Beth Joy Sanborn

School Safety Advocate

Dr. Beth J Sanborn is the School Safety Coordinator for Montgomery County (PA). Prior to that she joined the Lower Gwynedd Police force in 1997 and served as a Patrol Officer. In 2015, she served as her department’s first School Resource Officer (SRO) and assumed responsibility for all juvenile cases, earning her the rank of Juvenile Detective until August 2022. Beth proudly retired from policing in September 2023 when she assumed the role as School Safety Coordinator.
She also serves as a Co-Chair with the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth Citizens Advisory Committee; and volunteers for Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center.
Beth sits on the executive board for PASRO, the Pennsylvania Association of School Resource Officers, and is an instructor for NASRO, the National Association of School Resource Officers.
She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and Sociology from Widener University, her Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from St. Joseph’s University, and her Doctoral Degree in Public Administration from West Chester University. Her Doctoral dissertation is entitled “School Resource Officers as Mentor/Counselors, Including Levels of Intervention”.
Most recently, Beth created an educational webinar for parents, teachers, social services providers to teach indicators of drug use and abuse as well as other poor lifestyle choices among teens. The webinar stresses the importance of communication across the invested stakeholders in teen's lives so that we can identify a teen who may be in crisis and intervene before that crisis is reached. The webinar, entitled "Hidden, High & Hammered" showcases stash devices meant to conceal (Hidden); Vapes, CBD, THC and drug paraphernalia (High); and alcohol infused items meant to attract a younger audience (Hammered). The website is www.bethjsanborn.com
Along with her research team, their most recent research project, “Measuring the Strategic Fit of the School Resource Officers with Law Enforcement (Leaders), the Education System, the Community, and Other Interested Parties” has achieved National attention. Dr Sanborn’s book, The Missing Piece: Your School Resource Officer as an Ally in Parenting is available on Amazon.