Michelle is the Chief Nursing Officer/Executive Director, and one of the founders of the Fort Wayne Sexual Assault Treatment Center which began operations in 1996. A graduate of Purdue University, Michelle has focused her career on forensic nursing after gaining clinical experience in the emergency room, neonatal intensive care unit, and pediatrics. She is certified as both an adult/adolescent sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE-A) and pediatric sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE-P) and has more than 2,400 hours in advanced training.
Michelle serves on the guideline committee for the State of Indiana to produce the “Indiana Statewide Guidelines for Sexual Assault Response Teams" and is a recognized speaker and trainer at the local, state and national levels. She serves as a consultant for Fox Valley Technical College and has taught for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). She has also served as faculty for the past 6 years at the National Symposium on Child Abuse in Huntsville, Alabama. Michelle is also the professional contributor to the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) Pediatric Guidelines (Review and Revisions Committee, 2008), and to the IAFN 2012 Intimate Partner Violence Education Guidelines.
Michelle has been published and contributed to numerous articles including being a co-author for the article “Veracity for Children in Pediatric Forensics” in the peer-reviewed Journal of Forensic Nursing, which was released on-line June 19, 2012 and later selected, published and reviewed in The Quarterly Update, Volume XX, Number 3. She is the co-contributor with Julie Kenniston, MSW, LSW, “Sexual Abuse Issues Related to Interviewing Children,” Chapter 2 in Volume 2 of the 4th Edition Chadwick Child Maltreatment Encyclopedia three volume series. Michelle also co-contributes with Laurie Gray, JD for a Q&A Medical-Legal Column “Legally SANE” in the quarterly newsletter “The Examiner” for members of the Indiana Chapter of the IAFN and ENA.
An experienced trial attorney and child advocate, Laurie Gray earned her B.A. from Goshen College in 1986 and her J.D. from Indiana University School of Law in 1993. Laurie taught Spanish at Whitko High School in South Whitley, IN from 1986-1990. As an attorney, Laurie worked in private practice from 1993-2000 and as an Allen County Deputy Prosecutor from 2000-2010. Laurie is the founder of Socratic Parenting, LLC (www.SocraticParenting.com), co-creator of Token of Change™, and the author of the three young adult novels and two non-fiction books. In addition to writing, speaking and consulting, Laurie currently works as an adjunct professor of criminal sciences at Indiana Tech and as a bilingual forensic interviewer at her local child advocacy center.
Laurie’s debut novel, Summer Sanctuary (Luminis Books/2010), is a Moonbeam Gold Medalist and a 2011 Indiana Best Book Finalist. Her second novel, Maybe I Will (Luminis Books/2013) is also a Moonbeam Medalist and a 2014 YALSA Teens' Top Ten Nominee. Luminis Books released Just Myrto and A Simple Guide to Socratic Parenting in May 2014. Laurie’s new book The ABC’s of Sexual Assault: Anatomy, “Bunk” and the Courtroom is co-authored by Michelle Ditton, the Chief Nursing Officer at the Fort Wayne Sexual Assault Treatment Center, and published by Socratic Parenting LLC.
