Sonoma Speaker Series hosts lecture by FBI active shooter expert

The Sonoma Speaker Series will host Katherine Schweit, a career Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent and the expert on mass shootings — specifically, school shootings.

Hanna Boys Center is the next stop on her mission to share her knowledge and training with organizations, businesses, schools, first responders and families all across the country.

She is the author of “Stop The Killing: How To End The Mass Shooting Crisis” and a former journalist who reported on the crisis and the data surrounding it to correct numerous public misconceptions.

On Monday, Jan. 23, Schweit will give a lecture based on her encyclopedic understanding of the statistical evidence compiled from hundreds of so-called mass shootings.

During her time as a special agent, she headed the agency’s active shooter program and authored a study of 160 active shooter incidents from 2000 to 2013. In 2012, following the Sandy Hook elementary school tragedy in which 20 children and six adults were murdered, she joined a White House-National Security Council initiative, centered in the office of Joe Biden, the Vice President at the time.

The research Schweit had access to established a statistical and unique body of knowledge, and offered essential insights into the most effective kinds of intervention, such as: police response, classroom safety strategies, violence prevention planning and other historically employed responses.

Schweit will appear in conversation with Sonoma Valley journalist David Bolling, at 7 p.m. at Hanna Boys Center, located at 17000 Arnold Drive, Sonoma. A reception for VIP ticket holders will begin at 5:45 p.m. Tickets are available online at sonomaspeakerseries.com.