Jana’s Campaign Hosts Australian Lawyer on Regional Tour

Hays, KS- Jana’s Campaign Inc. will be hosting Joplin Higgins from Hunter Valley Australia this coming week. Higgins is an attorney who specializes in family law and domestic violence issues. She is coming to the U.S. to learn from Jana’s Campaign and other domestic violence professionals across Kansas, Missouri and Colorado.

​“We are proud and excited that Joplin has asked Jana’s Campaign to help her identify and connect with U.S. professionals in the field of domestic violence prevention and response,” says Dr. Christie Brungardt, Jana’s Campaign board member. “Our representatives will accompany Joplin to all her meetings and will be learning alongside her,” says Brungardt. “We are honored to build this new international partnership to reduce gender and relationship violence worldwide.”

Throughout a ten-day period, Higgins will be meeting with representatives from the District Attorney offices’ in both Denver and Johnson County, KS, the Kansas Attorney General Office, the Kansas Coalition against Sexual and Domestic Violence, as well as attending several prevention workshops and presentations provided by Jana’s Campaign. She will meet with many other professionals, including Juliana Carlson, professor of social work who conducts international research on violence prevention strategies across the globe. Higgins will complete her trip by visiting with additional experts in the state of Tennessee.

Jana’s Campaign is a Hays, Kansas-based, education and prevention organization with the mission of reducing gender and relationship violence. Jana’s Campaign was created in honor of Jana Mackey who lost her life to domestic violence in 2008. Mackey, a Hays High School graduate, was a 25-year-old law student at the University of Kansas at the time of her death. She spent years volunteering and helping victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in Lawrence.