Our Team

Ted Waitt

Co-founder of Gateway, Inc., Ted pioneered the direct marketing of personal computers revolutionizing how people use technology. He has since gone on to form multiple enterprises including: Avalon Capital Group, Inc., the Waitt Foundation and the Waitt Institutes. Ted has served as the Chairman of the Founding Fathers campaign of the Family Violence Prevention Fund. He also serves on the Board of Trustees and the Council of Advisors of the National Geographic Society and as vice chairman of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, Calif.

Cindy Waitt

Prior to her 20 year career in philanthropy, Cindy worked with at risk youth and their families for 10 years. Cindy serves on the National Advisory Board for the Future’s without Violence International Center to End Violence, has been a member of the Clinton Global Initiative since 2006, and served as a judge in the Ashoka Changemaker’s 2007 competition “No Private Matter”. Under her leadership, WIVP has been a lead supporter of the strategy of engaging men and boys in violence prevention. She also sponsored a five year violence prevention in- school and community research project called the “Sioux City Project” and co sponsored the first workplace bullying Zogby poll in America in 2007.

She is an Executive Producer of Emmy nominated “Bully”, “Private Violence”, and the Peabody Award winning “Audrie and Daisy”.

Alan Heisterkamp, Ed.D

Alan Heisterkamp, Ed. D., is a longtime MVP Strategies project partner, trainer and curriculum developer who directs the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Northern Iowa. As director, he conducts Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) gender violence prevention training and outreach to Iowa’s universities, colleges, and secondary schools, and oversees curriculum infusion of bystander education and strategies within pre-service teacher education programming.

Alan was the education and research consultant with the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention on a five-year study, entitled the Sioux City Project. He was also the education consultant on the award-winning documentary film, Bully, and he co-authored the educational study guide for the Emmy Award-nominated documentary, Private Violence. In Addition, Alan has co-authored multiple curricula and a number of research articles on the topic of gender violence prevention education.

Alan presents and trains across the U.S. and overseas on the subject of engaging men, young men, young men and boys in the prevention of men’s violence against women. For the past four years, he has served as a member of the coordinating committee for the North American MenEngage Network.

Alan is also President and CEO of the consulting firm Cultivating Minds, Inc. Prior to his current endeavors, he served the Sioux City Community School District for 23 years as a teacher, coach, school counselor and school administrator. He holds masters’ degrees in educational psychology and counseling, and school leadership, and a doctorate in secondary school administration.