IBPA Board of Directors
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Beth Yohe, President
Beth Yohe is the Associate Director of the Training and Curriculum Department of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Education Division. Beth directs the development of the anti-bias training and curricular materials for the ADL’s A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute, a leading provider of anti-bias education and social justice training.
In her role as Associate Director, she has written program models and resources on a variety of topic areas including cyberbullying and bullying prevention for educators and youth, with a focus on bias-based bullying and ally-building skills. Beth has more than 16 years of experience in anti-bias training, bullying prevention and social justice work.
She also serves as a board member for the Mapleton Education Foundation and UCCS Matrix Center for the Advancement of Social Equity and Inclusion.
She has a Master of Science degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Colorado State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication from Texas A&M University.
Dawn M. Jaeger, President Elect/Treasurer
Tara Raju, Secretary
Tara Raju is the Education Director at the Mountain States Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League. Her first connection with ADL came in 1995, as an ADL Facilitator and has been on staff since 2005. She leads ADL’s Education department which focuses on anti-bias education and Holocaust education for K-12 schools, colleges/ universities, community organization and law enforcement agencies in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Tara has over 20 years’ experience working with schools in K-12 settings and higher education in a variety of cities including, Philadelphia, Chicago, Portland, OR and the metro Denver area. Prior to ADL, Tara worked with Communities In Schools (CIS), as the director of operations in Chicago, and also as a national CIS trainer. She worked with Chicago Public Schools to create systemic change and a comprehensive approach to better serve schools and communities through collaboration and partnerships. She also worked with young adults at Reed College and the University of Pennsylvania, using traditional and experiential learning to teach leadership, diversity, skills for activism and social responsibility.
Tara was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in Topeka, KS. She has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in African and Afro-American Studies and Political Science from Washington University, St. Louis.
Joe Bruzzese, Past President
After a tenured career as a middle grades teacher, Joe left the classroom to pursue an MA in Educational Technology from Azusa Pacific University.
Joe was a professor in the Teacher Education Program at the University of California Santa Barbara from 2004-2010, and currently holds professorships at both Azusa Pacific University and Westmont College in their education departments.
His work as a highly acclaimed speaker and respected authority in the fields of education and parent guidance led to Random House selecting and publishing his book, A Parents’ Guide to the Middle School Years, in 2009.
In 2010, Joe founded Sprigeo.com and developed the company’s online reporting system as a secure and confidential way for students and schools to report and respond to bullying incidents. Sprigeo connects students, schools and community organizations in an ongoing effort to support a positive youth culture.
Joe brings together domain-area knowledge and a solid foundation of relationships with key influencers among school districts nationwide and in state-level education offices and legal entities.
BOARD MEMBERS
Dr. Quentin Fretwell
Jacob U. Gordon, Ph.D.
Dr. Gordon is Professor Emeritus of the University of Kansas where he served for 34 years. He established the Department of African and African-American Studies, the Center for African Studies, and the Center for Multicultural Leadership. He is a founding member and ex-officio of the Executive Board of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA). He has served as a Fulbright Specialist to Ghana in 2012. He was appointed as the Kwame Nkrumah Endowed Chair in African Studies at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, 2012-2015.
He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, M.A. from Howard University, B.A. (honors) from Bethune-Cookman University; and L.L.D. (Honorary) from Union Theological Seminary. Dr. Gordon is an approved International Evaluator for the U.S. State Department Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). He is the author or co-author of more than 22 books including African Traditional Leadership: Past, Present and the Future (2014), Winning the Future for Africa and the Diaspora (2011); African Studies for the 21st Century (2004); The African Presence in Black America (2004), and African Leadership in the Twentieth Century: An Enduring Experiment in Democracy (2002), Black Leadership for Social Change (2000), A Systems Change Approach to Substance Abuse Prevention (1997), Managing Multiculturalism in Substance Abuse Services (1994), and The Role of Higher Education in Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention (1993). His most recent works, Revisiting Kwame Nkrumah: Pathways for the Future, and Trends in African Studies, will be released in 2015. He was awarded a research grant from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in 2013 and completed Phase One of the project on African Presidential Papers and Libraries. www.applproject.com
Dr. Gordon has received many awards and honors including the establishment of the Jacob U. Gordon Collections at the University of Kansas Research Library (2011); Who’s Who (Strathmore’s) Millennium Edition (2001); Wally and Marie Steeples Faculty Award for Outstanding Service, University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (1998); Kansas African American Affairs Commission Outstanding Leadership Award (1998); and Men of Achievement, 8th Edition, International Biographical Centre Cambridge, UK.
He and his wife, Barbara, live in Gainesville, Florida. They are the parents of six children and four grandchildren.
Alex Holmes, Deputy CEO
Alex Holmes is Deputy CEO at The Diana Award, a legacy charity to Princess Diana based on the belief that young people can change the world. Using his own experience of bullying at school, Alex came up with the idea of ‘Anti-Bullying Ambassadors’ aged 15 in 2003 at his own school and then scaling this up regionally, something he received The Diana Award for in 2005. Using this knowledge and experience he has been a driving force behind the programme at the charity and now as Deputy CEO leads the development, partnerships & fundraising team.
During his nearly 7 years at The Diana Award Alex has played a considerable role working with the CEO in securing valuable and long-term partnerships and relationships that have increased the profile of the charity and diversified income streams contributing to long term sustainability.
Before The Diana Award Alex worked briefly at the BBC as a Broadcast Assistant presenting and producing news and travel. Alex then worked in the education system for 5 years in various roles from teaching assistant, learning mentor to Head of Year.
Alex sits a number of global safety advisory boards and councils for technology and social media companies, representing the organisation globally on policy, safety and trust and has played a key role in Prince William’s The Royal Foundation Taskforce on the Prevention of Cyberbullying.
In 2017 he was made a Queen’s Young Leader by Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace, representing the commonwealth for his work in tackling bullying and January 2018 was announced as one of Forbes 30 Under 30, an annual encyclopedia of ‘the brightest entrepreneurs, innovators and game-changers under the age of 30 who are transforming business as usual and changing the world.’
Alex was also named on the Independent on Sunday’s Happy List as one of the ‘100 people who make Britain a happier place to live’. Alex recently was awarded the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award. In his spare time Alex enjoys travelling, film and getting back to his hometown Milton Keynes.
Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson is currently the Vice President of Youth Development at STARS Nashville. In addition to his work as a trainer and speaker, Mr. Johnson’s experience at STARS includes both direct student assistance work in schools and program management. His training work has taken him across the country, speaking to educators, mental health professionals, administrators, communities, and young people. Mr. Johnson is heavily involved in developing materials and workshops to encourage youth leadership, bullying prevention initiatives, and school culture and climate enhancement. He is a certified Olweus trainer, and one of the developers of the MOVE2STAND bullying prevention workshop and manual. Over the past year, through the Safe and Supportive Schools initiative, he helped develop materials for the Tennessee Youth Engagement Summits, traveling throughout the state, training students and educators to utilize youth voice to shift the culture and climate in their schools. He has presented at National Conferences and Seminars on the “Rites of Passage” and Bullying Prevention Strategies. In 2005, he was a recipient of the Tennessean Top 40 under 40 Award honoring those whose commitment to community is and inspiration to others. In 2011, the highlight during this journey was being honored by his former high school as a hometown hero as one “Living the Beyond the Dream.”
Fish Stark, Youth Activation Manager, Fellow-in-Residence
Deborah Temkin, Ph.D.
Deborah Temkin, Ph.D., is a recognized leader in the fields of school climate and school-based prevention, working across child development research and education policy development. Her work on bullying prevention led to a position in the U.S. Department of Education where she led the Federal Initiative on Bullying Prevention and was a finalist for the 2012 Call to Service Medal of the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. She played a major role in developing stopbullying.gov, coordinating the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention, and developing a model bullying prevention framework distributed to all governors and chief state school officers. She has been cited and quoted by the Washington Post, CNN, Education Week, and U.S. News and World Report, among other publications. She is frequently asked to speak and provide consultation regarding bullying prevention and school climate policy, including for the Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Kentucky Governor’s Anti-Bullying Task Force, the Iowa Governor’s Bullying Prevention Summit, the Ohio Attorney General’s Symposium, and the Virginia School Safety Forum.
Dr. Temkin is currently the Senior Director of Education Research at Child Trends where she focuses on the intersections between education policy and healthy social and emotional development. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies and her M.A. in Education Theory and Policy from the Pennsylvania State University, where she was a Prevention and Methodology Pre-Doctoral Fellow, funded by the National Institutes for Drug Abuse.
Dr. Temkin’s projects include the policy analysis and development arm of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Together for Healthy and Successful Schools initiative, an evaluation of a school climate framework in DC public and public charter schools funded by the National Institute of Justice; a multi-year evaluation of school start time changes funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the development of valid and reliable measures for adolescent sexual orientation and gender identity funded by the Arcus Foundation; and ongoing consultation work for the DC Office of Human Rights’ implementation of the Youth Bullying Prevention Act. Additionally, Dr. Temkin serves as a senior advisor to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Safe Supportive Learning Environments.
A Shift in Focus: From Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs)
Adverse Childhood Experiences Bullying was added as an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) by the Center for Disease Control in 2017, placing the impact of bullying behavior on par with all other ACEs. In short, these experiences have been shown to disrupt neurological development, leading to cognitive, social, and emotional impairment. This impairment may lead to …