Duane de Four is a Training Specialist for the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Program; a program at Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society and the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS).

The multi-racial, mixed gender MVP Program is the first large-scale attempt to enlist high school, collegiate and professional athletes in the fight against all forms of men's violence against women.

Duane has been extensively trained on domestic violence & sexual assault crisis intervention, conducts diversity/prejudice reduction workshops and has future goals of becoming more involved with national media campaigns. Duane's passion for ending men's violence against women began when he learned that many of the women he cared about had experienced such violence. '

Previous Experience

In 1995, Duane began volunteering for a peer education program on his college campus and in 1996 he assumed the role of program coordinator. During this time Duane conducted numerous education sessions with athletic teams, classes, fraternities/sororities, campus student groups, religious groups, in residence halls, local high schools, and national conferences.

In 1998 Duane began his work at the Salt Lake City Rape Recovery Center as a community educator. While in this position, he presented to an even wider array of community groups with a focus on high schools and jr. highs, he also designed curricula and educational materials, staffed the crisis line, conducted hospital interventions with survivors of sexual assaults, and appeared on local TV and radio programs.

Later in 1998, Duane began working for the Utah State Department of Health (UDOH) as the statewide Rape and Sexual Assault Prevention Coordinator. At UDOH he managed Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) grant money, advised local Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault service providers and assisted in the development of two statewide education campaigns.

In 1999, after finishing his undergraduate coursework, Duane moved across country and worked for the campus rape crisis center at the University of New Hampshire as their Outreach Coordinator. There, Duane was responsible for all outreach to the campus and local community while also assisting with crisis intervention work.

Duane joined the Sport in Societystaff in October of 2000 as a Training Specialist for the MVP Program. Since joining the MVP staff he has been working to create a Northeastern University-MVP student group to educated the college campus, in addition to his work with a number of Massachusetts high schools.

Education

He attended both the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah where he graduated with a Bachelors degree in Women's Studies.Duane has plans to further pursue his education while an employee at Northeastern University.

Personal

A native of Trinidad, Duane has lived mostly in the western United States. Athletically, Duane ran track and played football while in high school, and in college he was a referee for a variety of intramural sports.