A generous gift from Graduate School of Education alumna Jean Alberti (Ph.D. '70, Educational Psychology) established the Dr. Jean M. Alberti Center for the Prevention of Bullying Abuse and School Violence at UB.
The mission of the Alberti Center is to reduce bullying abuse in schools and in the community by contributing knowledge and providing evidence-based tools to effectively change the language, attitudes, and behaviors of educators, parents, students, and society. The center will be a national resource on the prevention of bullying and other antisocial behaviors among school children, as well as provide research and information that address these behaviors.
Who We Are
Benefactor
Jean Alberti, Ph.D.
Jean Alberti, Ph.D., has had a multi-faceted career but always with an education component. Like many women of her generation, she began her career as a teacher. Alberti taught 5th and 6th grade in the Maryvale and Sweet Home school districts before deciding to pursue a doctoral degree in educational psychology at the University at Buffalo. Read More…
Jean Alberti, Ph.D., has had a multi-faceted career but always with an education component. Like many women of her generation, she began her career as a teacher. Alberti taught 5th and 6th grade in the Maryvale and Sweet Home school districts before deciding to pursue a doctoral degree in educational psychology at the University at Buffalo.
While pursuing her doctorate, Alberti worked as a graduate assistant and then was named director of the Office of University Research in the Student Affairs Division. Her career goal was to "teach teachers how to teach," but her career took a detour into medical education. After earning her degree, Alberti accepted the position of assistant professor at the University of Illinois School of Medicine, where she was "teaching physicians and allied health professionals how to teach and evaluate." She later became an associate professor and department chair at the Chicago Medical School, and a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health.
Alberti’s experience as a grant reviewer led to another career detour into the field of health education. In 1980, she was named the director of evaluation for two National Institutes of Health grants; the first grant was for the Chicago Heart Association and the second for Northwestern University’s Multipurpose Arthritis Center. During this time, Alberti was completing a second master’s degree, in counseling psychology from Northwestern University, which set the stage for her next career detour.
For the past 30 years, Alberti has been in private practice as a licensed clinical psychologist doing cognitive-behavioral therapy. This is a continuation of her education roots, doing "as much teaching and coaching as counseling." Alberti is a nationally known expert on child psychology and behavior and her groundbreaking theories on bullying have led to the establishment at UB of the Dr. Jean M. Alberti Center for the Prevention of Bullying Abuse and School Violence.
Alberti has been recognized for her numerous accomplishments throughout her distinguished career. Among these honors are listings in Who's Who of American Women and the International Dictionary of Distinguished Leadership, and awards such as Outstanding Young Women of America, Chicago Woman of Leadership, and the UB Graduate School of Education Distinguished Alumni Award. Alberti has also served as the international president of Pi Lambda Theta, the international honor society and professional association in education.
Amanda Nickerson joins the Graduate School of Education as an associate professor and as the inaugural director of the Dr. Jean M. Alberti Center for the Prevention of Bullying Abuse and School Violence. Nickerson’s research focuses on school crisis prevention and intervention, with a particular focus on violence. She has examined the role of schools, parents, and peers in preventing violence and enhancing the social-emotional strengths of children and adolescents. Read More…
Amanda Nickerson joins the Graduate School of Education as an associate professor and as the inaugural director of the Dr. Jean M. Alberti Center for the Prevention of Bullying Abuse and School Violence. Nickerson’s research focuses on school crisis prevention and intervention, with a particular focus on violence. She has examined the role of schools, parents, and peers in preventing violence and enhancing the social-emotional strengths of children and adolescents.
Nickerson earned her Ph.D. in school psychology from the University of South Carolina, where she received the Outstanding Graduate Work in Research Award and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Study. She was a faculty member in school psychology at the State University of New York at Albany from 2002–2011, where her research was supported by the Society for the Study of School Psychology, the American Educational Research Association, and the New York Office of Child and Family Services. She has published in numerous journals including the Journal of School Psychology, School Psychology Review, Journal of Early Adolescence, and Journal of Child and Family Studies. Nickerson is the lead author of Assessing, Identifying, and Treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder at School (2009, Springer) and co-author of School Crisis Prevention and Intervention: The PREPaRE Model (2009, National Association of School Psychologists [NASP]). She is also an editor of the upcoming Handbook of School Violence and School Safety: International Research and Practice, 2nd Edition (in press, Routledge).
A licensed psychologist in New York state and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, Nickerson is committed to the scientist-practitioner model of training. She views research and science as foundational to good practice, and helps practitioners use this knowledge to guide practice. Nickerson has conducted numerous presentations for educators and mental health professionals throughout the country. She has also worked in close collaboration with schools, as well as other child-serving agencies to guide them in using data to inform practice, particularly related to improving social-emotional and behavioral functioning.
In terms of professional service, Nickerson has been an active member of the NASP PREPaRE Crisis Prevention and Intervention Training Curriculum Workgroup (formerly the Crisis Prevention and Intervention Workgroup) for seven years. Nickerson and her workgroup colleagues have been recognized with the NASP Presidential Award and the NASP Crisis Management Interest Group Award for Excellence. She is also on the board of directors for the Consortium to Prevent School Violence and was recently appointed to the New York Association of School Psychologists’ executive board to serve as their bullying and school violence liaison. Nickerson also serves as an associate editor of the Journal of School Violence and is on the editorial boards of several other journals, including School Psychology Quarterly and Psychology in the Schools.
Rebecca Ligman is the assistant to the director of the Jean M. Alberti Center for the Prevention of Bullying Abuse and School Violence. She comes to the University at Buffalo from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she spent the past seven years working at Duquesne University. There, Becky served for five years as the program and publicity coordinator for the Beard Center for Leadership in Ethics and for two years as an academic advisor in the Palumbo-Donahue School of Business. She holds a B.S.B.A. in Marketing and an M.S.Ed. in School Counseling, both from Duquesne University. Becky and her husband, Dan, are now happy to call East Amherst, New York, home.
Karen Karmazin Community Liaison
Dr. Karen S. Karmazin presently serves as the School and Community Liaison for the Graduate School of Education. She also teaches graduate classes in literacy. For the past twelve years, she was the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in the Grand Island Central School District. She also has experience as an Elementary Principal in Amherst, NY. Her teaching career spans the education of normally achieving and special needs students from birth to adolescence in the Clarence Central School District, the Catholic Diocese in Western New York, and in New York City. She holds NYS Certification in School District Administration, Special Education, Elementary Education, and Fine Arts. Her professional interests include the translation of research practices into clinical settings and the integration of technology with instructional practices.
Heather Cosgrove Graduate Assistant
Heather Cosgrove is a current second year doctoral student in the Combined Counseling and School Psychology program at SUNY at Buffalo. Her responsibilities include aiding in the research of the center, developing and delivering presentations, assisting in data collection and analysis, and developing resources for educators and parents. Heather’s research interests include outcome assessment of peer victimization in college student populations, degree of attachment in interpersonal relationships of victims of bullying, and needs assessment.
Michelle Serwacki Graduate Assistant
Michelle Serwacki is a second year doctoral student in the Combined Counseling and School Psychology program at SUNY at Buffalo. Her primary responsibilities involve program evaluation for the PREPaRE School Crisis Prevention and Intervention Training Curriculum developed by NASP. Michelle’s research interests include the prevention and intervention of psychosocial and healthrelated disorders, positive psychology in the schools, bullying prevention and intervention, and psychological assessment.
Jean Alberti, Ph.D.
Amanda Nickerson, Ph.D.
Rebecca Ligman, M.S.Ed.
Karen Karmazin
Heather Cosgrove
Michelle Serwacki
