Dr. Jackson Katz

Jackson Katz, Ph.D. is an educator, author, filmmaker, and cultural theorist who is internationally renowned for his pioneering scholarship and activism on issues of gender, race, and violence. He has long been a major figure and thought leader in the growing global movement of men working to promote gender equality and prevent gender violence. He is co-founder of Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) and CEO of MVP Strategies, one of the longest-running and most widely influential gender violence prevention programs in North America, and the first major program of its kind in sports culture and the military.

De La Salle adopted Katz' MVP "bystander" approach to sexual assault and relationship abuse several years ago because we believe it is our ethical obligation to give our young men the tools they need to be the change that they want to see in the world.  Within this approach, empowered bystanders are taught strategies to assess situations in which there is dangerous, unhealthy, offensive, or abusive behavior and to take action to intervene in the situations they witness, whether they occur in person or on social media. 

Additionally, our partnership with MVP Strategies enables us to implement “the train the trainer program” for administrators, faculty, counselors, staff, coaches, and student leadership groups. In alignment with the goals of the MVP model, our objective is to raise participant awareness of underlying issues and the unique dynamics of all forms of male violence against women; to challenge our young men to think critically and personally (empathize) about these issues; to open dialogue amongst our students about the dynamics and context of all forms of violence against women; and to inspire participants to be proactive leaders around these issues by challenging them to develop concrete options for intervention in potentially dangerous situations involving peers.

Click here for more information about the MVP Model and how it encourages people to speak out in the face of abusive behavior before, during, or after an incident.