CAROLYN MEARS, Ph.D.

Carolyn L. Mears is affiliated faculty and guest lecturer at the College of Education of the University of Denver (DU). She serves on the Advisory Board of the Trauma Certification Program at DU's Graduate School of Social Work. As an educator and parent whose son was a student at Columbine High School at the time of the shootings, Carolyn conducted research into the impact of the tragedy on parents and families. Her dissertation, Experiences of Columbine Parents: Finding a Way to Tomorrow, received the Outstanding Qualitative Dissertation of the Year award from the American Educational Research Association in 2005. She has published numerous articles and presented to a variety of audiences in the U.S. and Australia, on such topics as trauma response and recovery, safe school environments, leadership in times of crisis, and organizational change. She is currently working on two textbooks, one on the impact of disaster on families, and the other on using interviews as gateways to understanding.   <<