Pilot Project on Restorative Dialogue

Dr Karlijn Demasure, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada

Dr. Karlijn Demasure holds a doctorate in practical theology from KULeuven (Belgium, 2003). She was the president of the Interdiocesan Service for Pastoral Care in Flanders (Belgium, 2003–2007). In 2008, she became a professor at the Faculty of Theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. She held the Sisters-of-Our-Lady-of-the-Cross Chair in Christian Family Studies from 2008–2014 and was appointed dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences and Philosophy (2010–2014). From 2012 until 2014, she was the president of the “Société Internationale de théologie pratique.” She was a professor at the Gregorian University in Rome (Italy) and the Executive Director of the Center for Child Protection at the same university (2014–2019). In 2019, she returned to Canada, where she founded the Centre for Safeguarding Minors and Vulnerable Persons at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada. She is now professor emeritus at the same university and works with a research team on the international project: Towards a Trustworthy Church.

Her field of research is sexual and spiritual abuse, trauma, and pastoral care for victims and survivors. Dr. Demasure has been accompanying survivors of sexual abuse for more than 25 years.

Dr Sheila McMahon, University of San Diego, US

Dr. Sheila M. McMahon is currently the Visiting Scholar and Director for the Restorative Justice and Catholic Social Thought program at the Center for Restorative Justice, University of San Diego. Her research and practice interests center on campus-based and community-level interventions, such as restorative justice (RJ) and transformative justice (TJ), to prevent and address sexualized violence, build a sense of community, and strengthen individual and collective well-being.  She is engaged in collaborative research locally and nationally which focuses on the role of trauma-informed, system-aware restorative justice (RJ) responses to sexual harm. She was the PI for the first study in the U.S. about early adopters of RJ and TJ for campus sexual misconduct; participated on the research team for the U.S. National Restorative Justice Research Community (RJRC), an interdisciplinary academic community that supports research on restorative justice to improve outcomes and address inequities in the U.S. criminal legal system; and served as Co-PI for a pilot study on restorative justice responses to military sexual trauma (MST). As a program evaluator, she is the PI for an empowerment evaluation (EE) process that examines RJ implementation on Catholic university campuses in the U.S. Trained at Harvard Divinity School and later at Rutgers University Center on Ending Violence, Dr. McMahon is a licensed clinical social worker in the U.S. and her work is guided by the insights of the survivors whom she has accompanied over the past two decades.