LPS threat assessment team showcases high-quality work to nation

March 12, 2025

Five Lincoln-based safety professionals showed this winter why Lincoln Public Schools is a national leader in protecting students, staff and families.
 
Members of the LPS threat assessment team traveled to the Orlando, Fla., area for the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) Winter Conference. Jon Sundermeier, Allyson Headrick, Liesel Hogan, Kristi Lange and Nate Hill spoke with state, national and international threat assessment experts during the trip. Sundermeier was also selected to give a presentation for an audience that included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Secret Service and renowned medical schools.
 
LPS Director of Security Joe Wright said the team’s time in Florida will directly help the Lincoln community. All five members are nationally recognized for their work in violence prevention, and the conference gave them additional safety tips to use at school buildings.
 
“We’re getting the best training available at the ATAP conference,” Wright said. “The training there is at a high-class level, and we’re able to build up our network of professionals that we can contact. We’re able to bring all of that back to LPS to help people here.”
 
Headrick and Lange also felt the conference was a valuable experience.
 
“National training provided by ATAP involves learning directly from top researchers and experts in the field, which is required to maintain best practices within our work doing behavioral threat assessment,” Headrick said. “Each conference I attend I learn more about ways to recognize warning signs, collect and analyze information, understand the complexity of the human experience and intervene to help mitigate concerns that lead to violence.”

“Something that is reinforced every time I attend an ATAP conference or training is how the threat assessment process is truly a hopeful process,” Lange said. “While the main goal is, of course, preventing a violent act from occurring, it’s all the work threat teams do with students and families that makes a positive difference. When teams provide needed resources and stabilizers, we start to see a sense of hope being instilled with our students and families.”
 
Sundermeier said he feels fortunate to work alongside his colleagues as the threat assessment team leader. Headrick and Lange are LPS safety social workers and Hogan is the LPS safety psychotherapist. Hill is a Lincoln Police Department investigator who works with the group.

 
“The LPS threat assessment team is really hitting its stride this year with the addition of Liesel Hogan as the team’s psychotherapist, and social workers Allyson Headrick and Kristi Lange are consummate professionals whose skill and knowledge of threat assessment are constantly expanding,” Sundermeier said. “Their long-term management of students with violence risk concerns has not only improved safety in the district, but has positively impacted the students and families that LPS is here to serve.”
 
Wright helped establish the threat assessment system at LPS when he joined the school district in 2013. He worked with Mario Scalora, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor and international expert on threat assessment, to create a prevention-based process.
 
Scalora said LPS team members are respected across the country for their high-quality work. They identify concerning issues such as stalking, threatening statements, hostile actions or unusual behavior at school. They sift through this information and use forward-thinking measures to help resolve the concerns.
 
“The scope and extent of what the team does is well-regarded,” Scalora said. “They cover an array of issues and make sure there is a comprehensive approach to every situation.”
 
Headrick and Wright both said the team’s multidisciplinary makeup has led to many positive results at LPS. Their various professional backgrounds have helped them identify the best ways to approach each situation.
 
“All team members have distinct yet interconnected roles to play in the threat assessment process,” Headrick said. “We are all well-recognized for our strengths in the process and allowed liberty to lead at different points in time.”
 
“We have a team that is truly unique in the nation,” Wright said. “Jon’s built a team of super bright people who use their expertise to keep other people safe.”
 
National leaders showed their high regard for LPS by selecting Sundermeier to give one of the ATAP presentations. He was the only person employed at a K-12 school district who spoke at the conference. Some of the other presenters came from the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, U.S. State Department, U.S. Secret Service, FBI, American Board of Professional Psychology and American Association for Emergency Psychiatry.
 
“It’s really fantastic because not a lot of K-12 practitioners are chosen to present,” Wright said. “Usually it’s a researcher from someplace like the FBI or Secret Service, so to have Jon be selected is really impressive. It shows what an excellent resume he has and how fortunate we are to have him here at LPS.”

 
Sundermeier spent 31 years at Lincoln Police Department before joining LPS in 2017. He handled multiple roles at LPD before serving the final eight years as commander of the criminal investigations unit.
 
Sundermeier is one of only 170 people in the world who are certified threat managers (CTM) with ATAP. He is a member of the committee that writes questions for the international CTM certification test, and he has served as president of ATAP’s five-state Great Plains Chapter. His deep reservoir of connections allows LPS to make direct calls to high-level agencies for threat assessment cases.
 
“He’s just incredibly well-respected in ATAP,” said Wright, who is also a CTM. “He’s brought over his knowledge of investigation and interviewing and has made that a bedrock of what we do here.”
 
Scalora has known Sundermeier for more than two decades and introduced his ATAP presentation. He said Sundermeier is a believer in evidence-based violence prevention.
 
“He’s very deliberate and level-headed, and he has a very strong sense of values that drive the work the team does,” Scalora said. “He emphasizes de-escalation and being kind, and he always promotes dignity and respect. He’s very aware of what the science says and what works.”
 
Scalora said the LPS team is helping many people feel safe and secure across the city.
 
“It’s always great to brag up the excellent work that’s being done in Lincoln,” Scalora said. “People understand that a lot of good things are happening in Nebraska, so being able to point that out at a national conference is always a pleasure.”
 
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