Andre’ Spence is a School Safety Technical Assistance Specialist at WestEd. Prior to WestEd, he served as a School Safety Readiness Program Manager at the Texas School Safety Center where he provided oversight on center operations related to resource development and technical assistance pertaining to school safety and security audits and emergency management procedures for school districts in Texas. Spence led several state-wide initiatives which included the establishment of the Texas School Safety and Security Consultant Registry. Additionally, He has held leadership positions for various state/government entities with regulatory oversight in the state of Texas which included the Department of Family and Protective Services and the Office of Inspector General.

With 20 years of progressive leadership and expertise in operational efficiency and regulatory oversight, Spence brings a wealth of experience in conducting physical security and compliance audits across educational settings. He holds a Doctoral degree in Administration of Justice from Texas Southern University, complemented by a MS in Family and Child Studies from Texas State University and a BS in Psychology/Criminal Justice from Prairie View A&M University.

Alexis Stern is a Research Associate. She contributes to research and evaluation projects in areas including juvenile justice reform, school climate, and public health. Her work at WestEd has included supporting a case study of a juvenile justice youth advisory council, a report on school climate and suspensions in California schools, and an evaluation of a framework for school-based law enforcement in Texas. Stern received a master’s degree in urban education policy from Brown University.

Hannah Sutherland is a Research Associate. Sutherland’s responsibilities include various research and evaluation tasks for studies within the areas of justice, public health, and education—including qualitative data collection, survey development and implementation, data analysis, and reporting. These studies focus on violence prevention, drug and alcohol prevention, adult recidivism reduction, school safety, disconnected youth, restorative justice, teen pregnancy prevention, juvenile drug courts, and other programs protecting at-risk youth. She received a BA with double majors in psychology and political science from Westfield State University and an MS in criminal justice from Salem State University.

Justine Zimiles is a Research Associate. Her work focuses on program evaluation activities, including coordinating data collection, developing data management systems, online survey administration, statistical analysis, and report writing. Zimiles’s current projects relate to juvenile justice prevention, victims of human trafficking, and health equity technical assistance. Before joining WestEd, she worked in a mental health research setting and taught statistics and English as a foreign language. She received a BA in psychology from the University of Rochester, New York and a master’s degree in applied psychology from San Diego State University.