Melanie Stephenson is the Threat Assessment Supervisor for a large school district in Northern Virginia. Within this role, she oversees all programmatic aspects of the district’s Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) program, including BTAM team training, implementation, and technical assistance.  Melanie also serves as the project and implementation lead for the district’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) STOP Grant for Violence Prevention award. She is a Commonwealth of Virginia Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), with 20 years of experience providing suicidal and homicidal ideation screening, assessment and complex case management services to adults and children in a variety of settings, including, including but not limited to, emergency mental health and county correctional institutions.

Melanie’s passion for comprehensive school safety planning extends beyond physical security. She is deeply dedicated to equipping school districts with the tools and strategies necessary to cultivate psychological safety within their educational communities. This involves building upon and enhancing existing resources to foster a culture of psychological safety. Her commitment lies in the proactive identification of threatening behavior through Behavioral Threat Assessment and, equally importantly, in responding to such behavior with empathy and trauma-informed strategies at multiple tiers within the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. Melanie firmly believes that by prioritizing psychological safety, a learning environment can be created where students, teachers, and staff not only feel physically secure but also emotionally supported, enabling them to thrive academically and personally. This comprehensive approach to school safety planning is essential for the well-being and success of everyone within our school communities.

Melanie lives with her husband and their two children, enjoying their family life and cheering for the Tennessee Vols!