About Us
About Us
Our Mission
The goal of the Global Team Collaborative is to enhance the knowledge and support the practice of interdisciplinary teams responsible for managing diverse behaviours or situations of concern. The Collaborative serves as an information exchange and resource center concerning the goals, structures, processes, operations, and outcomes of teams, focusing on both challenging issues and promising practices. The Global Team Collaborative is committed to promoting provision of services informed by relevant ethics, law, practice, and research, considering the global nature of the work we do and the diverse cultures, contexts and environments in which teams operate.
Our Scope
- Global: operating across borders to support teams worldwide
- Collaborative: connecting individuals, teams, and organizations
- Diverse behaviours and situations of concern: involving violence to others, violence to self, emotional distress, misconduct problems, reputational harm, and discrimination
- Interdisciplinary teams: supporting groups of individuals with different areas of expertise who collaborate to achieve a common goal
- Different cultures, contexts and environments: including workplace, education, health, law enforcement, criminal justice, security, military, government, public agency, and community
Our Values
- Inclusive: We are committed to promoting and utilizing the diversity of our membership
- Engaged: We are committed to active participation by and collaboration among our membership.
- Respectful: We are committed to honesty, humility, and civility in interactions among our membership within our partnerships.
Our Story
The Global Team Collaborative was founded to meet the growing and worldwide need to support the complex work of interdisciplinary teams managing diverse behaviors and situations of concern within different cultures, contexts and environments. Our journey began over five years ago with a collaboration of professionals from around the world who saw the value of learning from one another. We grew into an interdisciplinary team rooted in shared purpose of enhancing teamwork for safety and wellbeing. The Global Team Collaborative logo reflects our unique mission, scope, and values.
The logo features a globe, symbolizing international connectivity and our commitment to learning from and with its global members. The globe is formed by colored stripes, representing diversity in members, teams, cultures, contexts and environments and corresponding with the international colors for diverse hazards. All the lines are structured and moving forward in the same direction, emphasizing integration, teamwork, and interdisciplinary collaboration toward the common goal of enhancing safety and wellbeing. The open globe design reflects the inviting, protective, and caring nature of our work and our commitment to enhancing teamwork for safety and wellbeing.
Moving forward, the Global Team Collaborative is here to support you — and to grow together. We strive to connect individuals, teams, and organizations across the globe, spanning different cultures, contexts, and environments. We are committed to our values of inclusivity, by promoting and embracing the diversity of our membership, and engagement, by encouraging active participation and collaboration among our members and partners. We invite you to join us in learning from one another and building relationships grounded in honesty, humility, and civility. This reflects our primary goal: to strengthen collaboration — in both words and actions.
Executive Committee
Kelly Watt
President
Wendy Maat
Vice President
Louis Toromoreno
Secretary
Allison Drew-Hassling
Treasurer
Caroline Logan
Director of Members
Gerard Labuschagne
Director of Partnerships
Advisory Board
Glenn French
Stephen Hart
Jim Cawood
Gene Deisinger
Rich Veldhoen
Joshua Fortier
Totti Karpela
Matthew Talbot
Kelly A. Watt, PhD
My name is Dr. Kelly Watt, and I work as a Director and Threat Assessment Specialist at Protect International Risk and Safety Services Inc. and a Workplace Consultant at Competence Center Bergen. I have been working on or with interdisciplinary teams for over 25 years in diverse contexts in Canada, England, and the United States. I specialize in assessing and managing diverse forms of violence and supporting coordinated community responses and threat assessment teams. I became passionate about establishing the Global Team Collaborative after completing my dissertation on Domestic Violence Fatality Review Teams and learning about a wonderful resource center and clearing house that supported these teams. I strongly believed that we needed a similar non-profit association for supporting interdisciplinary teams around the world focusing on diverse behaviours and situations of concern. I currently have the honour and privilege of serving as the President of the Global Team Collaborative.
Wendy Maat, MA
My name is Wendy Maat, and I serve as Managing Director of International Mobility at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. With over 15 years of leadership experience in higher education, I have managed interdisciplinary teams and led international programs that support student and staff mobility and international cooperation. My leadership focuses on inclusive education and leadership, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, student safety, and global strategy—often in crisis-sensitive contexts—with a focus on building resilient, data-informed systems in complex environments. With extensive experience in team management, crisis response, and international risk management in both domestic and international settings, I bring a cross-cultural lens to crisis situations—recognizing how global dynamics and cultural frameworks shape both challenges and solutions. I became involved with the establishment of the Global Team Collaborative because I believe in the power of interdisciplinary collaboration to address complex safety issues and foster inclusive, trustworthy environments. I currently serve as the Vice President for Global Team Collaborative.
Gérard Labuschagne, PhD, LLB
My name is Dr. Gérard Labuschagne. I work as a Threat Assessment Specialist at Protect International Risk and Safety Services Inc. I am also the president of the African Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. I started working in a team context in 1998 when I was a Clinical Psychologist at a psychiatric facility in South Africa. Thereafter I was in the head of the South African Police Service’s profiling unit which was a multidisciplinary team assisting with violent crime cases. My area of expertise is assessing and managing threatening behaviour in organisations, and as an expert witness in criminal cases, usually for sentencing purposes. My interest in Global Team Collaborative stems from my experience in the multidisciplinary team context and realising there was little in the way of supporting teams dealing with complex cases that affected the safety of others. My current position at Global Team Collaborative is the Director of Partnerships.
Totti Karpela
My name is Totti Karpela, and I am the director of two Behavioural Threat Assessment and Management companies based in Northern Europe and Southeast Asia. Prior to this, I served for 20 years in the National Police of Finland, where I established the country’s first threat management service. This work included working with victims in complex cases and assisting them with navigating community responses. In addition to my professional background, I bring a personal understanding of victimization, having endured a prolonged period of threats from organized crime directed at myself and my family. I am also a founding member of both the Association of European Threat Assessment Professionals (AETAP) and the Asia Pacific Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (APATAP). In my current role as a consultant to multinational corporations across Asia, I’ve seen firsthand the immense value and resources that multidisciplinary teams bring to effective case management. I serve on the Advisory Board of Global Team Collaborative.
Louis Toromoreno
My name is Louis Toromoreno, and I work as a Director, Safety & Security at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada. I have been working within the post-secondary sector for 19 years and in the capacity of Chair of Violent Threatening Behaviour Team for 15 years. I have worked closely with our threat assessment team on a variety of assessments related to diverse forms of violence. I have also managed and supported the ongoing risk mitigation strategies. Through this valuable work I became very passionate about establishing the Global Team Collaborative after going through my challenges with post-secondary threat assessment teams and finding a way to create and support standards moving forward. I became one of the founders of this initiative that I believe will help support all sectors related to teams responding to diverse behaviours and situations of concern. I currently hold the position of Treasurer of the Global Team Collaborative.
Caroline Logan, DPhil
My name is Dr. Caroline Logan, and I am a Consultant Forensic Clinical Psychologist based in the United Kingdom. I work as a threat assessment professional with several national and international agencies and organisations, including Theseus Fixated Risk Management, based in London, where I serve as an Associate Clinical Consultant. I continue to work as a clinician in forensic mental health and criminal justice services, and as a scientist at Kompetansesenteret in Helse Bergen, Norway. I support the work of the Global Team Collaborative because it is a valuable resource for diverse teams working to understand and manage risk and threat. My specialist areas of practice include risk and threat assessment and management in multidisciplinary teams, forensic interviewing and gender issues in risk and threat. I serve as the Director of Members for the Global Team Collaborative.
Gene Deisinger, PhD
My name is Dr. Gene Deisinger. I am the chief executive officer and founder of Deisinger Consulting, LLC. Trained as a clinical psychologist and as a law enforcement officer, I have served on and consulted to multi-disciplinary teams for over 30 years with a range of clients across North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. I specialize in the assessment and management of cases involving concerning or threatening behaviour, violence prevention, and intervention strategies, and the development of team processes and effectiveness. I have long believed in the importance of strong and effective team approaches since founding a multi-disciplinary threat assessment and management team in 1993. Beyond developing skills in the content domain, I saw that it was critical to support the growth and development of the team and its members. Therefore, I was delighted to be invited to be one of the founding members of the Global Team Collaborative, seeing opportunities for greater collaboration to support and develop teams dealing with a broad range of hazards involving human behaviour. I serve on the Advisory Committee for the Global Team Collaborative.
Mr. Josh Fortier
My name is Josh Fortier, and I am the Director of Campus Safety at Sheridan College. I also currently sit as the President of the Ontario Association of College and University Security Administrators (OACUSA). I have spent 10 years working with teams who manage concerning behaviours, along with ownership of case management software shared amongst unique user groups who have a collective goal of ensuring our campuses are a safe place to live, work, and learn. Global Teams Collaborative will be a first of its kind to share those best practices with others to help guide teams, structure, and process to ensure we all meet those common goals. Together, regardless of your industry, we will learn and grow. I serve on the Advisory Board of Global Team Collaborative.
Mr. Rich Veldhoen
My name is Rich Veldhoen, and I am a retired Detective who previously worked in the Behavioural Sciences Unit of a major metropolitan police service in Canada. In this role, I collaborated extensively with Major Crimes and other operational units to identify, assess, and mitigate risks related to a diverse forms of violence affecting individuals, groups, and organizations. This included assessing risk related to internal and external threats to organizations, serial violent and sexual offenders, domestic violence, and extremism. I was one of the founding members of the Baxter Forensic Group, which includes forensic experts in mental health, psychiatry, and psychology. My position on the Global Team Collaborative Advisory Board developed while I was working on cases within multidisciplinary teams involving complex circumstances where outcomes posed significant consequences for individuals and organizations alike. My passion is prevention, training, and assisting others in understanding and addressing risk from a team perspective.
Dr. James S. Cawood, PhD
My name is Jim Cawood, and I am President of Factor One, Inc., a California based corporation that since 1986 has provided threat assessment and management services, program development, and training for multidisciplinary threat assessment teams. I have worked throughout North America and the world for clients from government agencies, schools, and universities, to business entities and medical systems. As a past National President of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) and a developer of their Certified Threat Manager (CTM) program, I have been and continue to be a passionate believer in multidisciplinary collaboration in risk assessment, both in communities and organizational teams. Being on the Advisory Board of the Global Team Collaborative, working with other likeminded professionals from around the world, is an exciting opportunity to gather and provide best practice information for effective behavioural focused multidisciplinary teams in all forms. We are better together than alone.
Mr. Glenn French, MSW
My name is Glenn French, and I am the President & CEO of the Canadian Initiative on Workplace Violence Ltd. Within the mental health field, I have held numerous senior administrative and clinical positions in both the private and public sectors over the past 50 years. The Canadian Initiative studies trends in workplace conduct, focusing on what organizations and unions can do to mitigate the impact of traumatic events arising from criminal encounters, violence, harassment, and other occupational hazards. A front-line defense against these threats is the systematic use of threat management teams, which leverage the expertise of various stakeholders and professional groups. I am the former Secretary of the Global Team Collaborative’s Executive Committee and now serve on the Advisory Board. I am a strong advocate for a collaborative approach to managing workplace threats and am proud to be associated with like-minded professionals.
Ms. Allison Drew-Hassling
My name is Allison Drew-Hassling, and I am the Associate Vice-Provost, Student Wellness & Accountability at MacEwan University. With over 25 years working in the post-secondary education sector, I bring extensive leadership experience in student support, crisis response, and violence risk prevention. I created a Student Support and Case Management Office grounded in a holistic, multi-disciplinary model that integrates threat assessment, early intervention, crisis response, and case management. I also led teams across Student Accessibility, Case Management, Health, and Counselling Services, applying a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach. I value collaboration and engage internal and external partners to enhance institutional readiness and foster safe, inclusive environments where students, staff, and faculty feel a strong sense of belonging and are empowered to thrive. The work of the Global Team Collaborative aligns with my values and approach to responding to complex and sensitive matters and I am honoured to be serving as Secretary.
Dr. Stephen D. Hart, PhD
My name is Dr. Stephen Hart, and I am a Director and Threat Assessment Specialist at Protect International, as well as a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Simon Fraser University. I specialize in developing, implementing, and evaluating procedures for assessing and managing the risk of violence. My interest in and support for the Global Team Collaborative stem from having learned, through my work, that the only truly effective approach to risk assessment and management is an enterprise –one that brings together people with diverse responsibilities who collaborate and communicate using common goals, values, concepts, and language. Outside from serving on the Advisory Board of the Global Team Collaborative, I currently serve as the President of the Canadian Association of Threat Assessment Professionals.
Matt Talbot, PhD
My name is Dr. Matt Talbot, and I am a co-founder and principal consultant of Key Operational Insights, a training and consulting firm that supports teams and organizations in their efforts to prevent targeted workplace violence. Over the last 20 years, I have led and operationalized multidisciplinary threat and risk management teams across various settings. Even as an independently licensed practitioner, I have always appreciated working within a team dynamic. For me, the Global Team Collaborative represents a significant industry need, serving as a resource to support our collective team efforts in managing various types of preventable hazards. The value of a team cannot be overstated. It is the beauty of a team approach that enhances our ability to support those in crisis more holistically, reduce the risk of bias, and objectively evaluate critical situations for the most proportionate and safety-enhancing outcomes. I am proud to serve on the Advisory Board of Global Team Collaborative.