BPS Emergency Director to Deliver Closing Keynote at International Behavioural Analysis 2025
Renowned school safety and crisis response leader Rick Kaufman, APR, will deliver the closing keynote address at International Behavioural Analysis 2025 on Thursday, June 28, at the Mall of America.
Kaufman, executive director of community relations and emergency management for ԹϺ, brings more than 30 years of frontline experience in school safety, behavioural threat assessment, and crisis response and recovery. He is perhaps best known for co-leading the Columbine Crisis Response Team in the aftermath of the 1999 tragedy, and has since become a widely sought-after speaker, trainer, and advisor on school emergency preparedness, behavioural threat assessment, and trauma-informed communications.
Kaufman’s keynote, "The Columbine Massacre: Behaviour Detection Lessons Learned," will offer a firsthand perspective on one of the most defining school tragedies in modern history. He will explore the warning signs and behavioral patterns of the perpetrators, and how those lessons are critical to identifying pre-attack indicators and the pathway to violence. His presentation aims to better equip professionals working in education, mental health, and public safety with strategies to strengthen early intervention and prevention systems.
“Understanding the behaviour of individuals on a pathway to targeted violence is essential,” Kaufman says. “What we learn from tragedies like Columbine must be applied to build smarter, more human-centered systems of threat assessment and intervention.”
International Behavioural Analysis 2025 brings together educators, behaviour analysts, psychologists, and school safety professionals from around the world to explore the science and practice of behaviour-based systems. Kaufman’s keynote will close out three days of collaborative learning focused on improving outcomes for students, schools, and communities through informed behavioral analysis.