Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan, and I'm honored, so honored, Marcia, to have you as one of my guests

for the Influence Continuum podcast. I like to start by just telling our listeners a bit about you

and your very important work. You are a social worker by training. You have over 40

years of experience in mental health and child welfare. But you are the vice president of the

family advocacy division within the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

And we like to call it in the biz Neckmec National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

And this is a very unique entity in D.C. I'm going to ask you to explain what makes it so important and so special and how your

organization can help serve missing and exploited children. But before we get into that,

I'll just say that, am I correct in remembering that it was actually John Walsh that had something

to do with the founding of NECMEC, or am I

misremembering it?

No, Stephen, thank you so much for having me.

Sure.

You know, I'm really happy to be here to talk about the work of the National Center.

But no, you're absolutely correct.

John and Ravei Walsh, certainly are founders of the National Center for Missing and Exquated Children.

Many of your listeners will probably remember the pretty horrific story of the abduction of Adam Walsh, who was abducted when he was out with his mother at a store,

and he was in 81, and he was abducted, and he was later found deceased.

And anyone that remembers that will remember, of course, it was horrific. You know,

there had been some other missing child cases as well during that same time frame. You know,

you had Eton Pates in New York. I'm an old fogey. I'm 68, so I do remember back to the 80s.

But don't assume how listeners are out my age, but even 18 and older kind of thing.

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