and she was the presenter at TEDx Savannah in 2022. Additionally, Vira is the recipient of the 2023 Community Impact Award from Georgians for a Healthy Future for her efforts to expand mental health prevention and intervention programs and supports across Georgia.