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.
