Directory

Dr. Heinze is an educational psychologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. His research investigates how schools influence disparities in violence and other risk outcomes from an ecological perspective that includes individual, interpersonal, and contextual influences on development. He is particularly interested in structural features of school context and policy that perpetuate inequity in violence and firearm outcomes, but also how these institutions can serve as a setting for intervention.

Dr. Hsieh is an Assistant Research Scientist​ in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Dr. Hsieh is PI on an NIJ funded evaluation of Sandy Hook Promise Anonymous Reporting System and Co-I on several school safety projects the project director for the University of Michigan Flint Adolescent Study, a 20-year longitudinal study of youth growing up in Flint, MI. Her research focuses on adolescent resilience, youth violence, and violence victimization, and has expertise in longitudinal and cross-domain data analysis.

Ron Avi Astor serves as the subject matter expert consultant for the Deterrent Measures subject core. Dr. Astor holds the Marjory Crump Chair Professorship in Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, with a joint appointment in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. His work examines the role of the physical, social-organizational, and cultural contexts in schools related to different kinds of school violence. His studies have included tens of thousands of students, teachers, parents and administrators, and findings from these studies have been published in more than 150 scholarly manuscripts. His most recent books all published by Oxford University Press include 1. Bullying, school violence, and climate in evolving contexts: Culture, organization and time. 2. Mapping and monitoring bullying and violence: Building a safe school climate and 3. Welcoming practices: Creating schools that support students and families in transition. Currently, Astor is creating an international model for sustainable and scalable infrastructures that support safe and welcoming schools. Astor has won numerous national research awards from the Society for Social Work and Research, American Psychological Association (APA), and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He holds an honorary doctorate from Hebrew Union College, is a fellow of the APA, AERA, and SSWR and is an elected member of both the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.

Ms. Bennett has more than 20 years of leadership experience in healthcare, government and non-profit human services organizations. With a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a Master of Science in Negotiations and Conflict Management and certifications as a Grants Specialist and as an executive and professional development coach, Ms. Bennett has a passion for unlocking client potential and improving performance.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Bennett has worked with and trained personnel in healthcare, government, and human services organizations, across the nation, to build grants management infrastructures and has generated more than $80 million dollars in public and private grant-funds. Relentless about achieving results, Ms. Bennett has led initiatives in pre- and post-grant award implementation, program development and evaluation, standard operating procedures and team building. Ms. Bennett has served as host, presenter and panelist at national, state and local conferences, some of which include the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) Conference, the Ascension Health Care on Philanthropy Conference, the Maryland Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Statewide Conference, and the Maryland Coalition for Women’s Employment (MCWE) Conference.

As National Grants Director with Sandy Hook Promise, Ms. Bennett liaises with Sandy Hook’s federal and state government partners to successfully implement STOP grant funding at the local level.

Danny Carlson serves as NAESP’s Associate Executive Director, Policy & Advocacy. Prior to joining NAESP, Danny was a policy analyst for the National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices. In that role, he oversaw the Education Division’s K-12 human capital work, advancing policies to address principal challenges across the country. Danny previously served as an education advisor to a United States Senator and was responsible for advancing her K-12 education agenda. In that capacity, he crafted policy provisions included in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to improve principal and teacher recruitment and retention, address chronic absenteeism, and boost opportunities for STEM education.

Kayla Jackson is a Project Director at AASA. She is currently working on a number of projects including a Department of Labor funded apprenticeship initiative and a New York Life Foundation funded childhood bereavement project. She joined the Children’s Program team in June 2011 to serve as the Project Director for the CDC-funded coordinated school health project, Strengthening School Administrator Support for Coordinated School Health. Prior to joining AASA, Jackson was the Vice President of Programs at the National Network for Youth where she had responsibility for all programmatic activities at NN4Y; two federal cooperative agreements; and the annual national membership conference. She has extensive background in women’s and adolescent health, particularly the health needs of women of color, youth, and youth at high risk for negative health outcomes related to reproductive health, breast cancer, mental health, and sexually transmitted infections/HIV. Jackson had an article published in the February 2019 issue of School Administrator titled “Unpacking an Invisible Burden: Children’s Mental Health”. Jackson received her BA in English from Mount Holyoke College and an MPA from NYU.

Dr. Jennifer L. Maeng is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education and Human Development and a former high school science teacher. Her scholarship addresses the role contextual factors of the educational setting, such as school climate and safety, play in supporting effective teaching and learning and understanding professional development that facilitates teachers’ implementation of research-based STEM instruction. She has been a principal investigator or in a substantive senior research role on more than 10 grant-funded projects from agencies including the U.S. Department of Education, Virginia Department of Education, National Institute of Justice, and National Science Foundation.

Rachel Masi, Ph.D. Dr. Masi is the Director of Research at Sandy Hook Promise (SHP), where she oversees studies evaluating the effectiveness of SHP’s programs and utilizes these findings, together with current research, to improve SHP’s program development and delivery. Dr. Masi is also a licensed clinical psychologist who provides treatment to children, adolescents, adults, and their families in a private practice setting. Dr. Masi specializes in parent education, child development, and clinical psychology, focusing on the critical intersection of psychology and education. Prior to SHP, Dr. Masi worked on nationally recognized research projects, including at the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, and in partnership with schools, community organizations and government agencies, to inform practice and create lasting and systemic change. Dr. Masi received her B.A. in Psychology from Duke University, her M.A. in Psychology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She completed her pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at ANDRUS, an outpatient community mental health center in White Plains, New York.

Kenji Okuma is the Crisis Center director for Sandy Hook Promise’s national Say Something Anonymous Reporting System. In this leadership role, he combines practical experiences from more than two decades in law enforcement with expertise in high-level, complex operations management and solution-oriented community relations to create safer schools and save lives.
Kenji believes in the power of information-sharing as absolutely critical in violence prevention, having personally seen and investigated countless acts of violence and suicide – and talking to survivors about what happened and the warning signs that preceded the tragedies. These experiences now drive his commitment to strengthening relationships between educators, mental health practitioners, and law enforcement to protect school communities nationwide.

During his tenure with the Nevada Department of Public Safety’s Investigation Division, Kenji (Detective Sergeant Ret.) worked with the Nevada Department of Education in the development and launch of the state-mandated, SafeVoice program for all public, charter, and private K-12 schools. Kenji designed and launched Nevada’s first-ever crisis center, specifically dedicated to receiving anonymous tips from students across the state.

Kenji has extensive training and experience in criminal procedures, threat assessment, homeland security, information privacy and security, as well as budget and grant management, policy and protocol administration, and was heavily engaged in the Nevada legislative process. Kenji also served as Executive Officer for the Nevada Threat Analysis Center, serving as the state liaison between the education community and local, state, and federal law enforcement partners, and as the Nevada state liaison to INTERPOL.

Kenji is a sought-after expert in the philosophy, design, and implementation of anonymous reporting systems. He lives in Nevada with his wife, Buffy, and his two dogs, Kato and Liv, where they raised their six adult children. Kenji regularly commutes to the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System Crisis Center in Miami, FL and Sandy Hook Promise headquarters in Newtown, CT.

Katherine Schweit is a former prosecutor and senior executive Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation who now consults with businesses and organizations to help resolve their most challenging security policies. She was among the teams responding to multiple active shooter incidents including shootings at the Holocaust Museum, Pentagon/Arlington Cemetery, Discovery Channel and the Navy Yard. She developed the FBI’s Active Shooter program and authored A Study of 160 Active Shooter Incident in the United States, 2000 – 2013. She is a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional with extensive experience in curriculum development and a veteran instructor in terrorism and other national security matters including serving three years on the staff of the FBI’s renowned Counterintelligence Training Center. She is an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University College of Law and Webster University’s George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology. A recognized expert in gun violence, mass killings and active shooter matters, Ms. Schweit routinely provides commentary for on-air and print media and speaks to professional, government, educational and private organizations. She is a member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from Michigan State University and a Juris Doctorate from DePaul University College of Law. She now provides security consulting and litigation support to businesses and organizations navigating prevention, response, and recovery solutions to targeted violence and crisis communications matters.

katherine.schweit@gmail.com @KateSchweit #RunHide #Fight #SeeSomethingSaySomething

Anathea Simpkins is Sandy Hook Promise’s deputy national director of the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System (SS-ARS).

Anathea brings 25 years of education, publishing, and product management to her leadership position. Before joining Sandy Hook Promise (SHP), she worked as a classroom teacher, managed curriculum development at Pearson Education, and served as product director of educational programs for Sylvan Learning for 10 years. At SHP, she manages the SS-ARS team and program operations – including the only 24/7/365 Crisis Center dedicated to school-based anonymous reporting nationwide – as well as the account management of more than 100 districts across the U.S. Anathea’s expertise in education and educational policy coupled with her experience managing educational-technology projects and products make her uniquely qualified for this position. Anathea telecommutes to the Sandy Hook Promise headquarters in Newtown, CT and Crisis Center in Miami, FL, and lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her son Huxley.