Michael Bennett is an educator, advocate, lifelong New York resident, and school shooting survivor. In his current capacity, Bennett is the superintendent of schools at Greenville Central School District, a rural district of 1,100 students roughly 30 miles south of Albany. Throughout his 26-year career in education, he has served as a special education teacher, high school assistant principal, middle school principal, and, most recently, an assistant superintendent. His passion for school safety stems from his experiences in the classroom.

In February 2004, Bennett was shot by a student during a school shooting at Columbia High School in East Greenbush, New York. The days, weeks, months, and years that followed the incident were filled with highs and lows. Recovery is an ongoing process; part of that process is gaining the strength to help others.

In 2019, Bennett was asked to join a group of current and former school leaders to found the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Principal Recovery Network (PRN)—a national network of leaders who have experienced gun violence tragedies in their school buildings. Over the next few years, the group collaborated to create a step-by-step recovery guide. Originally intended as a resource to aid recovery from a school shooting, the “PRN Guide to Recovery” can help leaders lead through any major event. In August 2022, Bennett was part of a five-person panel to announce and discuss the guide’s release. The ceremony was held at the Columbine Memorial in Littleton, Colorado. Twenty years after his own experience, Bennett continues to help other professionals understand the effects of school shootings on individuals, schools, and communities. In addition, he remains an advocate for schools and communities to receive increased mental health and school safety support.

Michelle Kefford has devoted the past 25 years to serving students in Florida. She initiated her career as a biology teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School in 1999 and went on to serve as an assistant principal at two different Florida high schools until she was promoted to serve as the principal of Charles W. Flanagan High School (FHS) in 2011, where she led the school to its first ever grade of “A” and earned multiple recognitions, including Broward County Principal of the Year, Florida Principal of the Year, National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) State Principal of the Year, a finalist for NASSP National Principal of the Year, Florida Association of Student Councils Principal of the Year, Florida School Counselor Association School-Based Administrator of the Year, to name a few. After leading FHS for eight years, she was asked to return home to MSD as the principal, where she currently serves, to lead the school in its healing subsequent to a horrific school shooting that occurred there.

Michael Sedlak started his educational career as a middle school reading teacher in Bedford, Ohio, before moving to the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he taught English and worked with the Curriculum and Development Department. Sedlak returned to Ohio to begin his career as an administrator, taking the position of assistant principal of Chardon High School (Chardon Local Schools, Chardon, Ohio), a post he held for three years. During that time, a student opened fire in the cafeteria of Chardon High School, taking the lives of three students and wounding three others. Sedlak then served the Hudson City School District community in Hudson, Ohio, as an assistant principal at Hudson Middle School, principal at East Woods Intermediate School, and unit principal at Hudson High School. Currently, Sedlak is the director of human resources for the Twinsburg City School District, in Twinsburg, Ohio. Sedlak is also a founding member of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Principal Recovery Network and is committed to collaborating with others to improve safety in our schools.

Jaclyn Schildkraut, PhD, is the executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, where she leads a multidisciplinary research portfolio focused on understanding and reducing firearm violence in New York State and beyond. In this role, she oversees the Consortium’s research, grantmaking, and public engagement efforts; develops partnerships with researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and community organizations; and works to translate rigorous research into evidence-informed policy and practice. A nationally recognized expert on mass shootings and school safety, her research focuses on targeted violence prevention, emergency preparedness, and the experiences of individuals and communities affected by mass violence.

Schildkraut leads Sharing Information to Stop Mass Shootings (SISMS), a large-scale research initiative examining the behaviors, circumstances, and information-sharing processes that precede mass public shootings. The project has produced one of the most comprehensive databases of pre-attack behaviors associated with these events and a growing body of research focused on identifying opportunities for prevention and intervention. Findings from the project also are being translated into educational trainings designed to improve the recognition and reporting of concerning behaviors.

Her broader research has examined school emergency preparedness, the prevention and consequences of mass violence, behavioral indicators preceding attacks, and the experiences and long-term needs of survivors and affected communities. Schildkraut led the largest national study to date examining the effects of lockdown drills on students, educators, and school personnel, helping to identify evidence-based practices for building preparedness while minimizing unnecessary fear and anxiety. She also has conducted extensive research with mass shooting survivors and provided expert analysis to Canada’s Mass Casualty Commission, which investigated the April 2020 mass casualty event in Nova Scotia.

As executive director, Schildkraut also leads the Consortium’s efforts to strengthen the evidence base for firearm violence prevention across New York State. She oversees competitive research funding programs and works with state agencies, academic researchers, practitioners, and community partners to support research addressing pressing questions related to firearm violence and its prevention. Through these efforts, she seeks to bridge research, policy, and practice and ensure that evidence is accessible to those positioned to use it.

Schildkraut is the author or editor of numerous books on mass shootings, school safety, and firearms, including Mass Shootings: Media, Myths and Realities (2016), Columbine, 20 Years Later and Beyond: Lessons from Tragedy (2019), Lockdown Drills: Connecting Research and Best Practices for School Administrators, Teachers, and Parents (2022), and Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law (3rd ed., 2022). Her research has been published extensively in peer-reviewed journals across criminology, violence prevention, victimology, school safety, psychology, and public policy. Her research and expertise also are regularly sought by policymakers, practitioners, schools, survivors, and national and international media outlets, including CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, Associated Press, Reuters, and BBC News.

Greg Waples is the senior manager of state engagement and outreach for the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). He manages grassroots advocacy efforts, coordinating with NASSP principals, educators, state associations, and partners to advance the policy priorities of school leaders. He also helped found and lead the NASSP Principal Recovery Network, a group of school leaders who have experienced school shootings in their buildings and now reach out to every school that suffers a shooting tragedy to provide advice, guidance, support, and recovery assistance. Prior to joining NASSP, Waples worked for more than three years as a campaign manager at the Center for American Progress, focused on gun violence prevention issues. He also previously worked in the Executive Office of the President in the White House. He has several cycles of political campaign experience, including serving as a Pennsylvania regional field director on the 2012 presidential campaign. Waples has a bachelor’s degree in history from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.