BCAT News

The Mama Bear Effect, a Burlingon based non-profit established in 2012, provides educational resources for families, schools and communities all over the world to raise awareness and protecting children from the threat of sexual abuse. 

The driving force behind Mama Bear is its founder Adrianne Simeone. Almost single handedly creating tools for communication and understanding of this sensitive issue. Simeone recently made a hire for Mama Bear in the form of a new Research Specialist and Partnerships Coordinator Natalie Moon. Moon connected with Simeone as a follower of The Mama Bear Effect Instagram.

“I just loved everything the Mama Bear posted about. I just thought everything they were doing and their mission was awesome and I wanted to be a part of it,” said Moon. “And I decided to message her on Instagram and she told me that they were a small non-profit and they don’t normally employ people but she was interested in at least interviewing me.”

At the time Simeone was looking into a research project for a presentation she was preparing for the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition in October.

“Just as we were exploring the possibility to initiate some research, Natalie reached out to us looking for potential work or a volunteer position. With her degree and research experience in this field, and after our interview with her, I knew she would be a perfect fit and an asset to our organization,” said Simeone.  

Moon received her Bachelor’s in psychology from South Virginia University and has earned a Masters in Criminal Justice, with an emphasis on criminal behavior from Tippin University. Moon’s studies focused on sex offenders, particulatly feamle sex offenders and has also worked for a child advocacy center as mentor to young people. Moon is working on putting together research in preparation for the American Academy of Pediatrics conference.  

“Adrianne was telling me about a project that she wanted to work on expressing the importance of pediatricians and their roll in child sexual abuse prevention,” said Moon. “We just finished the research survey. We are compiling the data and putting together a summary on it.”

Moon is already looking into further studies for The Mama Bear Effect.

“Future projects will draw on my personal experience with criminal behavior, sex offenders, their typology and their modivation and what they do,” Moon said. “I mimic The Mama Bear Effects’ values and mission to prevent sexual child abuse and to get people talking about it so that victims can feel comforatalbe talking about it as well. I’m happy to be working with Mama Bear Effect, it’s a great organization, I’ve loved my experience so far.”