Violence Prevention Team

The Violence Prevention Team is committed to preventing violence in our campus community and creating a more seamless response to sexual and relationship violence.

About the Team

The goal of Violence Prevention Team (VPT) is to create a campus culture that promotes healthy, equitable relationships and eliminates sexual violence. The VPT is a team of interdisciplinary stakeholders establishing collaborations across UB and within the surrounding communities to better serve our students. The VPT is a subcommittee of UB’s Personal Safety Committee.

Responsibilities

The Violence Prevention Team supports development of effective prevention programming and comprehensive response to sexual and relationship violence, which requires a university-wide commitment to the values of trauma-informed practice, as well as a commitment to institution-wide use of promising practices in gender-inclusive and culturally-relevant victim/survivor-centered care and programming. 

In addition to working toward a more streamlined approach to the response of sexual and relationship violence, the Violence Prevention Team works to:

  • Provide cross-training among campus departments &/or between campus and community responders 
  • Identify commonalities and differences of response services 
  • Create guidelines and protocols for campus response 
  • Fill in identified gaps 
  • Establish intra-agency and inter-agency agreements 
  • Promote greater campus safety 
  • Develop media responses and strategies 
  • Promote and advocate for campus policy 
  • Strategize reasonable accommodations for victims/survivors 
  • Support quality assurance of response services 
  • Assess and address emerging issues 
  • Share resources for ongoing training

Current Membership

Department Member(s)
Campus Living Victoria Hellman-Koester
Crisis Services of WNY Rachel Ovalle
Counseling Services

Kathryn Benfanti

Jayna Punturiero
Division of Athletics 

D’Ann Keller 

Kellie Peiper
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Kesha Foster
Greek Life Pam Stephens-Jackson
Health Promotion Anna Sotelo-Peryea (Chair)
Health Services Nicole McDermott
Intercultural & Diversity Center Kevin Ahuna
Student Conduct & Advocacy Ben Fabian
Law School, Family Violence & Women’s Rights Clinic Judith Olin
Orientation, Transition & Parent Programs Chrissy Daniel
Student Advisory Board Chair Sarah Hunt
University Police Asst. Chief Sticht
Health Promotion

Aaron Maracle (Sexual Violence Prevention & Response)

Jackie Piciulo (Alcohol & Other Drug Harm Reduction)

Our collective work is informed by the following: American College Health Association. (2020). Addressing sexual and relationship violence: A trauma-informed approach. Silver Spring, MD: American College Health Association.