2018 News

The College of Education Diversity Committee presents School Safety: A Critical Conversation

The USF College of Education Diversity Committee presents: 

School Safety: A Critical Conversation

Join experts in school safety, gun violence, mental health, school policy, and juvenile justice to discuss the passage of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act and the arming of school personnel.

This event is free and open to the public. 

Date: March 20, 2018
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Location: USF College of Education, TECO Hall (EDU Building)

For more information, contact Jenifer Jasinski Schneider at jschneid@usf.edu.

our panelists include:

Brenda Walker - USF College of Education
Brenda Walker is a Professor in Exceptional Student Education in the College of Education and Director of the CAROUSEL Center. Her research focuses on the disciplinary practices to which African American learners are disproportionately subjected, issues around ethics, power, and privilege, and strategies for African American students with academic gifts and talents.  Dr. Walker has delivered myriad presentations and workshops for teachers, administrators, and family members on enhancing African American students' success by affirming their individual and cultural differences and developing culturally responsive pedagogy.

Zorka Karanxha - USF College of Education 
Zorka Karanxha is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the College of Education. Her research focuses on educational leadership preparation, education law, school discipline, and charter schools with an emphasis on analyzing educational leadership policies that influence marginalized communities through continued investigation of two interwoven conceptual strands: 1) Social justice leadership praxis to reduce educational inequities; and, 2) Social justice leadership to reduce inequities in legal education policy and policy implementation.

Annette Christy - USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Annette Christy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy (MHLP) at the de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI), Her research focuses on behavioral health policy and criminal justice systems. She directs the Baker Act Reporting Center, which involves the receipt and analysis of statewide civil commitment data. Her work includes a focus on obtaining and using large data sets for research and evaluation, as well as on how to develop systems for the collection of high-quality data in real world settings.

Karen Liller - USF College of Public Health
Karen D. Liller is a Professor in the College of Public Health. Previously she served as Dean of the USF Graduate School and Associate Dean for Academics and Student Services in the College of Public Health. She is an expert on the prevention and control of children's unintentional injuries. Her research also focuses on firearm injury prevention and she presently is working with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health and the American Public Health Association on firearm issues. She has been the recipient of several awards/honors such as the first State of Florida Injury Prevention Award, the Tampa Bay Business Healthcare Hero Award and was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She also has received certification in public health (CPH) and has received several national and state grants related to injury prevention producing hundreds of related peer-reviewed publications and presentations.

Joy Broughton - College of Education Doctoral Student   
Joy Broughton is a doctoral student in Special Education with a cognate in Educational Leadership & Policy. Her research agenda focuses on leveraging leadership, language, literacy, and learning differences, to reduce the marginalization of English language learners (ELLs). In her 10 years in schools, Ms. Broughton taught K-12 special education students and led school-wide literacy initiatives in multi-lingual schools in Portland, Oregon, Brazil and Honduras. Recently, she expanded her understanding of policy through an internship at the Department of Education in the Office of Special Education Programs and the Office of English Language Acquisition. These diverse experiences inform her research, teaching and service as a Research Fellow and organizer of the Education Policy Information Center (EPIC) within the David C. Anchin Center at the University of South Florida.

Wayne Garcia - Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications 
Wayne Garcia is an award-winning political journalist and educator, working in Florida newspapers, colleges and campaigns for 25 years. His areas of expertise include political, investigative, computer-assisted and scholastic journalism. As a journalist, he worked for the St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune and Gainesville Sun daily newspapers. During his tenure as the political editor for the alt-weekly Creative Loafing, Garcia won a number of Sunshine State Awards for his writing and his well known blog, The Political Whore. He was the 2009 recipient of the Irene Miller Vigilance in Journalism Award from the Pinellas Chapter of the ACLU. 

Elizabeth Kuhn - Assistant Superintendent for Support Services, Pasco County Schools
Assistant Superintendent for Support Services Elizabeth Kuhn serves as the leader of the seven Operations directors for Pasco County Schools: Construction, Food and Nutrition Services, Maintenance, Planning, Purchasing, Pasco Learning and Activity Centers of Enrichment (PLACE) and Transportation. Mrs. Kuhn began serving Pasco County Schools in 2010 after practicing law, with a focus on public sector work, in Ohio and then in Florida. She has written articles and presented to various national and local groups and professional associations on a variety of topics, including legislation, human resources management, labor relations, equity and has served as an adjunct professor (School Law) at USF St. Petersburg. Mrs. Kuhn has been a member of the Florida Educational Negotiators since 2010 and is currently the group’s President. Mrs. Kuhn is currently a member of the Board of the Child Development Center at the Family of Christ Lutheran Church and a member of the Wesley Chapel Rotary.

Chris Daniel - Chief Of Police, ‎University of South Florida Police Department
Police Chief Christopher Daniel is a Tampa native and a graduate of Brandon High School. He has worked for USF Police Department (UPD) for 30 years. Chief Daniel is a USF Alumnus receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Applied Sciences. He graduated from the prestigious FBI National Academy in 2010. During his 30-year career, he has served in just about every capacity of the Department from a street cop to public information officer, corporal, lieutenant and assistant chief. He worked as a lieutenant for more than 21 years and served as the Assistant Chief of Police for more than a year when he became the Chief after the former chief retired. One of Chief Daniel’s goals is to reduce crime and fear of crime for the University Community, and he works hard to bridge community gaps by encouraging all University Police Officers to positively interact with community members at every opportunity.