JERRY TELLO

Jerry Tello comes from a family of Mexican and Texan roots and was raised in South Central Los Angeles. He is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of family strengthening, community mobilization and culturally based violence prevention / intervention issues. He has extensive experience in the treatment of victims and perpetrators of abuse and in addictive behaviors, with a specialization in working with multi-ethnic populations.

Over the last 30 years Mr. Tello has dedicated his efforts to preventing and healing the pain of relationship / community violence, teen pregnancy, fatherlessness, and internalized oppression by speaking on these issues to over half a million people across the nation. Mr. Tello has motivated, trained and mentored thousands of individuals, organizations, and community groups and is the author of various curriculums addressing male rites of passage, violence prevention, teen fatherhood, pregnancy prevention, family strengthening, and fatherhood literacy.

He served as a principal consultant for Scholastic Books on an international bilingual literacy curriculum, has authored a series of children's books and is the co-editor of Family Violence and Men of Color. Mr Tello has appeared in Time, Newsweek, and Hispanic magazines and has received many major awards including the Presidential Crime Victims Service Award, presented by president Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno, as well as two California Governor's Awards for his violence prevention and intervention advocacy work and from Rotary International he received the Ambassador of Peace award.

As part of the continuation of this work and in collaboration with the American G.I. Forum, he has launched a recent effort entitled "Men and Women of Honor" focused on providing domestic violence awareness presentations and support services to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Persian Gulf veterans and their spouses. He is also a member of Sacred Circles, an indigenous based performance group dedicated to family and community peace and healing. Mr. Tello is the father of three children, Marcos, Renee and Emilio.

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