Behavior Threat Assessment and Management in the Digital World

 

In this episode of School Safety Today, host Dr. Amy Grosso speaks with Lea Bauer, an expert in threat assessment and protective intelligence. Lea highlights the value of incorporating a student’s digital world into threat assessments and offers schools practical guidance and resources for success. She also provides guidance on how to build and maintain trust with various stakeholders. 

 KEY POINTS: 

  • Integrating a student’s digital world is vital for a thorough behavioral threat assessment. 
  • Adding a tech-savvy educator to the team ensures the student’s digital presence is accurately assessed. 
  • Building and maintaining trust is essential for sustaining campus safety throughout the threat assessment process. 

Our guest, Lea Bauer, brings over 25 years of expertise in threat assessment, protective intelligence, physical security operations, executive protection, and investigations. She is the founder of Bauer S&I Specialists, LLC, a private investigative and security firm serving corporate and individual clients, with a specialized focus on protective intelligence and security solutions for the entertainment industry. 

As a consultant for SIGMA, now part of Raptor, Lea provides expert guidance and training in threat assessment and management to K-12 schools, colleges, workplaces, and high-profile individuals and families. A licensed private investigator, she is also an active member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). 

Lea’s impressive career includes her tenure as a Senior Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service, where she conducted threat assessments, provided physical security, and safeguarded national leaders. She also worked closely with the Department of Defense to deliver training on counterterrorism strategies, including tackling extremist threats and terrorist financing. Before her law enforcement career, Lea was a licensed professional counselor, giving her a unique perspective on human behavior and risk dynamics. 

Recent Episodes

AI is everywhere—and it’s evolving rapidly. From predictive algorithms to large language models like ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is reshaping how we work, communicate, and learn. As schools explore AI in the classroom, educators and researchers are asking: Does AI really understand us? Or are we projecting human-like thinking onto systems that are fundamentally different? The…

A growing healthcare staffing crisis is forcing institutions to rethink how the next generation of clinical talent is trained. A study by Mercer and Lightcast, cited by the American Hospital Association, projects that the U.S. could be short of as many as 100,000 critical healthcare workers by 2028. This urgent gap is pushing innovators to…

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in our everyday lives, AI and education are becoming more tightly intertwined. Many teachers and students are experimenting with AI in education, from personalized tutoring tools to automated lesson planning. While traditional edtech tools struggled to deliver on the promise of personalized learning, today’s generative AI appears poised to…