Joe McKenna serves as a Technical Assistance provider for the national Center to Improve Social & Emotional Learning and School Safety.
McKenna is also a Senior Research Associate with WestEd’s Justice & Prevention Research Center. McKenna is currently the Principal Investigator on an NIJ-funded evaluation of statewide school safety centers and will be leading additional work in the area of school safety.
Before coming to WestEd, McKenna served as the Executive Director of Safety and Student Support for Comal ISD (Texas), where he was responsible for implementing best practices to ensure a safe and healthy learning environment. As a part of this work, McKenna oversaw the district’s safety, student support, and health service departments.
McKenna also spent seven years at the Texas School Safety Center as the Associate Director, where he oversaw operations of both the research and education divisions. McKenna served as project director for many federal and state funded research and technical assistance grants. He also oversaw the implementation of all legislative mandates and programming pertaining to school safety in the state of Texas.
McKenna received his MS and PhD from Texas State University in Criminal Justice and his BS from Roger Williams University.
Contact Joe McKenna at jmckenn@wested.org.