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Melissa "Liss" Haviv
Executive Director
At the age of 10, Missy Sokolsky’s name was changed to Melissa Hart and she was hidden from her searching family and from the justice system for two years by her mother. In her early 30’s, Liss Haviv founded Take Root, to help fellow victims of family-abduction overcome its legacy.
Melissa “Liss” Haviv is the Founding Executive Director and a proud member of Take Root. Considered a leading expert in the victimology of child-abduction, her written work on family abduction has been published in the Washington Post's Insight Magazine, Department of Justice publications on child abduction, a special WI bar conference edition of the Wisconsin Law Journal, and the upcoming GW Medical Publishing/STM Learning publication Missing, Exploited & Beyond. She is a consultant for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and is frequently interviewed as an issue expert by national media outlets including Court TV, CNN, the Today Show, the Atlantic Monthly, People Magazine, Public Broadcast radio, MSNBC.com, and many top 100 newspapers such as the Washington Post, LA Times, and St. Louis Post Dispatch. Liss has been a keynote speaker at regional and national conferences; leads training workshops on child-abduction and recovery for law enforcement, mental health professionals, lawyers, and case managers across the country; and is a guest faculty member at the National Judicial College. She was a panelist on the Missing Child Resources panel at the Department of Justice’s 2006 Building on Success conference, opened by First Lady Laura Bush, and has presented at Dallas Crimes Against Children and the Chadwick Center Conference on Child Maltreatment, among others. Liss holds the distinction of having worked directly with more victims of child abduction at all ages and stages of the healing process than any other missing child professional in the country. Her professional colleagues in the field of missing children have called her contribution to the field "revolutionary" and "essential.”
A Fulbright Scholar in social anthropology, she received her bachelor’s degree with highest honors in interdisciplinary studies from UC Berkeley in 1998, graduating as a University Medal semi-finalist and her department’s student commencement speaker. Her background in non-profit administration and community programs includes helping to develop a college education program for inmates at San Quentin State Prison.
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Susan Connolly, Esq.
Legal and Family Court Education Consultant
Attorney Connolly is a principal in the firm of Asselin & Connolly, Attorneys LLC, of New London, Connecticut. She received her Juris Doctorate in 1985 from the University of Bridgeport where she served as Executive Managing Editor for the University of Bridgeport Law Review. Attorney Connolly is a nationally recognized expert in family law, most particularly with regards to issues affecting children. She is frequently appointed by Connecticut courts as counsel to and/or guardian ad litem for minor children in the more complex and difficult cases, including parental abduction cases. She is currently serving on the Executive Committee of the Conn. Bar Assoc. Family Law Section and as the Immediate Past President of the New London County Bar Association. However, from the inception of her career as a family lawyer, the one constant has been her unwavering commitment to the rights of and the effective representation of children’s interests in our court system. She received the CT Department of Children & Families First Annual Statewide "Partners for Children" Recognition and is the founder of and continues to serve as Chair to the Committee of Counsel for Children. She is also the co-founder of the Early Intervention Program, a program she designed and implemented to insulate children from the emotional trauma that is the otherwise unavoidable consequence of high conflict divorces.
Attorney Connolly has served Take Root since October, 2002, helping to develop educational resources for lawyers and judges, and providing consultation to families and legal professionals. |
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Dr. Linda Gunsberg
Clinical Consultant
Dr. Linda Gunsberg is a clinical psychologist. She was the first Clinical Director of Take Root (2002-2004) and continues her involvement in Take Root as a Clinical Consultant. She is founder and Chair of the Family Forensics Training Program at the Washington Square Institute for Psychotherapy and Mental Health and coeditor of the recently published volume, A Handbook of Divorce and Custody: Forensic, Developemental, and Clinical Perspectives. She has published widely on family matters, and has appeared as a guest expert on the Oprah Winfrey Show; Nancy Grace, Closing Arguments, Court TV; Lisa Bloom and Vinnie Polatin, Open Court, Court TV; and the Montel Williams Show. |
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