Staff

Lauren Cranford is the Director of Operations for the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security. Her role is to manage and coordinate all NCS⁴ operations including, but not limited to, overseeing all grants, projects, budgets, and staff. She assists the executive director with development and implementation of programs, special events, and training sessions.

Cranford received her Master of Public Health Degree from The University of Southern Mississippi with an emphasis in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Community Health Sciences with an emphasis in Health Promotion. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing.

Daniel Ward is the Director of Training and Exercise at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security at The University of Southern Mississippi. In this role, he engages professional, collegiate, endurance event, and interscholastic safety and security professionals to meet industry training requirements, validate plans and processes, integrate solutions, and implement best practices. Ward is responsible for ensuring the NCS⁴ effectively connects the academic and operational communities, preparing practitioners for the current, evolving threat environment.

In addition to his role at the NCS⁴, Ward has served in the United States Air Force since 2006. He has held a variety of roles in planning, incident management and emergency response. Ward has led organizational preparation, mitigation, response and recovery efforts for a wide range of natural, technological and human-caused disasters. He has also developed and led chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear response teams. In his 15-year career, Ward has supported preparedness and response efforts domestically and throughout Southwest Asia and the Republic of Korea. Most recently, he served in theater in support of Operation SPARTAN SHIELD as an Emergency Management Superintendent, where he oversaw emergency management efforts at three locations across the AOR.

Ward has developed and headed emergency management plans and programs for multiple disciplines and organizations, applying best practice and experience to a wide range of incident and event management. He is an Anti-Terrorism Officer, a Hazardous Material Technician, and was awarded the international designation of Certified Emergency Manager (CEM®) by the International Association of Emergency Managers in 2013. He has a bachelor’s degree in Emergency and Disaster Management and a master’s degree in Business Administration.

Brooke Graves is the Senior Training Manager at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security at The University of Southern Mississippi. She provides oversight for the training courses offered through NCS⁴. These duties include course and instructor scheduling, ensuring all targets are met, and maintaining the quality of each delivery. She also manages the trainer certification process, serves as the liaison for the Entertainment, Intercollegiate, and Interscholastic Advisory Committees, and leads the coordination and execution of the NCS⁴ awards for the annual conference.

Before her current role, Graves held a number of first responder roles in both the criminal justice and emergency medical systems. She was a Special Investigator for the state of Mississippi where she was deemed a subject matter expert in sexual abuse cases in the state court system. Most recently, Graves served as the Law Enforcement and Public Safety Instructor for the Hattiesburg Public School District. She was the mentor instructor for the state of Mississippi and was involved in developing curriculum and assessment material for the Law Enforcement and Public Safety curriculum.

Graves received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice and Behavioral Science from Tennessee Wesleyan University and her Masters of Science degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati. She is a Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Technician and a trained forensic interviewer. She is a certified trainer for Community Emergency Response Teams.

Sara Priebe is the Event and Membership Manager at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security at The University of Southern Mississippi. In this role, she executes planning and logistics for NCS⁴ events. Priebe is the contact for vendors interested in securing sponsorships and exhibits at all NCS⁴ events. She works to develop and implement membership plans, strategies and initiatives for current member retention and new member recruitment. She also provides customer service to vendors and Solution Partners as well as members and event attendees. In addition, she provides graphic design for NCS⁴’s communications pieces.

Jonathan Ruffin is a Training Manager at the National Center for Spectator Sports and Safety and Security at The University of Southern Mississippi. He provides oversight for the training courses offered through NCS⁴. These duties include course and instructor scheduling, ensuring all targets are met, and maintaining the quality of each delivery.

Before his current role, Ruffin served as Director of Internal Operations and Facilities at East Carolina University. In this role, he oversaw daily maintenance and management of multiple athletic venues and was the primary game manager for multiple sports. Prior to that, he was Director of Facilities and Events Management at the University of Louisiana Monroe. During his time in athletics, Ruffin has been part of several conference/regional tournaments and various on-campus special events.

Ruffin received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from The University of Southern Mississippi. He then completed a Master of Science degree in Sports Management with a Safety and Security emphasis from The University of Southern Mississippi.

Tymika Rushing is the Business Affairs Manager for the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security at The University of Southern Mississippi. She is responsible for overseeing the daily financial operations of NCS⁴, which includes coordinating processes in budgeting and compliance for grants and externally funded projects, contractual amendments, and various fiscal responsibilities. Her role is to provide comprehensive financial management to include, but not limited to, budget planning, forecasting, compliance, and financial reporting.

Before joining NCS⁴, Rushing was a Contracting Specialist at the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) and for the past 6 years, worked as a Grants & Contracts Coordinator within the Office of Research Administration at The University of Southern Mississippi.

Rushing received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The University of Southern Mississippi. She received her Master of Business Administration degree from William Carey University.

Dr. Joslyn Zale serves as the Senior Research Associate and CSSP Manager at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security at The University of Southern Mississippi. Her research interests include modeling risk, vulnerability, and resilience to hazard events, evacuation modeling, social media use related to hazard events, geospatial big data sources and uses, multi-scale and spatio-temporal modeling, citizen science, and location privacy. Her research has appeared in numerous publications, including The Professional Geographer, the Journal of Emergency Management, and Southeastern Geographer. Dr. Zale presented her work at national and international conferences and before U.S. Congressional delegations. She collaborated on more than $22 million of research funded by DHS, NSF, Department of Education, and the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security, and is a reviewer for the Journal of Emergency Management and the Natural Hazards Review. Dr. Zale oversees NCS⁴’s CSSP program, produces technical reports and white papers, and aids with product reviews and product operational exercises. 

Jonathan Stanford is a Graduate Assistant for the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security, where he assists in operations and logistics as it relates to sports and special events. Stanford is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Sport Event Security Management (MBA) at The University of Southern Mississippi.

Before joining NCS⁴, Stanford received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. During his time in Colorado, he served as Philanthropy Director, Greek Life Programming Director, and was a delegate on the Interfraternity Council for his fraternity of Alpha Sigma Phi. With raising thousands of dollars and performing hours of community service, his fraternity went on to win two Grand Senior President’s Cups, which is the highest award a fraternity can achieve.