Joining Penna Dexter on the show today is author and speaker Dawn Stefanowicz. Dawn addresses the impact of legislation affecting children and advocates for children and families, pertaining to marriage, parenting, sexuality, and education. Later in the show, Senior Vice-President of Family Research Council, Rob Schwarzwalder joins us to discuss the issue of Baltimore’s missing fathers and the broken family system. Our final guest on the show today is, Independent Women’s Forum and National Review writer, Jillian Melchior who tells us more about the latest development in the Clinton Foundation scandal.
She acknowledges that children are impacted long-term by various family structures and living arrangements. Dawn addresses the impact of legislation affecting children and advocates for children and families, pertaining to marriage, parenting, sexuality, and education. Dawn’s has provided testimony in Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Washington State and submitted amicus briefs to the 5th Circuit and SCOTUS. Dawn has been involved in meetings with many Senators and House of Representatives, discussing the impact of same-sex marriage and parenting among other issues.
Internationally, her testimony was submitted to the Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Standing Committee and to Argentina’s senators. Dawn addressed party leaders in-person in Paraguay. She testified at the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs on hate crime legislation, provided testimony to Parliament regarding same-sex marriage, and to a parliamentary committee reviewing age of sexual consent laws in Canada. She is part of the Testimonial Committee of ICRI, International Children’s Rights Institute. Dawn speaks to a wide range of groups internationally.
Dawn, a resource to family policy, legislative, medical, research, and scholastic organizations, offers a safe place for adult children from similar households. Dawn is married with 2 teens.
Rob spent many years on Capitol Hill as Chief of Staff for two Members of Congress and as a press secretary in both the House and Senate. The Senator and Congressmen for whom he worked held seats on the Senate and House Armed Services committees; the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee; and the House Oversight and Government Reform, Natural Resources, Science, Small Business, and Transportation and Infrastructure committees.
From 1997 - 2001, Rob was director of communications and senior writer at the National Association of Manufacturers. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Rob to be senior speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he crafted language relating to all facets of the President's health care agenda.
Rob's articles and op-eds have been published in many of America's leading newspapers and journals. He has been interviewed on economic and political topics by outlets as diverse as National Public Radio, The New York Times and The Weekly Standard and has facilitated many successful media events and news conferences.
Rob and his wife, Valerie have three children. They make their home in northern Virginia, where they are active members at Immanuel Bible Church.
She was a 2011 Robert Novak fellow for the Phillips Foundation, reporting on Christianity in China, traveling extensively and writing for The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, Newsweek Japan, Doublethink, and The Daily.
She has previously worked as an opinion writer and History Page editor at The Daily, an assistant online editor at Commentary, and a Bartley Fellow on the opinion page of The Wall Street Journal Asia.
She is a graduate of Hillsdale College.