March 10-13, 2025
Civil Rights Compliance and Prevention Focus Week

Aaron Austin (he/him/his) is a father, husband, and educator who has had the opportunity to serve students at multiple colleges and universities.  He has experience with a variety of Student Affairs areas, and throughout his career has presented to numerous students, employees, families, and community partners on topics ranging from policy implementation to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Most recently, Aaron served as Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.  During his time in this role, he had a supervisory portfolio that included the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Housing & Residence Life, Student Conduct & Community Standards, Student Involvement, Fraternity & Sorority Life, Campus Activities, Campus Recreation, and Student Government.  Aaron was a vital member of the WSU CARE Team (Case Management & Behavior Intervention), Title IX Committee, and the Bias Incident Response Group.   

Aaron is interested in the intersection of race and identity in relationship to Behavior Intervention/Threat Assessment and looks for opportunities to engage in these conversations to ensure practitioners are aware of the biases they bring to the work.  Further, Aaron has spent the last few years as a Student Affairs administrator which allows him to see issues from that perspective. A native Kansan, Aaron earned his Bachelor of Music Education and minor in American Ethnic Studies from Kansas State University; his M.Ed. from Arizona State University – Tempe; and his Ed.D. from Texas Tech University.

Dr. Sharon Perry Fantini is a Partner at TNG. She serves on the Advisory Board for ATIXA (The Association for Title IX Administrators). Dr. Perry Fantini is an experienced administrator with more than 20 years of service in higher education, with expertise in the areas of Title IX, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her progressive leadership experience and strategic planning for diversity, equity, and inclusion have aided her in creating campus-wide programs for prevention, awareness, bystander intervention, investigation, and response to discrimination, harassment, and sexual misconduct. Additionally, she has worked on initiatives related to Section 504 and ADA compliance and policy development.

Dr. Perry Fantini has experience speaking, training, and consulting with local, regional, and national organizations regarding many diversity and inclusion topics and best practices. She has accepted invited speaking engagements, training, and consulting opportunities in diversity and inclusion, implicit bias, gender-based violence, cultural awareness, and Title IX. She has facilitated education and training aimed at Title IX coordinators, Civil Rights investigators, and educators teaching multicultural students.

In 2023, she presented at the Association of Public Land-grant Universities meeting on connecting and embedding diversity, equity, inclusion, and research, and how to establish relationships to build capacity to thrive, not just survive. In 2022, she was selected to serve as a panelist for the Chronicle of Higher Education and University Innovation Alliance (UIA), to discuss socioeconomic burdens that can result in derailed college careers. In 2022, she was an invited speaker at an internal Congressional briefing on Title IX for the Association of Title IX Administrators. She was selected to present at the Ohio Department of Higher Education Statewide Title IX Coordinator Meeting, January 2021, on “Exploratory Look at Balancing the Current Era of Title IX: 34 CFR Part 106.45(b)(5)(vi).” She previously served as a Title IX expert for the College and University Professional Association in Higher Education (CUPA). In this role, higher education professionals can seek advice related to Title IX compliance and the impact on their respective campuses. She was selected by the Ohio Department of Higher Education to serve on the Chancellor’s Special Committee to review RFP proposals as it relates to services around the annual campus climate survey for colleges and universities in the State of Ohio to have the opportunity for campuses to focus in on underrepresented or marginalized communities on their campus. Dr. Perry Fantini served on the public policy committee of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, which is affiliated with the American Council of Education, and in this role submitted a briefing to Congress on the Fisher vs. University of Texas case.

She excelled in collaborating on prevention programming and cultural celebrations efforts with the Office of Athletics, including working with the Student Athletic Association Committee (SAAC), aided in earning an honorable mention during the 2021 Award for Diversity and Inclusion from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA) for Creating a Culture of Shared Responsibility with Bringing in the Bystander training; student forums; revising the Peer-to-Peer Ambassador training and programming including Implicit Bias and Understanding Cultural Differences and for Creating a Culture of Shared Respect with Awareness Campaigns including These Hands Don’t Hurt, Spread the Word to End the Word, Black Lives Matter, Safe Zone training, Critical Conversations and Unheard Voices for a Cause Silent March.

Prior to joining TNG, she served as Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Iowa State University. As leader of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, she worked to foster unity and collaboration, modeled the university’s Principles of Community, and prepared students to thrive in a global community. She also served as the liaison between Iowa State and the University Innovation Alliance, the leading national coalition of public research universities committed to increasing the number and diversity of college graduates in the United States. She served as a member and the secretary of the Big 12 Conference Chapter of Diversity Officers, Inc. Prior, to joining Iowa State, she held several faculty and administrative positions at Tiffin University. Following a faculty appointment in the School of Business, she served as Tiffin’s inaugural Chief Diversity Officer and subsequently was named Tiffin’s Vice Provost for Equity, Access, and Opportunity and Title IX and 504 Coordinator. In that position, her primary responsibility included overseeing compliance related to Title IX, Title VI, VAWA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and the Office for Disability Services. She also provided oversight to Deputy Title IX Coordinators, a team of Civil Rights investigators, the Civil Rights Advisory Council, and the Diversity Celebrations and Prevention Education Committee. In collaboration with the Office for Advancement & Public Affairs, aided in earning several grants which aided in the ability to foster a welcoming and safe environment, including a grant for assistive technology to help students with disabilities in the amount of $37,800.00; a grant in the amount of $116,500.00 to provide trauma-informed counseling, advocacy, and support services to student victims of sexual violence, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking; and a grant in the amount of $300,000.00 to aid with strategic programming regarding sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

Michelle Issadore, M.Ed., CAE is the Chief Operating Officer for TNG, the former Senior Associate Executive Director for the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA), and the former Executive Director of the School and College Organization for Prevention Educators (SCOPE). She works with the leaders of TNG’s membership associations and training offerings, ATIXA and NABITA, as well as the team responsible for our communications to the field, to continually offer our members and clients the most engaging communities, best-in-class professional development, and real-time information.

Issadore spent five years as Assistant Director of the Women’s Center at Lehigh University where she coordinated sexual violence prevention and response, including annual and ongoing trainings and programming for faculty, staff, and students. She advised Lehigh’s peer educator group and hotline, which was the 2009 recipient of NASPA’s Silver Excellence Award for Violence Education and Prevention, Crisis Management and Campus Security. She also instituted an online anonymous reporting system for sexual violence, with the support of related departments. Issadore was responsible for management of the staff advocate program, which provided confidential crisis and options counseling to victims. She created a writing-intensive sexual violence course and taught in the Women’s Studies program. She completed 40 hours of advocate training in Pennsylvania’s Northampton and Lehigh counties.

Issadore has served as co-chair of the National Women’s Studies Association’s Women’s Centers Committee, as a member of the Clery Center for Security on Campus Advisory Board, and as part of the Futures Without Violence Campus Policy Advisory Board. She has presented many online trainings, certification courses, and conference sessions, as well as written for several publications.

W. Scott Lewis, J.D. is a Managing Partner with TNG, LLC. (“TNG”), a national multidisciplinary risk management consulting and law firm with more than 5,000 education-sector clients, 35 executive and support employees, and a roster of 25 attorneys and consultants who are at the forefront of the field in their areas of expertise. He is a co-founder and advisory board member of the Association of Title IX Administrators (“ATIXA”) the leading industry association for Title IX compliance, with over 5,000 active school and college members. In 2009, Lewis co-founded The National Association for Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment (“NABITA”), an organization of 1,200 members dedicated to school and campus violence prevention, intervention, and mental health resources. and was president of ASCA.

Lewis has worked with the Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women and the Department of Education’s Offices of Civil Rights as a trainer and consultant, training staff and investigators. He was a consultant to the Office of the Vice President and the White House Task Force on issues of Sexual Misconduct, as well as a core member of the United States Olympic Committee’s Task Force that proposed and created the United States Center for SafeSport, both of which he consults with and trains. He also consults with and trains numerous sports organizations and governing bodies at all levels from High Schools to Olympic Level athletes, trainers, coaches, and staff, including working with the NCAA and NJCAA.

Makenzie Schiemann is the President of NABITA and a Partner at TNG. Her areas of expertise include policy and program development for behavioral intervention teams, case management, and victim advocacy, strategies for chairing behavioral intervention teams, research and assessment, and strategic planning for comprehensive educational and awareness programming.

Schiemann has previously served as the Director for Student Outreach and Support, the Director for the Center for Victim Advocacy, and the Chair of the Students of Concern Assistance Team for three years at the University of South Florida. In these roles, she developed comprehensive protocol manuals for both the case management program and the victim advocacy department which aligned with best practice standards and served as a model for other institutions in the development of their policies. In this role, she also developed and implemented a comprehensive violence prevention campaign. Prior to working at the University of South Florida, Schiemann served for six years as the Director of Outreach Services and Health Promotion at Eckerd College where she oversaw the case management program and chaired the Intervention Team.

Prior to her ten years spent in higher education, Schiemann taught 8^th grade in the Kentucky K-12 public education system. In this role, she also served on the school’s Crisis Response Committee, developing strategies for preventing and responding to crisis incidents including school-wide behavioral trends, acts of physical aggression, and active shooter scenarios.

Schiemann holds a B.S. in education from Ashland University, an M.S. in education psychology, community counseling from Southern Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction, higher education administration at the University of South Florida.

Ms. Schuster is a recognized expert in preventive and civil rights law for education, notably in the fields of harassment, discrimination and sexual misconduct and violence, ADA and disability issues and the First Amendment. 

Ms. Schuster has extensive experience and expertise in, and routinely advises clients on, the First Amendment and campus access issues; risk management and liability; behavior intervention and threat assessment; student discipline and campus conduct; intellectual property and employment issues. Ms. Schuster provides assistance nationally to both public and private educational schools and colleges in policy development, faculty handbooks and employee manuals, and training for state and federal compliance. She has provided extensive consultation to and training for the U.S. Justice Department, Office of Violence Against Women, the White House Task Force on Sexual Assault and the Futures Without Violence organization. She also provides litigation consultation, expert witness support, and conducts civil rights-based investigation for educational institutions. She provided contraceptive support and rape crisis counseling and served on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of Butler County.