It was a perfect day in April when more than 850 folks gathered on the South Chapman at GBMC to “Walk A Mile In Their Shoes” to support th SFAE program and victims of domestic violence. Dani Imbragulio returns to discuss of GBMC returns to discuss the importance of addressing sensitive topics like sexual assault and domestic violence, emphasizing GBMC’s role in forensic evidence collection, advocacy, and trauma-informed care. They also discussed the GBMC Slides Project, which tests slides from sexual assault cases from 1977 to 1997, leading to over 40 charges and convictions.
Nestor Aparicio and Dani Imbragulio discussed the success of the 11th annual Walk a Mile event, which raised over $1.4 million for GBMC’s Safe domestic violence and child protection program. The event, held on April 17, 2026, featured perfect weather and involved 850 community members. Dani highlighted the importance of addressing sensitive topics like sexual assault and domestic violence, emphasizing GBMC’s role in forensic evidence collection, advocacy, and trauma-informed care. They also discussed the GBMC Slides Project, which tests slides from sexual assault cases from 1977 to 1997, leading to over 40 charges and convictions.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Send pizza from Pizza John’s (Essex) to Dani Imbragulio’s house as discussed during the visit.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Schedule a follow-up interview/segment in the fall to promote next year’s Walk A Mile event and discuss planning.
- [ ] Conduct trauma-informed policing and patient-centered care training with Baltimore County and other agencies (NRP, MDTA police) as scheduled for this coming Friday.
- [ ] Provide information and set up interested RNs for the forensic nursing class starting in September (applicants must have RN for 18 months); coordinate intake through the office.
Maryland Crab Cake Tour and GBMC’s Walk a Mile Event
- Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland crab cake tour, including events at Fadleys, Lexington Market, and the Fishmonger’s Daughter.
- Nestor mentions GBMC’s support for the crab cake tour and the 11th annual Walk a Mile event, which benefits the GBMC Safe domestic violence and child protection program.
- Nestor shares his experience at the Walk a Mile event, including meeting Dani Imbragulio and receiving a red shoes hat and T-shirt.
- Nestor expresses his excitement about the event and the perfect weather on April 17, 2026, for the walk.
Introduction to GBMC’s Safe Program and Walk a Mile Event
- Nestor introduces Dani Imbragulio, the Victims Advocacy Coordinator for GBMC’s Safe program, and discusses the importance of the Walk a Mile event.
- Dani explains the various aspects of GBMC’s Safe program, including sexual assault forensic examination, domestic violence, child abuse, and human trafficking.
- Nestor and Dani discuss the challenges of talking about sensitive topics like domestic violence and the importance of breaking the taboo.
- Nestor shares his thoughts on the courage it takes for victims to seek help and the changes in how victims are treated over the years.
Challenges Faced by Victims and the Role of GBMC
- Dani emphasizes the importance of making victims feel less ostracized and more comfortable in seeking help.
- Nestor and Dani discuss the societal discomfort around discussing sexual violence and the need for better support and education.
- Dani explains the role of GBMC in providing forensic evidence collection, advocacy, and medical care for victims.
- Dani highlights the importance of trauma-informed policing and the training provided to police agencies to handle such cases better.
The Impact of Walk a Mile and Community Support
- Nestor reflects on the significance of the Walk a Mile event in bringing together victims and raising awareness about domestic violence.
- Dani explains the importance of keeping the focus on the patients and survivors rather than making them the center of attention.
- Nestor and Dani discuss the challenges victims face, including the impact on their families and the community.
- Dani shares the importance of community support and the role of organizations like Tiny Superheroes in empowering victims.
GBMC’s Forensic Nursing Program and the GBMC Slides Project
- Nestor and Dani discuss the forensic nursing program at GBMC, which includes a team of 23 nurses and ongoing training for new nurses.
- Dani explains the GBMC Slides Project, which involves testing slides collected from sexual assault cases from 1977 to 1997.
- Nestor and Dani discuss the scientific breakthroughs and the impact of the project in identifying perpetrators and bringing them to justice.
- Dani highlights the importance of the project in providing closure for victims and their families.
Conclusion and Future Plans for Walk a Mile
- Nestor and Dani discuss the future plans for the Walk a Mile event and the importance of continuing to raise awareness and funds for the GBMC Safe program.
- Dani shares the ongoing efforts to train and educate the community about sexual violence and the role of GBMC in providing support.
- Nestor expresses his gratitude for the work done by GBMC and the importance of continuing to support victims and their families.
- Dani provides contact information for the GBMC Safe program and encourages anyone in need of assistance to reach out.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Walk a Mile, GBMC Safe program, domestic violence, child protection, sexual assault, forensic examination, trauma-informed policing, victim advocacy, community support, fundraising, Baltimore County, GBMC slides project, sexual violence, human trafficking, emergency department.
SPEAKERS
8
Nestor Aparicio, Dani Imbragulio, Speaker 1
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively getting the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road. We will be for Preakness week. We’re going to be at fadleys on the 13th and Lexington market doing the crab derby. We’re looking forward to that. They’ve been doing that for only five decades now, during Preakness week, and then on the 21st we get out to Catonsville at the fishmonger’s daughter, we will have the newest Maryland lottery scratch offs. I’m going to get some miss PAC mans next month, but I have the Maryland treasures. He’s been very popular and a fun, fun thing to give away. Our friends at GBMC have also put us out on the road for the Maryland craft cake tour. In conjunction with Farnan and Dermer. They are the comfort guys keeping us comfortable here with HVAC and plumbing needs. All summer long, I am wearing my either I’m getting larger or I need to get a larger size, 11th annual walk a mile in their shoes. This happened last month over GBMC benefiting the GBMC safe domestic violence and child protection program. It is the thing we don’t talk about a lot because it’s really hard to talk about it. I am blessed that I ran into Danny imbruglio During the walk a mile. We took a little picture together. Had some fun. I even got a hat with red shoes. I don’t want to mess my hair up here, but I got the t shirt. What a unbelievable day. First things first, and it’s great to have you back on. Sorry. We’re not doing pizza at Pizza John’s. I can owe you that this is won’t be as good a visit as the one we had last year.
Dani Imbragulio 01:28
No problem. The first visit was great. This one’s just as fine in my house. It’s
Nestor Aparicio 01:34
fine. Oh, I’ll send some pizza over to your house from Essex at Pizza John’s. But we got together on a day, and I’ll just say this for anyone, and I’ve promoted hundreds, if not 1000s, over 35 years of events, walks, gatherings, memorials, Cancer Fund, right? Just all of these community things that we do in different ways. The weather on April the 17th, 2026 if I could order a weather day for any event ever. It was like the most perfect day there’s ever been on the south Chapman here at Taos,
8Dani Imbragulio 02:05
it has it? We were so lucky. It was beautiful. It was comfortable. The 10th the year before, it was raining, so we were all huddled under a tent. This one was perfect.
Nestor Aparicio 02:17
You got even, is what you’re saying. All right. Well, I know it’s a big day, and I want to give you some oxygen to talk about the program itself, the event itself. We’ve now done 11 years of this, and, you know, I sort of helicoptered in in year 11. I’m like, Hey, this is pretty cool. And I’m thinking this was something that was getting built for a number of years. You had organizations fly in from all around the country that support folks, supporting children, especially in all of this. And I actually had, I was not the MC you had Amelia from 98 rock, and she came up to me, and we’re old friends, music, French. You need to talk on your show about this DNA program they have and all of this. And I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just a lot of information as well, and a gathering. But more than anything, this event has become something around something that’s not something we talk about here. 365 days a year. It’s a really uncomfortable topic for everyone.
Dani Imbragulio 03:12
Is and with our program, GBMC, the safe domestic violence program, sexual assault forensic examination, domestic violence, child abuse, human trafficking, it’s hard to talk about, because society says it’s still uncomfortable. So the more we can get it out there, the more we can say it, the more people hear it, the less taboo, the less ostracized victims, patients are going to feel, because those are the people who shouldn’t feel the shame, but they ended up get they get silenced because everyone else gets uncomfortable. So the more we can talk about it, the more we can put it out there, the better.
Nestor Aparicio 03:54
8Well, I’d say this. I mean, you were, it was quite an awakening sitting in pizza John’s talking to you about this sensitive topic, and I thought more about it, and it came right back to me. Pizza John’s last week, I had Sarah David on she’s running for State’s Attorney in Baltimore County, and we were talking about being a victim. And when you’re a victim, the moment you’ve been victimized, you didn’t sign up for it, you didn’t happen, even if it’s a car crash, whatever it is that the police are on the scene and there’s medical attention, or there’s legal action or all of that, it throws your life into chaos. But this is one of those things where, when someone is assaulting you, and you may be married to them, maybe a breadwinner, the that the courage that it takes to pick up the phone and to think, is there anybody who’s willing to help me in that moment that is the most vulnerable, and that’s the part of this that I think a lot has changed over the years for victims of sexual assault, to be able to have a GBMC, to be able to have even police in their precinct that are much more educated about the. Domestic issues,
Dani Imbragulio 05:02
absolutely. Just like you said, if you’re in a car wreck, you know, everyone rushes to you and they want to help you. They want to say, you know, what can I do for you? But think of a victim of sexual violence, everyone’s like, Oh, nope, that’s not me. I’m not the person for you. You need to call a hotline. You need to do this, or that’s not my place. So it truly becomes a I’m the problem. I’m the one making others uncomfortable in that situation. So when they do pick up the phone, they do come into our emergency department for physical violence, sexual violence, human trafficking, needs. There’s no types of walls up. Hey, we have a program. We’re going to get them up here to you, as long as you’re okay with it and we’re able to start that process. Police nowadays, we train Baltimore County. We’re training the other agencies in the state. We’ve got two of the state agencies, NRP, which is natural resource police, mdta, which is Maryland Transportation Authority, police, we’re training with them with Baltimore County this coming Friday. They are ready and willing to learn the newer ways of trauma, informed policing trauma informed interviewing, patient centered care that it’s not just answer the question I’m asking it is, how do we make this a less degrading experience for the person we’re speaking with? Because in all reality, there’s different spokes to the wheel. We are one spoke. We’re the forensic evidence collection. We’re the advocacy. We are the nurse, the nursing program that is here to assist, but the emergency department is there for medical necessity. You know, they’re not there for the evidence or the advocacy. Therefore, medical necessity, CT scans, laceration, shortness of breath, chest pain, things that need medical treatment. The police are there to get the bad guy. So they’re there to get as much information so they can do an arrest. Then the legal side, they’re there to prosecute. So we have to understand our role, that we have a small, small wheel of the cog in the wheel that we have to prepare this victim for what what lies ahead on the criminal aspect, civil aspect, what tomorrow is going to look like, because we tell people all the Time advocacy is not hand holding. It is not back rubbing. It is not You’re so brave. It’s preparation. It is being the most honest person in the room in that moment that tomorrow is probably going to be worse than today, and the day after is probably going to be worse than tomorrow. But here’s what you should expect if you take option A, what does option a look like? Option B? What does option B look like? What could possibly come up in the future? So and
Speaker 1 08:09
in
Nestor Aparicio 08:09
many cases, when it’s a domestic situation, you’re living with, the person who has assaulted you, you leave the hospital. We talked about this very uncomfortably six months ago. Pizza Johns, you and I, Danny and Bergoglio here from GBMC, where do you go, and who’s paying the bills and who has the checkbook, and what about the kids? And what about we’re going to say to the family, and does Uncle Leo know? Does any you know what? What’s on social media? Who said, What? What did the neighbors see when the cops showed I mean, my God, it’s it. I left you that day, and it hurt my head, and it kind of all came back to me that day that we did walk a mile where all of these people are coming together, and I’m looking around the room at young women, young people, and thinking, there are victims here who have been brought together, and I don’t know who they even are, have been brought together through the strength of this, in knowing like that, the minute that this happens, your world is forever changed, especially in a domestic situation.
8Dani Imbragulio 09:11
Absolutely with the Walk a Mile you talked about how you’re part of so many other fundraisers, so many other walks, think of the people that are affected for those walks. They want to be front and center. They want to have the spotlight on the patients, the survivors, domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking. That’s exactly the opposite of what these patients, victim survivors want. So when people come out and support it, you can guess who is going to be in that crowd, but we do not ever finger point you, you, you, because our patients should be completely anonymous, that they get these services and they don’t have to do a thank you so. They don’t have to come up and speak. Some want to, but the majority want nothing to do with it, because what happens when I go home? My kids have to hear about this, because it’s not just my child, it’s also their father. It’s, you know, the grandparents, it’s the aunt the uncle, Leo, like we talked about, it’s society. The neighbors know what’s going on, because they’re the ones who call the police all the time, people know and they don’t want them to sexual violence if it’s from a stranger, if it’s outside of the home, people want to put it in a drawer, put it away and not think about it, because it’s uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable to hear about as the friend, the family member, the average age for a child sexual assault is early 50s. For disclosure, that’s the first disclosure that most people will do. So just think about that child sexual assault first disclosure is early 50s. So they don’t want to be center of attention, they’ll go, they’ll support, but it’ll never be brought up that it was them, and we don’t talk about it in public. If we see them at one of our events, we do not bring it up. We do not make them known. We say thank you for attending. We might chit chat for a minute, but we do not put a spotlight on them.
Nestor Aparicio 11:24
Daniel Bergoglio is here. She’s with GBMC. I want to get your your title right. You are the victims Advocacy Coordinator. Is that correct?
Dani Imbragulio 11:33
Some Advocacy Coordinator for the sexual assault forensic examination, domestic violence child protection.
Nestor Aparicio 11:38
8I’ll just call you a saint. At this point, we had 850 community members, including myself, getting cool T shirts. Women, children, doctors, people, community folks, back in April, at walk a mile in their shoes, raised more than $1.4 million for the safe and TV program over 11 years. Tell me about a little bit more about the program, and how many folks are there, and your title, which basically means like you are front line every day of your life. You are meeting someone that has been victimized by sexual assault, and the amount of concern you have and patience that you have and care that you have every single day that can’t take a minute off in your department, right? And, and this is being funded by this walk primarily over the course of the year, in other ways, but this is, this was your Super Bowl, and I’m just going to recap it, but to say, hey, let’s not forget about it for another 11
Dani Imbragulio 12:34
months. Well, thank you so much. We appreciate that. We will never say me, because we have such a a intertwined team. We have the forensic nursing team, which I want to say is up to 23 nurses. We have a couple perceptive and we do have another class starting in September for people who are interested in forensic nursing. So if anyone’s interested, they can reach out to the office and we can, we can set them up. You need to already have your RN for 18 months before you apply. And then my team for advocacy, I am the I’m an advocate first, even though I’m the supervisor, I’m the coordinator for the team, like you said during the day, I’m advocate number one, I’m the one who’s there most business days. I do have my on call team. I have a couple of my team members who are able to cover office when I do things like this, when I’m out in the community. We have our community outreach coordinator. She is instrumental in getting us out to the public that we can teach the public. We can train. We can come and speak to high schools. We train the police officers, like I said, politicians, churches, anyone who wants to hear us. We’re going to talk. We want to help. We present it to one person before our average is about 10,000 people that we train yearly. We are an advocate first, we are forensic nursing program first, everything else is icing on the cake, but our patients, they deserve 24/7, coverage. They deserve people who in the middle of the night, that call comes in, no questions asked. We go and we do so. We’re very opinionated about our team, that we want the best of the best. And sometimes that sounds a little meaner than we mean it to, but it’s because the people that need us at two o’clock in the morning, three o’clock in the morning deserve someone who’s ready. They are prepared.
Nestor Aparicio 14:47
I met some folks at walk a mile from tiny superheroes. This is a national nonprofit dedicated to empowering children facing illness, disability and medical adversity. I met some folks, I mean, you’ve made. Managed to put together this sort of all star team of all of these people. And while I was there, it was Amelia of 98 rock. And my wife came to me too. She’s Hey, I saw this thing about GBMC and DNA and collection for victims over the course of years. Can you just at least tell me a little bit about that? Because there were so many educational things going on in various parts of Walk a Mile as well. And there was all sorts of information there as well that day, but I found that to be the thing that several people have mentioned it to me. I haven’t done a segment on it yet. I think we could take a deeper dive into it later, because it’s its own thing, but it’s kind of an amazing scientific, I would say, breakthrough, but something that your hospital has worked on for over a quarter of a century, right?
Dani Imbragulio 15:45
Absolutely, and we have to give all of that praise and accolade. His name was Dr breidenecker. He was an emergency room doctor, and from 1977 to 1997 even before DNA testing of sexual assaults was a thing, specifically, think of the 70s, the early 80s, DNA wasn’t a thing for sexual assault victims. He would actually collect slides, like the actual glass slides with evidence, and he stored them, because even before DNA testing was known, he knew eventually something would hopefully be able to come from this. So it was over 2000 slides that he collected over those 20 years, 1977 to 1997
8Nestor Aparicio 16:38
all of these were sexual assault, correct?
Dani Imbragulio 16:41
Yes, all of those were sexual assault from GBMC.
Nestor Aparicio 16:45
So it’s all local.
Dani Imbragulio 16:46
8It’s all local. So
Nestor Aparicio 16:47
these are all women, primarily, who have been raped, and there was collection of evidence that wasn’t deemed evidence then, because there was no way to prove it correct,
Dani Imbragulio 17:00
not necessarily what it’s victims of sexual assault. So we don’t say men or women, because anyone can be a victim of this assault, and rape is the terminology for rape is very specific. So we say sexual assault because any type of transfer he was collecting, and yes, he’s he stored all of it. And when Baltimore County was given this information, he has since passed but they were given this for their crime lab, and they are testing everything. They are testing everything. But the important thing to know is 77 is 780, 8589 these victims did not agree to have it tested. So there’s an opt in, opt out program that we’re actually partnering with Baltimore County. It’s called The GBMC slides project, and they’re testing these slides. Now, not every slide is going to come back to a perpetrator, so obviously, we want to be careful on how we do notifications, because this will up end someone’s life. You’re talking 50 years ago.
Nestor Aparicio 18:14
I’m on the website, and it’s unbelievable. I mean, I guess modern technology, there’s just all the case numbers, all the reports received, male DNA, partial male DNA, full male DNA. It’s, it’s science like, literally, and it’s science that at some point in the next six months, year, two years, somebody’s going to get a knock on their door, who did something really horrible a long time ago to someone, and you’re gonna put them in jail. I that’s pretty clear to me that I didn’t watch NCIS, or, you know, any of these, these shows. My wife loves those television shows where folks do forensic evidence and all that that’s that’s real, that’s really going to happen here? Correct?
8Speaker 1 19:00
It’s
Dani Imbragulio 19:01
actually already happened. There has already been well over 4040, chargings, knocks
Nestor Aparicio 19:13
on the doors, okay,
Dani Imbragulio 19:14
8yep, including one serial rapist.
Nestor Aparicio 19:17
Well, the folks at GBMC are doing great work. Danny Amber golio is here. I now know how to pronounce her name or at least two more slices of pizza. She is the victims Advocacy Coordinator for the thing we don’t talk about a whole lot, which is sexual assault and violence in the community. She’s out advocating for folks who are victims, as we did back in April. It happens once a year. Next year I gotta get to 12th annual Walk a Mile. Hopefully they can be a red shirt in their shoes. I was April 17 benefiting GBMC safe domestic violence and child protection program. And yes, I’m reading from my own shirt. You can learn about more of all of this stuff. If you’re into the science. Part of my wife kind of is it’s out on the Baltimore County website. It’s out on the GBMC. The website, there’s even a whole different side of the science and all the the information that’s out there as well. And I listen, let’s get together again, maybe in the fall, and we’ll talk again. We’ll promote next year’s Walk a Mile, where we’ll have more than 850 people. I don’t know that we could do better weather wise. I mean, I’ll just be honest with you, of all the things I’ve ever done in my life. I parked the car that day, and I live here in Towson. I went over that way and had sliced pizza stopped by, and I got out of the car, and I’m just sort of like, whoa. How perfect could it be? So not we want that weather every year. Do we have a date next year yet for guacamole?
Dani Imbragulio 20:36
Yeah, not yet. We are just starting the planning for next year. But if we can wrap that weather up, put it in a little bow and mail it to next year, we hope so, because perfect. It was perfect.
Nestor Aparicio 20:50
Mon Emil, you did a great job emceeing. So I’m not in for that gig, because I got to go around eat the food. I got to go around, meet everybody and and talk to folks. So please support our friends at the Safe program over at GBMC, you can support walk a mile in the shoes. You can look it up, and more than that, if there’s anything going on, you see something, say something in the community in regard to taking care of victims and making sure that they don’t they’re already victims. Let’s not make it worse. That’s why people like Danny are here to help out. So we appreciate that. We don’t talk a lot about it, but we do. We try to stay sensitive to all of this stuff. And my mother was a victim many, many years ago as well. So I’m glad we’ve come a long way to making sure that, along with the victims, they’re actually the criminals that get prosecuted through all of this. So there in lies aside. Stanny, thank you very much for discussing this very, very sensitive topic with us. Did I leave anything out? Did I get it all in?
8Dani Imbragulio 21:44
I think we got it. But if anyone ever needs anything, our office hours are typical business hours, but we do have a confidential line, and we are 24 hours call in for the hospital, but our office line is 443-849-3323, please call us if you need assistance
Nestor Aparicio 22:02
as a safety message. Oh, of course, safety domestic violence program over at GBMC, where they put me together. Last week, I had my first doctor’s appointment of the century. I’m not making that up. I gave blood unwillingly and but I apparently I have lovely veins, and later on, we’re going to discuss those slight lifestyle changes that I need to make to my diet. So at least I got just don’t look at me like that. My wife’s looking at me like that too every time I pick up the cheese pizza pizza. John, hey, I skipped the french fries in the gravy last week because of this diagnosis I have. Why do I feel so healthy? I have to ask myself that we are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking a better diet along with tastiness moderation, although that’s been a difficult thing for me, we’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.
