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Title IX Investigator Training

November 4, 2021

12:00PM – 5:15PM EDT

An effective Title IX Investigator must have both a solid understanding of the Title IX regulations and the hard skills necessary to design and conduct a professional investigation. Even investigators with prior Title IX training may find themselves wondering:

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What does planning an investigation actually entail?

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How can I conduct trauma-informed interviews?

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What should be included in my investigative report?

Join our experts on November 4, 2021 as they draw on their experiences to answer these questions and more.

This training features 4 hours of practical investigation skills training as well as an optional 90-minute session on the Title IX Regulations designed specifically for investigators.

 What You’ll Learn

  • Steps to designing an effective investigation
  • How to write a clear and impartial investigative report
  • Trauma-informed interview skills
  • How to build rapport & optimize interviews
  • Title IX Regulations for Investigators (Optional)

Why Attend?

This training brings together experts in Title IX, investigations, and clinical psychology to provide attendees with a comprehensive understanding of how to conduct a fair & thorough Title IX investigation.

Who can Attend?

This training is designed for Title IX Investigators. However, anyone interested in learning about how to plan and conduct effective Title IX investigations, including Title IX Coordinators, would benefit from this training. 

What about the Title IX Training Requirements?

The Title IX Regulations outline specific training requirements for anyone involved in the Title IX process. To accommodate investigators with all levels of familiarity with Title IX, we are offering an optional foundational training on the Title IX Regulations. Attendees are welcome to register for either the AM or PM session of this foundational training in addition to the 4-hour Investigator Training.

Topics include:

  • The definition of sexual harassment under Title IX
  • The scope of a school’s education program or activity
  • The formal Title IX grievance process including investigations, hearings, and appeals
  • Informal resolution
  • Evidentiary rules and issues of relevance

 

How to Attend

Both the 4-hour training and 90-minute bonus session will be held via Zoom. After registration, attendees will receive an email with the Zoom link and instructions.

Attendees will receive a Certificate of Completion for each session attended plus instructions for posting the training materials on the institutional website, in accordance with Title IX. 

Price

Investigator Training: $350 per person
Optional Title IX Regulations for Investigators: $75 per person

Learn practical skills for conducting fair & thorough investigations

AGENDA

10:00 – 11:30 EDT   |   Optional – Overview of Title IX Regulations for Investigators

During this optional session, Title IX Solutions Managing Member, Pat Mathis, will review the Title IX regulations, including the three-pronged definition of sexual harassment, a school’s obligation to provide supportive measures, the formal complaint process, investigations, informal resolution options, standards of evidence, and hearings.

Learning Objective: Gain an understanding of the Title IX regulations, investigations, and grievance processes

12:00 – 12:15 EDT   |   Training Introduction

12:15 – 1:15 EDT  |   Investigation Planning & Design

Professional Title IX Investigator, Elizabeth Abdnour, will guide attendees through the steps to designing an effective investigation in compliance with Title IX. Attendees will learn how to plan their investigation to answer the key questions “Did the alleged incident occur?” and “Is the alleged incident a policy violation?”

Learning Objective: Identify steps to designing a thorough Title IX Investigation Plan

1:15 – 1:45 EDT  |  Lunch Break

1:45 – 2:45 EDT  |  Investigative Report Writing

In this session, Professional Title IX Investigator, Susanna Murphy, will walk participants through the purpose and contents of an investigative report. Attendees will learn how to accurately synthesize interviews, present the facts, and incorporate parties’ responses to the report.

Learning Objective: Synthesize information collected into a clear and impartial investigative report

2:45 – 2:55  EDT |  Short Break

2:55 – 3:55 EDT  |  Understanding Trauma

During this session, clinical psychologist, Dr. Jessica Groleau, will provide attendees with a foundational understanding of trauma and its impact on the Title IX investigative process. Dr. Groleau will also present strategies for conducting a trauma-informed investigation.

Learning Objective: Understand trauma, its role in the investigative process, and strategies for conducting trauma-informed investigations

3:55 – 4:05 EDT  |  Short Break

4:05 – 5:05 EDT  |  Building Rapport & Optimizing Interviews

Title IX Solutions Director of Investigations, Tom Denton, will provide techniques for establishing rapport with parties and other skills to help investigators optimize information developed during interviews while treating complainants, respondents, and witnesses with respect. Topics include investigative teams, the role of advisors, non-verbal communication, and more.

Learning Objective: Identify strategies to improve the effectiveness of interviews with respondents, complainants, and witnesses

5:05 – 5:15 EDT  |  Final Remarks & Questions

5:30 – 7:00 EDT   |   Optional – Overview of Title IX Regulations for Investigators

During this optional session, Title IX Solutions Managing Member, Pat Mathis, will review the Title IX regulations, including the three-pronged definition of sexual harassment, a school’s obligation to provide supportive measures, the formal complaint process, investigations, informal resolution options, standards of evidence, and hearings.

Learning Objective: Gain an understanding of the Title IX regulations, investigations, and grievance processes

SPEAKERS

Liz Abdnour

Elizabeth Abdnour, JD

Professional Title IX Investigator & Advisor, Title IX Solutions, LLC

Liz Abdnour is an experienced civil rights and employment attorney representing students and provides investigative, consulting, and training services to educational institutions, groups, and nonprofits of all sizes.

After a career in legal services, where she learned how to advocate for underserved clients from a trauma-informed perspective and supervised a law school practice clinic, Liz transitioned into higher education where she spent three years in the civil rights office at a large land grant university. Liz then opened her own law and consulting practice where she now serves both individual and institutional clients.

The combination of Liz’s legal experience and her years as an investigator and equity coordinator give her unparalleled expertise regarding educational institutions’ obligations with respect to civil rights and Title IX response.

Education: New York University School of Law (J.D) and Michigan State University (B.A.)

Patrick Mathis founding member of Title IX solutions and Mathis Marifian and Richter

Tom Denton Jr. 

Co-Founder & Director of Investigations, Title IX Solutions, LLC

Tom Denton is a founding member of Title IX Solutions, LLC and Tactical 97 Group, LLC. He is a retired Chief of Police and career law enforcement officer with over 31 years of public service with municipal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. In 2005, he founded Tactical Investigations, LLC and has been a licensed private detective for 15 years. Tom has extensive experience investigating child sexual assaults and Title IX violations. He has received specialized training in Forensic Child Interviewing and state-of-the-art Trauma Informed Interviewing techniques and is a certified Title IX Investigator.

Tom was a sworn Special Federal Officer with an F.B.I. Violent Crimes Task Force in the Southern District of Illinois. He specialized in electronic surveillance and suspect interviews. Tom investigated organized criminal enterprises concentrating on large scale drug trafficking, weapons, and gang violence.

Tom is a leader in many local and national organizations. He is a Life Member of the Illinois and International Association of Chiefs of Police. He currently serves as Vice President (Central Chapter) of Associated Detectives and Security Agencies of Illinois, President of Illinois Association of Professional Process Servers, and is an active member of the National Council of Investigation and Security Services, National Association of Professional Process Servers and Association of Title IX Administrators.

Dr. Jessica Groleau

Jessica Groleau, PhD

Psychologist, Coordinator of Clinical Services and Training, Davidson College

Dr. Groleau earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she worked as a staff psychologist in the Center for Counseling & Psychological Services before joining the Center for Student Health and Well-Being at Davidson College in the fall of 2019. She has conducted research on the impact of trauma in college students, with an emphasis on positive psychology and post-traumatic growth. Her clinical interests include young adult development, working with survivors of sexual abuse and intimate partner violence, LGBTQ issues, relationship concerns, and anxiety.

Education: University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Ph.D.) and Boston College (B.A.)

Patrick Mathis founding member of Title IX solutions and Mathis Marifian and Richter

Patrick Mathis, JD LLM MBA

Co-Founder & Managing MemberTitle IX Solutions, LLC

Patrick B. Mathis is the Co-Founder & Managing Member at Title IX Solutions, LLC as well as a founding shareholder of Mathis, Marifian & Richter, Ltd. (MM&R), a law firm based in Southern Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri.

With over 30 years of legal experience, Pat has an extensive background in providing legal counsel related to business mergers, sales and acquisitions, shareholder litigation, trusts and wills, probate, federal and state tax audits and appeals, Tax Court litigation, and criminal tax defense. He has written several definitive articles on various aspects of each area.

As Managing Member of Title IX Solutions, LLC (“TIXS”), Pat brings his extensive legal experience to TIXS clients and investigators. Having advised clients on a wide variety of legal issues, he has a developed awareness of the broad implications of incidents which may affect complainants, respondents, and educational institutions. With that understanding, he is able to work with colleges, Title IX Coordinators, school counsel, and TIXS investigators to develop a comprehensive understanding and approach to addressing the issues which arise in incidents of alleged sexual assaults to ensure prompt and equitable resolutions.

Pat also coordinates the training of Title IX Solutions investigators regarding the legal aspects of Title IX, DOE guidelines, state law issues, and related areas.

Pat has conducted numerous seminars and educational programs for IICLE and the American, Illinois State and Metropolitan St. Louis Bar Associations. Pat has been named to Illinois’ Leading Lawyers and Illinois Super Lawyers for several consecutive years, as well as to Who’s Who in American Law. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois.

Education: Washington University in St. Louis – LL.M. in Taxation 1979, J.D. 1978, M.B.A. 1978; Saint Louis University – B.A. in Chemistry 1973

Susanna Murphy

Susanna Murphy, JD

Professional Title IX Investigator & Advisor, Title IX Solutions, LLC

Susanna Murphy began her work as an independent Title IX advisor and investigator after 20 years of legal experience, first as a trial attorney and then as an investigator, in the criminal justice system.

Ms. Murphy has served as an advisor for complainants, as an advisor and/or a defense investigator for respondents, and as an independent investigator. She has also testified as an expert witness on Title IX investigations and provided educational prevention programming to private secondary schools and organizations.

Throughout her career, Ms. Murphy has put respect, discretion, objectivity, attention to detail and professionalism as her top priorities in every Title IX case. She is mindful of the sensitive nature of these kinds of allegations and is skilled at making parties and witnesses as comfortable as possible while discussing topics of a very sensitive nature.

Ms. Murphy has lectured and critiqued at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education on a variety of topics, including presenting at the “Trying Sex Offense Cases” Program on the topic of Investigating Sexual Assault Cases. She also served as a staff attorney with the training unit of CPCS.

She is a member of both the Massachusetts and Maryland Bars and fluent in the language and most
recent requirements of the Clery Act and Title IX.

Education: University of Maryland School of Law- Juris Doctorate 1993, Swarthmore College- Political Science Major, Bachelor of Arts 1990

Do you have questions about our Title IX Investigator Training?

Email or schedule a meeting with our Program Director Adrienne Mathis to learn more!

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Contact

Phone

+1 618 920-0576

Email

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Address

23 Public Square, Suite 300

Belleville, IL 62220