Haruv USA Director, DeJon Knapp, LCSW

DeJon Knapp is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with twelve years of direct practice experience with vulnerable individuals, children, and families in Oklahoma. DeJon joined the Haruv USA team a few years ago, and in August 2023 has been promoted to Haruv USA Director position. Prior to working with Haruv USA, Knapp served as the Vice President of Safe Housing Services at Domestic Violence Intervention Services in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she and her team managed an emergency shelter and transitional housing program for adult and child survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Knapp also worked with Youth Services of Tulsa as Street Outreach Coordinator where she built relationships with and met the basic needs of teenagers and young adults experiencing homelessness. Prior to her work with Youth Services, Knapp worked for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services as a Child Welfare Specialist in both Permanency Planning and Child Protective Services, where her interest and dedication to service and social work first began.

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Haruv USA Coordinator, Jordan Bayer, LMSW

Jordan Bayer is a Licensed Master Social Worker with eight years of direct practice experience with individuals, children, and families in and outside of Oklahoma. Prior to working with Haruv USA, Bayer served as an embedded therapist in Broken Arrow Public Schools serving children K-12^th grade in various school sites. Bayer also has worked as the Tulsa-Tahlequah Foster Care Program Director for a statewide agency in Oklahoma.  Prior to her work with OK foster care, she served in multiple roles involving community behavioral health, foster care, and crisis intervention in Texas. She started her career working as a CASA Advocate Supervisor in Cleveland County.

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Haruv USA Administrative Manager, Esther Stafford, M.Ed.

Esther Stafford is the Administrative Manager of Haruv-USA at the University of Oklahoma. Esther holds a Master’s degree in Education from Russia; there she worked as a translator in the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). In the past, Esther lived in Israel for 10 years and worked with deprived youth in the “YES” project of the Hebrew University and tutored youngsters in preparations for their final exams.

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Carmit Katz is a social worker and full professor at the Paul Berwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Prof. Katz’s area of ​​expertise is childhood abuse and neglect. Her work focuses on the fight against child abuse, believing that preventing harm is a supreme moral obligation. Prof. Katz promotes interdisciplinary discourse and emphasizes the importance of working directly with children in all contexts of their lives – a principle that guides all of her professional work.

Prof. Katz is committed to policy change and works in national and international arenas to advance children’s right to a life free from violence. Prof. Katz is a Senior Advisor to the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), she founded and led the Israeli Public Committee for Policy Change on Childhood Sexual Abuse, and she founded and led the International Group of Scholars Protecting Children from Maltreatment During COVID-19. ISPCAN recognized this group as a leader in promoting the safety of children during a global pandemic.

In addition, Prof. Katz is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Child Maltreatment  and an associate editor of the journal   Child Abuse and Neglect .

During the “Iron Swords” war, which began with the October 7, 2023 massacre, Prof. Katz initiated and led, together with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the development and writing of a series of innovative and groundbreaking intervention plans for the treatment of children directly affected by the war, including a plan for accompanying children who were orphaned by both parents, an intervention plan for children exposed to severe violence and massacres, and a plan for receiving kidnapped children. Prof. Katz also leads, together with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the psychosocial support system for children who returned from Hamas captivity.

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