(MURFREESBORO) A British crisis and social psychologist who assisted families following the devastating recent school shooting in Nashville, will speak to MTSU faculty, staff, students and area residents at 10:00 o’clock this coming Thursday morning. This will be in the Keathley University Center Theater.
Shamender Talwar, Ph.D., is co-founder of the international organization The Unity of Faiths Foundation, also known as TUFF. He will be joined at MTSU by Pamela L. Lewis, president of PLA Media; Mark Logsdon, a graduate of MTSU and vice president of PLA Media; Daniel Xander, a trustee and creative director of TUFF; and Anna Prior, co-founder of TUFF.
The event, which is free and open to the public, and comes in the wake of the March 27th mass shooting at Covenant School, a K-6 private school in Nashville, during which the assailant shot and killed three schoolchildren and three adults before being killed by responding police officers.
MTSU College of Media and Entertainment Dean Beverly Keel said, “The moment I heard that Dr. Talwar was in Middle Tennessee, I asked if he would be available to speak to the MTSU community. So many of us have a great deal of fear and anxiety following the news of the mass shooting in Nashville.”
Talwar is from Liverpool, England, and now lives in London. He has been named a visionary by the Pope Francis, former President Barack Obama and the European Union Parliament.
It was this work that brought him to Nashville and led to a partnership with Lewis, one of the top public relations leaders in Nashville. Lewis introduced Keel to Talwar last year when the two were working on a songwriting contest called The Road to Nashville, a global music project that promoted mental health. After meeting with Talwar at Lewis’ office, Keel agreed to have MTSU join the Liverpool Institute for Performing One of the program’s goals was to allow TUFF Earth to locate student musicians and songwriters in need of mental health and make them aware of the opportunity presented by the contest.
When news spread of the recent shooting in Nashville, Lewis, Talwar was contacted, and he swiftly joined the team on site at the Covenant School to assist with counseling and support for the families and staff after the shooting.
At the Woodmont Baptist Church reunification center, Talwar joined police chaplains, and other officials to ensure that they had a sense of humanity as they traverse through the loss and grief associated with this tragedy.
Talwar noted, “I was led there to offer my services and serve in counsel to these families to mentor, speak and offer a hand of support. I could see the fear and anger in their eyes.”
He concluded: “Mental health is the new pandemic."
Again, TUFF’s co-founder, Shamender Talwar, Ph. D., will share his thoughts in a public talk at 10:00AM this Thursday morning in the Keathley University Center Theater.
Campus Parking
An MTSU parking map is available at https://bit.ly/MTSUParking. Off-campus visitors can get a one-day permit at https://mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php or from MTSU’s Office of Parking and Transportation at 205 City View Drive. Free parking is available in the Rutherford Boulevard lot with shuttle service into the campus interior.
About TUFF
The Unity of Faiths Foundation, or TUFF, is a British secular charitable organization working in four continents. It was established in 2011 and has the support and acknowledgments of many dignitaries including Pope Francis, the Queen of England, and former President Barack Obama to name a few. The ultimate goal is to share kindness and facilitate the integration and empowerment of those people who do not have a voice, due to numerous challenges and obstacles they face in their daily lives.
Info: www.tuff.earth or find them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
