MVP Strategies Staff
MVP Strategies Staff

MVP Strategies staff includes some of the most talented and experienced gender violence prevention trainers in the world.

Our trainers include:

Craig Alimo, Trainer

Craig Alimo, Ph.D., is a long-time social justice educator and educational consultant who was an original member of the MVP team as a young graduate student at Northeastern University in the early 1990s.

He currently serves as the first Director of Equity and Inclusivity at Napa Valley College in Napa, California, implementing a campus equity plan and coordinating Title IX related activities. In his prior position, he served as a Multicultural Education Specialist at the University of California, Berkeley in the Division of Equity and Inclusion, where he was responsible for working with a team to develop a campus initiative to engage faculty, students and staff on issues of campus climate for equity, human difference and inclusion.

At the University of Maryland he helped create the MOSAIC Diversity and Leadership retreat, as well as a data-driven multicultural organizational development initiative in the Department of Transportation Services. He also created the Social Justice Educator Development Program in the Office of Human Relations Programs (OHRP). While at OHRP he assisted with the development and implementation of Student Intercultural Learning Center activities.

Craig has published scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals, and has served on a nationwide research project investigating the educational benefits of Intergroup Relations programs. He has designed and facilitated a number of undergraduate and graduate level courses, and assisted academic departments with the development of curricula and programs of study. In 2006, ACPA: College Student Educators International’s Commission for Social Justice Educators honored Craig with their first annual award for Outstanding Teacher, Trainer, or Mentor.

Craig has worked at a variety of educational institutions in Academic Affairs, Learning Communities, Residence Life, Orientation Programs, and Multicultural Affairs. As an independent educational consultant, he has consulted with corporate, non-profit, college and university campuses around the country, as well as with government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights.

Craig earned his B.A. in History and Philosophy from Rider College, an M.S. from Northeastern University in College Student Development and Counseling, an advanced graduate degree from the University of Massachusetts in social justice education, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in College Student Personnel Administration.

La Shonda Coleman, Trainer

La Shonda Coleman, LCSW, serves as Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Title IX at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.Previously she was the long-time Director of College Programs for the Rape Treatment Center at UCLA-Santa Monica Medical Center. In that role she provided comprehensive services to nearly forty colleges and universities throughout California.

She has been a consultant to President Janet Napolitano’s UC System-wide Sexual Assault Prevention Task Force. She was selected as the inaugural recipient of UCLA’s 2015 Excellence in Management, Rising Star Award.

La Shonda has a private psychotherapy practice in Larchmont, California, and is currently pursuing her doctorate in clinical social work through the Sanville Institute for Clinical Social Work in Berkeley. Her research is focused on developing diverse and inclusive approaches to sexual assault prevention education, response and advocacy on college campuses.

La Shonda is a Founding board member of Girl Power, an organization with a mission to empower young women in education, culture, health & wellness, spirituality, financial management, politics and career trajectories. She happily resides in Southern California with her husband and four children.

Elizabeth Feldhusen, Trainer

Elizabeth Feldhusen, M.A., is an MVP Strategies trainer with extensive experience conducting MVP trainings in colleges, high schools, and with groups in the sports culture and the U.S. military. Liz has worked with MVP since 2007, when she began working as a training and outreach specialist, facilitating the MVP curriculum with high school students, college athletes, professional athletes, and youth service providers.

Elizabeth is currently an assistant principal at Colorado High School Charter, a small, alternative high school in Denver. She graduated from Gettysburg College with a degree in History and holds an M.A.in School Counseling from Northeastern University.

Duane de Four, Training Consultant

Duane de Four, M.A., is an MVP Strategies training consultant, educator, media critic, and activist specializing in gender violence prevention, diversity, and sexual health education. For nearly two decades, Duane has conducted MVP trainings in higher education, high schools, colleges, professional athletics, the US military, and many other settings. He currently works as a Project Manager for Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Program for Violence Prevention and Response (VPR). He is also the creator of HowManly.com, a blog about masculinity in media and culture.

Duane is a board member at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC), a former Big Brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, a Little League Baseball umpire, and a group facilitator at Emerge, where he co-facilitates batterer intervention groups for African-American men.

He holds a B.S. degree in Women’s Studies from the University of Utah, and a MA in Marketing Communications from Emerson College.

Daryl Fort, Senior Trainer & Curriculum Developer

Daryl Fort is a senior MVP strategies trainer and curriculum developer. Daryl has trained tens of thousands of student athletes, coaches, and administrators at hundreds of major NCAA institutions, as well as other student leaders and students at colleges and high schools. He has been an integral part of the MVP Strategies training teams that have trained thousands of military trainers and troops in all the major services of the U.S. Armed Forces. He is also a community development consultant and gender violence prevention activist, speaker, and educator who has worked throughout North America, Eastern Asia, Europe, Iraq, and Australia as a consultant to community-based and non-profit organizations, as well as public and private sector institutions.

Prior to MVP, Daryl spent 14 years as a political and public policy advisor to former U.S. Congressman and Governor of Maine, John Baldacci. As a senior policy advisor to Governor Baldacci, Daryl coordinated administration initiatives and policy development involving sexual assault and domestic violence, reproductive rights, children and youth, higher education, multicultural affairs, homelessness, civil rights, and Tribal affairs.

A former Trustee for Maine Boys to Men, the Maine Center for Sport and Coaching, and the Maine Center for Economic Policy, Daryl currently serves on the board of directors for the Maine Sports Hall of Fame and the Institute for Civic Leadership. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Maine, where he played tight end and defensive end on the football team.

Miguel Perez Gallo, Trainer

Miguel Perez Gallo is an MVP Strategies trainer who is a leader in men’s violence prevention in Los Angeles and Santa Monica. For four years he served as the prevention programs coordinator at OPCC, the largest social services agency on the west side of Los Angeles. He recently co-led the rebranding of their cutting-edge men’s violence prevention initiative called BRO – Brothers Respecting Others.

Over the last few years he has facilitated numerous trainings addressing gender-based violence and its impact with diverse groups, including police officers, city officials and employees, at-risk youth, the homeless, and student-athletes, coaches and administrators at the college and high school level.

Miguel grew up in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles. He graduated from Humboldt State University with a BA in sociology, where he also played wide receiver for the football team. In addition, he studied Theatre of the Oppressed at the University of Southern California. He recently founded an eco-friendly business and continues to volunteer for the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation and the Matt Lienart Foundation.

Graham Goulden, Training Consultant

Graham Goulden, BA, is an MVP Strategies training consultant. For thirty years he has been a UK police officer and Chief Investigator specializing in criminal investigation, drug investigation, training, and crime prevention. For the past eight years he has been a key member of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit.

Since 2010 Graham has been developing MVP-Scotland in high schools across the country. He has conducted numerous trainings in Scotland, England, Sweden, and the States. In addition to conducting MVP trainings, Graham has expert knowledge and experience in embedding MVP within local government, and has been able to build a sustainable model that has allowed MVP to develop both locally and nationally in high school, university and workplace settings.

Graham holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice Studies and a Certificate in Training from Napier University, Edinburgh. He lives with his family in Edinburgh.

Lauren Grousd, Trainer

Lauren Grousd, MA, LCPC, is an MVP Strategies trainer who has 15 years of experience providing sexuality education and sexual violence prevention training in high schools, colleges, local communities and the U.S. military. A licensed clinical mental health counselor and an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator, Lauren’s work focuses on the intersections of mental health and human sexuality, family communication about sex and sexuality, social marketing and community organizing and gender issues. Lauren has worked with MVP Strategies since 2010.

Lauren has a private psychotherapy practice in Portland, ME. She specializes in working with adolescents, adults and couples on issues of sexual trauma, gender identity, sexual health and functioning, relationship distress, and LGBTQ experiences. She holds a BA in Sociology and Women’s Studies from Bowdoin College and an MA in Psychology and Counseling, with a concentration in sexual orientation, from Goddard College.

Kyler Hall, Trainer

Kyler Hall is an MVP Strategies trainer who is a former Division 1 college football star and current high school football coach in Northern Florida. For the past two years he has conducted numerous MVP trainings with college and professional athletes.

Kyler was Florida Class 3A Player of the Year and first team all-state in high school. He attended Florida State University, where he played football from 2001-2005 as a defensive back and was named team captain his senior year. He graduated in 2005 with a BA in physical education.

He has been head football coach at the Maclay School in Tallahassee since 2011, where he won two North Florida Football Conference Championships in his first 2 years. Maclay is an independent college prepatory school that enjoys a statewide and national reputation for academic excellence.

Kyler lives in the Tallahassee area with his wife and three children.

Alan Heisterkamp, Trainer & Consultant

Alan Heisterkamp, Ed.D., is a long-time MVP Strategies project partner, trainer and curriculum developer who directs the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Northern Iowa. As director, he conducts Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) gender violence prevention training and outreach to Iowa’s universities, colleges, and secondary schools, and oversees curriculum infusion of bystander education and strategies within pre-service teacher education programming.

Alan was the education and research consultant with the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention on a five-year study, entitled the Sioux City Project. He was also the education consultant on the award-winning documentary film, Bully, and he co-authored the educational study guide for the Emmy Award-nominated documentary, Private Violence. In addition, Alan has co-authored multiple curricula and a number of research articles on the topic of gender violence prevention education.

Alan presents and trains across the U.S. and overseas on the subject of engaging men, young men and boys in the prevention of men’s violence against women. For the past four years, he has served as a member of the coordinating committee for the North American MenEngage Network.

Akan is also President and CEO of the consulting firm Cultivating Minds, Inc. Prior to his current endeavors, he served the Sioux City Community School District for 23 years as a teacher, coach, school counselor and school administrator. He holds masters’ degrees in educational psychology and counseling, and school leadership, and a doctorate in secondary school administration.

Kelly Janke, MA, Trainer

Kelly Janke, MA, is an MVP Strategies trainer with 15 years of experience providing sexual violence prevention training in colleges, high schools, juvenile detention centers, women’s shelters, private corporations, community centers and the U.S. military.

He is the Managing Director of interACT, an internationally renowned social justice performance troupe that presents interactive presentations on sexual assault prevention, diversity, homophobia, and stalking.

Kelly is an instructor of Communication Studies at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and other area colleges, where he teaches courses in communication studies, social justice, performance, and gender. His scholarly work includes published research on masculinity and men’s violence against women.

Kelly holds a B.A. and M.A. in Communication Studies from CSULB.

Josh Jasper, Trainer

Josh Jasper, M.S.W., is a long-time MVP Strategies trainer with training experience in the military, colleges, and high schools. For the past 12 years, he has worked in the field of sexual and domestic violence as an advocate, counselor, and administrator.

From 2006 to 2013 he was President and CEO of Riverview Center, a rape crisis and domestic violence program in Dubuque, Iowa. Josh also is co-founder of Resources Unite, an organization based in Dubuque that strengthens communities by creating connections to resources and volunteer opportunities.

Josh holds a B.S. in Criminology from the University of Northern Iowa and an M.S.W. degree from UCLA. Prior to his undergraduate and graduate education, he served for four years in the United States Marine Corps, where he was a corporal in the security forces.

Jackson Katz, Founder & Director

Jackson Katz, Ph.D., is the Founder and Director of MVP Strategies. He co-founded the MVP Program in 1993 at Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society. He is the primary author of the program’s groundbreaking curricular materials. He is one of the key architects of the bystander approach to gender violence prevention.

Jackson has delivered thousands of lectures and conducted trainings in 50 states, eight Canadian provinces, and many countries around the world. He is the creator of the award-winning documentaries Tough Guise and Tough Guise 2. He is featured in many popular documentaries, including Miss Representation, The Mask You Live In, and Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.

He is the author of numerous articles and two critically acclaimed books, The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help, and Man Enough: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and the Politics of Presidential Masculinity. His TED talk, “Violence against Women is a Men’s Issue,” has been viewed more than 3.5 million times.

Jackson holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, a Masters from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies and Education from UCLA.

JR LaRose, Trainer

JR LaRose is an MVP Strategies trainer who is a former Canadian Football League player who played from 2005-2014 for the Edmonton Eskimos and B.C. Lions. He played safety for the Lions’ 2011 Grey Cup championship team. He is also a high-profile figure in the Lions’ award-winning Be More Than a Bystander social messaging and education campaign, a partnership between the Lions, the Ending Violence Association of BC, and MVP Strategies.

Through his role as spokesperson for Be More than a Bystander he has delivered presentations and training based on the MVP model of gender violence prevention to more than 60,000 high school students throughout BC and beyond.

JR is a member of One Arrow First Nation. A gifted and sought-after public speaker, he has shared his family’s story of struggle and his own personal story of success with audiences across North America. His special focus is on the experiences of Aboriginal peoples, but his story of redemption is universal, breaking down racial and generational walls and bringing forth a sense of hope and humanity.

JR has been awarded the Lions’ Jamie Taras award for Community Service for three straight years. He has also thrice been nominated for the Canadian Football League’s Tom Pate award, which honors the player who demonstrates outstanding sportsmanship, contribution to his team, community, and association.

A native of Edmonton, Alberta, he lives with his family in Vancouver, BC.

Shirley Moody-Turner, Trainer

Shirley Moody-Turner, Ph.D., is a long-time MVP Strategies trainer, award-winning educator, and critical race and gender studies scholar whose work provides a historical context for understanding perceptions of race and gender in contemporary culture. She began working in the sexual assault and domestic violence field as a trainer for the Athletes in Service to America program in 1995, leading workshops in Buffalo city schools on gender violence prevention, leadership, and diversity.

A former Division I college student-athlete, she has utilized her background and experience in sports culture, working for the past twelve years as a trainer and consultant utilizing the Mentors in Violence Prevention curriculum. In this capacity, she has delivered training and helped develop programming for a range of different populations in the U.S. and abroad, including college and professional athletes, coaches and administrators, community leaders and advocates, and personnel in various branches of the US Military.

She has worked with clients that include the SEC, Big Ten, Atlantic Ten, the NBA and MLB, as well as many other sports,  community and professional organizations.

Shirley has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Literature and Language from the University of Maryland, and is an Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Shannon Spriggs, Senior Trainer & Administrator

Shannon Spriggs, Ph.D., is a long-time MVP Strategies trainer and administrator. For the past six years she was a Research Fellow with the Violence Research and Prevention program at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.

From 2006-2010, Shannon was Assistant Director of MVP National. As MVP National’s lead female trainer, she facilitated over 600 training sessions with more than 15,000 participants. Starting in 2010, she worked to adapt the MVP curriculum for use in Australia and develop a pilot MVP program there. In addition, Shannon has been a key member of the MVP Strategies teams that have trained U.S. military personnel in bystander intervention in the U.S. and overseas in theatre in Iraq.

Shannon has a B.A. in Journalism and an M.A. in Business and Counseling from the University of Texas-Arlington, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Boston College.

Brandi Stuart, Trainer

Brandi Stuart is an MVP Strategies trainer who is an educator and college and youth sports official with a wealth of experience in gender violence prevention and life skills development.

Brandi currently serves as one of four Assistant Commissioners for the Southern Section of the California Interscholastic Federation, in addition to being a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations Softball Rules Committee. She is also one of the lead consultants for the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum.

Early in her career she was the Assistant Director of Championships for the Atlantic Coast Conference. She also served as Director of Life Skills at the University of Alabama, and Associate Athletic Director for Student Services at Florida State.

For the past eight years Brandi has been a key MVP trainer, training students and professionals on dozens of college campuses as well as being one of the lead trainers for MVP’s work over the past year with the NBA and MLB.

Brandi is a graduate of Florida State University, where she played softball. She holds a Master’s Degree from FSU.

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