Bullying can transform even the best school into a forbidding environment for students of any age who endure classmates’ taunting. GSE’s Alberti Center is a national resource on bullying prevention and other forms of school violence among children, as well as a source of research projects, publications and information that address these behaviors.
The Gift of Giving
A bequest to end bullying
Bullying has long been an evolving societal injustice that can lead to lifelong implications for those on the receiving end of the abuse.
That’s why the subject has been a career-long area of concern and action for Kathryn Jens, PhD ’78, MA ’75. A licensed clinical psychologist who has maintained her own psychology practice for more than four decades, Jens served as a school psychologist for 24 years in the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado, not far from Columbine High School where two teenagers wielding guns committed a heinous act that thrust the school—and the issue of bullying—into the national spotlight in 1999.
Just before Columbine, Jens worked with an ad hoc group of like-minded professionals to create a school-based intervention called Bully-Proofing Your School, the first program in the United States designed to help educators address bullying and violence more holistically. Years later, while attending a national conference on bullying, she learned of the groundbreaking work happening at her alma mater when she met Amanda Nickerson, director of the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention in the Graduate School of Education. Jens was immediately impressed by the caliber of thought leadership at the center.
In 2021, Jens made the first of many gifts to the Alberti Center to establish a graduate student fellowship. Shortly after, she began making plans for a bequest commitment of $1.5 million to fund the first-ever endowed faculty position in the Graduate School of Education.
From left, Stephanie Fredrick, associate director of the Alberti Center, Kathryn Jens, and Amanda Nickerson, director of the Alberti Center.
“Through the fellowship supported by Dr. Jens, I have attended conferences to present my work, contributed to research, and I’m working on several manuscripts,” says Lucia Sun, BA ’20, a graduate assistant at the Alberti Center. “The projects I am involved with are providing me with the experience to conduct my own research focusing on protective factors relating to social support, trauma-responsive care within schools, and mental health well-being among BIPOC, immigrant and refugee children and families.”
“This endowed position helps draw attention to the important research produced by scholars associated with the Alberti Center,” says Suzanne Rosenblith, GSE dean. “It also signals support for GSE’s commitment to community-engaged research that seeks to address societal concerns, of which bullying is paramount.”
As bullying continues to evolve from playgrounds to cyber arenas, Jens’ generosity guarantees that UB will continue to be at the forefront of addressing it.
“My hope is that the endowed position will give UB, and the Alberti Center, even more esteem,” explains Jens. “It’s an assurance that the work will continue. Bullying is such a universal human issue, and it’s not a topic that the world will soon move on from.”
The Future of Bullying Prevention
“An endowed chair elevates the position of the GSE and will expand the capacity of the Alberti Center for additional levels of support to advance cutting-edge research,” explains Amanda Nickerson (far right), director. “Focused funding is absolutely essential to produce high-quality research that directly impacts schools, communities, youth and their families.”
Originally published in the Boldly Buffalo Campaign Annual Report, November 2023.
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