CAROLYN MEARS, Ph.D.

Firestorm Expert Council Member Carolyn Lunsford Mears, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Denver. As a parent of a Columbine High School student exposed to the shootings, she conducted dissertation research into the impact of the tragedy on schools and families. Her research, Experiences of Columbine Parents: Finding a Way to Tomorrow, was recognized as the Outstanding Qualitative Dissertation of the Year by the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

In response to requests for information about the distinctive research approach she developed for her dissertation, she authored Interviewing for Education and Social Science Research: The Gateway Approach (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), which was selected as a finalist as AERA Book of the Year 2010.

Her upcoming anthology, Reclaiming School in the Aftermath of Trauma: Advice Based on Experience, provides real-life stories of traumatic events—school shootings, natural disaster, acts of terrorism, personal abuse and victimization—and offers insight into the effects of trauma on learning. Each chapter describes approaches that educators, administrators, students, and staff found helpful as they returned their school or university to the business of teaching and learning.

Dr. Mears, who holds a research appointment at the University of Denver’s Morgridge College of Education, serves as adjunct faculty and is a member of the Trauma Certification Board of the DU Graduate School of Social Work. She has published numerous articles and presented to a variety of audiences in the United States, Europe, and Australia on such topics as trauma response and recovery after school shootings, safe school environments, leadership in times of crisis, and narrative research.    <<