Dr. Amie McKibban (Director, Co-Founder, Trainer)

A professor of psychology at the University of Southern Indiana and member of the gender studies advisory council, Dr. McKibban completed her degree in community psychology in 2009. A human sexuality educator since 2002, she has worked with community initiatives and has taught human sexuality to students from 3rd grade through college. Trained by the American Psychological Association to specialize in issues surrounding the LGBT community, she has experience with campus and community wide programs including other safe zone curricula.

about our team members
fulfilling our vision 

Dr. Amy Montz (Trainer)

A professor of eighteenth and nineteenth century literature at the University of Southern Indiana, Dr. Montz completed her degree in Victorian literature and fashion in 2008, and received a women’s studies graduate certificate for her graduate work with women’s and gender studies. A scholar who is most interested in how fashion, feminist, and gender theories can be applied to literatures of the eighteenth through twenty-first centuries, Dr. Montz has worked with concepts of public and private presentation, performance, and nationalism.

Fostering a socially just community through support, activism, and visibility.

 

Using a well-known program in a way that mobilizes allies and allows for solutions at each level, our initiative challenges allies to recognize their own role in reinforcing the status quo, to be comfortable with the complexity of sexuality and gender, and to serve as a person of trust, as well as a person of action. Recognizing that cultural change occurs when the majority and those in power are supportive, Safe Zone trainings are offered to students, faculty, staff members, administrators - and most uniquely, members of the at-large community. With the vision of “Fostering a socially just community through support, activism, and visibility,” we have mobilized over 300 allies to date.

OUR MISSION

Dr. Stephanie Young (Co-founder, Trainer)

A professor of communication studies at the University of Southern Indiana and member of the gender studies advisory council , Dr. Young completed her degree in rhetoric and gender studies in 2009. Dr. Young has taught courses in rhetoric and diversity; gender, culture, and communication; and interpersonal relationships. Dr. Young served as the faculty advisor from 2009-2012 for Spectrum, a gay-straight student alliance, and has been trained in Safe Zone curriculum. Dr. Young has presented papers on feminism, gender, and media’s portrayal of individuals who are intersexed.


Guided by a core set of principles, we aim to mobilize stakeholders in a way that promotes involvement in local, county, state and national public sectors and policy; to identify individuals and local groups who offer supportive and inclusive environments; and to provide a public forum that allows our allies to be visible in various sectors of the Tri-State community. ​