Re-imagining Public Safety — Community Input Process
Brandeis has begun a process of re-imagining what public safety on campus will look like in the future. This inclusive effort, led by the VP of Campus Operations, will continue throughout the fall semester and will provide the Brandeis community with multiple opportunities to provide input.
There are two components to the re-imagining process, each led by independent consultants: 1) comprehensive outreach for community input on public safety; and 2) thorough organizational review of Brandeis’ Public Safety and Transportation department. This website will be the source of information and updates on the re-imagining process.
Community Input Sessions
Open Forums - Registration Required
- 5:30 p.m. Nov. 17
Undergraduate Student Open Forum - 11 a.m. Nov. 23
Staff Open Forum - 1 p.m. Nov. 23
Faculty Open Forum - 9 a.m. Dec. 1
Graduate Student Open Forum - 12 p.m. Dec. 2
Undergraduate Student Open Forum - 12 p.m. Dec. 7
Undergraduate and Graduate Student Open Forum
Focused Group Meetings
- 10 a.m. Oct. 26
Senior Leadership - 11 a.m. Nov. 2
President’s Office - 2:30 p.m. Nov. 5
Brandeis University Staff Advisory Committee - 9 a.m. Nov. 10
Board of Trustees - 11 a.m. Nov. 10
Campus Safety Committee - 2 p.m. Nov. 13
Faculty Senate - 3:30 p.m. Nov. 13
Transportations Group
Black Action Plan
Student Union
Community Advisors and Area Coordinators
Graduate Student Union
Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps (BEMCo) - 9 a.m. Nov. 17
Finance & Administration Leadership - 4 p.m. Nov. 17
Brandeis Public Safety Nonunion Members - 8 a.m. Dec. 1
Brandeis Public Safety Union Members - 11 a.m. Dec. 1
Signatories to the Faculty Letter on Policing - 12 p.m. Dec. 1
Emergency Management
Department of Community Living
Brandeis Counseling Center
Health Center
Library
Facilities
University Events
Student Activities
Hillel
Dean of Students Office - 8 a.m. Dec. 2
Academic Leadership
Consultants
Community Outreach
Brenda J. Bond-Fortier, PhD is professor of public administration in the Institute for Public Service at Suffolk University. She specializes in organizational change in criminal justice, systematic and collaborative approaches to organizational and community challenges, and the development, implementation, and evaluation of public safety policies and practices. Her book, "Organizational Change in an Urban Police Department: Innovating to Reform" (2020) analyzes changes in policy, practice and community relationships to understand innovation and organizational transformation in policing. She has conducted research across the United States, published her work in prestigious journals, and been cited in major media outlets.
Bond-Fortier is a nationally respected and recognized policing scholar who is valued by practitioners and policymakers for her participation and contributions to police practice and management. She serves as a subject matter expert for the U.S.Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance Strategies for Policing Innovation initiative, and is a senior research fellow for the National Police Foundation. She previously served as a research associate at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Program in Criminal Justice Policy & Management, as research advisor for the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, and as director of research and development at the Lowell, Massachusetts,Police Department.
Dr. Bond-Fortier received a PhD and MA in Social Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, a Master of Arts in Community Social Psychology and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Christi Hurt serves as the vice president for Strategic Initiatives at Margolis Healy. Before assuming this role, she served in a number of leadership capacities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including the interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Assistant Vice Chancellor/Chief of Staff for Student Affairs, the interim Title IX coordinator and the director of the Carolina Women's Center.
Christi has a depth of experience in building pan-university efforts to foster student success, ensure campus safety, and promote equity and access for all students. Additionally, Christi brings more than 20 years of experience working on local, state, and national levels to eliminate interpersonal violence and develop responsive support systems. She in a national trainer on building comprehensive solutions to prevent and address sexual violence, including childhood sexual abuse. Christi also supports nonprofit and higher education institutions as they work to build their strategic plans, organizational capacity, and succession planning.
She frequently works with institutions during periods of significant transition to help ensure their growth and success over time. She served as the member services director, associate director and interim director of the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs and worked with the National Sexual Assault Coalition Resource Sharing Project. She started her work to end violence in 1991, when she began working as a crisis line volunteer at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She earned her Master in Public Administration and her undergraduate degree at UNC, and is slated to complete her Doctorate in Public Health at UNC in 2021.
Christi serves as an adjunct faculty member at UNC in the School of Government, where she teaches courses on nonprofit management and nonprofit/government relationships.
Organizational Review
Kathy Zoner is the director of organizational assessments where she assists clients with a range of specialized services, including Public Safety Management Studies, physical security, community engagement, cultural awareness, event and emergency management, sexual assault prevention, mental health awareness, and behavioral and threat assessments.
Zoner joined the Margolis Healy team in March 2019. She has 27 years of experience in higher education law enforcement, including nearly a decade as the chief of the Cornell University Police after ascending through the ranks therein.
She was instrumental in guiding her prior agency into achieving and maintaining IACLEA accreditation, and was awarded the Michael Padula Award by the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission for her efforts in collaborations within the Cornell and Ithaca, New York, law enforcement communities. She was recognized by special legislative resolutions in both county and higher ed institutional governance for her consistent work in creating law enforcement agencies that are accessible to the communities they serve, while creating environments of safety and mutual respect. She has distinguished herself on many local boards, community committees, and campus diversity initiatives, and facilitated numerous forums on police and community relations.
In 2014 in Washington D.C., she provided testimony before the senate subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism about the roles and responsibilities of law enforcement regarding campus sexual assault investigations. She has presented on issues pertinent to law enforcement at conferences, including the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and the National Association of Attorneys General.
Re-imagining Campus Safety at Brandeis University Final Report
This past fall, Brandeis University retained Margolis Healy and Associates, LLC and Brenda Bond-Fortier (PhD ’06) to: 1) engage the Brandeis community in conversations to re-imagine the future of campus safety; and 2) to assess current safety-related protocols, procedures, and practices within the Public Safety Department. The consultants met with hundreds of members of the Brandeis community through open forums, focused group meetings, interviews, and meetings with the City of Waltham officials. The final report, which includes several recommendations for the future of campus safety, is now available and can be viewed here (pdf).