After a career focused on the school’s role in prevention at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Indiana University, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Violence Prevention Unit) and the University of Arizona, Professor Emeritus Kris Bosworth retired in 2023.   While in the College of Education at the University of Arizona she was the Head of the Educational Leadership and Policy Program, and the Lester and Roberta Smith Endowed Chair in Prevention and Education.  

 

She taught courses in school climate, the administration of prevention programs, and educational change. She was awarded the College of Education Service Award for 2003 and 2011. She holds a Masters in Counseling and Guidance, and a doctorate in Education from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She is the author of more than a dozen multimedia and video programs for young people with subjects that include AIDS, alcohol and drugs, sexuality, and violence. Her publications focus on the role of school culture and climate as a buffer for individual risk factors for risk taking behavior. She has combined her background in education with her training in prevention science to create processes that enable counselors and other educators to implement and sustain evidence based strategies in all levels of prevention implementation. Her model, Protective Schools, focuses on creating school climates and cultures that act as buffer to risk taking. This model which includes an assessment has been widely implemented in schools nationwide. These projects have earned awards from the American Medical Association National Congress on Adolescent Health (1989) and the Society for Technology and Teacher Education (1992), as well as the Exemplary Substance Abuse Prevention Programs Award from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) (2000).

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In retirement, she serves on several educational and prevention boards and is active in the Arizona foster care system.