Evander Luther

Astrid Heppenstall Heger Evander Luther

Publisher Marketing: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Astrid Heppenstall Heger, M. D. is a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the USC Keck School of Medicine and the founder and Executive Director of the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in East Los Angeles. Heger has both a bachelors degree and an M. D. from the University of Southern California. In 1984, Dr. Heger founded the Center for the Vulnerable Child (CVC) for the evaluation of child abuse. This was the first medically-based Child Advocacy Center in the world and currently evaluates over 10,000 child abuse and child sexual assault victims every year. This model program has been replicated in hundreds of programs around the world. Renamed the Violence Intervention Program (VIP), Dr. Heger established the first of its kind, "one stop shop" community Family Advocacy Center, offering medical, mental health, protective, legal and social services to victims of family violence and sexual assault throughout Los Angeles County. With increasing pressure from law enforcement and social services to answer the need for improved services for adolescents and adults, in 1995 the program added interventions for sexual assault and domestic violence.