Dr. Sheree Goldman is the Coordinator of the Monterey County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) and feels privileged to work with a remarkable multidisciplinary team and county health department. With over four decades of experience in health care, she has concentrated on forensic nursing for the past 20 years in Monterey County, California. The SART program is supported by the Director of Monterey County’s Health Department, Elsa Jimenez, who recognizes that sexual assault, domestic violence, and child sexual abuse are public health issues.

As such, this community-based SART program encourages members to develop innovative solutions to improve response to victims. As one example, Dr. Goldman worked in collaboration with an Investigator in the District Attorney’s Office, Oliver Minnig, to create a smartphone app for law enforcement officers in Monterey County to help them navigate the process of obtaining a sexual assault evidentiary exam for victims. The app also features a tool to help officers recognize when a minor may be involved with commercial sex and an interactive screen that offers resources.

Another example was seen in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting quarantine.  Dr. Goldman worked with the multidisciplinary team to develop and implement a temporary protocol alternative that allows victims to remain at home for evidence collection utilizing a virtual approach called “TeleSART.” The goals of the team are to allow victims of sexual assault to remain sheltered in place when collecting evidence, while concurrently providing medical oversight, advocacy, and securing an acceptable chain of custody.

Dr. Goldman is the author of several online courses for nurses and allied health professionals on domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault. In addition, she provides expert testimony to the criminal justice system for sexual assault and strangulation cases, and gives presentations to law enforcement officers, advocates, community members, and healthcare professionals. She has presented at various conferences, including the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN), where she spoke in conjunction with Oliver Minnig and a Human Trafficking Survivor about the smartphone app in 2018.

Dr. Goldman received a bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nursing from the University of California, San Francisco, and a doctorate degree in nursing from San Jose State University. She is a member of CalSAFE, the IAFN, Association of Forensic Nurses (AFN), and the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council of Monterey County