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Past events
School Threat Assessment in the Northwest: Challenges and Opportunities
Date: Dec. 1, 2023
Time: 9:00am - 3:30pm
Place: Milgard Hall (MLG) 110
Details
This in-person event will serve as a training for practitioners doing threat assessment in both k-12 schools and universities across the Pacific Northwest. It will feature recognized state and national experts and practitioners, and feature real-world case studies as well as emergent research and practices. It will also be open to the entire UW community and the larger public. This event is free to attendees.
Morning refreshments and light lunch will be provided.
Featuring:
- Dr. Keva Miller: Dean, School of Social Work and Criminal Justice, UW Tacoma
- Dr. Eric Madfis: Professor of Criminal Justice and Director of the Violence Prevention and Transformation Research Collaborative (VPTRC), UW Tacoma
- Gillian Wickwire: Director of SafeCampus, University of Washington
- Susan Wagshul-Golden: Director of Campus Safety, UW Tacoma
- Courtenay McCarthy: Lead School Psychologist, Salem-Keizer School District
- Kristina Anderson-Froling: Executive Director, Koshka Foundation for Safe Schools
Featured Speakers
Courtenay McCarthy
Courtenay McCarthy is the lead school psychologist in student preventive behavioral threat assessment and management for Salem-Keizer Public Schools. She is also chair of the Mid-Valley Student Threat Assessment Team and is a member of the Marion County Threat Advisory Team. While partnering with John Van Dreal, she has refined the Salem-Keizer student threat assessment system to reflect leading practice in behavioral threat assessment, violence prevention, early intervention, and equitable practices.
Courtenay has over two decades of experience in prevention, threat assessment and management, psychoeducational evaluation, intervention with at-risk youth and families, and behavioral consultation and intervention. As a certified threat manager and nationally certified school psychologist, she regularly provides training and consultation on student threat assessment systems implementation and youth violence to school districts and community agencies throughout the nation. She also provides workshops, symposiums, and content presentations to national audiences. In addition, Courtenay is a contributing author to the book, Assessing Student Threats: Implementing the Salem-Keizer System – Second Edition (Van Dreal, et al. 2017) and a co-author on the book, Preventing Youth Violence: The Pathway Back through Inclusion and Connection.
Kristina Anderson Froling
Kristina Anderson Froling is an international advocate in the fields of bystander intervention, active shooter response and violence prevention within schools, workplaces and public spaces.
Kristina is founder of the Koshka Foundation for Safe Schools, a non-profit that provides training on the prevention of school and workplace violence, education on active shooter preparedness, and consultation on post-crisis recovery. Ms. Froling travels extensively within the United States and Canada to spread the importance of preparedness and joint training between citizens, educators, law enforcement, emergency managers, and first responders. Ms. Froling started the non-profit after becoming one of the most critically injured survivors of the 2007 Virginia Tech school tragedy, where she was shot 3 times.
Ms. Froling is also co-founder of LiveSafe, a mobile technology communication platform for sharing safety-related information that is used by over 100 college campuses, as well as corporations and hospitals.
Ms. Froling has delivered training to numerous law enforcement and government agencies, as well as schools and workplaces to include school resource officers, university administrators, fire and emergency managers, FEMA, the FBI and private corporations. She is a member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals and graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in International Studies.
Gillian Wickwire
As the Director of SafeCampus, Gillian Wickwire (she/her) leads the threat assessment & management work for the University of Washington’s three campuses and medical center locations. Wickwire has worked in threat assessment since SafeCampus’ inception in 2008 and was among the first group of professionals to be licensed as a Certified Threat Manager™ by the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals in 2015. In addition to threat management, Wickwire is a content expert in the field of gender-based violence and advocates for the use of an Intersectional framework and a trauma-informed approach in threat management work.
Susan B. Wagshul-Golden
Susan B. Wagshul-Golden has been serving as the Director of Campus Safety & Security at the University of Washington Tacoma since July 1, 2007. She has 30 years of public safety experience in urban college environments; previously she was a Campus Police Lieutenant at Hunter College in Manhattan, the largest college in the City University of New York system. She received a letter of commendation for her service as Campus Police Lieutenant at Borough Manhattan Community College during the World Trade Center Disaster on September 11, 2001.
Throughout her career, she has worn multiple hats beyond the scope of her role. She has been busy community fund-raising for our students experiencing food insecurity, provides leadership as the higher education representative to figure out multiple ways to navigate issues ranging from active threats, crisis management, and working to advocate for community safety. She has helped our community partners during COVID 19 pandemic as our higher education representative with Pierce County Emergency Management guiding K-12 feeding and childcare efforts, and assisted with planning and identifying mitigation strategies for long term food distribution to our most vulnerable communities.
Wagshul-Golden earned her A.A.S. in Paralegal Studies from LaGuardia Community College, B.S. in Legal Studies from John Jay Criminal College, and an M.S.M.L. in business from Western Governor’s University. She is a recipient of UW Tacoma Distinguished Service award in 2020. She provides leadership on tri-campus committees, regional coordinating council, and served as homeland security advisory board member for Pierce College. She is passionate advocate for equity and social justice.
Dr. Eric Madfis
Eric Madfis, Ph.D., is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Washington Tacoma, where his research focuses on the causes and prevention of school violence, hate crime, and mass murder. He also serves as Director of the Violence Prevention and Transformation Research Collaborative. As a recognized expert on school and mass shootings, he has spoken to audiences across the country and around the world about his research, including to the United States Congress and the Washington State Legislature. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Northeastern University in Boston, where he was a Research Associate at the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict. He often teaches courses on Criminological Theory, Sociology of Deviance and Social Control, Criminal Homicide, Juvenile Justice, and Diversity and Social Justice.
His work has been published in Aggression and Violent Behavior, American Behavioral Scientist, Behavioral Sciences & the Law, Critical Criminology, Homicide Studies, The Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, The Journal of Hate Studies, The Journal of Psychology, Men and Masculinities, School Psychology Review, Social Justice, The Social Science Journal, Sociological Focus, Sociological Inquiry, Violence and Gender, Youth Violence & Juvenile Justice, and in numerous edited volumes. He served as co-editor (along with Dr. Adam Lankford) of the February 2018 special issue of American Behavioral Scientist on "Media Coverage of Mass Killers." His most recent monograph, How to Stop School Rampage Killing: Lessons from Averted Mass Shootings and Bombings, explores how threats of multiple-victim rampage shootings are assessed and prevented in American public schools. He also just published a new edited volume entitled All-American Massacre: The Tragic Role of American Culture and Society in Mass Shootings which examines why mass shootings occur so much more frequently in the United States than anywhere else.
Dr. Keva Miller
Dr. Keva Miller is the inaugural Dean for the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice and a nationally recognized scholar in the areas of child welfare and criminal justice. Prior to joining the University of Washington Tacoma, Dean Miller was the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor at Portland State University School of Social Work. She also held academic appointments at the University of Texas at Austin, Fordham University, and Columbia University. She earned her doctorate in social work from Fordham University and master and bachelor degrees in social work from the University of Texas at Austin.
As a leader, Dean Miller seeks to maintain and enhance the University of Washington Tacoma’s reputation as a distinctive urban-serving institution and partner with faculty and staff to prioritize social justice and organizational excellence through elevating student success; advancing teaching and research excellence; promoting organizational sustainability; enhancing community engagement and partnerships; and creating a shared identity. Dean Miller believes that multi- and interdisciplinary scholarship through research, instruction, and community outreach are critical to the overall mission of the University and School.
Dean Miller’s scholarship challenges linear discourses and conceptualizations on contributors to adverse outcomes among system-involved, vulnerable, and historically marginalized and minoritized populations. Her scholarship also examines risk, protection, and resilience among BIPOC and highly stressed populations. Dean Miller works in partnership with criminal justice and child welfare systems to evaluate program effectiveness and enhance service delivery. Her research, policy advocacy, and practice recommendations have contributed to the preservation of family-based, system-focused prison programs and culturally-responsive practices within child welfare systems.
