Join us in Kearney May 1-3 for the 2024 NJJA Conference - Empowering Futures
The NJJA conference is held every year during the first week of May in Kearney, NE. Over the last 40 years our conference has grown to more than 300 attendees.
We provide an opportunity for anyone working with youth exhibiting at-risk behaviors involved in the juvenile justice system to learn from, and network with, professionals across prevention, education, juvenile justice, and treatment systems. Our conference includes keynote speakers, breakout sessions and social events. Professional development credits for LMHPs (CEUs), Probation Administration workers (criminogenic hours), and legal professionals (CLEs) are available.
WHEN - May 1-3, 2024
WHERE - Younes Conference Center Kearney, NE
REGISTRATION - The NJJA conference registration is open. Registration closes April 24, 2024.
Check back here for the finalized agenda, breakout topics, and complete biographies of all presenters.
2024 Keynote Speakers
Gaelin Elmore
Gaelin Elmore is a dynamic and nationally sought-after keynote speaker, trainer, and thought leader. He works with organizations and people to become belonging-informed in order to help children overcome trauma and unleash their potential. Gaelin's passion and energy for his work stems from his heart for justice and his own lived experience. His own belonging journey has led Gaelin to the National Football League, and now stages, board rooms, and organizations, all across the country, aiming to inspire, encourage, and equip others to think differently about their work and its long-term impact on others. Gaelin now lives in Eden Prairie, MN, where he gets to experience the purest form of belonging as a husband to his wife, Micaela, and dad to their two daughters, Laniah and Tatum.
Alicia Kozak
Alicia Kozak is an internationally acclaimed and highly sought-after motivational speaker, advocate, and Internet safety expert, and television personality who has inspired millions through her in person and on-screen appearances. Alicia’s extraordinary life story exemplifies the strength of the human spirit’s ability to overcome adversity and to deny defeat.
At age 13, Alicia became the first widely reported Internet-related child abduction victim, after she was kidnapped and held captive by an Internet predator. Following her miraculous rescue, Alicia has devoted her life to raising awareness of missing persons and protecting children against predatory crime.
She has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil, Fox & Friends, Good Morning America, Anderson Live, Investigation Discovery (ID), Oxygen, Lifetime, The CW, ABC, BBC, A&E, CNN, MSNBC,and many others, as well as in international publications such as People Magazine and Cosmopolitan.
Internet safety expert and founder of The Alicia Project for the past 20 years, starting at just age 14, Alicia pioneered insightful Internet safety and sexual exploitation awareness presentations to children and adults. One of the most vocal and outspoken advocates for child safety legislation, she has testified before Congress, and works to pass Alicia’s Law, her namesake nationally. Alicia’s Law provides a dedicated revenue stream to the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force. Recently, an electronic-sniffing K-9 Officer was added to the Wisconsin DOJ. He was named “Kozak” in honor of Alicia.
Her mission is to promote Internet and child safety awareness, advocate for missing and recovered persons, and battle against child sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Alicia’s life, mission, and passion prove that she – that all of us – are more than our stories.
Judge Robert Lung
Judge Robert Lung currently serves as a District Court Judge in the 18th Judicial District of Colorado. He also 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 Judge Lung was appointed by then Colorado Chief Justice Nancy Rice to serve as the Judicial Representative of the Colorado Human Trafficking Council and he was elected the Vice-Chair from 2018 to 2020. In 2017 Judge Lung 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. Judge Lung 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 Judge Lung served as an Adjunct Professor at St. Thomas University College of Law and taught Human Rights Lawyering. Judge Lung has also served 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 and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). In his “free time” Judge Lung 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.
