The Violence Prevention Transformation and Research Collaborative: About Us

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.

Dr. Laura Feuerborn

Dr. Laura Feuerborn is a Professor and Director of the Ed.S. School Psychology Program at the University of Washington Tacoma. Dr. Feuerborn is a Faculty Fellow in Social Emotional Learning and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist. Dr. Feuerborn holds research and teaching expertise in the fields of social and emotional learning (SEL) and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Dr. Feuerborn is a co-author of several SEL-focused programs, research articles, and books, including the Strong Kids & Teens programs (Brookes Publishing) and Social and Emotional Learning in the Classroom (Guilford Publishing). Dr. Feuerborn is a co-developer of the Staff Perceptions of Behavior and Discipline (SPBD) and the Student Perceptions of Behavior and Discipline (StPBD), validated survey tools that help schools mobilize staff and student voice to implement and sustain equitable practices in schoolwide behavior supports.

Dr. Adam Lankford

Dr. Adam Lankford is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at The University of Alabama. He is the author of two books and many peer-reviewed studies on mass shootings, terrorism, and other forms of criminal behavior. His findings have been published in many scientific journals and cited by The White House, by every major media outlet in the United States, and by international media from more than 40 countries. From 2003 to 2008, Dr. Lankford helped coordinate Senior Executive Anti-Terrorism Forums for high-ranking foreign military and security personnel as part of a contract with the U.S. State Department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance program. In 2019, Dr. Lankford received the “Innovation in Research and Publication Award” from the National Association for Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment.

Dr. Jason R. Silva

Dr. Jason R. Silva is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at William Paterson University. His research examines mass shootings, terrorism, school violence, and media coverage of crime. Silva recently developed the Global Mass Shooting Database to understand and compare perpetrator motivations and strategies for intervention and prevention. His recent publications have appeared in Aggression and Violent Behavior, American Journal of Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Policy Review, Homicide Studies, International Criminal Justice Review, International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Security Journal, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Violence against Women, and Victims & Offenders. His work has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, New York Magazine, NPR, Oxygen, and The Conversation. Silva has also been a featured mass shooting and firearm violence expert for media outlets including CBS, Denver Post, NBC, Newsweek, and USA Today.

Dr. Stanislav Vysotsky

Stanislav Vysotsky is an Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of the Fraser Valley. He is a scholar of far right and antifascist movements and the conflicts between them. Dr. Vysotsky’s research on the far right focuses on the relationship between ideology and violence as transmitted through movement culture and online interaction. This research has been published in numerous journal articles and book chapters. His research on the militant antifascist movement and the relationship between threat, space, subculture, and social movement activism was published in the book American Antifa: The Tactics, Culture, and Practice of Militant Antifascism (Routledge) as well as in scholarly journals. He serves as the North American coordinator of the Worldwide Antifascism Research Network. His current research focuses on accelerationism on the far right as well as antifascist conceptions of self-defense.