Summit 2025 Speakers
David Pittman
Dave is the Director of Together We Heal. He formed it in 2011 to help survivors of child sexual abuse and offer guidance for their families. Its mission is to prevent sexual abuse, help those already harmed begin the process of healing, and offer a safe forum for victims and their families to share, learn and heal.
Dave is a Safeguarding Educator at GRACE, (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), where he helped develop their Safeguarding Initiative, a program that focuses on the prevention of and response to abuse in faith communities.
All this work is important to Dave because he is a survivor of child sexual abuse and sexual assault perpetrated by a Southern Baptist minister. For over 18 years he’s worked toward reform of The Church and its abuse issues, with the goal of helping change its culture to one that better protects kids and victims and holds perpetrators fully accountable.
Robert Lung
Judge Robert Lung provides presentations nationally and internationally on issues such as human trafficking, childhood trauma and resiliency to an exceptionally diverse audience base including the military, the medical field, the educational field (including the U.S. Department of Education and the Colorado Department of Education), various judiciaries in the U.S. and internationally, faith-based organizations, first-responders, mental health professionals and law enforcement. In 2016 he was appointed by then Colorado Chief Justice Nancy Rice to serve on the Colorado Human Trafficking Council on which he served as Vice-Chair from 2018 to 2020. In 2017 he was Presidentially appointed to the National Advisory Council on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States on which he served from 2017 to 2022. He was also Presidentially appointed to the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking from 2018 to 2020 and was elected the Chair in 2020. In 2021 he served as an Adjunct Professor at St. Thomas University College of Law and taught Human Rights Lawyering. In 2023 he had the honor of testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability regarding the passage of Federal anti-trafficking law. He also serves as a consultant with Office for Victims of Crime under the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office on Trafficking in Persons under the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons under the U.S. State Department, the Blue Campaign under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). In his “free time” he works on writing his first book, a biography about hope and resiliency, and he endeavors to keep up with his two adopted sons in hiking and downhill mountain biking.
Dr. Emmanuel Peña
Dr. Emmanuel Peña is a Child Abuse Pediatrician at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and Fellowship Director at Emory University. He earned his undergraduate degree in Cell-Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the State University of New York - New Paltz where he also completed his graduate studies in Cell Biology. He continued post-graduate education at Columbia University while also fulfilling clinical research assistant role with the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN). He attended New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYIT) then completed his pediatric residency and Child Abuse Pediatrics fellowship at the University Florida – Jacksonville, where he focused on identification of the most common cause of child mortality. Dr. Peña has practiced in Casper, Wyoming), Jacksonville, FL, Tallahassee, FL, and Atlanta, GA as a Pediatric/Neonatal Hospitalist and Child Abuse Pediatrician. This exposure allowed him to experience first-hand how community resources, values, and interdisciplinary collaboration have significant consequences on child health outcomes, and surveillance of the same. Currently, his research is focused on the assessment of injuries for the purpose of discerning abusive versus neglectful causes, the impact of sexting in various forms of child maltreatment, and Medical Child Abuse post-COVID pandemic.
William F. McMurry
William F. McMurry represents a distinguished legacy in Kentucky law, carrying forward a tradition of legal excellence as a third-generation attorney. Born in Paducah in 1955, his early exposure to the legal profession came through watching his father, Pelham McMurry, serve first as County Attorney for 13 years and then as County Judge for 7 years. These formative experiences in the courthouse halls of Western Kentucky would shape his future dedication to justice.
After law school, McMurry served three years as an Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney in both McCracken and Jefferson Counties, where he tried child rape and sexual abuse cases to jury verdict. These prosecutions, among the most emotionally challenging cases in criminal law, forged his commitment to pursuing justice for society's most vulnerable victims.
Throughout his career, McMurry has distinguished himself as a fearless advocate for society's most vulnerable. His practice has focused particularly on representing children and families affected by negligence and abuse, taking on cases that many other attorneys wouldn't touch.
Early in his career, he successfully championed the rights of young children wrongfully incarcerated in adult facilities, including a 6-year-old detained for taking bubble gum and a 5-year-old imprisoned simply for being present during his father's arrest.
In 1997, McMurry took on a groundbreaking case representing women who had been sexually abused by their workers' compensation attorney. The case began when two sisters discovered they had both been victimized by the same lawyer, who had exploited his position of trust by falsely claiming medical expertise and conducting unnecessary "physical examinations" of his female clients. As McMurry's investigation deepened, he uncovered that thirty years earlier, the same attorney had been reported to the Kentucky Bar Association for performing a vaginal examination on a female client in his office. Despite a hearing officer finding probable cause, the Kentucky Supreme Court had quietly dismissed that complaint as "so preposterous as to not be believable" – a decision made under rules that kept all bar complaints strictly confidential. As the 1997 case unfolded, dozens of additional women came forward, revealing a pattern of abuse spanning three decades. When the earlier victim shared her story with the Courier-Journal, the resulting public outcry led to a landmark change: the Kentucky Supreme Court revised its secrecy rules, making all bar complaints public after a finding of probable cause. The case not only resulted in a settlement that held the perpetrator accountable but also created lasting reform in legal transparency that continues to protect Kentucky citizens today.
In 1998, he volunteered pro bono to represent a mother dying of AIDS who faced discrimination when her HIV status was unlawfully disclosed by hospital staff. Taking the case on the eve of trial when other attorneys had abandoned her, McMurry secured a verdict that transformed the lives of both the mother and her five children, demonstrating to them that the legal system could work for everyone, regardless of circumstances.
His advocacy work has led to groundbreaking achievements in holding institutions accountable. In 2003, he served as lead counsel in securing a $25.7 million settlement from the Archdiocese of Louisville on behalf of 243 survivors of clergy abuse, marking the largest settlement at that time paid exclusively from diocesan assets.
In 2009 case of O'Bryan v. Holy See, McMurry made legal history by successfully arguing that the Vatican could be held accountable in U.S. courts for the actions of American bishops in cases of child abuse, effectively challenging the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
Another significant victory came in 2006 when McMurry negotiated settlements for 43 survivors of abuse at a Kentucky orphanage operated by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, a case chronicled in the book "The Unbreakable Child" by Kim Michelle Richardson.
Today, McMurry focuses his practice on medical and legal malpractice cases, bringing decades of experience and expertise to these complex areas of law. He holds the distinction of being board-certified as both a Medical Malpractice and Legal Malpractice Trial Specialist by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys (ABPLA), representing the highest level of professional excellence in these fields.
His career exemplifies the profound impact one attorney can have in fighting for justice, particularly for those who might otherwise have no voice in the legal system. From representing victims of professional misconduct to challenging powerful institutions, William F. McMurry has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to protecting the rights of the injured and vulnerable, while helping to shape the landscape of professional liability law in America.