(2012 Novak Faculty above)

The Institute is designed to address hazing as an environmental and cultural problem in communities by featuring top-notch faculty and hands-on participation. Using the principles of prevention-focused strategies, some of the best minds in the field facilitate a four-day intensive curriculum aimed at empowering participants to demonstrate a shared understanding of the issue, and the ability to act upon their willingness to communicate and work together to lead real change in the eradication of hazing practices within campus communities.

Institute Faculty & Staff

The Faculty

Institute namesake and Dean Kim Novak is an independent consultant for campus safety, student risk management and student organization development. She is recognized as a national expert in student-focused risk management, hazing prevention and campus safety. She has been invited to speak at national conferences and on college campuses around the country, and has served as faculty for several national professional institutes. Kim has served as a fellow for the U.S. Department of Education Higher Education Center for Alcohol Other Drug and Violence Prevention and as a member of the HPO Board of Directors. She currently serves on the advisory Board for the Vermont Legal Issues in Higher Ed Law Conference, as a member of the Board of Directors for SCOPE, School and College Organization for Prevention Educators and as a director for the Fraternity Executive Association’s Interfraternal Institute. Prior to embarking on her consulting career full-time, Kim served as the director for Student and Campus Community Development at Arizona State University, Downtown Phoenix campus. Kim was a key player in the opening of the campus in 2004. Prior to that, she worked at Texas A&M for eight years. Kim approaches her work with college students with the heart of an advocate and is committed to the advancement of communities of care on college campuses across the country.

Independent consultant Dr. Linda Langford specializes in campus-based prevention, strategic planning, health communications and program evaluation, with special interests in violence prevention, environmental approaches to prevention, practitioner-researcher collaborations and translating research to practice. From 1998-2012, she served as an associate director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. During her time at the Center, Linda developed a framework for violence prevention in higher education based on a public health approach that promotes campus and community collaboration and systematic data-driven planning based on the best available prevention science. She authored a widely used working paper on campus hazing prevention and has consulted on the Institute curriculum, the Zeta Tau Alpha Award for Innovation in Campus Hazing Prevention and Education criteria and the National Agenda for Hazing Prevention. She currently works part-time as an evaluation scientist at the SAMHSA-funded Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), based at Education Development Center, Inc., in addition to running her own consulting practice, Langford & Associates. Linda holds a doctorate in behavioral sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health and from 1998-2006, taught a core course in the health communications program at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Institute Director Dr. Gina Lee-Olukoya is the associate dean of students at University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign where she provides oversight and support to Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, New Student Programs and campus traditions. Gina also addresses high-risk alcohol use and sexual aggression and misconduct in the student community. She has presented at NASPA, the leading organization for student affairs professionals, and at Legal Affairs in Higher Education conferences in addition to consulting with campuses to address hazing prevention. Gina is a scholar-practitioner who studies hazing involving African American women in historically Black Greek lettered organizations, in addition to how African American women utilize their sorority experience to negotiate issues of gender and race. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and serves on the foundation of Hope Street Youth Development. She is author of Sisterhood: Hazing and Other Membership Experiences of Women Belonging to Historically African American Sororities. Gina holds bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Ball State University and a master’s in Student Personnel Services from the University of North Carolina. She earned a PhD in Higher Education Administration from Illinois State University.

As the director of Mental Health Initiatives at Cornell University, Dr. Timothy C. Marchell leads institutional strategies to address alcohol abuse, hazing and mental health problems among students. Drawing on his clinical practice as well as his personal experience as a former college athlete and fraternity member, Tim has developed innovative anti-hazing strategies, including a comprehensive website (www.hazing.cornell.edu) and interventions for organizations that haze. He is co-author of several publications on the prevention of hazing, alcohol abuse and sexual violence, and has delivered numerous presentations on these issues for students, coaches and higher education administrators. Tim is a licensed psychologist in the State of New York. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Yale University, a master's in public health from UCLA, and a PhD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology.

Independent consultant Keith Ellis has been recognized nationally for his efforts in hazing prevention, risk management education and leading change in fraternity and sorority communities across the southeastern United States. Keith brings passion to the topic of prevention education and community change and has led workshops for students and professionals at numerous regional and national conferences. In 2011, Keith joined the faculty of the Novak Institute for Hazing Prevention where he engages participants in conversations of partnership, policy, research and applying prevention science to the topic of hazing. Keith is committed to the creation of environments where students, faculty and staff can come together in partnership and shared responsibility. Keith is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in educational policy evaluation from the University of Kentucky, focusing on issues relative to Greek letter organizations, hazing and the law.

RISE Partnerships Chief Executive Officer and Project Leader Dan Wrona runs a company that challenges fraternity and sorority members to step up, take action and use their values to change the world. In the 13 years since he co-founded RISE, Dan has trained student leaders on more than 150 campuses in the skills and strategies to create positive change in their organizations. He is the creator of From Hazing to Health, an educational initiative that transforms hazing from a complicated, confusing discussion about legal issues into a simple formula for building stronger, healthier organizations. His program was recognized by the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors with the 2009 Excellence in Educational Programming Award. Dan chairs the HazingPrevention.Org Program Committee and the Risk Management Standing Committee for Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.

Institute Staff

Institute Intern James Crawford is a graduate assistant in Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life while he pursues a master’s in education in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program at the University of South Carolina. He serves as an advisor for the University’s Fraternity Council and the Greek Conduct Board, a co-ed board that provides risk management-focused programming and maintains community standards through conduct hearings. James holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he held a variety of leadership positions. He is a founding father of the University’s Delta Chi Fraternity chapter. Through his experiences as a resident assistant, student mentor and men’s 1-in-4 sexual assault education member, James has developed a passion for risk awareness and management. His interests include student retention efforts, student experience, fraternity and sorority life, student leadership and motivation, assessment and athletics.

Returning for a second year as an Institute intern, Ashley Stone is the leadership development graduate assistant in the Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She serves as a coach for the Certificate for Civic Engagement Program, teaching assistant for an introductory college leadership course, and a representative for leadership panels, retreats and workshops while she pursues a master’s degree in Educational Administration – Student Affairs. After earning a bachelor’s degree in communication at Wichita State University, she worked at her alma mater as an admissions representative, where she increased designated territory recruitment outcomes by 47 percent in 2011 – the highest student recruitment in 30 years. Ashley received numerous awards for leadership, Greek involvement, service and academic excellence at WSU. She is an active member of Delta Gamma Fraternity and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA).